UA NÉILL OF CLANDEBOYEdeath of his son Seán that same year, protecting Derry
from Cenél Conaill encroachment).
While Bruce was in Ireland, Domnall produced an
extraordinarily emotive letter (and possibly two, if that
to Mac Carthaig urging a national alliance in favor of
Bruce and in opposition to the English is not, as has
been suggested, a forgery). Addressed to the pope circa
1317, and preserved in Scottish manuscripts, it is gen-
erally known as the “Remonstrance of the Irish
Princes” and is a remarkable statement of Irish discon-
tent under English rule. Domnall, asserting his entitle-
ment to the high kingship of Ireland established by his
Uí Néill ancestors, declares that he has invited Edward
Bruce to Ireland and renounced his claim in favor of
him. He states that Edward is descended from “our
noblest ancestors,” which may point to a family mar-
riage alliance (it is possible that Bruce’s maternal
grandfather Niall, earl of Carrick in Galloway, is
named after Domnall’s grandfather of the same name),
and one contemporary thought that Bruce had been
“educated” with the man who invited him to Ireland,
which may suggest fosterage by one in the other’s
household.
The backlash that followed the collapse of the
Bruce regime at Faughart saw Domnall temporarily
expelled in 1319 by the forces of de Burgh and Clann
Áeda Buide, and the slaying of his son and tánaiste,
Brian. Domnall died in 1325 at Loch Lóegaire on
the Cenél Conaill frontier, having failed to counter
the threat from the line of Áed Buide, whose grand-
son Énrí succeeded as king. But the de Burghs were
the real losers, their earldom passing after 1333 from
the family to absentees. Domnall had used the title
“king of Ulster” in his 1317 Remonstrance, and heirs
lived up to it, his son Áed Remar emerging unop-
posed from 1345 to found the great O’Neill line,
never again challenged for supremacy by their Clan-
deboy kinsmen.
SEÁN DUFFY
References and Further Reading
Phillips, J. R. S. “The Irish Remonstrance of 1317: An Interna-
tional Perspective.” Irish Historical Studies27 (1990):
62–85.
Simms, Katharine. “Tír nEógain North of the Mountain.” In
Derry & Londonderry: History and Society, edited by Gerard
O’Brien, pp. 149–174. Irish County History Series. Dublin:
Geography Publications, 1999.
Simms, Katharine. “Late Medieval Tír nEógain: The Kingdom
of ‘the Great Ua Néill.’” In Tyrone: History and Society, edited
by Charles Dillon and Henry A. Jefferies, pp. 127–162. Irish
County History Series. Dublin: Geography Publications,
2000.
See alsoUa Néill of Clandeboye; Uí Néill;
Uí Néill, Northern; Ulster, Earldom of
UA NÉILL OF CLANDEBOYE
The extensive territory of Clann Áeda Buide—Clan-
deboye—constituted what is now south County
Antrim, north and east County Down, and southeast
County Derry. It had formed part of the Anglo-Norman
earldom of Ulster before the demise of the de Burgh
earls in the early fourteenth century. By about 1350,
the area had been seized and settled by a branch of the
Uí Néill (O’Neills) descended from Áed Buide (Hugh
“the yellow-haired”). These were breakaway members
of the lineage with aspirations to the kingship, forced to
the margins of Tí nEógain (Tyrone) in the decades after
Aéd’s death in 1283. Within a century the Clandeboye
O’Neills had established themselves as one of the most
successfuluirríthe, or under kings, to emerge in later
medieval Ireland. Theoretically vassals of Ua Néill of
Tyrone, in reality they were largely autonomous, ack-
nowledging Ua Néill’s claims to overlordship and pay-
ing him tribute only by compulsion. By 1450, their
power encompassed most of Antrim and Down, and
their chieftain, Ua Néill Buide, was reputed a man of
great wealth. According to a later English estimate,
probably derived from local native sources, Clandeboye
was cattle country, its extensive grazing lands capable
of feeding many thousands of cows.
Despite the frequent enmity between them, the
Clandeboye O’Neills owed their successful settle-
ment of East Ulster to the actions of the O’Neills of
Tyrone—particularly to Niall Mór Ua Néill (d. 1398).
Initially, by driving out many Anglo-Norman settlers,
Niall created the vacuum that the Clandeboye sept
was able to exploit. Subsequently, by also waging war
on the Scottish MacDonnells, he provided the lineage
with ready-made allies willing to help them sustain
their struggle against him and his successors. The
O’Donnells also supported them, as did, occasionally,
the English colonial government in Dublin. Thus,
when Eóghan, the Great O’Neill, invaded the territory
in 1444, the Clandeboye forces were strong enough
to defeat him.A similar attempt by Eóghan’s son,
Henry (Énrí) Ua Néill, suffered the same fate in 1476.
Efforts to rejuvenate the English colony in 1481 col-
lapsed when Conn Ua Néill of Clandeboye had the
government-appointed seneschal of Ulster blinded
and castrated.
Clandeboye remained strong until the mid-sixteenth
century, when a series of successional disputes weak-
ened it internally, and externally it was menaced first
by the territorial ambitions of their erstwhile allies, the
MacDonnells, and later by the dramatic reemergence
of English military power in East Ulster. After 1584,
the English government split the lordship between rival
claimants, dividing it into North and South Clandeboye,
a development that hastened the family’s decline. Their
autonomous status disappeared after the Nine Years’