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There’s a huge mythology that has grown up about Hugh O’Neill. I suppose the first significant thing to say is that one of the great myths about O’Neill is that he was brought up at Court in England: that was something that came about by people mistaking the sources in the 19th century; either an inferiority complex on the part of the Irish, or a superiority complex on the part of the British historians that Hugh O’Neill could not have achieved what he achieved without being somehow brought up at Court and being a member of the ruling elite. Whereas in fact there is no evidence that Hugh O’Neill was brought up at Court in the 1560s.
And that myth is really partly amplified by the work of Sean Ó Faolain in his book ‘The Great O’Neill’ which is very well-written, but by one of Ireland’s greatest novelists of the 20th century: but it is not - as a historical biography, it is very weak indeed, but unfortunately its popularity has increased and amplified the myths surrounding Hugh O’Neill. So that the idea that Hugh O’Neill was brought up at Court has amplified the problem that his identity was somehow split and he had to make this choice between Ireland and England during his life; and that he was being forced by these Gaelic hooligans behind him into revolt against the Crown. These things are simply not like that, and this largely comes from this first mistaking of O’Neill’s upbringing.
The thing is that O’Neill’s upbringing was anglicised in a sense, as many of the Gaelic elite in Ireland were becoming anglicised, because he was brought up around The Pale in Dublin - sometimes in Lord Deputy Sidney’s household - but one of the things is that Lord Deputy Sidney’s household in the 1560s, was in Ireland, it was not in England. So Hugh O’Neill mingled with the English governors of the country in the 1560s, and then he is returned to Ulster by Sidney. And he is the loyal Queen’s O’Neill in the sense that he is backed by the Crown against Turlough Luinnaech O’Neill who is the successor to Shane O’Neill who is strong particularly in west-Ulster, around Strabane; and Hugh O’Neill is also backed against the sons of Shane O’Neill, the so-called McShanes who are a very rumbustious crew altogether, and the Crown doesn’t want to see succeeding. So they are backing a man who is anglicised, but anglicised in Dublin so, had he been brought up at Court, he would more than likely have been a Protestant which certainly was not the case, and as things transpired and as O’Neill’s position got more and more difficult, of course he opted for a very Catholic Ireland indeed.
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