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Hugh O'Neill.Famous People of Ireland. |
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Hugh O'Neill. |
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In 1607 Hugh O'Neill and ninety other Irish Gaelic chiefs sailed in exile from Rathmullen on Lough Swilly in County Donegal for Europe, this event came to be known as 'The Flight of the Earls'. Hugh died in Rome on the 20th July 1616. Some thirty-five years were to pass before the exiled O'Neill's returned to Lough Swilly, in July 1642 Owen Roe O'Neill came to fight alongside his cousin Sir Phelim O'Neill in the 1641 rebellion. Hugh O'Neill was married four times his last wife was Catherine Maginnis, it was she who accompanied him into exile on the continent where they lived on pensions from the Spanish government and the Pope, Catherine was a renowned beauty and mingled in the upper echelons of Spanish society, Previously Hugh O'Neill was married to Mable Bagenal youngest daughter of Sir Nicholas Bagenal an English planter and soldier. The traditional inauguration site of the O'Neills was Tullaghoge Fort in County Tyrone. Read about the Tyrone O'Neills from Samuel Lewis' Topographical Directory of Ireland 1837. The life of Hugh O'Neill is described in great detail in Sean O'Faolain's book 'The Great O'Neill' 1942. |
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