O'NEILL of C19th/C20th Dunmanway & Clonakilty, Co. Cork

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Browse this file to see whether you are connected to my wife's family - this was as far as her late father's research got. The file contains trees of descendant families of family names other than O'NEILL and also descendant O'NEILL families in Airdrie, Scotland. (Contact: Paul O'NEILL)

Related Cork families include: McCARTHY, MURPHY, COLLINS, MINNIS, WALSH, O'REGAN, O'SULLIVAN, O'LEARY, O'DONOVAN, CROWLEY, & HENDRIE

"The O'NEILLs of Thomond were chiefs of a territory in the modern barony of Bunratty: today O'Neill is not a common name in Co. Clare, but the Nihills and the Creaghs of that county claim to be of Thomond O'Neill is quite numerous in and around Co. Carlow, where an O'Neill sept was situated in the barony of Rathvilly. Another O'Neill sept was located in the Decises and its present day representatives are found in Co. Waterford and south Tipperary.

The first of the great Ulster sept to bear the surname O'Neill was Donell O'Neill, the eponymous ancestor being his grandfather Niall, King of Ireland, who was killed in a battle with the Norsemen in A.D. 919, not, as might be supposed, the famous Niall of the Nine Hostages*, though that somewhat legendary and heroic character was also a remote ancestor. From that time until the end of the seventeenth century, when Ulster ceased to be the leading Gaelic province of Ireland the O'NEILLs figure prominently among the great men of Irish history. The O'NEILLs were the chief family of the Cinel Eoghan, their territory being Tir Eoghan. Tir Eoghan (modern Tyrone) in early times comprised not only that county but most of Derry and part of Donegal. Down to the time of Brain Boru, who reigned from 1002 to 1014, the Ui Neill, as those who established themselves in Meath were called. The latter did in fact occupy also part of southern Ulster contiguous with Meath. In the fourteenth century a branch of the Tyrone O'NEILLs migrated to Antrim where they became known as Clann Aodha Bhuidhe, from Aodh Buidhe (or Hugh Boy) O'Neill, who was slain in 1283, the term being perpetuated in the territorial name Clannaboy or Clandeboy.

The attempts made by the English in the sixteenth century to exterminate them, which were carried out by Essex and others with a ferocity and perfidy seldom equalled even in that violent age, were unsuccessful, and O'NEILLs are numerous there to-day, as they are also in West Ulster.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced the most famous of the O'NEILLs: among them Con Bacach O'Neill (1484-1559), first Earl of Tyrone; Shane O'Neill (1530-1567); Hugh O'Neill (1540-1616), second Earl of Tyrone; Owen roe O'Neill (1590-1649); Sir Phelim O'Neill (1604-1653); and Hugh O'Neill (d. 1660) - names well known in the history of Ireland. Less famous but worthy of mention, is Sir Nial O'Neill (1658-1690), whose regiment of dragoons distinguished itself at the battle of the Boyne, where he was mortally wounded. In the century following that disaster many O'NEILLs were to be found among the outstanding officers of the Irish Brigades in the French army. Arthur O'Neill (1737-1816), the blind wandering harper, may be regarded as the precursor of Bunting in the field of Irish Traditional music; and John O'Neill (1834-1878), was leader of the Fenian invasion in Canada in 1867. All these were Ulstermen. The only man of the other septs, referred to at the beginning of this section, to make much mark was John O'Neill (c. 1777-c 1860), who began life as a shoemaker on Co. Waterford, whence he went to London and became a successful dramatist. Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), the American dramatist was son of the American actor James O'Neill (1849-1920), who was an Irish emigrant. In that field we may also mention the actress Peggy O'Neill (1796-1879). It may be remarked in conclusion that O'Neill is one of the very few surnames the spelling of which is identical in both Irish and English languages. In Irish, however, the E is accented."

Medieval Irish warlord boasts three million descendants

Up to three million men around the world could be descended from a prolific medieval Irish king, according to a new genetic study. It suggests that the 5^th-century warlord known as "Niall of the Nine Hostages" may be the ancestor of about one in 12 Irishmen, say researchers at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Niall established a dynasty of powerful chieftains that dominated the island for six centuries.

In a study of the Y chromosome - which is only passed down through the male line - scientists found a hotspot in northwest Ireland where 21.5% carry Niall’s genetic fingerprint, says Brian McEvoy, one of the team at Trinity. This was the main powerbase of the Ui Neills, which literally translated means "descendants of Niall". McEvoy says the Y chromosome appeared to trace back to one person. "There are certain surnames that seem to have come from Ui Neill. We studied if there was any association between those surnames and the genetic profile. It is his (Niall's) family."

Enduring dynasty

The study says that Niall "resided at the cusp of mythology and history but our results do seem to confirm the existence of a single early medieval progenitor to the most powerful and enduring Irish dynasty". The results also lend support to surviving genealogical and oral traditions of Gaelic Ireland and are a "powerful illustration of the potential link between prolificacy and power".

The study says the chromosome has also been found in 16.7% of men in western and central Scotland and has turned up in multiple North American population samples, including in 2% of European-American New Yorkers. "Given historically high rates of Irish emigration to North America and other parts of the world, it seems likely that the number of descendants worldwide runs to perhaps two to three million males," the study says.

Modern surnames

It compares the result with similar research that suggested that Mongol emperor Genghis Khan has 16 million descendants after conquering most of Asia in the 13^th century. Though medieval Ireland was Christian, divorce was allowed, people married earlier and concubinage was practised. Illegitimate sons were claimed and their rights protected by law. "As in other polygynous societies, the siring of offspring was related to power and prestige." The study points out that one of the O'Neill dynasty chieftains who died in 1423 had 18 sons with 10 different women and counted 59 grandsons in the male line.

Niall of the Nine Hostages, who became high king of Ireland, got his name from using the taking of hostages as a strategy for subjugating his opponent chieftains. He is known in folklore as a raider of the British and French coasts. Supposedly slain in the English Channel or in Scotland, his descendants were the most powerful rulers of Ireland until the 11^th century. Modern surnames tracing their ancestry to Niall include (O')Neill, (O')Gallagher, (O')Boyle, (O')Doherty, O'Donnell, Connor, Cannon, Bradley, O'Reilly, Flynn, (Mc)Kee, Campbell, Devlin, Donnelly, Egan, Gormley, Hynes, McCaul, McGovern, McLoughlin, McManus, McMenamin, Molloy, O'Kane, O'Rourke and Quinn.

Journal reference: American Journal of Human Genetics