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Hugh O'Neill
4th Baron Dungannon
Baron Dungannon's tomb in San Pietro in Montorio
Coat of arms
Tenure	1587–1608
Predecessor	Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone
Successor	Title attainted in 1608
Born	c. 1585 Ulster, Ireland
Died	24 September 1609 (aged 24) Rome, Papal States
Buried	San Pietro in Montorio, Rome
Father	Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone
Mother	Siobhán O'Donnell

Hugh O'Neill, 4th Baron Dungannon (c. 1585 – 24 September 1609) was an Irish nobleman. He was the son and heir to Irish Gaelic lord Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, though he predeceased his father. His title was attainted in 1608.

Dungannon accompanied his family and countrymen on the Flight of the Earls, leaving Ireland for mainland Europe. A few months after settling in Rome, Dungannon became violently ill after catching fever during a holiday to Ostia. He remained ill for a year before dying in Rome. He is buried alongside his father and two half-uncles in San Pietro in Montorio.

Biography

Hugh O'Neill was born c. 1585, specifically before December 1585. His father was Irish lord Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leader of the Irish confederacy during the Nine Years' War. His mother was Tyrone's second wife, Siobhán O'Donnell, who was a daughter of clan chief Hugh McManus O'Donnell. He had had several older sisters, Sarah, Mary and Alice, and a younger brother, Henry.

Hugh became Baron Dungannon after his father was named the Earl of Tyrone on 10 May 1587. His mother Siobhán died in January 1591. According to Tyrone's letters, Hugh was in fosterage in August 1594.

In 1603, he received a new patent which elevated him to the baronage of Dungannon.

By September 1607, Dungannon was to be married to a daughter of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll. However, Tyrone's snap decision to flee Ireland put an end to these plans. Dungannon accompanied his father on the Flight of the Earls in 1607. Because of this, his title was attainted. The Irish refugees settled in Rome, where they were provided with a paltry pension from Pope Paul V.

The Irish nobles proved to be unhappy with the Italian climate and their poor accommodation. In early July 1608, Dungannon travelled to Ostia, a coastal town fifteen miles west of Rome, for a holiday and change of air. He was accompanied by fellow nobles Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell and Cathbarr O'Donnell, and clergyman Donal O’Carroll. Unfortunately, the men "all agreed that that particular place one of the worst and most unhealthy for climate in all Italy". Ostia's marshlands were ridden with mosquitoes, and after four days the young nobles became violently ill with fevers.

After a year of illness, Dungannon died in Rome, unmarried, on 24 September 1609. He was 24 years old. His father could not afford to pay for the funeral, so the new Spanish ambassador in Rome, the Conde de Castro, funded the funeral with 400 crowns.

Dungannon was buried in San Pietro in Montorio, where Tyrconnell, Cathbarr, and eventually his father Tyrone were also buried. Part of the inscription on his tomb (in Latin, translated to English) reads: "His lamentable death dashed the hopes which all had placed In him for his exemplary talents and distinction of soul and Body so propitious for a future favourable return to that Country once again."

References

Notes

1. According to Burke's Peerage he died on 23 September.

Citations

1. ^ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. p. 3006
2. ^ Dunlop 1895, p. 196.
3. ^ Casway 2016, p. 71.
4. ^ Morgan, Hiram (September 2014). "O'Neill, Hugh". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006962.v1. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
5. ^ Concannon 1920, p. 218. "The inscription on the tomb in San Pietro in Montorio shows that her eldest child, Hugh, was born in 1585."
6. Casway 2016, pp. 71, 73, 78.
7. Cokayne 1910, p. 174. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCokayne1910 (help)
8. Walsh 1957, p. 5.
9. Casway 2016, pp. 71–72.
10. O'Neill 2017, p. 23.
11. Walsh 1930, p. 26.
12. Casway 2016, p. 72.
13. ^ Walsh 1930, p. 30.
14. McGurk, John (August 2007). "The Flight of the Earls: escape or strategic regrouping?". History Ireland. 15 (4). Archived from the original on 18 April 2024.
15. Callow, John (2004). "Campbell, Archibald, seventh earl of Argyll (1575/6–1638), magnate and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4471. Retrieved 12 September 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
16. ^ Casway, Jerrold (2009). "O'Donnell, Nuala". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006696.v1. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
17. ^ FitzPatrick, Elizabeth (August 2007). "San Pietro in Montorio, burial-place of the exiled Irish in Rome, 1608-1623". History Ireland. 15 (4). Archived from the original on 1 March 2024.
18. ^ Casway 2003, p. 64.
19. O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "O'Donnell (Ó Domhnall), Ruaidhrí". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006701.v1. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
20. ^ O'Cianáin 2006, p. 28.

Sources

• Casway, Jerrold (2003). "Heroines or Victims? The Women of the Flight of the Earls". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua. 7 (1): 56–74. ISSN 1092-3977. JSTOR 20557855.
• Casway, Jerrold (2016). "Catherine Magennis and the Wives of Hugh O'Neill". Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society. 26 (1): 69–79. JSTOR 48568219.
• Concannon, Helena (1920). "'The Woman of the Piercing Wail' (The Lady Nuala O'Donnell)". The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. 16. Dublin: John F. Fowler.
• Dunlop, Robert (1895). "O'Neill, Hugh (1540?-1616)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 188–196.
• O'Cianáin, Tadhg (2006). Beattie, Seán (ed.). "Diary of the Flight of the Earls" (PDF). Donegal Annual (58).
• O'Neill, James (2017). The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781846827549.
• Walsh, Paul, ed. (1930). The Will and Family of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (with an appendix of genealogies) (PDF). Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles.
• Walsh, Micheline (April 1957). The O'Neills in Spain (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 July 2024.

Further reading

• Pinkerton, William (1867). "The Last of the O'Neills, Earls of Tyrone". The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society. 6 (1): 91–100. ISSN 0790-6366. JSTOR 25502693.

• 1580s births
• 1609 deaths
• 16th-century Irish people
• 17th-century Irish people
• Burials at San Pietro in Montorio
• Irish emigrants to Italy
• O'Neill dynasty
• People of Elizabethan Ireland
• People of the Nine Years' War (Ireland)