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Volume  1
  TOGA NEWS 
Issue 3, December, 2001
 
Continued from Page 2 

Miss Katherine Scarborough and other Maryland historians, who have written since Semmes and Johnston published the results of their researches, follow Semmes
implicitly.  Semmes published his work six years after Johnston published his, and as both. were members of the Maryland Historical Society, surely he was acquainted with Johnston's genealogy of the Neale family. 
Mrs. Greenhow had enough of the characteristics of Shane O'Neill to have been his descendant; and it is not without significance that in the last years of her life she
changed the spelling of her name from 0' Neale to O'Neil. Let us take a look at that historic ancestor of hers. 
Known far and wide in Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as in France, as "Shane the Proud," O'Neill lived only a few years, but they were romantic and bloody
years. Because his father, Conn O'Neill, surnamed Bacach (the Lame), the first Earl of Tyrone, nominated his bastard son, Matthew, as his successor, Shane carried
on a feud with his father, and when Conn died, he murdered Matthew, who had been recognized as Tanist by King Henry VIII of England, and thereby the titular successor of Conn. In the tribal war that followed Shane allied himself with the McDonnells, ancient enemies of his tribe, and in order to bring peace to Ireland, Queen Elizabeth, who had succeeded her father, sent for Shane, and, after a memorable interview,
recognized his claims to be the Tanist or King of all the Irish tribes. 
A historian of our times has given us a picture of the first meeting of Elizabeth and Shane. The English Queen had gathered about her Ministers and the ladies of her
Court, and at a signal the door was thrown open and the Irish rebel entered the audience chamber. 
In height he topped all present, and his build was an admirable mixture of grace and strength. Long waving- hair, bright as the Queen's own, but more purely golden
In color, fell over his shoulders, and was cut straight above the brows like that of his retainers, but no beard hid his proud firm mouth and chin. 
He held his head like a king and he strode quickly up the long room, looking neither to right nor left, but keeping his eyes fixed on the queen as though she were the
goal of all his hopes and wishes, 
"Is this the savage?" Geraldine Howard whispered. "Methinks he is more like a knight of old romance." 
And now the Irish chieftain began to speak in English, that sounded strange to English ears, with now and then a word in an unknown tongue, or in French or Latin...

 his voice was ringing and musical, and while he spoke he kept his eyes fixed on the Queen's face with a look of devotion that was evidently not displeasing to her.
When the Queen asked him who he was, he replied: 
"O'Neill the Great, cousin to St. Patrick, friend to the Queen of England, and enemy of all the world beside." 
Every question she put to him about his conduct in Ireland, his quarrels with Essex and the other Lord Deputies she had sent to govern that unhappy land, or his love
affairs, he answered with boldness and a directness that won her heart. Elizabeth had too much courage herself nor to like a brave man. Before the interview was over we are told, she "capitulated completely to the seductions of Shane." 
While he awaited her decision as to his fate, and chafing all the while under his restraint, "he intrigued with the Queen of the Scots and with the Cardinal of Lorraine,
promising to become the subject of France if he could get assistance in expelling the English from Ireland. 
During, his absence in England, Shane's kinsman, Turlough O'Neill had himself elected Tanist, expecting that Shane would never return alive to Ireland. This kingship
was a short-lived affair. On his unexpected return, Shane took arms and renewed the tribal warfare. Turning against his old allies, the McDonnells, he routed them at
the celebrated battle of Ballycastle, taking prisoner their chief, Sorley Boy McDonnell, who had married his bastard sister. This was the unwisest thing he ever did. 
Flouting the advice of his counsellors, Shane then made war on the O'Donnells and they routed him at the battle of Letterkenny. Fleeing with the remnant of his army,
he threw himself on the mercy of the McDonnells. Sorley Boy, who had meanwhile been released from custody, received him kindly, and they appeared to have
buried the hatchet; but it was only temporary. 
For two days all went well, but a dispute arising as to the claims to precedence between the two families, Shane, heated with wine, his pride and temper carried him
away into insulting speeches, which the Scots so much resented that they fell on him with their dirks and literally hacked him to pieces. 
His head was removed from his body and sent to the Lord Deputy as a trophy and peace offering. To the everlasting shame of that functionary, he had it placed on a
pole over Dublin Cattle. Later Shane's body was privately buried in a Franciscan Monastery at Glenarm. 
If the head was ever reunited with it, history saith not. 
Shane left two small children, both boys, who were saved from death by his chaplain, who hid them among the Irish peasantry on Shane's estate until he could escape with them to France.