Oneills of The Fews Ofiaich pt3

Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha/Armagh Diocesan Historical Society
The O'Neills of the Fews

Author(s): Tomás Ó Fiaich
Source: Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol. 8, No. 2
(1977), pp. 386-413
Published by: Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha/Armagh Diocesan Historical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29740892 .
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The O'Neills of the Fews
By
Tom?s ? Fiaich
Part III: Survival at Homk
I. Under Charles II and James II
The Hearth Money Rolls of 1664 provide the earliest surviving list of
the heads of households living in the Fews in the post-Cromwellian period.
While non-taxpayers are excluded from the list and several townlands
have been omitted, they still give a good picture of the strength of native
families in the area even after a decade of upheaval. Yet one surprising
feature of the native surnames is that the name O'Neill has disappeared
almost completely from Glassdrummond, Creggan and the surrounding
area.
The 1602 Pardon to Turlough mac Henry had included eighteen males
of the name1; the 1659-60 'Census' showed twelve in the whole barony of
Fews2; the 1664 Hearth Money Rolls listed seven O'Neill names in the
Barony of Lower Fews but only four in the Barony of Upper Fews i.e. the
barony containing Creggan parish3. Phelim O'Neill and Brian O'Neill
were in the townland of Ballyeimagh and Turlough O'Neill in the neigh?
bouring Conerayalling and Corammony. None of these townlands was in
the Parish of Creggan and some of them are unidentifiable. The only
O'Neill left in the Glassdrummond area was the individual whom the
enumerator wrote down as Bryan McGowbi. a poor attempt to render
phonetically the name Brian mac Aodha Bui.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that a deliberate attempt had been
made to exclude the former ruling family by their new masters. Other
Irishmen might take leases on land from the new landlords but any
O'Neills who remained must have been literally "hewers of wood and
drawers of water" since they were not reckoned liable to the annual 2/
tax on fireplaces.
This scarcity of O'Neills in the parish of Creggan after the Cromwellian
era is also borne out by the long list of parishioners whose names are
appended to a document in support of the Franciscans in 16704. Though
one of Creggan's four spokesmen elected for the occasion was a Hugh
O'Neill, he is the only O'Neill among nearly two hundred names.
In view of the shattering losses which the O'Neills suffered in the
Cromwellian confiscations, it is not surprising that several of the name
took to the hills as Tories and Raparees. We have several long lists of
1L. P.
Murray, Historv of the Parish of Crcggan, p. 20.
iid.,p. 36.
5
id., pp. 36-7.
4 House of Studies,
Killiney, Franciscan Ms. D2, p. 85.
386

O'Neills of the Fews 387
Tories from the year 1670 when St Oliver Plunkett secured a pardon for
them on condition that they would go abroad. The group of Tories with
whom he was immediately concerned included at least two O'Neills??
Con and Henry. Neither of these, however, seems to have belonged to the
Fews line, Con being described as the son of Niall ?g mac Airt mac Aodh
Meirgeach of the parish of Longfield, Co. Tyrone, and Henry being the
son of Niall ?g of the parish of Dromore, Co. Tyrone1.
Another O'Neill in whom the Archbishop took a personal interest was
young Niall O'Neill whom he sent to Rome in the winter of 1671 along
with William Plunkett and James O'Meara to study for the priesthood.
This was the young man whom John MacMoyer later claimed to have
brought treasonable letters from the Archbishop to Secretary Baldeschi.
In his evidence in court Mac Moyer said that O'Neill had been the Arch?
bishop's page but Oliver stoutly denied this. It is not unlikely, however,
that the Archbishop would have kept the three young men for a short
period in his own house to give them some training in liturgical ceremonies,
Latin and perhaps even in Italian before sending them abroad.
Mac Moyer claimed that O'Neill, Fr Thomas Crawley and himself were
all from the same area2. This points to Co. Armagh as O'Neill's birthplace.
We know otherwise that Hugh O'Hanlon of Sturgan, Co. Armagh, who
also gave evidence against the Archbishop in London, was married to
Niall O'Neill's sister3. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Niall O'Neill was
a native of South Armagh and may have belonged to the Fews line.
O'Neill's career in Rome was an unhappy one. According to St Oliver
he arrived there begging and destitute and was ill for three months. He
wandered around the city. There is no indication that he ever became a
student of the Irish College Rome, but he did become a student of Propa?
ganda Fide College along with William Plunkett. He died before the
summer of 1674, while still a student4. When sending him to Rome Oliver
calls him Nelanus Salt O'Neill, but I do not know what the epithet
signifies. In his first report on the diocese of Armagh5 the Archbishop
mentioned two youths of the house of O'Neill who had a vocation to the
priesthood. One was the son of Sir Phelim O'Neill [the future Gordon?]
and the other was "the son of Terence O'Neill, a
gentleman accomplished
in both peace and war", both of whom he wished to send to
Propaganda.
If the latter is identical with Niall O'Neill, he may have been a son of
Turlough mac Airt ?ig of Tassagh who died c. 1673.
One further group of O'Neills which was brought into close association
with Oliver Plunkett was the family group of
Henry O'Neill and his two
sons, Phelim and Owen, who were in London from the spring of 1681 to
give evidence about the Popish Plot. Only one of the sons gave evidence
at Oliver Plunkett's trial and I have argued elsewhere that this wa>
Phelim6.
There is nothing to indicate that these O'Neills
belonged to the Fevs
1CSP1
2
1666-1669, p. 608 and CSPI 1669-1670, p. 145.
A. CurtaYNE, The Trial of Oliver Plunkett, p. 148.
3
S.A.M., Vol. I, No. 2 (1955), p. 66.
4
Letter of St. Oliver from Armagh to Rome, 13 August 1674.
5 Published in Co. Loath Arch, jnl., Vol. 14, No. 1 (1957).
6 "The
Son of Sir Phelim O'Neill/' in S.A.M., Vol. I, No. 2 (1955).

3<SS Seanchas Ard Mhacha
line and whatever hints may be derived from their evidence in court point
in the opposite direction. They had links with Co Cavan where young
O'Neill's foster-mother was Vicar-General Brady's housekeeper. Henry
O'Neill stated in court that he had never seen Oliver Plunkett in his life, a
strong indication that he was not a South Armagh man. He later admitted
that he had joined the other witnesses in an effort to free his son from
Mullingar gaol and he was himself subsequently executed for a robbery
committed in Mullingar1. In view of all this the native area of this
O'Neill group should probably be sought around the Cavan-Westmeath
borders rather than in the Fews. In fact, as has been mentioned above,
hardly an O'Neill family had been left in the Fews at that time to which
these O'Neill witnesses could have belonged.
Persons bearing the surname O'Neill make a short fitful reappearance
in the public affairs of Co Armagh during the brief period covered by the
reign of King James II but the Williamite Wars soon brought it to an end.
Probably the most notable among them was Constantine O'Neill of
Ardgonnell who was given specific mention in the declaration of royal
'
gratitude from Charles II embodied in the Act of Settlement for 'services
beyond the seas". He would have been a nephew of Sir Phelim O'Neill
and was one of the two representatives for the borough of Armagh in the
"Patriot Parliament" of 1689. As long as the Jacobites held sway, he
was Sovereign of Armagh, but after the Williamite victory it was inevit?
able that he would have to pay for his close identification with the losing
side. His name figures in the long list of those "indicted and outlawed"
for high treason against William and Mary2.
The "Sovereign of Armagh" was one of those chosen for three months
on 10 April 1690 by the king to assess the tax on that county. The others
with one exception were all O'Neills: Col. Owen O'Neill, Turlough O'Neill,
Paul O'Neill and Hugh Buy O'Neill. While one can never be sure about
the identification of O'Neills from such a list, it is very probable that the
final name represents Aodh Bui of the Fews line, the father of the future
Fr Felim. Having returned from Spain as a child on the death of his
father there in 1663. he was in residence in the Creggan area in 1690.
The list of Irish Jacobites outlawed after the Williamite victory in?
cluded: Paul and Phelim O'Neill of Ballymacawley in the barony of Lower
Fews, Hugh and Phelim O'Neill of Tassagh. Hugh O'Neill of Slieve Gullion.
Charles O'Neill of Derrynoose. Terence O'Neill of Aughnagurgan and
Phelim O'Neill of Corkley3. Of all these Co Armagh O'Neills probably
only the two O'Neills of Tassagh belonged to the Fews line.
on the continent with a trace
By chance one catches up here and there
of some of the O'Neills who went into exile after the Williamite wars.
For instance, the marriage of the of Angers in western France
registers city
record the marriage there on 21 June 1707 of a certain Michael O'Higgins
to "Marguerite O'Neill, fille d'Henry O'Neill de Caragan, tous deux
originaires d' Irlande"4. Possibly the placename meant here is Cargin.
1
CurtaVNE, op. cit., pp. 93-6 and 230-1.
2This is based on J. D'Alton, List, Vol. II,
paragraph King James's Army
pp. 633-5; Anal. Hib., 22 (1960), p. 33.
a 22 (1960), p. 33.
Anal. Hib.,
4 The and Papers Lart
Pedigrees of James Terry, ed. by C. E. (1938).

The O'Neills of the Fews 389
Co Antrim, but it may equally be Creggan. What is clear, in any case, is

that the three confiscations and plantations of the 17th century left few
of the O'Neills of the Fews in their ancestral territory by the end of that
century.
II. Creggan O'Neills of the i8th Century
When some of the children of Art ?g O'Neill settled in Creggan parish

after their father's death in Spain in 1663, they were thus coming to an
area which, although their father's birthplace, had been denuded of nearly
all their relatives. It is no surprise therefore that all later O'Neills of
Creggan whose ancestry can be traced with any degree of certainty go
back to a son of Art ?g's.
We have already treated in the previous section of some of Art ?g's
children and grandchildren and have covered the spectacular military
career abroad of his great-grandson, General Felix O'Neill. Here it may
not be out of place to investigate the more humdrum lives of some of the
General's relatives who remained at home in Ireland. Reduced to the
status of tenants-at-will on a corner of the lands which they formerly
possessed it is not surprising that they have proved very elusive in
historical sources and that many questions concerning them still remain
unanswered.
The most notable O'Neill in the Creggan area in the 1750s and 1760s was
undoubtedly Domhnall (Daniel) O'Neill1. In the 1766 List of the Families
in the Parish of Creggan he heads the names for the townland of Anaghgad,
situated in the south-west of the parish along the Fane River. His name
is followed in the same townland bv those of Owen O'Neill and Francis
O'Neill.2
All the indications are that Daniel O'Neill was a brother of General
Felix. Daniel was certainly the grandfather of the two young O'Toole
boys who entered the Spanish army and the family tradition of the latter
'
has always maintained that they were able to secure commissions 'through
the influence of their uncle General O'Neill".3 The difference in age
between the young cadets and the General suggests that the latter was
really their granduncle (i.e. their mother's uncle) and this implies that the
General was a brother of either Daniel or Daniel's wife. While the latter
possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, it will be shown later that Daniel's
wife was probably a Magennis. and this leads to the inevitable conclusion
that Daniel himself and the General were brothers.
"
At the time of his death Daniel O'Neill is described as a Yarn merchant
or manufacturer".4 During the second half of the 18th century the "yarn
1Domhnall was called after his grand-uncle, the son of Art

presumably ?g who
remained on in Spain in 1663. The latter Domhnall became a Colonel in the Spanish
army in the Low Countries where he was still serving in 1680; cf. Jennings, Wild
Geese, pp. 469, 475.
2
Murray, op. cit., p. 43. The only other O'Neills listed in 1766 are Francis
O'Neill in Glassdrummond and Conn O'Neill (with another unnamed one) in Tully
vallen.
3
Information from the late Bishop Quinn of Kilmore.
4Dublin
G.O., Ms. 259; Administrations to Intestates in the Prerogative Office
Dublin from earliest times to 1802, Vol. III.

390 Seanchas Ard Mhacha
merchant" in the linen trade was a dealer who travelled around the small
towns and villages and brought linen and yarn by pack-horse or cart to
the larger linen markets. The "manufacturer" was a man who rented out
cottages with small plots of potato ground to the cottier weavers or
journeymen and often received his "rent" in linen1. Both descriptions
imply that he was a man of some substance in the locality. It is ameasure
of the tenacity of local tradition that when Father Murray was collecting
information about Glassdrummond Castle in the early twenties of the
present century, he was told that the O'Neills had erected a cottage there
for the linen weavers employed by them.2
Daniel O'Neill was able to lease the townlands of Coolkey and Coriagan
(164 acres) on the Bath estate in Co Monaghan in 1756.3 The lease was
for twenty-one years and the annual rent payable by him was ?60. Most
of the leaseholders on the estate belonged to planter stock and were
Protestants but they included a sprinkling of Irish Catholics like the
Plunketts of Rocksavage and the O'Callaghans of Culloville. In this way
O'Neill entered the class of middlemen who re-let at high rents to under?
tenants the land which they had leased from the landlord. Such people in
general made themselves obnoxious to the Irish peasantry of the 18th
century. His position as a middleman in the land structure of the era is
in keeping with his position as a middleman in the linen industry. On
20 April 1767 he was appointed one of the four petty constables for the
parish of Creggan.4
From the lament written by Art Mac Cooey on the death of Art ?g
O'Neill, son of Daniel, in 1769, it is evident that Daniel's wife was named
Brigid. In one reference the poet calls Art ?g "Dalta Bhr?de, croi na
f?ile" and in another he calls him "mo Ghuaire, mac Bhr?de."5 A few
lines in the poem imply that one of Art ?g's ancestors was a Magennis of
Iveagh and perhaps this was his mother Brigid.6 A close relationship
between this family of O'Neills and the Magennises is also implied in
Teeling's narrative of 1798 which will be referred to later.
The marriage of Daniel and Brigid produced, in addition to Art ?g, a
number of other children who are referred to by Mac Cooey, when he
addresses Art ?g, as follows:
T? clann d'athar faoi ghruaim ? d'fhuaraigh t? i gcr? uathu,

Mailsigh ar uaigneas, 's ? 'cruaidh-ghreadadh mear lag,
Br?d i dt?r Dh?in 's gan d?? aici i bpl?isi?r,
Neill?, an na? is ?ige, thug r?-shearc a cl?ibh duit,
?inr? gan chualla? 'n-am suaircis na dtr?anfhear
Is n?on Fheilimidh Ruaidh naoi n-uaire n?os buartha.7
This verse makes it clear that Art ?g had three sisters, Molly, Brigid
1 in Ireland,
W. H. Crawford, Domestic Industry pp. 5-6.
2
Murray, op. cit., p. 73.
3 The townlands had previously been held
Clogher Record, 1967, p. 356. by
William Tomalty for 23? (1714-45) and ?31. 12s. (1735 on) per annum.
4 at my disposal
Vestry Records of Creggan, 1738-1813, kindly placed by Rev.
Maurice Noel, Rector.
5Art Mac
Cumhaigh: Danta (ed. T. ? Fiaich), pp. 119, 122.
?id., p. 124 (lines 175-92).
7
id., p. 125.

and Nelly; but who were the two persons mentioned in the last two lines ?
The fact that Henry would be left by Art ?g's death without a companion
to share his merry-making suggests that he was Art ?g's brother and
perhaps "n?on Fheilimidh Ruaidh" was Henry's wife. This however is
mere
conjecture.
The only one of Daniel O'Neill's daughters on whom I have obtained
further information is Nelly, the youngest. A document in the Dublin
Registry of Deeds indicates that on 5 January 1769, a Deed Poll was
executed "between Daniel O'Neil of Anaghad in the Parish of Cregan and
County of Armagh of the one part and John Toole of Aghnagurgan in the
parish of Derrynoose and County of Armagh aforesaid, Linen Draper, of
the other part."1 By this agreement it was laid down that in view of the
forthcoming marriage "between John Toole and Elinor O'Neil, daughter
to said Daniel O'Neil," John Toole would, on Daniel O'Neill's death
receive a full child's share of O'Neill's property. This marriage must have
taken place shortly afterwards, as the eldest son, Daniel O'Toole (called
after his two grandfathers), was born in 1770. Although the marriage
took place two centuries ago, traditions concerning the children born of it
have come down among their descendants to the present day. This was
facilitated by the fact that one of the thirteen children of the marriage,
Henry O'Toole (1773-1875), lived for over a century. One of the children
of the marriage became a priest of the archdiocese of Armagh, and the line
has produced priests in every generation since then down to the late
Bishop Quinn of Kilmore. As mentioned in the previous section two other
sons of the marriage?Daniel and James O'Toole?became officers in the
Regiment of Hibernia in the Spanish army. Daniel fought a duel with an
Austrian officer and ultimately retired to Ballymacnab, while James died
abroad.2
One of the witnesses of the Deed Poll of 1769 was Daniel O'Neill's son
Art ?g, called in the document "Arthur O'Neill of Cross." His death in
July 1769 at the early age of twenty-six was the subject of Art Mac
Cooey's longest and most poignant elegy. From the poem we gather that
he was a most popular young man, generous and hospitable as a host, who
rode a fine horse and frequented the races and the patterns. In July 1763,
at the early age of twenty, he took part in the famous
Oakboy demonstra?
tion in Armagh and was elected one of the leaders of the movement.3
The poem mentions his "mansion" in Crossmaglen, but he died unmarried
and intestate and was brought to the family grave in
Creggan. Administra?
tion of his property was granted on 7 August 1771.4 His name is still
barely legible on his father's gravestone in Creggan cemetery?Here lieth
the body of Arthur O'Neill .... (itmay not have been inscribed until after
his father's death) but unfortunately the date is now illegible. For Mac
Cooey the young man's death meant the end of all his hopes:
1
Registry of Deeds Bk 269, p. 600 (No. 182,003).
2Records of Daniel and James O'Toole in the Spanish are in Overseas
army
Archives, U.C.D., from Simancas 2593. Other family information from the late
Bishop of Kilmore (d. 1974), a great-grandson of Henry O'Toole
3Mac Quinn (1773-1875).
Cooey says: "Nuair a chruinneadar each go hArdmhach' na cl?ire,
Is goireadh de caipt?n i dtoiseach ar ch?adaibh."
4Betham
notebook in Dublin PRO.

A liag na mbua, is buan do shaibhreas,

Is iomai cloch ata anocht ag ?ad leat,
Mar chuir t? glas ar chaiptin na laochrai,
An croi 1er thit fuil cheart tT? N?ill ann,
Deireadh na F?inne chun maitheas a dh?anamh,
Art, mac Domhnaill, is leon an t-?ag ?.1
Daniel O'Neill himself must have died by 1773. He is listed under this
year?Daniel O'Neill, Anaghad, yarn merchant?in the Dublin PRO
Administrations Index. In the Dublin Genealogical Office Ms.?Ad?
ministrations to Intestates in the Prerogative Office Dublin from earliest
times to 1802?he is described as "Daniel O'Neill. Anagad, Co. Armagh,
yarn merchant or manufacturer," and the manuscript indicates that
administration of his property was granted to his widow, Bridget O'Neill
on 6 October 1773.2 Daniel's tombstone is still preserved, though broken
in two pieces, in Creggan graveyard, a flat reclining slab of composite
material beside the O'Neill vault. An open hand (the Red Hand of
Ulster ?) is carved on the top left corner of the stone and the inscription
. . . ." the
begins: "Here lieth the Body of Daniel O'Neill Unfortunately
remainder of the inscription is now indecipherable. The bottom of the
stone contains the inscription in memory of his son Art ?g.
Daniel O'Neill was survived for a quarter of a century by his wife
Brigid. The only record of her death which I have found so far is in the
Dublin PRO Index to Armagh and Drogheda Wills, which notes 1798 as
the year of probate of the will of "Bridget O'Neill of Annaghgad." Presum?
ably it was she who had erected the stone over the grave of her husband
and son in Creggan, but when she came to die herself no friendly hand
added her own name in the space left vacant between the other two
inscriptions. 1798, as we shall see. was not a year when friends of the
O'Neills of the Fews could afford to be too bold.
While Daniel O'Neill was in residence in Anagad we find other O'Neills
occasionally figuring in contemporary sources. One was Charles O'Neill
who was appointed overseer of the road from. Crossmaglen to Castle?
blayney in October 1763. Those appointed overseers of the roads were
area, a Johnston, an Eastwood or one of
usually men of substance in the
the Protestant clergy. Thus on 4 October 1757 Charles O'Neill had been
as overseers of the road to Drum
appointed, along with John Johnston,
muckewall; on 3 October 1758 the same two were appointed overseers of
the road from Crossmaglen to where it met the road from Castleblayney
to Dundalk (now Culloville).3 Again the implication seems to be that this
O'Neill wras more than one of the peasantry. He does not figure in the
population List of 1766 and may have been dead by then. A Charles
O'Neill who was brother of Niall O'Neill of Toprass and who had leased
lands in the Lough Ross area about the middle of the 18th century is
the same man.
probably
III. The O'Neills of Toprass
Before to deal with the descendants of the Anagad and

proceeding
1Art Mac
Cumhaigh: Ddnta, p. 126.
2 In 1776 the tenant O'Neill is
of the two townlands formerly leased by Daniel
described in the Bath Estate Rent roll as 'Widow O'Neill' (Information kindly
supplied bv Fr L. ? Mear?in).
3 of Creggan, 1738-1813.
Vestry"Records

Drumbee families during the 19th century, itmay be well at this stage to
retrace our steps a little in order to treat of other O'Neill families in the
area about which some information can be gleaned during the second half
of the 18th century. One such family was the O'Neills of Toprass, near
Kilkerley, Co. Louth.
We first meet Niall O'Neill of Toprass in a Corn Census of Co. Louth
compiled about 1740.x Later he held a large farm in Toprass on a thirty
one year lease dated 27 December 1751 from William Forster.2 He also
held lands in Lower Maghereagh and Lisdrumsinot for the same period.
He is sometimes called Niall O'Neill of Barronstown, the name of the
parish in which he resided. His house was a notable haunt of the Irish
poets and musicians of the era and Nicholas O'Kearney states that Art
Mac Cooey was family bard to the O'Neills of Toprass.3 Perhaps his
house's attraction for visitors was no great surprise, as his wife Mary
(maiden name unknown to me) bore him ?ve or six daughters?Judy,
Sally, Ally, Rose, Elizabeth (Betty) and Anne. One of them became the
wife of Hugh Craven.4
Niall O'Neill's eldest son was named Owen?he also seems to have had a
younger son called Brian. We can date the father's death by reference to
two documents. His will was made on 7 March 17695 and he was certainly
dead before 25 August 1771, on which date a land document describes
him as "deceased."6
Niall O'Neill was succeeded in Toprass by his son Owen. The document
of 25 August 1771, already referred to, describes him as "Owen O'Neill of
Baronstown, Co. Louth, Gent." It is a triple indenture made with a view
to the impending marriage between Owen and Elinor Dillon, daughter of
Robert Dillon of Milltown, Co. Louth, Gent. Owen had inherited his
father's farm in Toprass together with the lands in Maghereagh and
Drumsinnot, subject to some legacies. He had also been given by his
uncle Charles O'Neill two holdings in Loughross on which the leases had
still twenty-three years to run but these were also subject to certain
legacies. Finally he possessed long leases of twenty-eight or twenty-nine
years on lands in Corliss in the Co. Armagh part of the parish of Creggan
and in Lacknagreagh and Carrickrobin, beside Toprass, in Co. Louth.
Owen O'Neill and his young wife cannot have enjoyed their prosperity
for more than a decade. He was certainly dead before the end of 1781,
for on 10th January 1782 administration of his property was granted to
his brother Brian.7 In fact he was probably dead by 1780, because in
that year the 1771 indenture was registered in Dublin8 and this may have
1
Co. Louth Arch. Jnl., 1948, p. 282: he had 60 barrels of oats and 61 of barley,
which indicates a larger than average area under
2 tillage.
of Deeds, Bk 333, p. 124 (No. 222,770).
3Registry
RIA. Ms. 23E 12, p. 58b. A Hugh (O) Neale who figures in Dunbin in the 1664
Hearth Money Rolls (CLAJ, 1932, p. 512) might possibly be the ancestor of the
O'Neills of Toprass, but a closer relationship with the main Creggan line of the 18th
century seems more likely.
4Betham in Dublin
notebooks PRO. One reference gives five daughters, another
six. The daughter who married Hugh Craven is variously described as Alice or Anne.
5Betham But another
notebook. reference gives 7 March 1764.
6 Bk 333, p. 124 (No. 222,770).
Reg. of Deeds,
7Dublin
G.O. 259, Vol. III.
8
Reg. of Deeds, Bk 333, p. 124 (No. 222,770).

been part of the process of settling his estate. Art O'Neill, the itinerant
harper, mentions in his Memoirs that when returning north from the third
Harpers' Festival at Granard in 1785, he stopped at Carolan's of Carrick
macross and Plunket's of Rocksavage and came "from thence to Dundalk,
Louth, to see my relations Owen O'Neill . . . ."l It is very
County likely
that the man in question here is Owen of Toprass, but as Art O'Neill did
not dictate his Memoirs until more than twenty years later, he is probably
confusing the 1785 visit to Toprass with many earlier visits there when
Owren was still alive.
Nicholas 0'Kearney refers to a lament composed in Irish on the death
of Owen O'Neill entitled Mac N?ill Ui N?ill d? ng?illeann na t?inte and
attributes it to Art Mac Cooey.2 I have not come across a copy of this
poem in any Irish manuscript so far, and the attribution to Mac Cooey
gives rise to chronological difficulties which need not concern us here.
But there can be no doubt that such a poem was composed, a further clear
indication of the esteem in which the O'Neills of Toprass were held by
the 18th century Gaelic literati. From the point of view of linking the
Toprass family with the main line of the O'Neills of the Fews it is par?
that this poem should have disappeared, as it
ticularly unfortunate
would no doubt have provided genealogical information on Owen's
ancestors for at least a few
generations.
IV. The O'Neills of Derrynoose
Before passing on to the 19th century it is appropriate to say a word

here also about another distinguished O'Neill family of South Armagh
which added lustre to the name before the 18th century had ended. The
family in question is the O'Neill family of Derrynoose, several of whom
had outstanding careers in France. Although not descended from the
Fews line, their link with the parent stock was even closer than the Sliocht
Aodha's, going back as they did to a brother of Conn Bacach, the first
Earl of Tyrone.
We have already noticed that Charles O'Neill of Derrynoose was out?
lawed after the Williamite Wars. O'Farrell's Linea Antiqua preserves a
genealogical tree of these O'Neills of Derrynoose.3 It shows that Harry
the chieftain of the Caledon-Tynan area at the end of
?g O'Neill,
Elizabeth's reign, not only had a son named Turlough ?g (slain with his
father when assisting the government forces to put down O'Doherty's
Rising in 1608), who was the father of Sir Phelim, but had another son
named Brian. The latter's another Brian, was killed at Aughrim,
grandson,
but his (Brian's) son Turlough. married Mabel, daughter of Hugh ?g
O'Reilly. One of the sons of this marriage was Fr. Charles O'Neill,
President of the Irish College, Paris; another was General John O'Neill
whose career stretched as far as the Napoleonic wars.
military
Fr. Charles, however, was not the first O'Neill to preside over the Irish
clerics in Paris during the 18th century. That honour belongs to Fr. John
1
D. O'Su u.i van, Car o?an, Vol. II, p. 171.
2
Amhrdin Airt MJtic Chubhthaigh (ed. E. ? Muirgheasa), Vol. I, p. viii.
3Linea See also G.O. Ms. 610, p. 29.
Antiqua, I, p. 347.

O'Neill who was born in 1697-8, ordained in Paris during the 1720s and
shortly afterwards appointed titular Dean and Parish Priest of Armagh.1
There is no evidence that he ever took up the care of souls in Ireland and
all his priestly life seems to have been spent in France. A letter written
by the Vicar General of x\rmagh (Nicholas Devine, P.P., Dundalk) in
1743 contains the sarcastic statement: "We have a Dean and an Arch?
deacon in Armagh, one in France and one in London, who have not taken
up possession per se vel per alium."
Three years later Fr. John O'Neill was appointed "Prefect of the
Clerics" of the Lombard College i.e. President of one of the two com?
munities which made up the Irish College, Paris. Since the 1670s the old
Lombard College in the Rue des Carmes had been the headquarters of
Irish students in Paris. With the great increase in numbers during the
a more acceptable system
early 18th century it was necessary to introduce
of government for them, and from 1728 on those who were already
ordained priests usually occupied the Lombard College proper under four
pro visors elected by themselves, while the younger students, whether lay
or clerical, often occupied some houses in a neighbouring street. In 1775
the latter group moved into more commodious premises in the Rue du
Cheval Vert (now the Rue des Irlandais). A decree of 1737 had placed the
nomination of provisors of the Lombard College in the hands of the Arch?
bishop of Paris, but while one provisor continued to be selected from
each of the four provinces, the Archbishop normally nominated one of
these four as "Principal."2
The group of younger students was also governed by a superior ap?
pointed by the Archbishop of Paris who was usually given the title of
"Prefect of the Clerics." This was the post to which Fr. John O'Neill was
appointed in 1746. In this position he succeeded Fr. Andrew Donleavy.
the compiler of the well-known catechism. Yet it is remarkable that when
Fr. Donleavy's work was being printed in Paris, he received approbations
of it in 1741 and 1742 from several Irish priests there (whose declarations
and signatures are printed in the first edition) but there is no mention of
John O'Neill among them.3 His name does figure, however, in a letter
dated Paris 6 December 1748 addressed to the Old Pretender recommend?
ing Bishop Michae.1 O'Reilly of Derry for the see of Armagh.4
By that time a small number of priests on the staff of the Paris college
were urging the need for widespread reforms in the training of Irish
priests and they advised that entry to the Paris college should be restricted
to those not yet ordained. It would seem that Fr. John O'Neill was one
of these 'reformers'?his position as 'prefect of the clerical students' was
almost a guarantee that he would take the side of the unordained clerics
in the controversy with the ordained priests which occasionally flared up
during the first half of the 18th century. But many of the Irish bishops
1 'Parish Priests of Armagh since the Reformation/ in Armagh

T. ? Fiaich,
Cathedral Year Book, 1954, pp. 20-27 (based on notes of the late Rev. L. P. Murray).
2 The Irish College in Paris 1578 to 1901; M. O'Riordan
P. Boyle, from (Sr
Anselm), The Irish Colleges in Paris and the French Revolution (Unpublished Ph.D.
Thesis, ?.C.G., 1973).
3An Criosduidhe do v?ir ceasda agus freagartha
Teagasc (Paris, 1742), pp. xl?-xlv.
4
H. Fenning, The Undoing of the Friars of Ireland, p. 157.

had taken the opposite side when this controversy had broken out earlier,
claiming that the student priests normally returned to the Irish mission
whereas very few of the unordained students ever returned to Ireland.
The two communities had therefore been permitted to continue side by
side.
In 1751 Archbishop O'Reilly of Armagh recommended Fr. John O'Neill
along with two other Irish priests on the continent for promotion to
bishoprics.1 He said he knew no one who would do greater good in Ireland
than James Brady, provisor of the Lombard College "for a notable period"
and John O'Neill who had "presided formany years over the education of
Irish boys in Paris." Fr. O'Neill was not promoted. ?n 1758 John O'Neill
claimed and was granted naturalisation as a French citizen. In the
documents connected with his application he is stated to be a native of
Armagh.2
A fuller examination of John O'Neill's work as Superior of the clerics
of the Irish College, Paris must await the cataloguing of the College's
archives, which, we understand, will be completed shortly. Having ruled
the clerics for more than fourteen years he died on 6 March 1761. as
recorded on his tomb in the old Lombard college:
Hie jacet M. Joannes O Neill Communitatis Clericorum Hibcrno-rum per 14 annos

lit 1res menses Praefectus ac Andreae Donleavy Successor vigilantissimus Obht die titf
Martii Anno 1761 Actatis 63 Requiescaf in Pace*
A fortnight before his death John O'Neill made his will in the Lombard
College on 22 February 1761. A summary of the will is still preserved in
the archives of the Irish College, Paris and the notary who attended on
the occasion recorded that the sick man lay in bed in a room on the second
floor with a view on to the courtyard. The document indicates that most
of what was in John O'Neill's room was not personal property but belonged
to the community. He had, however, certain monies which he had received
for Fr. Henry O'Neill, one of the O'Neills of Fintona, who was cur? of the
parish of Fontaine-la-riviere, near ?tampes, about thirty miles south of
Paris. He had also some possessions of Fr. Charles O'Neill who was
superior of the ordained priests in the Lombard College.
Fr. John O'Neill's most notable legacy was one of 650 francs to
Bartholomew Murry, Doctor of Medicine of the Faculty of Paris,
"my intimate friend for forty years." Dr. Murry was also made executor
of Fr. John O'Neill's will. He later bequeathed all his property to the
Irish students and purchased a house to provide extra accommodation
for the clerics.
In 1761, the year of Fr John O'Neill's death, we find Fr Charles O'Neill
already well established as Principal of the Irish priests in the Lombard
College.4 He was born in Derrynoose perhaps as early as 1715 and
educated in Paris where, according to the regulations laid down for the
election of provisors. he should have taken at least the degree of Master of
Arts at the Sorbonne. Until the Paris archives are carefully examined it
1H. 177-8.
Penning, op. cit., pp.
2 No. 3.
O'Riordan, op. cit.. Appendix
3P.
Boyle, op. cit., p. 228.
4
id., p. 216.

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The document is dated 28 January 1746 and was drawn up in preparation for
O'Neill's departure for Scotland to aid the Pretender.

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The document is signed by his brother, Fr Charles O'Neill, President of the Irish
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The O'Neills of the Fe 397
will impossible to say how long he served as Principal of the Irish
be
College, as he may well have been appointed long before 1761. A document
written in the early 19th century claims that he filled the position for
over forty years, and as he did not vacate it until 1786. this would put his
appointment back as early as the 1740s.
In 1773 he was a member of a committee set up in Paris, in reply to an
invitation from the Dublin Society, to provide assistance in the investiga?
tion of Irish antiquities. A meeting was held in the Lombard College on
n February 1773 and resolved to have a copy made of the Book of Lecan.
"the only old manuscript in the possession of the College of the Lombard."
The meeting also decided to correspond with colleges, religious houses and
libraries in France and adjacent countries in search of further Irish
materials. The letter conveying this information was published in the
Hibernian Journal of 28 June 1773 and was signed by, inter alia, "Ch.
O'Neill, Principal of the College of the Lombards."1 He still occupied
that position in 1779 when he signed a testimonial letter for another Irish
priest.2 In fact Fr. Charles O'Neill more or less specialised in writing
testimonial letters and the Archives du Minist?re de la Guerre in Paris
contain a great number written by him for Irish exiles between 1763 and
1786.3
In 1786 Fr. O'Neill ceased to be President of the Lombard College. A
commission presided over by the Archbishop of Paris decided, after
consultation with the Irish Bishops, that the system of rule by four
provisors should be abolished and a single superior should be appointed
by the Archbishop. Two undated memoirs stated that the four provisors
'could not get on together,' but these may have been part of the campaign
to have the system changed. Accordingly Dr. John Baptist Walsh,
President of the Irish College. Nantes, was appointed superior of the Irish
College, Paris.
The students considered this an interference with their rights and six
of them (including a medical student named O'Neill) drew up a protest
which stated that the four superiors?respectable old men without any
means of support?had been expelled and a usurper put in their place.
But the Irish Bishops came out strongly in favour of the new system.
The replacement of O'Neill by Walsh rankled for a long time and even as
late as 1813-4 it was referred to by Dr Richard Ferris who claimed that
O'Neill was informed of it only on the day when he was forced to leave
the college and that after more than forty years as Superior he was allowed
to die in poverty in a hospice for old people without any assistance from
the new and without a as
superior penny pension.
Fr Charles O'Neill was an old man in his seventies when the Revolution
broke out in 1789. Having escaped in the early stages the two Irish
colleges attracted the attentions of the mob in September and October
1791 as places where disloyal Catholics gathered to hear Mass. The attacks
were repeated during 1792, the students gradually the new
dispersed,
superiors of the priests and clerical students (Drs. Walsh and Kearney)
1
Brady, Catholics and Catholicism in the eighteenth century 152-3.
2 J. XIX
press, pp.
Arch. Mb., (1056), p. 140.
3 1 (1975-76).
S.A.M., Vol. VIII, No. p. 68
4 in the Archives of the Irish College,
Document Paris.

398 Se anchas Ard M hacha
imprisoned and the college in the Rue du Cheval Vert finally confiscated
in May 1793. Both Irish Colleges had proved a haven of refuge for many
French priests during the persecutions of 1792 and 1793.
I have failed to discover any mention of Fr Charles O'Neill's name in
connection with the Lombard College during these troubled years. This
seems to bear out the truth of what the students' protest had hinted at
in 1786 and what the Ferris document stated in 1813 i.e. that he was no
longer in residence in the college after the appointment of Fr Walsh in
1786. Yet he survived the September massacres and the Reign of Terror.
A decree of April 1795 laid down that those Irish administrators and
students in France who had no position would be included with refugees
from the colonies in order to obtain means of subsistence. This was in
answer to a plea from twenty-two Irish exiles, of whom, the Committee of
Public Safety pointed out, four needed immediate help because of their
poverty, infirmity and age. The first name on the list was Charles O'Neill
80
aged years.1
I do not know exactly when this veteran Armagh priest died, but it
cannot have been long after this date. According to early 19th century
documents he died in the Hospice des Vieillards (or in the Hotel Dieu,
which may refer to the same institution). I cannot say where he was
buried, as the College which he had served so long was no longer in Irish
hands. There does not seem to be any monument to his memory either
in the surviving church in the Rue des Carmes or in the existing college
in the Rue des Irlandais.
Fr Charles O'Neill's brother. John, was born in Derrynoose on 20
January 1737.a He left Ireland for Paris when young and studied at the
College de Plessis, the college attached to the University of Paris where
many of the unordained Irish students took their lectures in the Human?
ities and Philosophy. While still under 17 he joined the Regiment of Clare
in the French army in December 1753 as a cadet, and transferred to the
of Roth in 1759. From that stage on, his record was remarkable
Regiment
?2nd Lieutenant in 1761. Ensign in 1763, ist Lieutenant in 1769, Capt.
Commandant in 1774 (when the Regiment was that of Walsh). In 1779
he was created a Chevalier of St Louis, in 1788 was promoted Major and
in 1791 was appointed Lieut-Colonel of the Regiment. In 1792 he became
Colonel of the corps and in the following year was appointed Chef de
Brigade and Mar?chal de Camp.
Much of General O'Neill's army career had been passed abroad in the
service of France. He had fought in the campaigns in Germany in 1759-62
during the Seven Years War, those of Corsica in 1769-70 and had taken
part in three naval engagements against Admiral Rodney of Great Britain
during the American War of Independence. After the French Revolution
he served in six campaigns on behalf of the French Republic between
1793 and 1798.3
1 No. 14.
O'RioRDAN, op. cit., Appendix
2 career is based on the material in J. C. O'Callaghan,
John O'Neill's History of
the Irish Brigades in the service of France, pp. 131-2. A third brother, James, remain?
ed in Derrynoose and was father o? Rev. Charles Terence O'Neill (d.1823), still
remembered as the Br?thair Ban.
3 R. Ireland and Irishmen in the Trench lists General
Hayes, Revolution, passim,
John O'Neill and his son Charles among the officers of the Irish Brigade who remained
loyal to France after the Revolution.

The O'Neills of the Feivs 399
This veteran soldier of France was given leave to retire in 1799 and was
granted a pension of 3,000 francs in 1801. He settled down in Paris, where
Miles Byrne, the associate of Robert Emmet, got to know him on his
escape from Ireland in 1803. Byrne's Memoirs provide some further
details on the man from Derrynoose:
.... he was a small man, rather handsome, with fine features and nearly eighty years
old. Having been born and brought up in Ireland, he spoke English. He had the
of being a just chief, though a severe and a strict observer
reputation disciplinarian,
as one of the descendants
of military rules and honours. Though proud and haughty,
of the great O'Neill of the North, still he was much liked by his officers .... they
used to call their Colonel 'the Monarch' in their chat among themselves.1
Byrne thought the General somewhat older than he really was. General
O'Neill died in his 75th year in the spring of 1811.
General O'Neill's son, Charles, had a military career which was little
less distinguished than that of his father.2 He was born in Bapeaume
(d?pt Pas de Calais) in September 1779 and joined the Regiment of Walsh
'
as 'Enfant de troupe" at the beginning of 1790 when little more than ten
years of age. He was appointed Corporal in 1796, Sergeant in 1797 and
Sergeant-Major in 1798.
In 1798 his father, then lodging in the Maison d'Irlande in the Rue de
Beaune in Paris appeared before two public notaries and made a declara?
tion that the child who had been born out of wedlock to a certain Marie
Fran?oise Le Brun, native of Abbeville, and baptised Jean Charles
Gaspard by the then curate of Bapeaume on 28 September 1779 was
indeed his son and would henceforward bear the name of O'Neill and
inherit from his father. He produced various documents in support of this
assertion.
Twenty year old Charles O'Neill was promoted Sous-Lieutenant in

1799, Lieutenant in 1800, Captain in 1803, Chef de bataillon in 1811,
Major in 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel in 1816 and Colonel in 1821. Three
years later, on retirement from active service, he was appointed to the
headquarters staff of the Ministry ofWar (Head of the Bureau of Infantry).
He had come safely through some of the greatest campaigns of the
revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In 1792-4 he was attached to the
Army of the Moselle and in 1795-7 to the Army being prepared for the
invasion of England. When the latter became the nucleus of the force
despatched against the Austrians, O'Neill found himself taking part in the
Alpine campaign of 1797 and the Italian campaign of 1798. He was made
a prisoner of war on 4 November 1799 at the battle of Fossano and
released the following year.
From June 1804 until November 1807 he served at sea. He fought in
Spain and Portugal throughout the Peninsular War from 1808 until 1812.
He was captured by the English on 22 July 1812 and was a prisoner of
war until April 1813. In the following year he served in Napoleon's last
desperate campaign to hold France against the invading allied armies at
1 new ed., I.U.P.,
Memoirs of Miles Byrne, Shannon, 1972, pp. 105-6.
2 a summary of the military career of
O'Callaghan, op. cit., pp. 131-2, gives
Col. Charles O'Neill, but I have been able to expand it considerably and add the
information concerning his birth through the researches of Mrs. Micheline Walsh,
to whom I am deeply indebted for several documents on John and Charles O'Neill.

40O Seanchas Ard M hacha
the defence of Meaux and Paris. When peace was restored he continued
his military career and was with the French forces which put down the
anti-Bourbon revolt in Spain in 1823, his last campaign.
Col. Charles O'Neill received both high honours and grievous wounds
in the service of France. He was admitted to the Legion of Honour in
June 1808. An exploding shell injured his right hand at the first siege of
Saragossa in July 1808. He was shot through the left leg near Salamanca
on 22 July 1812, the day on which he was taken prisoner. He was made a
Chevalier of the Order of St Louis in 1817. He received a citation during
the Spanish campaign of 1823 and was decorated with the Order of St
Ferdinand later in the same year.
Micheline Walsh has collected together the comments made on him by
the various Inspectors-General who reported on him and they are invari?
ably complimentary. It will be sufficient to quote here the report sub?
mitted in 1823 by Count O'Mahony. whose surname indicates that he
would be unlikely to be too severe on an O'Neill:
Colonel of the greatest merit by his military knowledge, his method of serving and
orders to his subordinates. The order and teaching which one observes in his
giving
regiment do him credit. He is an excellent administrator, full of delicacy, he is a
slave to his duties and gives only the best example in all circumstances. His manners
are those of a well-bred man. ? serious injury to his left foot brings him to request
leave to retire. His departure will be a great loss for the regiment, by which he is
loved and highly esteemed.
Col. Charles O'Neill died in Paris on 17 July 1844. Around the same time
J. C. O'Callaghan was beginning to collect material for his History of the
Irish Brigades in ths service of France, even though the book was not
finally published until 1870. O'Callaghan ends his note on Col. O'Neiirs
military career with a few sentences on the man's character:
He appears to have been an honour even to the honourable name he bore; a good
comrade and friend; ever willing, while employed in the War Office, to oblige his
father's He was very fond of music, and both sang well and played on
countrymen.
several instruments.1
Miles Byrne, in his Memoirs, devotes several pages to Colonel O'Neill.2

The Colonel, according to Byrne, spent his last years collecting material
for a history of the Irish Brigade in France and copied many deeds, in?
to obtain material
scriptions on tombs etc. He also went to great expense
from foreign archives, but he died before the work was published. He
last visited Byrne inmid-July 1844 and in the course of a pleasant evening
"sang several airs, Mrs. Byrne accompanying him on the piano." A few
later he died leaving as his executor a young cousin, also
days suddenly,
O'Neill, who was professor of mathematics at the College of Sainte
Barbe. He was buried in the cemetery of Montparnasse, where a "hand?
some monument" was erected over his grave.3
1
O'Callaghan, op. cit., p. 132.
2Memoirs new ed., 1972, pp. 268-274.
of Miles Byrne, 1.1,P., Shannon,
3Charles O'Neill died aged 65 in the llth arrondissement and was buried in
by his cousin Eugene O'Neill. The cemetery had been first
plot 492, a plot obtained
used in 1824, hence his father John O'Neill cannot have been buried in the same grave
kindlv supplied bv M. ). Durand, Conservateur of the Cimeti?re du
(Information
Sud).

The O'Xeills of the Fews 401
In August 1976 I searched for this monument in the historic graveyard

which contains the remains of writers like Baudelaire, Maupassant and
Sainte-Beuve, sculptors like Rude and Zadkine and the illustrious com?
poser Cesar Franck. It wras a shattering disappointment to be informed
by the Direction that I had come two years too late. On 2 May 1974, as
the family to which the grave belonged had died out. the surviving
remains were taken from it, as also from another O'Neill grave in the same
cemetery and the ''handsome monument" was broken up and removed in
accordance with current French law and practice. This w7ould properly be
considered desecration in Ireland, and the fact that the vandalism was
legal makes it no less deserving of condemnation. It entailed in addition
the deliberate destruction of an important historical record?-the in?
scription on the tomb, which might have provided useful information on
the O'Neill family.
The bones were removed to the vast underground ossuaire in the centre
of Montmartre (Pere Lachaise) cemetery in the north of Paris. I was told
that the practice is to encase the bones in a small wooden box which is
then built into the wall of the ossuaire with the family name on a plate on
the outside. I followed the bones to their new resting-place but was
refused permission to go down into the ossuaire. I cannot say therefore
what has been done in the case of the O'Neill grave. But it would seem
that somewhere under that grassy plot, just below the gigantic monument
erected to the memory of Adolphe Thiers, in a plain wooden box marked
with the name O'Neill, is the last resting-place of this illustrious soldier
of France who was proud to claim Derrynoose as his ancestral home.
One last descendant of the Derrynoose O'Neills must be mentioned in
conclusion for the sake of completeness. This study has been immeasur?
ably complicated at times by the repetition of the same Christian names?
Art and Turlough and Henry and so on?from one generation to the next.
It is almost a relief therefore to meet one of the family bearing the unique
name of Gustave Adolphe. Called after the great soldier-king of Sweden
he could hardly be expected to follow any career except a military one.
Gustave Adolphe O'Neill was the grandson of the man born in Derry?
noose in 1737 (General John). The latter's son Francois married Anne
Marie Ropert and the son of that marriage was born at Josselin (dept. du
Morbihan) in Brittany on 1 February 1792. He enrolled as a volunteer in
the 15th Regiment de Ligne in 1807 at the age of 15 and was immediately
sent off with the French invading army to Spain. He served for almost
21 years in Spain as fourrier in the regiment and was promoted Sergent
from 1 January 1810 and S ergent-Major from 10 December of the same
year. After service in both Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular war
he was taken prisoner as a member of the garrison of Salamanca Fort
on 27 June 1812. After his release he was promoted Sous-Lieutenant of
the 47th Regiment on 13 March 1814.
A report on Gustave Adolphe O'Neill, compiled in 1815, after the
Bourbon Restoration, states that he is of good principles and devoted to
the King, and points out that Lt. Col. (Charles) O'Neill, a very dis?
tinguished officer, is his uncle. He retired from the army as from 1 May
1822 in rather peculiar circumstances. On 10 April previously the Colonel
of the 46th Regiment reported that O'Neill had gone to Josselin on four

402 Seanchas Arel M hacha
months leave on i December 1821 but had not returned to the Regiment
when the period was up. The Colonel feared that he had accumulated
debts and was afraid to re-appear.
After his retirement, whether forced or voluntary, he remained on in
Brittany. In July 1830, when the liberal monarchy of Louis Philippe
was inaugurated, he was the first to raise the tricolour in Redon, a fairly
large town in the d?partement of Morbihan and joined the National Guard
as a volunteer. Tn 1833 we find him writing from Vannes, the largest town
in the d?partement, seeking a post in the Gendarmerie of Morbihan. I have
no further reference to him, but as befitted one who bore the name of
Gustave Adolphe, not to mention the surname O'Neill, he was militarily
minded even in his retirement.
V. The end of an Era
At the time when their kinsmen from Derrynoose were making such a
name for themselves in the French army, the O'Neills of Creggan were
gradually reduced to comparative poverty in contrast to their former
power and wealth?-mere tenants at will on a few small holdings of the
lands once possessed by their forefathers. It is necessary now to seek to
follow them through the obscurity which was to be their lot during the
early 19th century.
The turn of the i8th-i9th centuries carried off several members of the
family in Creggan parish. The indexes in the Dublin PRO indicate that
in the following years O'Neill wills from Creggan were admitted to
probate:1 ?
Henry O'Neill of Annagad ?
1792
Francis O'Neill of Drumbee 1805
? 1808
Margaret O'Neill of Drumbee
Unfortunately we cannot identify these individuals with absolute certainty,
but it seems likely that Henry was the brother of Art Og mentioned in
Mac Cooey's poem and that Francis and Margaret were husband and wife,
the ancestors of the O'Neill family of Drumbee which survives to the
present day. A lease on a holding in Drumbee from 1 November 1790
was secured on ist April 1791 for three lives or 31 years.2 Perhaps this
lease of 1791 marked the movement of Francis O'Neill of Anagad (where
we found him in 1766) into the neighbouring farm in Drumbee.
Even as late as the fatal year 1798 the name O'Neill was still one which
won the highest esteem from the native families of Creggan and attracted
the ire of the yeomanry. When Charles H. Teeling escaped from Co.
Down after the battle of Ballinahinch, he received shelter at the residence
of Iver Magenis, "in a secluded and romantic situation, between the dark
lake of Camlagh and the heathy mountain of Belleek." After receiving
help from Fr. Campbell of Ballyargan, Teeling and Magenis headed
a
through the night for Lough Ross. They had an encounter with
yeoman (?) "going home from the night guard at Cross" and passed by
Ballymoyer.
1Dublin Index to Armagh and Drogheda Wills.

PRO, Ms. G.3.22:
*Document in possession of the late Mr. Anthony Murphy, Crossmaglen.

sun was up when they reached another Magenis homestead

The near
Lough Ross, a "neat and well-trimmed cottage." Immediately Rose
Magenis, the young girl of the family, told them the latest news: "we were
all last .... There were bad here .... The Cross and
up night doings
Creggan men were out. Old O'Neill's house was wrecked and young Felix
was carried off a prisoner; but father says they can't harm him."
While Teeling was resting in the house, Iver "stepped down to old
O'Neill's." A party of yeomanry passed the house but did not intrude
and "in that immediate quarter of the country no regular troops had been
stationed." Later Teeling discovered what the yeomanry were after:
"During the outrage of the preceding night, some young fellows of the
neighbourhood, of bolder spirit than the rest, had attempted to rescue
O'Neill's little property from destruction and his son from the hand of
midnight ruffians. Blows were exchanged in the struggle, and some
casualties occurred on either side, though not of a serious nature." Some
arms and accoutrements had been lost and the yeomen were seeking to
recover them.1
This interesting passage indicates that in 1798 the O'Neill homestead
which was wrecked was not far from Lough Ross and was near the
residence of "Magenis More." Although I have not been able to discover
where the latter was situated, it is likely the O'Neill residence in question
was in either Anagad or Drumbee, only about two miles from Lough Ross,
and "old O'Neill" may have been the old man Francis O'Neill who in
1766 was listed as residing in the townland of Anagad. In 1801 "Felix
O'Neill of Anagad, Co. Armagh, Farmer" who some years earlier had
leased the townland of Anagad at an annual rent of ?91.35 surrendered
the remaining term of his lease to Francis McVeagh of Culloville, shop?
keeper.2 The transaction suggests that O'Neill had been in good circum?
stances when he had leased the whole townland, but had got into pecuniary
difficulties by 1801 and was perhaps even in debt to the local shopkeeper.
In the same year that Felix O'Neill disposed of his lease on Anagad
(1801), a Felix and Con O'Neill secured a lease on a holding in the town
land of Carran on the other side of Crossmaglen.3 It is not possible to
prove that it was the same Felix who took part in both transactions but
there is every likelihood that it was. There are traditions in various
O'Neill families about their ancestors having been burned out in Anagad
about 1798 and this is in harmony with Teeling's narrative. A possible
reconstruction of the events would therefore be that Felix of Anagad,
after his release from imprisonment, decided to settle down in the town
land of Carran. With his brother (?) Con he obtained a holding on lease
there in 1801, but because of straitened circumstances,
partly caused no
doubt by the family losses around 1798, he had to dispose of his interest
in the townland of Anagad in order to pay for his new
holding and perhaps
build a house thereon. His descendants have remained in Carran until
the present day.
1
C. H.
Teeling, Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion, Ch. III. John
Sequel,
Magennis, the well-known Co. Down United Irish leader was married to Teeling's
sister.
2 of Deeds,
Reg. Bk. 539, p. 173 (No. 354, 602).
3Lease in PRONI, Belfast.

404 Seanchas Ard M hacha
It is not easy to follow Felix O'Neill with certainty after 1801. On ist
May 1812 a certain Felix O'Neill bought the tenancy of a house in Cross
maglen from Patrick Conlon for a term of thirty-one years or three lives,
subject to a yearly rent of ?1.5s. It is called, in the deed of conveyance.1
House No. 1 and the whole property was 54 feet wide in the front and
174 feet in the rear. Two things are noteworthy about this deed: (1)O'Neill
signed it by "his mark" and (2) he is called Felix O'Neill of Dandalk. I do
not know if he was the Felix O'Neill who had been arrested in 1798.
We learn a little more about this house in a later deed.2 The original
lease of it had been granted by the landlord Thomas Ball to Patrick, Peter
and Michael Conlon of the town of Crossmaglen. dealers. After holding
the lease of it for nearly six years, O'Neill disposed of it on 9 January 1818
to Johnston Hamilton of Crossmaglen, farmer.3 In the document
registering the latter transaction O'Neill is called "Felix O'Neill of Aneen.
Co. Louth. farmer." I cannot say what place ismeant by Aneen, possibly
near Ravensdale.
Aghmeen
While the Felix O'Neill who bought and sold the tenancy of the house
in Crossmaglen may or may not have been identical with Felix of Carran.
various references to a Felix O'Neill in the Crossmaglen Parochial
Registers4 almost certainly apply to the latter. Nothing in the Registers
implies that there was more than one Felix O'Neill living in the parish.
He was already married to Margaret McParland in the 1790s and had
children baptised as follows: John in March 1799. Sarah in August 1801
and Rose in July 1813 (the register for 1803-12 ismissing). He acted as
sponsor at baptisms in January 1797, August 1799 and May 1801. He
himself (or possibly a younger namesake) witnessed amarriage in February
1820. The absence of the parochial register for 1810 removes the one
source which would have clinched the identification of Felix of Carran
with the Felix who married Margaret McParland. We know from other
sources that in that year Con O'Neill of Carran was born. Everything
son of Felix O'Neill and Margaret McParland
points to his having been the
but the documentary proof of this is now lost.
A final reference to Felix O'Neill of Carran occurs in a list of registered
freeholders of ?20 and 40s in Co. Armagh between 1 January 1813 and
1 January 1820.5 According to this list he became a 40/- freeholder on
the estate of Miss Kelly of Carran in 1818 and was thenceforward entitled
to vote at parliamentary elections. Only one other O'Neill in the Barony
of Upper Fews had this right?the O'Neills left in Anagad and Drumbee
were without it. By the middle of the century not a single O'Neill appeared
on the Voters' lists for the whole Barony of Upper Fews.6 It was a clear
indication that the long drawn out struggle to subdue the O'Neills of the
Fews had finally succeeded?the family that had once ruled the Fews had
1 of Deeds, Bk. TOT, p. 373, (No. 484,508).

s Reg.
ibid., Bk. 817, p. 433. (No. 550,568).
3The Hamilton is in Creggan churchvard. He died 18 February
grave of Johnston
1848 (?) aged 78.
4 1 wish to thank Very He v. Joseph Canon Kelly, P.P., for making these available
to me.
?", Printed
NLl. by W. Pooler, Armagh.
0 Voters of Co. Armagh, 1851-52, in NLI.
See, for instance, Parliamentary

The O'Neills of the Few s 405
now no longer a voice in the selection of their rulers; those who had once
owned the Fews did not now possess sufficient property to be put on the
parliamentary register.
VI. Creggan O'Neills of the 19TH-20TH Centuries
It is tantalizing to be able to follow the fortunes of the O'Neills of the

Fews down to the end of the iSth century and to trace the present O'Neill
families of the area back to the early 19th century and yet not be able to
bridge completely the narrow gap between the two. This is the position
in which we find ourselves at the present moment. For this reason it is
better to take each of the 19th century families in turn, leaving open for
the present the question of their link with each other and with the parent
stock.
The Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Parish of Creggan Upper
(Crossmaglen) which survive, with some gaps, from 1796, indicate how
plentiful the surname was in the parish at the end of the 18th century.
From these registers it is clear that there were at least fifteen and perhaps
as many as seventeen males of the surname who were either married
themselves or were sufficiently grown up to act as sponsors at
baptisms
and witnesses at marriages in the parish around the year 1800. Unfortun?
ately the registers do not indicate the townland to which each belonged
and it is therefore all the more difficult to identify their ancestry and to
separate two or more individuals bearing the same Christian name. The
following adult O'Neills figure in the earliest register around the year 1800:
1. Terence O'Neill I: father of John who was born in November
1796.
2. Brian O'Neill: sponsor at
baptism of above; probably identical with
one of three Brians below.
3. Terence O'Neill II: husband of Catherine Magoogen. Their daughter
Catherine was baptised in August 1797.
4. Felix O'Neill: sponsor at baptism in January 1797 and on various
other occasions.
5. Art O'Neill: sponsor at baptism of Thos. Burns in December 1797;

this would indicate that he probably belonged to Anagad, where
several Burns families resided.
6. Brian O'Neill I: husband of Brigid Connolly; their son Daniel was
baptised in April 1798.
7. Charles O'Neill I: husband of Mary Hearty; their son Richard was
baptised in May 1798.
8. John O'Neill: sponsor at baptism in June 1798.
9. Patrick O'Neill: sponsor at baptism in August 1798.
10. Thomas O'Neill: sponsor at baptism in October
1798.
11. Brian O'Neill II: husband of Jane Hargrave. Their daughter Anne
was baptised in November 1799.
12. Con O'Neill: sponsor at baptisms in April and November 1799.
13. Hugh O'Neill I: sponsor at baptism in July 1799.
14. Brian O'Neill III: husband of Catherine O'Neill; their daughter Anne
was baptised in July 1800.

4o6 S canchas A rdM hacha
?
15. Hugh O'Xcill II: husband of Catherine Kieran the marriage took
place on 12/5/1800. He may be identical with Hugh O'Neill I above.
16. Francis O'Xcill: witness at the aforesaid marriage on 12/5/1800.
17. Charles O'Xcill II: husband of Anne Harvessy; their daughter Brigid
was baptised in April 1801.
There is a gap in the records from February 181*3 to December 1812 but
the registers from 1812 to 1829 show that during the latter period there
were, in addition to many of the names listed above, further adult O'Neills
bearing the names Ow:-n (1812. 1823), Henry (1818), James (1822), two
Daniels in 1824 and 1828. another John in 1826 and three or four other
Hughs.
In the middle of the last century there were seventeen O'Neill house?
holds in the parish of Creggan. This is the figure provided by the index
based on Griffith's Valuation (c. i860).1 Yet the Famine (and the heavy
emigration which followed it) had disastrous effects on their numbers.
The following table shows clearly its impact on the numbers of O'Neills
baptised in the parish of Upper Creggan during successive decades of the
19th century; only in very recent times has the name begun to recover
lost ground again:
1820 - 29 ? 16 (Reg. incomplete)
- ?
*$33 39 15 (Reg. incomplete)
-- ?
1840 49 26
- ?
1850 59 13
i860 -- ? 8
- 69 ?
1870 79 8
1880 - ? 6
89
- ? 2 (5 O'Neill deaths
1890 90 during
the same decade)
- ?
1900 09 4 (all one family)
- ?
19 o
1910
- ?
1920 29 3
- ?
I93? 39 9 (2 families)
- ? 6 (2 families)
1940 49
- ? 1
1950 59
- ? 22
i960 69
We shall now turn our attention to the principal O'Neill families to
which many of the above individuals belonged:
(1) The O'Xcills of Drumbee

As we have seen already, Francis and Margaret O'Neill of Drumbee
died at the beginning of the 19th century. The will of the former was
admitted to probate in 1805 and of the latter in 1808. I have not succeed?
ed in discovering the names of their children. One descendant of theirs,
whether son or grandson, was Terence O'Neill of Drumbee. born about
1790, who married Ann McGeeney in 1816. Their son Francis, born in
1 Surname Index in NLI. In addition to the 17 families in Creggan parish,
Newtownhamilton parish had 3 O'Neill families.
8 based on a count of names in the Baptismal and
Figures Registers Index,
Crossmaglen.

1828 married Brigid Lennon. Another descendant of the original Francis

and Margaret was Charles O'Neill, born about 1820 who married Nelly
Harvessy.1
In the Tithe Composition Book for Creggan parish2 compiled in 1828
four different O'Neill holdings are listed in the townland of Drumbee.
Hugh O'Neill held 9 acres 3 roods and 5 perches for which he paid 6s. nd
tithe, Charles held 7 acres and was assessed for 5s. 5d tithe, Terence held
3a. ir. and had only to pay is. 4|-d tithe, and John had only ir. iop. for
which he was required to pay 3-id. None of these survived the Famine
period in the townland and was still there in the 1850s as occupier of a
holding.
In the middle of the 1850s another Charles and a Francis O'Neill jointly
held a lease on 22a ir in Drumbee. Their rent was and
32p ?3.13s.iod.
the valuation of the property was ?c).i3s.iod. It is stated in the docu?
ment3 that the original lease went back to 1 November 1700 and was
drawn up on 1 April 1791 for three lives. With Edward Magill they were
the only tenants in the townland who had a lease on their holdings?all
the rest were tenants.
yearly
By the time of Griffith's Valuation compiled in the early 1860s Charles
and Francis O'Neill jointly held 21a ir 38p from the landlord Denis Kelly.
The slight reduction in acreage may be due simply to more accurate
measurement in connection with the valuation?the was presum?
holding
ably the same one as was originally leased in 1790. Both Charles and
Francis had a house each, and when houses and land were taken together
was
and half of the annual valuation assigned to the two, each man
assessed to possess rateable of an annual valuation of
property ?6.10.
The descendants of Charles and Francis O'Neill during the past century
??some of whom still happily reside in Drumbee and in neighbouring
townlands?can be shown more clearly in tabulated form and are included
in Table A below.
(2) The O'Neills of Anagad

We have seen three O'Neills?-Daniel. Owen and Francis?listed
already
in Anagad in 1766. The will of 'Henry O'Neill of Annagad,' who may
have been Daniel's son. was admitted to probate in 1792 and that of
'Bridget O'Neill of Annaghgad', who was almost certainly Daniel's wife,
in 1798. But that historic year brought, as we have noticed above,
personal and property losses to the Anagad family, and in 1801 'Felix
O'Neill of Anagad' surrendered the remaining term of his lease on the
townland to a
neighbouring shopkeeper.
It is perhaps not a complete surprise, therefore, that we find no O'Neills
listed among the eighteen occupiers of holdings in Anagad in the Tithe
Composition Book of 1828.4 By the 185cs. however. Art O'Neill had a
1
Baptismal and Marriage Registers, Crossmaglen.
2The Tithe Composition Rook is not with the books for other Co. Armagh
Creggan
parishes in the PRONI (Belfast), as one would expect, but is included along with the
books for Co. Louth in the PRO, Dublin.
3 of Crossmaglen.
Formerly in the possession of the late Anthony Murphy
4 It is remarkable that not a single surname listed in Anagad in the 1766 List is
still there in the Tithe Composition Book in 1828.

4o8 Seanchas Ard M hacha
small holding there of 4a. 2r. 28p. for which he paid an annual rent of
?2.3s.4d. Hugh O'Neill held 2 acres for which he was charged 15/iod
rent.1 In Griffith's Valuation (1864) Arthur O'Neill held a house, office
and land (13a. ir. iop.) from the landlord Denis Kelly?his total annual
valuation was reckoned to be ?3.10s. Michael O'Neill held 2a. 31*. 30p.
together with a house and office and his rateable property was valued
at per annum.
?2
These two O'Neills, Art and Hugh, who were in Anagad in the 1850s,
were possibly brothers, but unfortunately I have not discovered who
their father was. The family must have moved back into Anagad sub?
sequent to 1828?perhaps around the time o? the famine wrhen there wras
considerable emigration from the townland. This Art O'Neill was a well
known 'character' and figures in a local ballad which is still well re?
membered:2
Press round the fire, folks, awhile

Till I relate a tale
Concerning what of late befell
A chap called Art ? N?ill.
A jovial soul this Arthur is

And loves a jolly spree,
His dwelling-place, you all well know,
The famous sweet Drumbee.
So one and all come join with me

From Derry to Kinsale,
And raise a hearty cheer and cry:
Long life to Art ? N?ill.
His brother Hugh must have been dead before the time of Griffith's
Valuation, as that document lists the latter's son Michael (1830-1916)
as occupier of the second O'Neill holding. There was later some sub?
division of the other holding after the death of Art, and the approximate
sites of four different O'Neill homesteads are still pointed out near the
shore of Anagad lake.
No descendant of this branch of the family lives in Anagad today but
Table B at the end of this section indicates the various lines which derive
from the two O'Neills who resided in Anagad in the 1850s.
(3) The O'Neills of Carran

It has been mentioned above that a lease on a holding in the townland
of Carran was granted to a certain Felix and Con O'Neill in 1801. The
1From documents in the possession of the late Anthony of
formerly Murphy
Crossmaglen.
2Words taken from The Dalin Men from Crossmaglen, a collection of local
ballads issued in 1973 by Con Short and Seamus Mallon.

holding was by no means large. Presumably this Felix and Con were
brothers and the former was the 'y01111^Felix' who had been carried o?
as a prisoner in 1798. Another Con, probably the son of Felix, was born
in 1810 and this Con's descendants have remained in occupation of the
holding ever since.
In 1828 Con O'Neill (brother of Felix) held 7a. 2r. in the townland of
Carran for which he paid a half-yearly rectorial tithe of 5s. 6Ad. Another
O'Neill (Brian) had a holding of 2 acres in the same townland for which he
paid is 8d. tithe every half-year. By 1864 Con O'Neill (son of Felix)
had a house, offices and land (12a. ir. 5p.) in the townland and his valua?
tion for the lot was ?7.15s. In the same townland Owen O'Neill held 6a.
or. 5p. of bog for which the valuation was fixed at 5 shillings.
The descent of the family to the present generation is shown in Table C
below.
(4) The O'Neills of Dorsey and Ummericam

No family of O'Neills is listed in Dorsey in the 1766 List. The earliest
record that I have found of an O'Neill in the townland is of a certain Art
O'Neill who lived there in the early 19th century. He was admitted to
the list of 40/- freeholders of Co. Armagh in 1817.1 He may have moved to
Dorsey from the Anagad area around 1800.
Art was probably the father of Neal O'Neill who held 6a. 2r. 8p. in the
townland in 1828, for which he paid 4s.4d. half-yearly tithe. At the same
date John O'Neill held 2a. 2r. 24p. in the townland and was assessed for
is.9d.half-yearly tithe. Neal married Hanna Muckian (1770-1825) and
on her death in 1825 erected a monument over her grave in Creggan which
is still to be seen there.2
There were four boys in Neal's family, Charles, Francis, John and Hugh
and all figure in the townland of Dorsey, in Griffith's Valuation in the
1860s. Hugh had a house, office and 6a. 3r. 25p., Charles had a house and
2a. or. 20p, John had a house, offices and 4a. ir. 12p. while Francis had
about the same amount of land as Hugh but is not listed as occupier of
a house in the townland.
Hugh's son Francis, who was born in 1849, survived as late as 1933.
When Creggan graveyard was being mapped out in 1909, Francis was the
O'Neill who claimed the historic vault there as next-of-kin.3 There can
be no doubt, therefore, that this family is directly descended from one
of the 18th century families who still buried their dead in the vault, but
I have not yet succeeded in tracing the relationship of Art O'Neill of
Dorsey with one of the 18th century individuals already mentioned.
For the sake of completeness we provide in Table D below the genealogy
of this branch of the family.
1Printed List in NLI, Dublin.

*S.A.M., 1972, p. 327.
8 From and List of names in possession of Rev. Maurice Rector of
Map Noel,
Creggan.

410 Se anchas Ard M hacha
TABLE A
O'NEILLS OF DRUMBEE
Francis O'Neill Margaret

d. i\ 1805 d. c. 1808
Terence
b. c. 1790
m. Ann McGeeney 1816
Charles
b. c. 1820
m. Nelly Harvessv
ri. before 1889 Brigid John Owen Francis
b. 1819 b. 1822 b. 1824 b. 1828
m. Lennon
I
1
Ann Big Owen Mary John Terence Brigid Mary Wee Owen
b. 1845 b. 1849 b. 1852 1854-1938 b. 1857 b. 1849 b. 1853 1851-1933
m. Margt. d. in U.S.A. m. Duffy m. Brigid
Cunningham mcCreesh
(d. 1922) d.s.p.
(Her nephew
Mick McCreesh
inherited the
holding and lives
there todav)
Charles
b. 1898
m. Alice Cunningham (d. 1940)
I
John Terence Owen Patk. Charles Tom
(Based on Parochial Registers and information supplied by Charles O'Neill and Michael McCreesh
of Drumbee).

TABLE B
O'NEILLS OF ANAGAD
Art
Hugh
m. Sara Connollv m. (1) Casey
1816 (2) Boyle
b. 1826 Michael 4 sisters Francis Owen Art Hugh James 3 sisters

Hugh
in 1830-1916 1838? shoemaker
(drowned
R. Fane) m. Nancy c. 1911
Finnegan shoemaker
m. Liza Woods
Kate Sara Hugh 3 brothers 2 sisters Annie

Hugh, Brigid
shoemaker m. Fee m. Ward to Doranta b. 1875
1861-1939 U.S.A. 1885 m. Owen
Carragher of
Cappy
James Owen Art 4 sisters Lizzie

b. 1867 b. 1870 b. 1876
in. Morris
To U.S.A.
Peter Owen Pat Hugh Edward Michael Rose Eliz. Michael Joe Thos.
1897-1970 I To m. Feeney Carragher Carragher
Police Belfast (Cappy) (Belfast)
Chicago
d. 1977
Feeney family
Thos. Pat of Cappy
Hugh
b. 1924 b. 1931
Teacher in
Knockbridge
(Based on Parochial Registers and information supplied by P?draig ? N?ill of Knockbridge,

Michael McCreesh and Charles O'Neill of Drumbee, Mrs. Feeney of Cappy and Mrs. Joe Quigley
of Crossmaglen).

412 Seanchas Ard M hacha
TABLE C
O'NEILLS OF CARRAN
Felix fl. 1780s-1820s Con

(got lease in Carran 1801
Freeholder there 1818)
m. Margt. McParland
John Sara Con Rose Catherine

b. 1799 b. 1801 1810-92 b. 1813 m. James McShane
m. Nellie
McNultv
Catherine McShane
m. Bernard McNulty
2 Johns b. 1840 & 1842 Frank Charles

2 Pats b. 1844 & 1852 1860-1937 1864-1906
Brian b. 1847 Taxi-man in m. Cath. Feehan
Peter b. 1855 Crossmaglen
Hugh b. 1857 James McNulty
and 3 sisters m. Brigid Hearty
Ellen Mary Frank Brigid Charles

b. 1899 b. 1901 1903-72 b. 1904 b. 1907
d. U.S.A. d. U.S.A. m. Margt. Went to d. U.S.A.
Lavelle U.S.A.
James McNulty
& 2 sisters
Mary Hugh Cath. James F. Con Ellen P. Bernd Ol. John Anne
Brigid Teresa
(Based on Parochial Registers and information supplied by O'Neill Family, Carran, Patrick
McAnulty, Sheetrim and John Bennett, Gateshead, England).

TABLE D
O'NEILLS OF DORSEY AND UMMERICAM
Art O'Neill
(inDorsey 1817)
I
Neal John
(inDorsey 1828) (inDorsey 1828)
m. Hannah Muckian
1770-1825
| II (All 4 in Dorsey in
I II 1860s)
Charles Francis John Hugh
(carpenter) d. 1903
m. Miss Revnolds
John Art John Con Francis

(carpenter, d. 1918 d. 1904 d. a. 24 1849-1933
moved to m. Brigid Johnson
Dundalk
d. 1918)
Mary Anne James John Hugh Thos Brigid

m.
Patk. of Ummericam
Larkin b. 1891
Canon John |
P.P. Kilsaran |
d. 1971 O'Neill family of Ummericam
(Based on information supplied by Tom O'Neill, Ummericam)


Oneills of The Fews Ofiaich pt3

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Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha/Armagh Diocesan Historical Society

The O'Neills of the Fews

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Part III: Survival at Homk

I. Under Charles II and James II

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Co Antrim, but it may equally be Creggan. What is clear, in any case, is

II. Creggan O'Neills of the i8th Century

When some of the children of Art ?g O'Neill settled in Creggan parish

1Domhnall was called after his grand-uncle, the son of Art

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T? clann d'athar faoi ghruaim ? d'fhuaraigh t? i gcr? uathu,

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A liag na mbua, is buan do shaibhreas,

III. The O'Neills of Toprass

Before to deal with the descendants of the Anagad and

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IV. The O'Neills of Derrynoose

Before passing on to the 19th century it is appropriate to say a word

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1 'Parish Priests of Armagh since the Reformation/ in Armagh

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Hie jacet M. Joannes O Neill Communitatis Clericorum Hibcrno-rum per 14 annos

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KING LOTIS XV OP FRANCE COMMISSIONS FELIX O'NEILL

O'Neill's departure for Scotland to aid the Pretender.

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?~ir^V-in-/y ?us A/toasts (v -''y???.??o

DOCUMENT TESTIFYING THAT CAPT JOHN O'NEILL

WAS BORN IN DERRYNOOSE ON 20 JANUARY 1737

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Twenty year old Charles O'Neill was promoted Sous-Lieutenant in

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Miles Byrne, in his Memoirs, devotes several pages to Colonel O'Neill.2

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In August 1976 I searched for this monument in the historic graveyard

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V. The end of an Era

1Dublin Index to Armagh and Drogheda Wills.

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sun was up when they reached another Magenis homestead

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1 of Deeds, Bk. TOT, p. 373, (No. 484,508).

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VI. Creggan O'Neills of the 19TH-20TH Centuries

It is tantalizing to be able to follow the fortunes of the O'Neills of the

5. Art O'Neill: sponsor at baptism of Thos. Burns in December 1797;

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(1) The O'Xcills of Drumbee

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1828 married Brigid Lennon. Another descendant of the original Francis

(2) The O'Neills of Anagad

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Press round the fire, folks, awhile

A jovial soul this Arthur is