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Sir Phelim O'Neill.Famous Irish People. |
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Read
about Sir Phelim O'Neill from A
Compendium of Irish Biography, by P W Joyce |
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The war in England relieved the pressure on Ireland where the Irish Catholic Confederation was formed by leading Catholic landowners, they named it The General Assembly and ruling Ireland independently until 1649, Phelim O'Neill was a member of the assembly, although his influence was rather less than those of greater means. Owen Roe O'Neill returned to Ireland as a trained soldier having left for Europe as a child in The Flight of the Earls, it was he who now commanded the army. Phelim O'Neill served under him as cavalry officer defeating the English at The Battle of Benburb. In 1648 a rift developed in The Confederate policies, Phelim favoured a deal with Charles I and the Royalists seeing it as a means of defeating The Scottish Covenanters and The English Parliamentary forces. The Second Ormonde Peace as it came to be known resulted in a split with Owen Roe O'Neill, who was supported by most of the Ulster Army, the summer of that year saw the Confederate armies fighting among themselves over the issue. Cromwell emerged victorious in The English Civil War, his New Model Army was well trained and equipped on 15th August 1649 they landed at Dublin, and proceeded to ruthlessly crush opposition wherever it was found. The Ulster Army was routed at the battle of Scarrifholis in 1650, Phelim O'Neill escaped the battle but was destined to be a fugitive the rest of his life. Anxious to prevent another rebellion in Ireland Cromwell announced that anyone implicated in The 1641 rebellion and the massacre of Protestant civilians was to be executed. Phelim O'Neill was cited as a ringleader in the Cromwellian Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652, he was captured on 4th February 1653. The Cromwellian government set up a court in Dublin, O'Neill was found guilty and executed in August 1653 |
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