Shane ' the proud' O'Neill and Catherine McLean the Countess of Argyll

Shane Diomas O'Neill's his famous mistress that was kept in chains in a cellar was Catherine McLean, the Countess of Argyle, daughter of Hector Mor, The MacLean of Duart Isle.

Shane ' Diomas' O'Neill kept his mistress, Catherine McLean, the Countess of Argyle, in chains in a cellar until, of evenings, when wine was in his brain, he chose to have her up for his pleasure; she had betrayed her husband Calvach O'Donnell, to become O'Neill's woman and knew while she was in O'Neill's arms, her husband Calvach O'Donnell was being shown to people outside in chains like a baboon.

For this reason and the death of Hugh Gavaloch of the fetters the McLean’s offered over 3,000 men to the English against the Irish during the Nine Year War and Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone lost almost all support from the Scottish .




She was the mother of.

Hugh Gavaloch of the Fetters: Hugh Gavaloch spent time in Scotland building up an army. In 1584 he invaded Ireland at the head of a Scottish army with the interest of claiming the title of O’Neill Mor. In 1589 he returned to Ireland and turned in Earl Hugh for conspiring with the Spanish to the English court.He was captured by the Maguires and handed to Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill. Hugh O'Neill hung him. His mother was Countess Catherine MacLean was known to have at least one son in MacLean fosterage.

“There had
not among the race of Eoghan, the son of Niall, a man more generally lamented than this Hugh.” -

Annals of the Four Masters .

Art O'Neill : Spent time with cousin MacLeans building up army to put them in power. Seized by Lord Deputy Perrot in 1585 with brother Henry. He died while escaping Dublin Castle in the Wicklow Mountains of exposure to the cold with Henry and Red Hugh O’Donnell.

Known to have had a son in Lachlan MacLean’s fosterage in Scotland Isles of Duart.

Sean "the Proud “O’Neill, the first man to be called the “Great O'Neill “.

1. He was a typical Irish Captain, Lord, Noble and Prince. Son of Conn Baccach and Alice Fitzgerald (Daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare).

2. That he was enormously rich he must have owned more than a hundred thousand cows.

3. That he had murdered his brother, or caused him to be murdered; killed of his rival nephew, or caused him to be killed.

5. It was believed he had swarms of bastard children.

6. He had gigantic potations, of the vast cellars at Dundrum where two hundred tuns of wine were commonly stored at a time.

7. He had a strange habit of burying himself to the neck in sand to cool his mad blood.


8. He kept bards , rhymers , annalists, priest , friars , kerns and mercenaries. He was escorted by gallowglasses , armed with battle-axes.


9. He was said to have secretly corresponded with Charles IX and the Cardinal of Lorraine.

10. Weakened by the English attacks, he was defeated by the O’Donnell’s and found himself without a friend. He fled to the Scottish controlled Antrim glens, and according to one account, during negotiations a fight broke out and Shane was killed. After being buried for 5 days he was exhumed and his pickled head was sent south to be stuck on a spike outside Dublin Castle by premeditated treachery, he was slain by the MacDonnell’s, and was buried at Glenarm. The MacDonnell’s, hoping to ingratiate themselves with the English, who wanted to expel their clan from Ireland, sent O'Neill's severed head to their government in Dublin.

11. It said that Shane O'Neill was a tall man over 6 feet tall. Tall for the standard height in Ireland during those times.


"My ancestors were kings of Ulster, and Ulster is mine, and shall be mine. O'Donnell shall never come into his country, nor Bagenal into Newry, nor Kildare into Dundrum or Lecale. They are now mine. With the sword I won them; with this sword I will keep them"—an excuse equally valid for possessions unjustly or justly won. The pride that was at the bottom of Shane's character came out with equal vigor in the estimates he formed of his fellow-chiefs. When he heard that MacCarthy had been created Earl of Clancar, "A precious earl!" quoth he, "I keep a lackey as noble as he." In spite of the exhortations constantly given him by his English friends "to change his clothes and go like a gentleman," Shane seems to have retained the manners of his ancestors, after a brief exercise of "civility, justice, and Christian charity" which followed on his visit to London.

- About Sean O'Neill