NI’s real GAMES OF THRONES
He gave his name to the Connswater river in east Belfast and a million people currently live on land he once controlled. But who was the Gaelic chieftain Con O’Neill? Ivan Little speaks to the Co Down school principal-turned-author who has spent the last
Hundreds of Van Morrison fans from around the world have had their pictures taken beside the tiny stone bridge in part of east Belfast called the Hollow, made famous by their hero in his classic song Brown Eyed Girl.
But few visitors, or indeed local people, could tell you a single thing about the Con O’Neill bridge, which was spruced up several years ago to form part of a tourist trail for Morrison aficionados to follow around his old haunts.
To promote the trail, Morrison was photographed standing on the bridge, which is right beside his old primary school, Elmgrove, on the Beersbridge Road.
But now, Con O’Neill is getting his rightful place in history, with a new book by Roy H Greer, the principal of Moneyrea Primary School, who has uncovered a fascinating series of tales linked to him, ranging from rebellions, wild parties and deaths to an escape from Carrickfergus Castle on a rope smuggled inside in a cheese.
And that’s not even half of the story that, according to the blurb on the cover of the book, makes Game of Thrones “look tame”.
Con O’Neill: Last Gaelic Lord of Upper Clannaboy is an impressively researched and richly illustrated 220-plus-page publication that has been a 10-year labour of love for its author, who was anxious to find out more about the man who once ruled east Belfast, Lisburn, Castlereagh, Newtownards, Bangor, Comber and Saintfield.
“More than a million people now live in what was once the great medieval lordship of Clannaboy,” said Roy. “But I doubt that even a dozen of them even know it.”
Roy said his Con O’Neill odyssey that became an obsession started as he walked his Labrador dog in the Castlereagh Hills.
“I wanted to find out more about the castle at Castlereagh, where it went and who had lived in it,” he added.
“I was brought up in east Belfast, so I knew a little about Con O’Neill and his connections to the area, but not much.
“I began searching on the internet and going to libraries to see what was available, but history isn’t my background so I had to learn on the job.
“I also accessed state papers and they revealed some important information about not only Con O’Neill, but also about the Clannaboy dynasty, who were one of the great Gaelic dynasties of late-Medieval Ulster.”
The rise of the Clannaboy dynasty was bloody and brutal, according to the book, which says, “they erupted out of Tyrone to conquer much of the eastern Ulster, reaching the height of their power in the early 16th century”.
Eventually, the territory of Clannaboy — the English name is “Clandeboye” — was split in two, with Con O’Neill later proclaimed chief of Upper Clannaboy in 1601 on the coronation mound at Castle Reagh, believed to be where a thicket of trees now stands at Manse Road. The sandstone coronation chair of the O’Neills ended up via a circuitous route in the Ulster Museum in Belfast in their Saints and Scholars section.
“The coronations were quite spectacular,” said
Roy (right).
“They would have rivalled the modern-day coronations of the Royal family. They were full of powerful symbolism.”
Roy said he would love to see the coronation chair returning to an appropriate home in the Castlereagh area.
Nothing of the castle remains, alas, but it’s thought to have been situated close to the current site of Castlereagh Presbyterian Church, where coincidentally the Z Cars actor James Ellis, another famous son of east Belfast, is buried.
Roy said parts of the castle were apparently taken down stone by stone by local people, who used them to construct houses.
“There’s an interesting story, too, that the Downshire family from Hillsborough, who eventually took possession of Con’s castle, tried to protect the building at one stage in the early 1800s.
“But, in doing so, the builder assigned to the task is said to have taken the stones from the castle for use in a protective wall. So, ultimately, he dismantled the very building he was supposed to be saving.”
Roy also said that a number of archaeological digs had been carried out in the Castlereagh Hills in the 1960s and 1980s, but there were questions about whether or not the excavations had been focused on the right site. There’s also been talk of sonic scans at fields in the area where Con O’Neill’s demise was blamed on Scottish immigrants arriving in Ulster to sweep away his lordship and the Gaelic way of life.