Baron Dungannon

The title Baron of Dungannon in the Peerage of Ireland was associated with the first creation of the title of Earl of Tyrone.

When Conn Bacach O'Neill. 1st Earl of Tyrone surrendered his Irish principality of Tír Eoghain to Henry VIII in 1542, as part of Henry's effort to make his new Kingdom of Ireland into all of Ireland, Henry created him, on 1 October 1542, a week later, Earl of Tyrone; by the patent this was to descend to his eldest, illegitimate, son, Ferdoragh O'Neill and his heirs; he assumed the more English name of Matthew. In the same patent he was created Baron of Dungannon, "to hold the dignity during the life of his father, with limitation to the heir apparent of the earldom," with extension to his heirs. This wording meant that the Barony was to behave like a courtesy title: the eldest son of each Earl of Tyrone was to be Baron of Dungannon until he succeeded to the Earldom, and also, as a substantive title, it did confer a seat in the Irish House of Lords.

Matthew was the first baron among the O'Neills; when he fathered an illegitimate son himself, it became known, for distinctiveness, as Art mac Baron. Unfortunately, all was not so smooth; there was considerable sentiment against the change of law and authority involved in the change to an Earldom, and when Shane O'Neill the Proud, Conn's legitimate son, grew up, he led a rebellion from 1551 onward, against Conn and Matthew and Anglo-Irish law.

When Matthew was killed, at Shane's order, in 1558, his young legitimate son Brien O'Neill became Baron of Dungannon; when his grandfather, Conn Bacach, died the next year, in exile from Tyrone, Brien should have become Earl of Tyrone instead. But his claim to the Earldom was never acknowledged; instead the Barony of Dungannon was treated as though it were not subject to any special condition, and Brien continued to be called Lord Dungannon; during these years, Queen Elizabeth's Government in Ireland was attempting to reach a settlement with Shane the Proud.

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