Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/429

 O'MO

Dublin. In 1 1 86 he was consecrated Bishop of Ferns, a dignity declined by Cambren- sis. He died at the close of 1222 "in a very advanced age." The particulars of a contest between this prelate and William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, are detailed in Harris's Ware. '34 339

O'Morau, James, General, was born at Elphin, ist May 1739. He entered Dillon's regiment of the Irish Brigade in France, and rose to be a major-general. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was also a Chevalier of St. Louis, and bore the American order of Cincinnatus. He acted under Dumouriez in his Belgian campaigns; in 1792 he was made a general of division, and was entrusted with the government of Conde. In August 1793 he took Toumay and occupied Cassel ; but a few days afterwards he was accused, it is believed falsely, of intriguing with the enemy, was sent to Paris, and guillotined on the 6th March 1794, aged 55. ^4 ise

O'More, Kiiiry Oge, a chieftain who carried on almost incessant warfare against the English settlers in Leix and Offaly in the 1 6th century. In 1576 we find him, in conjunction with Brian O'Conor, at the head of many himdred wood kerns, " deso- lating large portions of Leinster, Meath, and Fingall." After the massacre of MuUaghmast next year, in which numbers of his relatives perished, he was stirred up to still greater bitterness against the occupiers of the lands of his ancestors. In noticing his death in 1579, the Four Masters say : " This Rury was the head of the plunderers and insurgents of the men of Ireland in his time ; and for a long time after his death no one was de- sirous to discharge one shot against the soldiers of the Crown." '34

O'Neill, Flaherty, Lord of Aileach, on the shores of Lough S willy, was the first prominent member of the O'Neill family whose name appears in history, ruling his territory from 1004 to 1036. O'Dono- van, cited by O'Mahony, says : " The TJi Neill, or the descendants of the monarch Niall of the Nine Hostages, were divided into two great branches, namely, the southern and northern. The southern Ui Neill were kings of Meath, and many of them monarchs of Ireland. The northern Ui Neill, of which there were two great branches, namely, the race of Eogan, princes of Tyrone, and the race of Conel, princes of Tirconnell,also furnished many monarchs of Ireland ; but the descen- dants of Eogan were the most celebrated of all MUesian clans ; of them a great many were kings of Ulster, and sixteen were monarchs of Ireland. The race of Eogan

O'NE

took the name of O'Neill in the loth century, from Nial Glundubh (Black Knee), who was killed in a great battle with the Danes, near Dublin, a.d. 919. The elder branch of the O'Neill took the name of O'Lochlainn, and MacLoughlin, from Lochl.ainn, one of their ancient chiefs. The O'Neills afterwards recovered the supremacy, and made a distinguished figure in Irish history, down to the 17th century, as princes of Tyrone and kings of Ulster. The O'Neills had their chief seat at Dungannon, and were inaugurated as princes of Tyi'oue at Tullaghoge palace, between Grange and Donaghenry, in the parish of Desertcreight, barony of Dun- gannon, where a rude seat of large stones served them as a coronation chair." The Four Masters record fourteen plundering expeditions led by Flaherty into difi"erent parts of Ireland, both against his country- men and the Northmen. He is sometimes called " Flaithbheartach an Trostain" —(Flaherty of the Pilgrim's StaflF), from a pilgrimage he made to Rome, He was slain in 1036. "' '^4

O'Neill, Hugh, Lord of Tyrone, late in the 1 2th, and early in the 13th centuries, was one of the most determined opponents of the Anglo-Normans in the north of Ire- land. In 1 198 he attacked them at Larue, and for a time broke their power in the district. Next year, after a temporary success, in conjunction with the " men of Moy-Itha and the men of Oriel," he was defeated at Ballysadare, by the chiefs of Connaught, William de Burgh, and the Anglo-Normans of Limerick, In 1 200 he was for a time deposed from his chieftaincy, and Conor O'Loughlen elected in his stead. Eight years afterwards a battle was fought in Inishowen between him and the O'Don- nells, " in which," say the Four Masters, " countless numbers were slaughtered on both sides." The combatants subsequently entered into an alliance against such of the Irish or Anglo-Normans as should oppose them. Hugh O'Neill was one of the princes who attended King John in 12 10; but the English and Irish annalists are not agreed as to whether he gave in his submission. Next year he and O'Don- nell made a descent upon the new settlers on the shores of Lough Erne. In 12 12 he burned down the castle of Clones, erected but a few months, and in 12 13 destroy- ed Carrickfergus and " defeated and dread- fully slaughtered the English," In 12 15 his wife " Benmee, Queen of Aileach," died. His name does not appear again in the Annals until 1221, when, in conjunc- tion with Hugh de Lacy the younger, he demolished the castle of Coleraine, and 405