Sean Mor O’Neill

It is said that Henry VIII left a sum of money to ensure that Masses would be said for the repose of his soul. Whether this is true or not, the Mass was not outlawed in England until after his death in 1547. His son, Edward I, succeeded him and during his short reign of six years (he died in 1553) the fight against the Mass and all popish practices’ began in real earnest. Protestant services were ordered to be held instead and the ‘Book of Common Prayer’ circulated and used by all subjects of the Crown, the king, of course, being head of the new religion.

When the house of Kildare fell after the revolt of Silken Thomas, their property was confiscated to the English Crown, but no attempt was made to put an owner or occupier in possession. Some of the Laois and Offaly chiefs had helped Thomas and when the time and opportunity came they were made pay dearly for their ‘disloyalty’ to the royal robbers of Irish land.

When Mary Tudor ascended the English throne in 1554 it was hoped that because she was a Catholic, there would be an easing of tension in Ireland. She soon let the Irish ‘rebels’ see what she thought of them. The very first Plantation took place during her reign. In 1556 the work was begun in Laois and Offaly, the country of the O’Moores and the O’Connors. They rose out against the Planters like men of spirit and for half a century the struggle went on, strong, well-armed, well-provisioned English armies being brought against the chiefs and their small following until it became a wonder that they could hold out at all. While the struggle was still going on Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth took her place. Finally the remnants of the Midland defenders of their lands and homes were defeated and were rounded up and banished to Kerry.

One of those who accepted titles from Henry VIII in return for earldoms and baronetcies was Conn Bacach 0 Néill, who became ‘Earl of Tyrone’ instead of ‘0 Néill.’ His people soon let him know what they thought of his weakness and they compelled him to revert to his proper title and to the administration of Irish law. He had two sons. One was Matthew, who became father of the great Hugh, and the other was Sean the Proud, so called because he had a wholesome pride in all things Irish, in the great name, 0 Néill, in the fact that Ireland was still unconquered, though often beaten to the dust. He is one of the finest figures in our history, and with his nephew, Hugh, and Eoghan Ruadh. and Art Mac Murchü, will never be forgotten or forgiven by the English he fought and laughed at and defied. Matthew was the eldest of Conn’s family and the English backed him for the empty earldom in succession to his father, but Sean Mór had no use for earldoms or baronetcies. He would be 0 Nêill in spite of English or weak-kneed Irish and when he saw his father helping the invader he made war on both. Three years in succession—155l, 1552 and 1553—the English sent strong armies from Dublin against him and he routed them all. His father and brother died and now he was 0‘Neil and would defend his title and territory to the death. Several attempts were made on. his life by paid agents of the English without success, but finally the governor of Carrickfergus, an Englishman named Piers, conspired with a group of Scottish MacDonnells who had a grudge against Sean. In 1567, while he was their guest, they fell upon him, murdered him, and handed over his dead body to the English, who spiked his head on Dublin Castle gate.

ELIZABETH AND HER TOOLS

Sean Mór 0 Néill being out of the way, Elizabeth donated all the land between Loch Neagh and the sea to one of her favourites, the Earl of Essex, and ordered him to go and take possession of it and plant it,with English settlers. Essex went north with a powerful arm, brutally put to death all Irish people, old and young, who came his way, but the 0 NUlls and others to whom the land belonged stood up and fought in defence of their own and the planned plantation had to be abandoned. For his failure Essex was recalled to England and not long afterwards was put to death by order of Elizabeth.

This was the time when the British Empire was founded. English pirates roamed the seas of the world and came home laden with rich/booty which Elizabeth and her government—the Cecils and the rest—changed into money to finance her wars against Ireland and Spain. That Empire, so loved throughout the world, was founded on the sea. •raids of official pirates and thieves. The crafty Cecils were the advisers and managers of Queen Elizabeth (their descendants were the Salisburys and Balfours so well known in the land wars of the 19th century; and they as well as Henry VIII. and his right-hand instigator and tempter, Thomas Cromwell, saw that Irish industry could only be ruined by violent ending of Ireland’s intercourse with the continenit of Europe. One of these Cecils is recorded as having said that ‘a realm can never be rich that hath not an intercourse and trade of merchandise with other nations.’ Ireland had this hallmark of wealth as ell as of culture, so it must be blotted out and all the advantages of her native industry and overseas trade be transferred to England.

A gentleman named Lord Justice D’Arcy had at an earlier period put himself at the head of fifty-six English pirate vessels and ‘plundered the islands of the O’Briens, guardians of Galway harbour ; and an admiral (that is, a pirate) was appointed for the Irish seas to arrest traders with the Irish; while English merchants were given leave by statute to come unto Ireland with their merchandise and return with their merchandise without fln.e or ransom, saving to the king his ancient customs and duties.’ Special protection was given to these enemy merchants and they

*ere backed and helped in every way in their war against Irish prosperity.

Act of Edward IV deplored the prosperity of Irish commerce and recounted how ‘foreign vessels in great numbers were used to go fishing among the Irish, in divers parts of Ireland, by which the enemies (of England) were greatly advanced and strengthened, as well in victuals, as harness, armour, and other necessaries, and large tributes of money were given by such vessels to the Irish from day to day to the great augmentation of their power and force against the king’s honour and wealth, and to the utter destruction of his land. It was ordered therefore that no foreign vessel should fish in Irish waters without leave of the Lord Deputy.’

No heed was paid by the unmannerly Irish to this law, but English shipping increased year by year and in the reign of Henry Vu—in 1548—English merchants with a ‘godly’ greed in their hearts, set out to capture the Irish trade in their own ‘godly’ way. ‘Pirate vessels,’ says a reliable historian, ‘hung round the coasts—ships of sea adventurers . . . between whom and the southern towns there was animated war. Hard fighters and cunning dealers, English rovers had the reputation of using their shipping for no other purpose than to harass the trade of other peoples in the narro- seas, and obstruct the utility of commerce throughout all Christiandom. They plundered the fishing boats off the Irish coast, robbed the barks from France, Spain and Portugal, and sold the stolen wares in Ireland’