Arthur Ó Néill (c.1737 - 1816)

Arthur Ó Néill tells us: “I was born in Drumnistad in the County of Tyrone”

I went to find the townland of Drumnastrade, Co. Tyrone, though it was not easy to work out the extent of the townland, or to guess at the location of Ó Néill’s birthplace. But this area with its lush and beautiful rolling countryside, is very evocative.

Arthur often returned to his parent’s house at Drumnastrade, in between his travels.

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Later, Arthur was a regular visitor to his brother Ferdinand’s house at Glenarb: “I went to see my brother Ferdinand, of Glenarb, County Tyrone, near Caledon, when resting my bones between riding and walking”.

It was getting dim when I got to the townland of Glenarb, but I tried to take a photo for you. I don’t know where Ferdinand’s house would have been.

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I came across a tradition that Arthur Ó Néill was buried in his father’s grave in Eglish churchyard. I found the grave of his father near the centre of the old churchyard:

The inscription is very obscured by lichens but I took a mosaic of close-up photos and I am tentatively reading

+
HEAR
LAYETH THE
BODY OF ART
O NEAL WHO
DEPARTED THIS
LIFE THE 3D OF
FEBVARY [....]
[.......] YEAR^S

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Thanks to Sylvia Crawford for bringing me to these places.