Whitley Stokes, the editor of the Annals attributed to Tigernach, had once the audacity to say that many, perhaps most, of the dates of our Annals are erroneous, and that the amount of error in each case is not very important. To those who are qualified to study the evidence, it will be apparent that this is not the case, and that so far from the various collections differing in chronology from one another, they are in remarkable unanimity back to about the middle of the seventh century. There is great ignorance prevalent on the relations of our Irish chronicles to one another, and there is room for a thorough study of their criteria such as I now propose’ to sketch from a distance. A definite chronology if attainable is the first essential for knowledge of our past. If it be not certainly available, then we should have the nearest possible approximation to exact dating.

The feud between the Talbot and Ormond interests, which dominates Anglo-Irish history from about 1414 to 1447, is of interest chiefly as an illustration of the final stage in the collapse of a government, and as affording a striking instance of that parallelism which can often be observed between English and Anglo-Irish history. In both cases the period is marked by the relapse of politics into mere faction and the corresponding decline of the institutions of government in estimation and effectiveness. In Ireland this decline is even more marked than in England, lacking, as it does, the more cheerful colours of rapid commercial progress to lighten the dark picture of political decadence. In Ireland the feuds and factions of the early fifteenth century, connected with the personalities of Sir John Talbot and the fourth earl of Ormond, brought the government to such a pitch of disorder that by the beginning of the Tudor period thorough reorganization was necessary.

Daniel O'Neill united in his person the two main branches of a great family. His father, Con, son of Niall, son of Brian Fagartach O'Neill, was lord of Upper Clandeboy; his mother Ellis (a sister of Eoghan Ruadh) belonged to the O'Neills of Tyrone. Daniel was born in Clandeboy early in the seventeenth century. His father died while he was a minor, and he was brought up a protestant, and, it is stated, a ward in chancery in England. He served his apprenticeship to arms with the English regiments in the Netherlands, and at an early age became familiar with the life both of camp and court. He was endowed with many natural advantages: a pleasing appearance and engaging manners, great fertility of resource, and an aptitude for handling difficult men and situations with a finesse which earned for him the name of ‘Infallible Subtle’.

The enactment, by the Irish parliament of 1494-5, of the measure later known as Poynings' Law had far-reaching effects upon the whole subsequent course of Irish parliamentary history to 1782. Poynings' Law was the foundation-stone of a peculiar system of legislative procedure which made it impossible for the Irish parliament to develop on parallel lines with the parliament of England. It prescribed conditions to be observed by the Irish executive, with regard to the summoning and proceedings of the legislature, which were seldom satisfactory to both parties at the same time, and resulted in protracted attempts by each in turn to have the law altered in accordance with changes in their own character, circumstances and interests. The function and interpretation of the law passed through a number of distinct phases, and it was only in the later phases that it came to be regarded as a hated symbol of the subordination of the Irish parliament.