Owen Roe O'Neill, (Noted Irish lives)

112 Pages. A small book with red boards. Front board has some spots of discoloration very lightly carried over to the back board. Pages are tight, white and free of marks. Owen Roe O'Neill was the last great leader of the kingly Ulster house that during the Middle Ages played so big a part in the defiance of the English conqueror. When he entered that stage of history the fate of Ireland was in the balance: England's king and the parliament were engaged in a deadly struggle. To each side Ireland was but a pawn in the game; but inevitably to the Irish patriot, England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity. It fell to Owen Roe to seize the occasion, and his gallant venture came near to changing the course of Irish history. Almost he won Ireland for the Irish, but the dice were too heavily loaded against him. The story to be told in this book is one of brilliant failure. It has a certain piquancy from the contrast between the hero and the setting. Owen Roe was a soldier of international repute, a scholar, and one of the first gentlemen of Europe. In character he sums up the four cardinal virtues; in temperament he unites an ironic humour with a singular simplicity. He stands head and shoulders above the men with whom he had to deal, a portentous figure dominating a scene in which mingle the highest idealism and the most sordid self-seeking, a protector fighting the forces of tyranny and chicanery on behalf of his countrymen ground down for centuries beneath the heel of a relentless, unscrupulous and contemptuous oppressor. Strangely enough, although his contemporaries, whether friend or foe, regarded him with almost superstitious trust or suspicion, his significance has never been fully appreciated in general history. Contents in Eight Chapters: Exile, A Distressful Country, Ireland's Opportunity, The Liberator, The Corrupted Cessation, The Battle of Benburb, A Losing Fight, and The Last Act. Plus a Bibliography.…