Sir Phelim Roe O'Neill of Kinard (Irish: Féilim Rua Ó Néill na Ceann Ard) (December 1604 - 10 March 1653), was an Irish nobleman and later a martyr who led the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster, which began on 23 October 1641. He joined the Irish Catholic Confederation during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, in which he fought under his kinsman and second cousin, Owen Roe O'Neill in the Confederate Ulster Army. In 1653 Phelim O’Neill had sought refuge from the British on an old crannog in Roughan Lough while staying at Roughan Castle but was captured after his hideout was betrayed.
Felim, like other rebels in the rebellion of 1641, sought an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantations of Ireland. They also wanted to prevent a possible invasion or takeover by anti-Catholic English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters, who were defying the king, Charles I. Eventually, Felim and the others were able to create the Irish Catholic Confederation. However, the Confederation would be destroyed 10 years later with Cromwell's conquest of Ireland, and those who participated in the rebellion, including Felim O' Neill, were executed.
Felim was born in 1604 as the eldest son of Turlough MacShane O'Neill and his wife Catherine. His father was a member of the Kinard branch of the O'Neill dynasty. His father and grandfather were killed on 20 June 1608 in an action against Cahir O'Doherty. His grandfather, Sir Henry Óg O'Neill, had fought for his 2nd cousin and father-in-law, Hugh O'Neill in the Nine Years' War, but received a pardon and was confirmed in his lands in Tiranny and Minterburn. His second great-grandfather, Sean, a brother of Conn Bacach, had settled in Tynan parish by at least 1514 in a sub-district called Cluain Dabhal. Felim's name in Irish shows his paternal genealogy as: "Felim mac Turlogh Óg mac Henry Óg mac Henry mac Seán mac Conn Mór Ó Néill" (father of Conn Bacach O'Neill).
His mother was Catherine, daughter of Turlough Mac Henry O Neill, Chief of the Fews branch of O'Neills. After his father's death, she remarried to Robert Hovenden, a Catholic of recent English descent. Their sons Robert Hovenden and Alexander Hovenden were Felim's half brothers. Captain Alexander Hovenden fought for Felim, but was killed in 1644.
O'Neill was a member of the Irish Parliament in the 1630s and studied law at King's Inns in London, as a knowledge of the subject was considered important for landowners of the era. He may have at one point briefly converted to Protestantism, before returning to Catholicism.
He married three times. In 1629 he married first a daughter of Arthur Magennis, the 3rd Viscount Magennis of Iveagh. Her first name is unknown. She died in 1641 shortly before the rebellion. He married secondly Catherine, daughter of Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara, a younger brother of the 5th Viscount Gormanston.
In 1639 O'Neill was awarded a knighthood by the Lord Lieutenant Thomas Wentworth thanks to the influence of his relation the Earl of Antrim. Shortly before the rebellion, O'Neill evicted some of his Gaelic tenants near Kinard and replaced them with British settler families who were able to pay higher rents.
However, in common with many Irish Catholics, and especially Gaelic Irish Catholics, O'Neill felt threatened by the Protestant English government of Ireland. In particular, they were aggrieved at Catholic exclusion from Public Office and the continual confiscations of Catholic-owned land.
The Rebellion of 1641[]
The fear of the Protestant English government of Ireland reached its high point in the late 1630s and early 1640s, when Thomas Wentworth, Lord Deputy for Charles I, was known to be planning widespread new plantations. A crisis point was reached in 1641, when the Scottish Covenanters and English Long Parliament threatened to invade Ireland to finally subdue Catholicism there. In this atmosphere of fear and paranoia, Felim O'Neill became involved in a plot hatched by fellow Gaelic Irish Catholics from Ulster, to seize Dublin and swiftly take over the other important towns of Ireland. After this, they planned to issue their demands for full rights for Catholics and Irish self-government in the King's name. O'Neill's role was to take towns and fortified places in the north of the country whereas Maguire was tasked with seizing Dublin Castle.
O'Neill, a latecomer to the plot, was brought into it by Lord Maguire in early September of 1641. On 23 October 1641 of that year, he surprised Caulfield in Charlemont Fort. O'Neill was instrumental in shaping many of the political objectives of the rebellion. He rapidly assumed command of the Ulster rising.
Then, a day later, on 24 October 1641, O'Neill issued the Proclamation of Dungannon in which he falsely claimed to have the King's authorisation to rise in defence of the Crown and the Catholic religion. On 4 November 1641 O'Neill repeated these claims in his proclamation at Newry and read out a commission from Charles I of England dated 1 October, commanding him to seize: "... all the forts, castles, and places, of strength and defence within the kingdom, except the places, persons, and estates of Our loyal and loving subjects the Scots; also to arrest and seize the goods, estates, and persons of all the English Protestants, within the said kingdom to Our use. And in your care and speedy performance of this Our will and pleasure We shall rely on your wonted duty and allegiance to Us which We shall accept and reward in due time." This gave O'Neill's forces the impression that they were acting within the law. Charles later denied having issued the commission.
Like other rebel leaders, O'Neill had difficulty with the discipline of his troops, which was compounded by his comparative lack of social status. In an effort to improve this, O'Neill planned to have himself declared Earl of Tyrone at the historic site of Tullyhogue.
Having largely succeeded in Ulster, O'Neill, along with Rory O'Moore, then tried to march on Dublin, defeating a government force at the Battle of Julianstown, but failed in the Siege of Drogheda 1641.
The rebellion quickly spread to the rest of Ireland. By the spring of 1642, only fortified Protestant enclaves, around Dublin, Cork and Derry, were able to hold out. King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland, which, had it not been for the English Civil War, would probably have put down the rebellion, As it was, the Irish Catholic upper classes had breathing space to form the Irish Catholic Confederation, which acted as a de facto independent government of Ireland until 1649. Felim O'Neill was a member of the Confederate's parliament, named the General Assembly, but was sidelined in the leadership of Irish Catholics by wealthier landed magnates.
In Confederate politics, O'Neill was a moderate, advocating a deal with Charles I and the Irish and English Royalists as a means of winning the war against the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters. In 1648, he voted for such a deal, the Second Ormond Peace, splitting with Owen Roe O'Neill, who opposed it along with most of the Ulster army. He and several other moderates such as Alexander MacDonnell and Viscount Iveagh left the Ulster army because of their dispute with the hard-liners. In the summer of that year, the Confederate armies fought among themselves over this issue, with the pro-Royalists prevailing.
However, this was not enough to stop Ireland being conquered by the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell in 1649–53. The well trained and supplied Parliamentarians crushed all Confederate and Royalist resistance and imposed a harsh settlement on Irish Catholics. In November of 1649, Phelim married Jean Gordon, the widow of Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane, who had died on 14 June 1638.
Felim O'Neill fought in the Ulster Army at the Battle of Scarrifholis in 1650 where it was routed by Charles Coote. O'Neill escaped from the battle and retreated with a rest of the Ulster army to the Charlemont Fort. Together with Lord Strabane, he held the fort against Coote, inflicting heavy casualties on the English troops in the Siege of Charlemont, but had to surrender on terms on 6 August 1650 and marching away with his remaining troops was expected to embark and take service in France. However O'Neill decided to rather go into hiding. This would prove to be a big mistake, as he would end up betrayed, and his hideout exposed.
Trial and execution[]
Anyone implicated in the Rebellion of 1641 was held responsible for the massacres of Protestant civilians and was executed. O'Neill was specifically named as a ringleader in the Cromwellian Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and could therefore expect no mercy. A sum of £100 were put on his head. O'Neill was captured on 4 February 1653 by William Caulfeild, 1st Viscount Charlemont on a crannog (island) in Roughan Lough next too Roughan Castle, Newmills, County Tyrone where he had taken refuge. He was taken to Dublin, where his trial was conducted. He was found guilty, and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered for treason on 10 March 1653. He was an Irish martyr, among many others, killed by the government of the corrupt and genocidal leader, Oliver Cromwell, of which Cromwell hated Catholicism.
Although, O'Neill may have been able to avoid execution had he testified that he had Charles I's commission for the uprising of 1641, as the Parliamentarians had claimed at the time. However, O'Neill refused to do so. He was survived by at least one child, Gordon O'Neill, who served as a colonel in the Jacobite forces during the Williamite War.