NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Hugh Dubh O'Neill

Hugh Dubh O'Neill ("Black Hugh") was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. He is best known for his participation in the Irish Confederate Wars and in particular his defence of Clonmel in 1650. Irish Confederate Wars began with the rebellion of the Irish of Ulster in October 1641, during which they regained their confiscated lands and murdered thousands, of Scots and English Protestant settlers. ... Clonmel (Irish: Cluain Meala) is a medium-sized town situated in south County Tipperary, Ireland. ... Events June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler. ...

O'Neill was a member of the O'Neill clan, the leaders of which fled Ireland in the flight of the Earls in 1607. He grew up in Spain, becoming a professional soldier and serving in the Irish regiment of the Spanish army in Flanders during the Thirty Years War. In 1642, his uncle, Owen Roe O'Neill, organised the return of 300 Irish officers in the Spanish service to Ireland to support the Irish Rebellion of 1641. ONeill's men became the nucleus of the Ulster army of Confederate Ireland - a de facto independent Irish state. Hugh Dubh O'Neill rose to prominence after the death of Owen Roe O'Neill in 1649. In September 1607, Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory ODonnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell set sail from Rathmullan on Lough Swilly in County Donegal with ninety of their followers. ... Events January 20 - Tidal wave swept along the Bristol Channel, killing 2000 people. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The victory of Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) The Thirty Years War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. ... Events January 4 - Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. ... Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe ONeill (c. ... The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup détat by Irish Catholic gentry, but rapidly degenerated into bloody inter communal violence between native Irish Catholics and English and Scottish Protestant settlers. ... Confederate Ireland refers to a brief period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. ... Events January 30 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded. ...

In 1649, after the onset of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Hugh Dubh was sent south with 2000 of the best Ulster troops to defend southern Ireland. O'Neill distinguished himself at the siege of Clonmel in May 1650, inflicting the worst casualties ever experienced by the New Model Army. He was then made commander of the defenders of Limerick, fighting off the Parliamentarian's first attempt to take the city in late 1650. However, the following year, Henry Ireton besieged the city again, eventually forcing O'Neill to surrender when the city's population was dying of hunger and plague(See also sieges of Limerick). Ireton himself died of disease. Under the terms of surrender, O'Neill was to be executed for his stuborn defence of the city, but the Parliamentarian general Edmund Ludlow did not carry out the sentence and intsead sent O'Neill into imprisonment in the Tower of London. According to some sources, O'Neill's life was saved by the intervention of the Spanish envoy to England, who argued that O'Neill was a Spanish subject. Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. ... The Siege of Clonmel took place during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when the town of Clonmel in southern Ireland was besieged by Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army. ... Events June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler. ... This article deals with the English Civil War army. ... Limerick (Irish: Luimneach) is a city and county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of the Republic of Ireland. ... A parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. ... Henry Ireton Henry Ireton (1611 - November 26, 1651), English was a general in the army of Parliament during the English Civil War. ... The city of Limerick in south-western Ireland was besieged several times in the 17th century, first during the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s and’50s again in the Williamite war in Ireland. ... Edmund Ludlow (c. ... The Tower of London, seen from the river, with a view of the water gate called Traitors Gate. ...