Count of Tyrone - Other Claims

Other Claims

Other claims to the Earldom of Tyrone or the leadership of the O'Neills have been raised since the younger Shane O'Neill's death before Barcelona in 1641. Shane O'Neill had been expected to command an O'Neill force in Ireland; Owen Roe O'Neill, his illegitimate cousin, was appointed to replace him; before Owen Roe even reached Ireland, Luke Wadding expressed concern that he would claim the Earldom and there would be conflict between him and Sir Felim O'Neill, also in arms. Hugh Bourke wrote to Wadding that

"As to what you write touching Don Eugenio, I apprehend no such danger; he is not disposed to claim more than his father enjoyed, for he acknowledges that all the immediate right to the earldom of Tyrone belongs to Don Constantino, who is in Spain. So long as he lives, Don Eugenio can claim nothing, as he publicly acknowledges, offering to serve no matter who—Don Felim or another, in the common cause of religion and the realm, and that he goes not thither to command, but to receive what they may be minded to accord him and lay upon him, and that, if the realm should deem Don Felim to be Earl of Tyrone, he would be the first to obey, as he claims only the right to serve God and enjoy the portion that falls to him of his fathers' inheritance. The first thing is to purge the land of heretics, and see that the Catholic religion is set in its true place: thereafter the Kingdom or King will consider the rights of each particular person, and establish them by ordinance."

There was once a peerage claim to the Earldom of Tyrone in the records of the Irish House of Lords for 1717, now lost; this may, however, refer to the second creation of 1673, which was already extinct. (The heiress of the Powers earls was a single granddaughter, who married Sir Marcus Beresford in 1717; her husband was eventually created Viscount and then Earl of Tyrone, the third creation of the title.)