
Felim O'Neill of Kinard (died August 1653) was a leader of the Irish Catholic Confederation and the leader of a failed rebellion against England's rule over Ireland during the 1640s.
Biography[]
Felim O'Neill was born in County Tyrone, Ireland to a noble famiy. O'Neill was a scion of the famous Irish House of O'Neill, and his father died in a failed 1608 rebellion against England. During the 1630s, O'Neill entered the Irish parliament, and he was forced to sell some of his lands to Ulster Scots settlers as "plantations". In 1641, O'Neill led a rebellion against King Charles I of England and his Scottish allies, fearing that the Scots would crush Catholicism in Ireland. After the Irish Catholic Confederation was formed, O'Neill favored making peace with England and Scotland to end the wars with the crown, and the Confederates allied with the Royalists against the Parliamentarians in England in 1648. On 4 February 1653, he was captured, and Oliver Cromwell had him sentenced to death for his role in executing Protestant civilians during the Irish uprising. In August 1653, he was hanged.