# Hugh O'Neill, 4th Baron Dungannon

Hugh O'Neill, 4th Baron Dungannon (c. 1585 – 24 September 1609) was an Irish nobleman. He was the son and heir to Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, though he predeceased his father.
Dungannon accompanied his family and countrymen on the Flight of the Earls, leaving Ireland for mainland Europe. A few months after settling in Rome, Dungannon became violently ill after catching fever during a holiday to Ostia. He remained ill for a year before dying in Rome aged 24. He is buried alongside his father and two half-uncles in San Pietro in Montorio. His title was attainted on 28 October 1614.

## Early life

Hugh O'Neill was born c. 1585, specifically before December 1585. His father was Irish lord Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leader of the Irish confederacy during the Nine Years' War. His mother was Tyrone's second wife, Siobhán O'Donnell, who was a daughter of O'Donnell clan chief Hugh McManus O'Donnell.
Hugh had had several older sisters, Sarah, Mary, and Alice, and a younger brother, Henry. Hugh also had an older half-brother, Conn, who was considered illegitimate by English society. As the eldest son of Tyrone's second wife, Hugh was considered the heir to his father's titles and estates.
Hugh became Baron Dungannon after his father was named the Earl of Tyrone on 10 May 1587. His mother Siobhán died in January 1591. According to Tyrone's letters, the young Baron Dungannon was in fosterage in August 1594. In 1599, Sir John Harrington described brothers Hugh and Henry as "of good cheerful aspect, freckled, not tall, but strong, well-set, and acquainted with the English tongue".
Following the Irish confederacy's surrender in 1603, he received a new patent which elevated him to the baronage of Dungannon.

## Flight of the Earls

By September 1607, Dungannon was to be married to a daughter of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll. However, Tyrone's snap decision to flee Ireland put an end to these plans. Dungannon accompanied his father on the Flight of the Earls in 1607. The Irish refugees settled in Rome, where they were provided with a paltry pension from Pope Paul V.

## Death and legacy

The Irish nobles proved to be unhappy with the Italian climate and their poor accommodation. In early July 1608, Dungannon travelled to Ostia, a coastal town fifteen miles west of Rome, for a holiday and change of air. He was accompanied by fellow nobles Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell and Cathbarr O'Donnell, and clergyman Donal O'Carroll. Unfortunately, the men "all agreed that that particular place [was] one of the worst and most unhealthy for climate in all Italy". Ostia's marshlands were ridden with mosquitoes, and after four days the young nobles became violently ill with fevers.
After a year of illness, Dungannon died in Rome on 24 September 1609. He was unmarried. He was 24 years old. His father could not afford to pay for the funeral, so the new Spanish ambassador in Rome, the Conde de Castro, funded the funeral with 400 crowns.
Dungannon was buried in San Pietro in Montorio, where Tyrconnell, Cathbarr, and eventually his father Tyrone were also buried. Part of the inscription on his tomb (in Latin, translated to English) reads: "His lamentable death dashed the hopes which all had placed In him for his exemplary talents and distinction of soul and Body so propitious for a future favourable return to that Country once again."
Dungannon's title was attainted on 28 October 1614, at the same time that his father's title (Earl of Tyrone) was attainted.