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Shane (or Sean) The Proud O'Neill 1528-1567

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Even by the standards of the 16th century, Shane O'Neill, uncle of Hugh O'Neill , was not a nice man. According to O'Faolain, when Shane presented himself at the court of Queen Elizabeth in 1562, his reputation had preceded him. The court "knew that he was enormously rich - he must have owned a hundred thousand cows" (and the land to graze them) "..he had murdered his brother, or caused him to be murdered; killed off his nephew, or caused him to be killed; believed that he kept his mistress, the Countess of Argyle, in chains in a cellar until, of evenings, when the wine was in his brain, he chose to have her up for his pleasure; as they guessed that she had betrayed her husband to become O'Neill's woman; and that while she was in O'Neill's arms, her husband, Calvach O'Donnell was being shown to the people outside in chains like a baboon. They believed he had swarms of children. They had heard of his gigantic potations, of the vast cellars at Dundrum where two hundred tuns of wine were stored at a time, and of his strange habit of burying himself to the neck in sand to cool his mad blood. They knew he was dangerous and would have to be placated."

By modern standards, Shane sounds like a monster, a Caligula or Stalin. Eventually, as with all monsters, his unbridled ambitions and lust for power and land overextended itself. Weakened by earlier English attacks, he was defeated by the O'Donnells and found himself without a friend or ally to harbour him. He fled to the Scottish controlled Antrim glens, and according to one account, during negotiations a fight broke out and Shane was killed. His pickled head was sent south to be stuck on a spike outside Dublin Castle.

Whether Hugh O'Neill was much better a man than Shane is debateable. Hugh was also proud, greedy and ambitious, and also murdered and slept his way to power. The main difference seems to have been that Hugh's ambition was relatively cautious, calculating and political, in contrast to Shane's which was essentially uncontrolled and warlike.



The above is based mainly on Sean O'Faolain's book "The Great O'Neill" (link is to book's Amazon page).

Last updated September 2000.
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