Owen Roe O'Neill - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Before, however, anything was accomplished by this combination, Eoghan Ruadh died on 6 November 1649 at the O'Reilly stronghold of Cloughoughter castle located on an island in Lough Oughter in County Cavan. There is no clear evidence of how Owen Roe died, one belief was that he was poisoned by a priest, while others think it is more likely that he died from an illness resulting from an old wound. Under cover of night he was reputed to have been brought to the Franciscan abbey in Cavan town for burial, however some local tradition still suggest that it may have been at Trinity abbey located upon an island in Lough Oughter which seems a far more plausible suggestion given the logistics of his removal. His death was a major blow to the Irish of Ulster and was kept secret for some time.

The Catholic nobles and gentry met in Ulster in March to appoint a commander to succeed Owen Roe O'Neill, and their choice was Heber MacMahon, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher, the chief organizer of the recent Clonmacnoise meeting. O'Neill's Ulster army was unable to prevent the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, despite a successful defence of Clonmel by Eoghan Ruadh's nephew Hugh Dubh O'Neill and was destroyed at the Battle of Scarrifholis in Donegal in 1650. Its remnants continued guerrilla warfare until 1653, when they surrendered at Cloughoughter in county Cavan. Most of the survivors were transported to serve in the Spanish Army.

In the nineteenth century, O'Neill was celebrated by the Irish nationalist revolutionaries, the Young Irelanders, who saw O'Neill as an Irish patriot. Thomas Davis wrote a famous song about O'Neill, titled "The Lament for Owen Roe". which was popularised in their newspaper, The Nation.