Retreat of the Princes or Flight of the Earls?

 I was honoured and delighted to accept Dr. Jorge Salavisa’s request to say a few words regarding my view as Head of the O’Neill family about the so called Flight of the Earls which 4^th centenary is now being celebrated. You have now been acquainted by Dr. Declan Downey and Dr. John McCavitt with the particulars of this episode marking the end of Gaelic political power in Ireland. My first comment is that I find the label – Flight of the Earls - very wrong from an Irish perspective because it gives a false idea about who were the protagonists and what did really happen. I would much prefer to call it the Retreat of the Princes or the Chiefs as it describes the action taken by the heads of two of the most ancient and powerful Gaelic royal houses - O’Neill and O’Donnell - with the aim of negotiating the support by the kings of Catholic Europe to raise a liberation army to free Ireland from English domination.

Another aspect that at first sight seems inexplicable is why should an episode that marks the retreat or the flight of the last Gaelic Irish leaders be so enthusiastically celebrated in Ireland. It would be understandable if the Flight of the Earls was commemorated in England as the first success of its imperial career but, even after discounting the proverbial eccentricity of the Irish people, it is difficult to understand the festive way this sad episode has been celebrated in Ireland.

So perhaps what is being celebrated is the survival of Irish identity in spite of the Flight of the Earls or the retreat of the Chiefs and of 400 years of relentless attempts to anglicise Ireland.

It may be right to say that he first time the Irish people were aware of the uniqueness of their cultural identity was when they felt the void left by the departure of my kinsman Hugh O’Neill.

Bardic poems dating from ca.1610 retrieved by Prof. Brendan O Buachalla of Notre Dame University justify this view. One of those poems said::

Another more romantic one said:

Well unfortunately he did not return but his absence caused the Irish to realise the value of their heritage and to defend it many times at the cost of their lives.

But what is this heritage?

One way of understanding it is by looking into the Code of Justice that was adopted in Gaelic Ireland called the Brehon Laws after the brehons - the learned men who administered it – These laws were codified in the V century by St. Patrick and remained in force with little change till 1607.

In essence they promoted personal dignity regardless of rank or wealth, adopted fairness as an intrinsic value and merit as the way to recognition and power. I will give just a few examples to enable the Portuguese audience to understand how different the timeless Irish sense of justice is from ours. Lies were abhorred for attempting against one’s dignity, women had their rights including the right to divorce their husband and be indemnified should he be proved unable to fulfil his manly duties. A needle stolen from a poor embroidery woman would involve a far greater indemnity than a needle stolen from a queen. The Irish law expected most from those who received most from God. A priest would be fined twice as much for the same offence as would a layman. An offending bishop would lose his status never to recover it again. These laws also regulated king’s rights and duties and defined the succession system. The king was elected from within the members of the inner royal family composed by the sons, grandsons and great grandsons of a former king after proving his courage, his wit, his leadership ability and his physical fitness.

Such an approach to life and to society enticed the delight in taking and seeking challenges, hence mental and physical courage and also the proverbial Irish self reliance, solidarity in hardship and sense of humour.  These are the attributes that were kept unchanged throughout the terrible times that followed the retreat of the chiefs, which form the character of an average Irish person and which when displayed in films like “My Left Foot” that many of us had the opportunity to see a week ago commented by its genial director Jim Sheridan, make us shiver in delight.

The exile of my kinsman Hugh O’Neill and of Rory O’Donnell was the first of a long diaspora that brought this Irish heritage to different countries. My branch of the family, remained in Ireland taking part in all the raisings for the recovery of Gaelic power and left Ireland with the O’Neill Regiment of the Irish Brigade, after the battle of Aughrim in 1691 to fight for Luis XIV Phelim O’Neill grandfather of Shane who came to Portugal died at the battle of Malplaquet. Shane, his grandson was advised by the Archbishop of Armagh, at the height of the Penal Laws, to leave Ireland and settle in Lisbon where he was welcomed by the Rector of the Irish College and the then important Irish community. He was well received at the court of D. José. He married a Portuguese landlady and his son married a German heiress thus considerably increasing the family’s wealth enabling us to support King Peter IV in the civil war, hence definitely establishing the family in Portuguese society. Yet all our children along the eight generations that we have been in this delightful country have been brought up in the Irish family traditions.

The main destinations of Irish diaspora emigration was America where the importance of the Irish presence was and is so big that it reshaped the ways of life and the values bringing a new dimension and a new vigour to this formidable country making it in many ways the paradigm of Irishness, and a place where fairness and solidarity won over the remains of an imperial concept of social organisation.