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Until the Reformation, English kings were also the kings of western France, limiting the strategic significance of Ireland. After the Reformation, England was obliged to contend with a hostile Europe, and saw Ireland as a potential backdoor for an assault on England itself. Controlling Ireland was given a higher priority, but since a complete military solution was regarded as being too difficult or too expensive, a major aim of English policy centred on maintaining balances of power in Ireland. English interference, and pre-existing Gaelic succession struggles, were to create a vipers' nest of treachery, back-stabbing and murder, of rebellions, raids and wars, particularly in Tyrone and Tirconnell in the late 1500's.
The English would have regarded Hugh O'Neill's strategic marriage to Siobhan O'Donnell with unease, but apparently tolerated it because, at the time, O'Neill was one of the chosen counterweights in Tyrone. By 1587 however, the English were doubting O'Neill's loyalty and wary of his growing power and ambition. They would also have been aware of the old Irish prophecy, that if "two Hughes lawfully, lineally and immediately succeed each other as O'Donnells...the last Hugh shall be a monarch in Ireland and quite banish thence all foreigh nations and conquerors", and the possible effect this prophecy was having on the popular mind, and on both O'Neill's and O'Donnell's calculations.
So, in September 1587, in spite of Sir Hugh O'Donnell having been one of the more compliant Gaelic lords, the English Lord Deputy, John Perrot, had the 15 year-old Red Hugh and a number of companions lured on board a ship at Rathmullan, got them drunk on wine, kidnapped them and imprisoned Red Hugh in Dublin Castle.
There Red Hugh O'Donnell remained, until with the probable help of O'Neill and bribery, and accompanied by Henry and Art MacShane, he escaped in the winter of 1591/2. Henry MacShane left the others almost immediately and made his own way north, where he was imprisoned by Hugh O'Neill (Both Henry and Art were the sons of Hugh's old enemy, Shane O'Neill, and had claims of their own to the title of O'Neill).
Red Hugh and Art, guided by an O'Hagan, one of Hugh O'Neill's foster family, made their way south into the snow-covered Wicklow mountains, seeking shelter with another of Hugh O'Neill's friends, Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne, in Glenmalure. Art had hurt his leg in dropping over the castle wall, and had to be dragged much of the way by Red Hugh and O'Hagan.
After a day and night, and a journey of nearly 40 miles, they arrived frozen and exhausted high on the mountainside above the glen. Unable to descend the steep cliffs, Red Hugh sent O'Hagan ahead for help. When it arrived, both men were lying unconscious, frozen to the ground. Art died when O'Byrne's men tried to move him (Another story is that Art was murdered, at the behest of Hugh O'Neill).
Red Hugh was smuggled back north, had both big toes amputated, and was kept under doctor's care until April. Then, in the late spring of 1592, with the agreement of his father, and possibly with some persuasion of dissenters by Ineen Dubh and her Scottish gallowglasses, he succeeded to the leadership of the O'Donnells and drove the English from his lands. Although O'Neill managed to persuade O'Donnell to submit to the English (at Dundalk, in August 1592), and although rebellion did not actually break out until early 1595, O'Donnell now detested the English as much as Ineen Dubh ever did, and with him now buttressing O'Neill's growing power, the stage was almost set for The Nine Years War.
See also Violence in Ireland .
The above is based mainly on Sean O'Faolain's "The Great O'Neill",
and on Hiram Morgan's 1993 "Tyrone's Rebellion".
(Links are to books' Amazon pages. Please note that, as an Amazon associate, I get 15% of sales.)
NOTES.
Red Hugh O'Donnell - aka Aodh Rua O'Domhnall or Hugh Roe O'Donnell.
Ineen Dubh - from the Gaelic Inion Dubh, meaning Dark Girl or Dark Daughter, the nickname of the Scotswoman Finola MacDonald. She hated the English, especially after the massacre of her relatives on Rathlin Island. Her mother Agnes Campbell, was married to Turlough Luineach O'Neill, one of Hugh O'Neill's great rivals. These and other Scots, able to command the loyalty of large numbers of fighting men, played a significant role in the politics of Ulster.
Tirconnell - from the Gaelic "Tir Chonaill" (pronounced Teer Connell/Cunnell), the Country or Land of Conall.
Tyrone - from the Gaelic "Tir Eoghan" (pronounced Teer-oh-n), the Country or Land of Eoghan/Eoin.
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Last updated February 2002.
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