72 Historic Ulster. 



intention of leaving Hugh O'Neill in the position of authority 

 which the treaty secured for him. Hugh became secretly 

 informed of a conspiracy that was being hatched against him 

 with a view to confiscating his lands. He determined to 

 anticipate the designs of his foes, and in 1607 sailed from Rath- 

 mullan, on Lough Swilly, with all his kin and the new chief of 

 Tirconal. This event, known as the Flight of the Earls, was 

 followed by the confiscation of their lands and the Plantation 

 of Ulster. 



Passing on now to the massacre of 1641 and the war which 

 followed, we note that aifairs in Ireland at this period were 

 complicated by the fact that the English were divided by the 

 great civil war then raging. The contemporary history of that 

 period may be studied more fully than any other, as all the 

 important documents concerning it have been edited by the 

 Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy, Mr. Gilbert. This 

 publication may be seen in the Linen Hall Library. The 

 generalship of the Ulster army was undertaken in 1642 by the 

 greatest and last of the O'Neills, the heroic Owen Roe, victor 

 of Benburb. As a child he had left Ireland with Hugh O'Neill, 

 and had served in the Spanish army ; but returned to fight the 

 battles of his country. His death occurring immediately before 

 Cromwell's campaign, left Ireland without a defender. His 

 son Henry was defeated near the shores of Lough Swilly, and 

 executed at Derry by the Puritan leader Coote, who on a 

 former occasion, when the Ulster army joined with the Parlia- 

 ment forces against Ormonde, had fawned on the noble son of 

 Owen Roe, calling him always " his own sweet brother Harry." 

 With the deaths of Owen Roe and his son Henry the history 

 of the Clan O'Neill ended. Chiefs of this line had ruled the 

 land for seven hundred years, and had for six centuries defied 

 English rule. They perished at last, but their fate reminds us 

 of Cuchullin, the guardian of our frontier, who died standing. 

 It may be said of the O'Neill line of chieftains, " They guarded 

 the borders of Ulla until they were slain." 



The history of Ulster from this period is no longer concerned 



