O'NEILL
253
ONIAS
Irish rebel with whom England had ever been called
upon to deal, cool, wary, far-seeing, laying his plans
with care, never moved by passion, never boasting,
and as skilful in the council chamber as on the battle-
field. He had been allowed to have a certain number
of soldiers in the queen's pay and these he changed
frequently, thus training to arms a large number of his
clansmen at the queen's expense. Pretending he re-
quired it for roofing, he had purchased large quantities
of lead, which he cast into bullets. He continued to be
friendly with the Ulster chiefs. Thus he took the field
not altogether unprepared, and had no difficulty in cap-
turing Portmore on the Blackwater, and defeating the
English at Clontibret, thus preventing the relief of
Monaghan. He protested, however, his loyalty to Eng-
land and entered into negotiations demanding for the
Catholics of Ulster freedom to practise their religion,
and security in their lands. These conditions being
refused, the war was successfully renewed in 1.597. In
the next year Bagnal, sent with five thousand men to
relieve Portmore, was defeated at the mouth of the
Yellow Ford by O'Neill, O'Donnell, and Maguire.
The Earl of Essex was no more successful.
The next viceroy was Lord Mountjoy, with Sir George Carew as President of Munster. Both were able and unscrupulous men, and so well did Carew suc- ceed that in six months the power of the Munster reb- els was broken. Mountjoy overran Leinster, and his lieutenant, Dowcra, established himself at Derry, while O'Neill, kept busy by repeated attacks from the south, was only able to hold his own in Tyrone. In 1601 came the long-expected Spaniards, under D'Aguilla; they were besieged inKinsale by Carew and Mountjoy, in turn besieged by O'Neill and O'Donnell. Between the Irish and the Spanish the English fared ill, and O'Neill's advice was to be patient; but O'Don- nell would not be restrained and insisted on attacking the English. The result was the disastrous battle of Kinsale. Still with wonderful skill and resource O'Neill held out, and when he surrendered in 1603 it was on condition of being pardoned and secured in all his honours and estates. James I, confirming this ar- rangement, received both O'Neill and O'Donnell with great favour. But O'Neill's enemies so dogged his foot- steps with spies, and persecuted his religion that he was at last driven, with O'Donnell and IVIaguire, to leave Ireland (1607). Arriving at Havre they pro- ceeded to Flanders and thence to Rome, where they were received by the pope. Attainted by the Irish Parliament, his lands confiscated and planted, O'Neill died at Rome, and was buried in the Franciscan church of San Pietro on the Janiculum.
Carew Papers; Hamilton, Athinson^s, RusseWs, and Prender- gasCs Calendars of State Papers; Fynes Moryson, Itinerary (Dub- lin, 1735); Pacata Hibernia (London, 1896); Annals of the Four Masters (Dublin, 1851) ; Meehan, Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell (Dublin, 1886); Mitchel, Life of Hugh O'Neill (Dublin, 1846); Bagwell, Ireland under the Tiidors (London, 1885) ; Gardiner, History of England (London, 1883) ; D'Alton, History of Ireland (London. 1910).
E. A. D'Alton.
O'Neill, Owen Roe, b. 1.582; d. near Cavan, 6 Nov., 1649, the son of Art O'Neill and nephew of Hugh, the great Earl of Tyrone. He was too young to fake part in the long war in which his uncle was engaged, and when peace came in 1603 Owen went abroad and took .ser- vice with the archdukes in Flanders. By 1606 he had reached the rank of captain and was then residing at Brussels. When Richelieu determined to interfere in the Thirty Years War, O'Neill was already colonel, and for skill, and courage, and resource stood deservedly high among Spanish commanders. He was, therefore, selected to defend Arras against the French in 1640; and though he had but 1.5(30 men and was assailed by a force which from 30,000 was subsequently increased to three times that number, he stubbornly held his ground for nearly two months. His conduct extorted the admiration of the French commander who cap-
tured the place and who told O'Neill that he had sur-
passed the French in everything but fortune. Mean-
time important events had taken place in Ireland.
The flight of the earls, the plantation of Ulster, the
persecution of the Catholics, and the tyranny of
Strafford proved that Irish Catholics had no security
either in their religion or their lands. O'Neill was in-
formed of all these events by the Irish leaders at home,
and was equally determined as they that, as peaceful
measures were unavailing, there should be a recourse
to arms. He was not, however, able to be in Ireland
when the rebellion broke out in 1641, nor did he come
till the summer of 1642, when he landed on the coast
of Donegal bringing with him a good supply of arms
and ammunition and 200 Irish officers, who like him-
self had acquired experience in foreign wars. O'Neill
was at once appointed commander-in-chief of the rebel
forces in Ulster. At that date the prospects were not
bright. Dublin Castle had not been taken, nor Drog-
heda, Dund.alk had not been held, and Sir Phelim
O'Neill had but 1500 untrained men, while there were
12,000 English and Scotch soldiers in Ulster. While
waiting to get a trained army together Owen Roe
wanted to avoid meeting the enemy, nor did he fight
except at Clones, where he wasbeaten, and at Portlester
in Meath, where he defeated Lord Moore. Then, in
1643, came the cessation with Ormonde. The Puri-
tans ignored both Ormonde and the cessation, and
continued active in the several provinces. This com-
pelled O'Neill to be vigilant and prepared, and in 1646
he fought the battle of Benburb with General Monroe.
The latter was superior in numbers, and he had artil-
lery which O'Neill lacked; but the Irishmen had the
advantage of position, and won a great victory. Mon-
roe fled to Lisburn without hat or cloak leaving more
than 3000 of his men dead on the field, and arms,
stores, colours, and provisions fell into O'Neill's hands.
The fruits of this splendid victory were frittered away
by futile negotiations with Ormonde and by divisions
among the Catholics. O'Neill, backed by the nuncio,
Rinuccini, wanted to cease negotiating, and to fight
both the Puritans and the Royalists; but the Pale
Catholics were more in agreement with Ormonde than
with O'Neill, and in spite of the fact that he was the
only Catholic general who had been almost uniformly
successful, they went so far as to declare him a rebel.
Nor would Ormonde,even in 1649, make any terms with
him until Cromwell had captured Drogheda. Then
Ormonde made terms on the basis of freedom of religion
and restoration of lands. At the critical moment when
O'Neill's services would have been invaluable against
Cromwell he took suddenly ill and died. The story
that he was poisoned may be dismissed, for there
is no evidence to sustain it.
Gilbert, History of Irish Affairs (Dublin, 1882); Rinuccini, Letters (Dublin. 1873); Murphv, Cromwell in Ireland (Dublin, 1897); Mahaffy, Calendars; Carte, Ormond (London, 1735); Taylor, Owen Roe O'Neill (Dublin, 1896); D'Alton, History of Ireland (London, 1910). E. A. D'AltON.
Onias ('Ovlas), name of several Jewish pontiffs of the third and second centuries before Christ. I. — Onia.s I, son and successor of the high-priest Jaddua, who, according to Josephus (Antiq., XI, viii, 7) re- ceived Alexander the Great in Jerusalem. Succeeding his father soon after the death of Alexander (Josephus, ibid.), he held office for twenty-three years (323-30() B. c). In I Mach., xii, 7, he is said to have received a friendly letter from Arius, ruler of the Spartans. The letter is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq., XII, iv, 10), who gives its contents with certain modifications of the form in Machabees (xii, 20-23). During Onias's pontificate Palestine was the scene of continual con- flicts between the forces of Egypt and Syria, who several times alternated- as masters of the country. During this period also, and because of unsettled conditions at home, many Jews left Palestine for the newly founded city of Alexandria.
