The Ó hAnluain (anglicised as O'Hanlon) family was an agnatic extended family comprising one of a string of dynasts along the Ulster-Leinster border. Depending on the advantage to the clan, the Chief of the Name—The O'Hanlon—supported either the Earl of Tyrone or authorities within the English Pale. During the 15th century, ties were close with the famed Earls of Kildare. Frequently, members of the clan would fight on both sides during a rebellion. Some would be outlawed; others pardoned; some ending up on the winning side.
The heart of "O'Hanlon's Countrie" was centered on south central Ulster, much of it being in what is now the Republic of Ireland. The first O'Hanlon on record is Flaithbheartach Ua hAnluain, lord of Uí Nialláin, whose murder in the year 983 AD is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters.
The anglicised version of the name is usually given as Hanlon or O'Hanlon, but there are many variants: Handlon, Handlan, Hanlan, Hanlen, Hanlin, Hallinan, Hanlyn etc. Occasionally some variants of the names Hanly, Hanley and Handly are also derived from Ó hAnluain, although Hanly is usually the anglicised form of Ó hAinle, an ancient Roscommon sept (the oldest on record is Donal O'Hanly, Bishop of Dublin from 1085 to 1096).
Capitalised as: Ó hANLUAIN or Ó ʜANLUAIN, the first 'h' should always be either lowercase, or a smaller 'H' font size.
O'Hanlon's Country The ancestors of the Ó hAnluain sept originated in the kingdom of Airgialla. By the 5th century A.D. the sept held territory in and around the modern barony of Oneilland, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, on the southwest shore of Lough Neagh. As the O'Neills rose in prominence from Dungannon to the west, the O'Hanlons moved to territory west of Armagh City. For half a millennium, they served as kings of Orior. The chieftain's name was synonymous with the territory which was better known as "O'Hanlon's Country". It comprised about one-third of modern County Armagh, predominantly the eastern third, and also included a large tract of County Louth, from Faughart to Ravensdale, and then over the Cooley mountains to Omeath near Carlingford.Harold O'Sullivan, 'Dynamics of regional development' in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland (Ciaran Brady & Jane Ohlmeyer, eds.)(at Hanlon+Armagh&hl=en&ei=cuanTPDlA8P88AbioMSODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAjgo#v=onepage&q=Ó Hanlon%20Armagh&f=false 55). The peak of land acquisition was in 1504; in 1505 the territory beyond the Gap of the North was granted to the Earl of Kildare. Two of the earliest maps of Ulster, Jobson's Ulster maps (c. 1590) and Norden's map of Ireland (1610), both show O'Hanlon's Country. In 1586, when Sir John Perrot created the County of Armagh, O'Hanlon's country accounted for one of the five baronies: Armaghe, Toaghriny, Orier, Fuighes (Fews) and Onylane (O'Neilland). In later times "Orier" became the Baronies of Orior Upper and Orior Lower, the southernmost two of Armagh's eight Baronies. It is often overlooked that the Gaelic territory of Orior predates and extended beyond the Barony of that name in County Armagh. O'Hanlon's Country extended southwards into northern County Louth and to the East it encroached slightly into County Down. Before the county lines were finalised, some old maps show the old O'Hanlon seat of Loughgilly in County Down.
According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the O'Hanlons were a chiefly family of the Oirghialla or Airgíalla tribe who were in turn from the Laigin tribe who were the third wave of Celts to settle in Ireland during the first century BC.
O'Hanlon strongholds
Anciently, the O'Hanlons – when sitting as kings of Aithir – kept their residence, and the sept's assembly, at Loughgall (Loch gCál), north of Armagh city. Even after the sept moved east toward Loughgilly, Loughgall was retained as a summer residence. When Edmond Mortimer arrived in Ireland in 1380 as Lord Justice, the chief O'Hanlon was recorded as amongst the righdamhna (those eligible to become a tanist, or heir-apparent, of an Irish kingdom) that were required to pay their court to him. The rock of Tanderagee rose to support the family's castle. Having secured the northern lowlands of County Armagh and the highlands approaching and surrounding the Ring of Gullion, the O'Hanlons located the chieftain's gateway strongholds on the approaches from Armagh and eastern Ulster in the north, and Dublin and the English Pale in the south."Aenghus O'Daly, The Tribes of Ireland at Hanlon+Armagh&hl=en&ei=geOnTJ6IN8H38AbmofD2DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=Ó Hanlon%20Armagh&f=true 62, n1. The northern roads converged on the modern-day village of Tandragee; the approaches from Dublin and the English Pale had to force the Gap of the North, and the chieftain's stronghold adjacent to Forkill at Mullagh. The third stronghold, Mullaghglass, guarded the road north from the English frontier town of Newry. Closer to the center of the O'Hanlon lands than Tanderagee and Forkill, Mullaghglass is also the easternmost edge of a tract of land stretching from the Newry vale to the Fews, passing Camlough lake and the northern slope of Sliab Gullion, to which the sept retreated after the fall of the Gaelic order.
Despite surrender and regrant under her father, Queen Elizabeth I confiscated O’Hanlon territory in 1571, granting all of Orior to a Captain Thomas Chatterton. He was unable to found a settlement as required, and had his grant revoked, with Sir Eochaidh "Oghy" O’Hanlon of Tanderagee able to reassert control over south Armagh.
After the Plantation of Ulster, Oliver St John (the Lord Deputy of Ireland) took over and rebuilt O'Hanlon Castle. During the Ulster Rebellion of 1641 the clan attempted to take back their former lands, however failed with the castle burnt down. Having passed out of the family it became known as Tandragee Castle and remained a ruin for 200 years, until it was completely rebuilt by the Comtes de Salis, and later the Dukes of Manchester.
Various branches of the O'Hanlon sept After the Battle of the Boyne, those holding the O'Hanlon and Hanlon names diverged socially, some assimilating into colonial Irish society and others staying rooted to their Gaelic past. The years 1590 to 1690 mark a century dividing past and present. Prior to those years, there was only one "Gaelic" sept. After those years, each branch of the family chose—or was forced to choose—to remain tied to their aboriginal identity or to be identified with the Irish colonial elite. The O'Hanlons had always been marchland brokers between the English Pale and the Gaelic north. Now they were forced to divide themselves along those lines. Two members of the sept best personify these widening challenges: Sir Eochaidh "Oghy" O'Hanlon and the Tory outlaw, Count Aodh Ruadh ("Redmond") O'Hanlon.
Sir Eochaidh "Oghy" Ó Hanlon The origins of the colonial O’Hanlons lay in two sons of Sean, The O’Hanlon (c. 1510–1575). In addition to Sir Eochaidh O’Hanlon, last of the Name, there was also his brother, Feidliminh, and his four sons. All supported the Tudor monarchy, more or less, during the Nine Years' War and were granted lands in south Armagh for their loyalty to the Crown.
Eochaidh "Oghy" O'Hanlon, son of Shane Oge O'Hanlon, maintained his seat at Tandragee, near modern Poyntzpass, County Armagh. Oghy was lord of the baronies of Orior Lower and Orior Upper, and by Irish tradition (Brehon law) Chief of his name. In 1595, he married the sister of the Earl of Tyrone. This made his son and heir, Eochaidh Óg O'Hanlon, great-grandson to the Earl of Kildare. Young Oghy was also a great-grandson of Conn O'Neill, Prince of Ulster, and all the ties to the Gaelic aristocracy that entailed. When he was exiled to service under the King of Sweden, he took the blood of Irish and English kings with him.
Queen Elizabeth operated a policy of surrender and regrant to Irish nobles, where the Gaelic chiefs surrendered their lands, but were re-granted them with an English title after swearing allegiance to the Crown and promising to abide by English laws and customs. Amongst those who did was Hugh O'Neill in 1587 who was given the English title Earl of Tyrone. Eochaidh followed his example and had his lands re-granted by letters of the patent in the same year. He became a Knight under English law, "Sir" Eochaidh Oghy O'Hanlon, hereditary royal standard-bearer north of the River Boyne. Though an English peer, Eochaidh never made the cultural transition. He kept his Gaelic ways. As John O'Donovan edited into O'Daly's Tribes of Ireland,
Spenser was referring to the Gaelic proverb, applied when someone was heavily native in their appearance and actions. Such people were "as Irish as O'Hanlon's breech." Spenser was not denigrating The O'Hanlon, as much as he was noting that erstwhile English families such as the Fitzsimons of counties Cavan and Down, had 'gone native' over the years.
Redmond O'Hanlon Born around 1640 in Poyntzpass, O'Hanlon's Country, Count Redmond O'Hanlon was the son of Loughlin O'Hanlon. As a young man he worked as a footboy to Sir George Acheson of Markethill, but became fiercely anti-English. He spent several years in exile with the French army and tried to organise a French invasion of Ireland to depose the British. He was popular in France where he was reportedly awarded the courtesy title of Count O'Hanlon (the English title was extinguished in the family with the death of Sir Eochaidh O'Hanlon; the family lost Tandragee castle during the Plantation of Ulster in 1609). When the French negotiations failed, Redmond returned to Armagh in 1671 and became a notorious highwayman or rapparee. A real-life Robin Hood, Redmond robbed the English settlers, extorted protection money from the Scots, and was adored by the largely Catholic peasantry. A letter from the era states that his criminal activities were bringing in more money than the King's revenue collectors, and therefore the outlaw Count was easily able to bribe military officers and public officials. In 1674 the government of King Charles II put a price on his head with posters advertising for his capture, dead or alive. He was eventually murdered in his sleep by his foster brother and close associate Art MacCall O'Hanlon at Eight Mile Bridge near Hilltown on 25 April 1681. Art received a full pardon and two hundred pounds for murdering his leader. As had become the custom in English-ruled Ireland, there were gruesome displays of his body parts including his head which was placed on a spike over Downpatrick jail. His remains are said to lie in a family plot in the Church of Ireland cemetery in Letterkenny, County Donegal.
Aboriginal
Following the Plantation of Ulster, Ó Hanlon control over land in County Armagh dwindled. At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1641, two members of the sept still held land under English law. Aodh Buide O'Hanlon held the largest tract, 2,045 acres stretching from the northern slope of Sliab Gullion northwest toward Belleeks at the edge of the Fews. And Padraig MacRory Ó Hanlon held another 133 acres.Armagh: history & society, interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish County (2001) at Hanlon%22&dq=%22Hugh+Boy+Ó Hanlon%22&hl=en&ei=eLGzTIjbHMH38AaUy42dCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA 340, 360. The acreage held by Aodh Buide and Padraig Ó hAnluain lay at the center of those lands associated with the family over the next two centuries.
Passing as ascendancy