Historic fort stages biggest gathering of O’Neills in 400 years

The Ancient Clan O’Neill of Tyrone are calling on all O’Neills and their fellow Celts to help them celebrate the event on May 25 at 6pm which is organised by Cookstown Council to mark the hidden heritage of Tullyhogue.

Events will run over two days culminating in a great free family day out with music, food, entertainment.

Daniel O’Neill, Chief Guardian of the Ancient Clan O’Neill of Tyrone, stated that in the real inauguration of an O’Neill every Celtic name in Ulster would have been in attendance.

“The O’Neill clan was not just made of O’Neill”, he said. “It was a political structure made up of many different clans and all these clans would have been related in blood going back many hundreds of years.

“They were seen as part of the wider O’Neill family tied close together by marriage and the fostering of each others children. “The main families in the internal arrangements of the O’Neill Kingdom -the backbone if you like- were the O’Hagan, Donnelly, Devlin, Quinn, O’Kane and the Gormley clans, who all had a part to play in the inauguration itself and standing on the hillside to show their support, that would have been the great.

“MacMahon, O’Donnell, Maguire, Maginness, O’Raghallaigh, MacLoughlinn, Mallon, Corr, Bradley, Gilmore, Mac Cann, there are too many to mention. We in the Ancient Clan O’Neill of Tyrone want all the people who bear these great northern Gaelic names to come and represent their clan on the 25th of May.

Mr O’Neill and Vice-Chief Tricia Morrow said the whole reason we set up the Ancient Clan O’Neill of Tyrone (just under a year ago) was because of the growing interest from O’Neills in their clan and culture, we felt the time was right to resurrect our famous clan and today we ask all O’Neills who are interested in their own family research the preservation of the O’Neill clan and want a say in who speaks on their behalf to join our fantastic website. www.oneillsofulster.com which is free and always will be, E-mail [email protected] Tel 07807639027

We need your help to make this work. Everyone can have a roll, whether it be just a member on the site or part of the committee if you don’t have computer skills then get a younger member of the family to contact us on your behalf and we will take it from there. We don’t want anyone to miss out. We also want to encourage other famous Clans in Ulster to set up their own groups and will help them get started in what ever way we can.

The Ancient Clan O’Neill of Tyrone would like to take this opportunity to thank Cookstown Council for staging this event and Daniel O’Neill went on to say that he would like to thank personally the hard work and effort put in by Chief Executive Aidrain Mc Creesh and Manager Tony McCance

There is an after event which will take place at the Top Bar Greenvale Hotel Drum Rd Cookstown from 830pm to the wee hours, everyone is invited for a night of Irish music and craic, also rooms are available for those wishing to stay overnight.

Attendants not that there is strictly no parking near the fort grounds.

Everyone is asked to park at the Burnavon Centre Car park where Cookstown Council will be putting on a shuttle bus to the event, for alternative parking please contact the Burnavon centre or check the Ancient Clan O’Neill website oneillsofulster.com.