Perhaps when O'Neil returned to his own country he was recalled to
national sentiments by the sight of oppression there, and it is certain
that he was roused to indignation by the arbitrary imprisonment of one of
his kinsmen known as Red Hugh. When Red Hugh succeeded in escaping from
prison he inspired Tyrone with a keen sense of his wrongs, and brought
him into the temper of insurrection. O'Neil threw himself completely into
the new movement for independence. A confederation of Irish chieftains
was organized, and O'Neil took the command. He proved himself possessed
of the most genuine military talents, and he could play the part of the
statesman as well as of the soldier. The confederation of Irish chieftains
soon became an embattled army, and the brothers-in-law met in arms as
hostile commanders on the shores of the northern Blackwater. As one
historian has well remarked, there was something positively Homeric about
this struggle, in which the two men connected by marriage encountered
each other as commanders of opposing armies. Events had been moving on
since the marriage between Tyrone and Bagnal's sister. O'Neil's young
wife had found her early grave before this last engagement between her
husband and her brother. The army of Bagnal was completely defeated, and
Bagnal was killed upon the field.
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