Cavan_Trails

Eoghan Rua Ó Néill - Lectures

Eoghan Rua Ó Néill  (c.1580–1649)

Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, was a famous Irish military leader. He was nephew to Hugh O'Neill, the 2nd Earl of Tyrone. In 1605, Eoghan Rua left Ireland to pursue a military career on the continent. But, when news of the 1641 Rising reached him, Eoghan Rua returned to Ireland to fight. In July 1642, he landed at Doe Castle, Co. Donegal. In 1649, he died in Co. Cavan and is reputed to have been buried in the grounds of St. Mary's Abbey, Cavan Town.

In November 2024, to mark the 375th anniversary of his death, a programme of events took place to commemorate different elements of the Eoghan Rua Ó Néill story. 

‘The army of the Pope? The religious culture of Eoghan Rua and his forces during the 1640s’.

Professor Tadhg O hAnnrachain (UCD) examines the religious culture of the Ulster army under Eoghan Rua Ó Néill during the Confederate wars of the 1640s, and in particular the evolution of relationship between Ó Néill and the papal nuncio, Rinuccini. The generally positive attitude that Rinuccini and other Italians of his party showed towards Eoghan Rua is of particular importance in view of the assumptions which still underpin modern scholarship.

'Clogh Oughter, a seventeenth-century prison and stronghold'

Conleth Manning's talk concentrates on the history of the castle in the seventeenth century and the house built by the Culme family on the shore of the lake to the south. The surviving accounts of its use during the period 1641 to 1653, including the outbreak of the 1641 rebellion, the imprisonment there of Bishop William Bedell, the death of Eoghan Rua Ó Néill at Clogh Oughter and the Cromwellian siege at the castle in 1653, will all be discussed in the light of the excavation carried out there in 1987.

‘Eoghan Rua Ó Néill: his life and legacy’

In this roundtable discussion moderated by Dr Brendan Scott, two of Ireland’s foremost experts on the seventeenth century, the military and Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, Professor Micheál Ó Siochrú and Dr Pádraig Lenihan, will discuss Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, the myths and the legacy which he leftbehind him following his death in Cavan in 1649.

'Henry O’Neill Prince of the Irish of Ulster d. 1489 and the riseof the O'Neill dynasty'

Dr Katharine Simms, TCD, provides a lecture on Henry O'Neill Prince of the Irish of Ulster was undoubtedly the greatest of the medieval O'Neills. His long career extended over most of the fifteenth century and saw the O'Reilly kingdom of East Breifne redefined for the first time as part of Ulster and within the O'Neill hegemony. An introduction will glance at who the O'Neills were and why they rose to power.

‘The Cavan celebrations for Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, 1949’

Dr Brendan Scott discusses the huge celebrations which took place in Cavan in 1949 to mark the tercentenary of the death of Eoghan Rua ÓNeill in 1649. Records which have recently come to light, as well as archival film footage helps to tell the story of the mammoth task which was undertaken in Cavan in 1949 to commemorate Ó Néill, as well as highlighting the political issues in Ireland in 1949, the year in which Ireland was officially declared a Republic.