Donnell O'Neill (d. 1325)
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Donnell O'Neill (Irish: Domhnall Ua Néill) was a king of Tyrone in medieval Ireland. He was the son of Brian O'Neill of the battle of Down.[1] O'Neill was king of Tyrone on several occasions contesting the kingship with his kinsman Niall Culanach and Brian O'Neill who both had the support of the Earldom of Ulster.[1]
O'Neill was seemingly only a boy when his father was killed at the Battle of Down in 1260. He married Gormflaith, the daughter of Donnell Óg O'Donnell, king of Tyrconnell. His father-in-law was killed in 1281 by O'Neill's cousin and rival, Hugh Boy O'Neill, at the Battle of Desertcreat.[2] O'Neill is perhaps best known for sending a Remonstration to Pope John XXII in 1317, in which he complains of the actions of the English in Ireland, calling on the Pope to support Edward Bruce as King of Ireland (brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots).[3][4]
In 1283 Hugh Boy died and O'Neill assumed the kingship. Three years later Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, forcibly removed O'Neill and installed O'Neill's cousin and Hugh Boy's brother, Niall Culanach O'Neill, as king in his place. In 1290 O'Neill would regain the kingship only to be deposed once more by the earl in 1291 in favour of Niall. That year he killed his rival, however before he could reclaim the kingship, the earl had installed Hugh Boy's son, Brian as king in his place.[2]
With the support of his brother Niall, O'Neill would rebuild his strength and at the Battle of Creeve in 1295 would defeat the combined forces of Brian and the English, with the former being killed. O'Neill once more took the kingship of Tyrone.[2] A period of relative calm between the O'Neill rivals appears to have ensued over the next decade, however in 1306 one Donnell Tuirtreach O'Neill was killed in O'Neill's household.[2]
De Burgh would continue to undermine O'Neill's kingship, and having extended the earldom all the way along the north coast to Inishowen exerted pressure on Tyrone. In 1312-1313 Dermot O'Cahan acknowledged de Burgh as his overlord and that his lands at Glenconkeyne were held from him. These lands were then granted to the Clandeboye O'Neill's, the offspring of Hugh Boy who sought to retake the kingship of Tyrone.[2]
