O'Neill Family History  - ONeill Genealogy Ulster Ireland  to Ohio
Henry O'Neill & Nancy Lee O'Neill Immigrants from Ulster Ireland

 O'Neill - Irish Kings in Ireland
From 1699 B.C. when Heremon got to rule alone by killing his twin brother Herber until 1603 A.D. when Hugh O'Neill, last of the long line of kings that grandly called themselves"The O'Neill's" surrendered to the Stuart King James I nearly 2000 Kings have sat in Ireland.  Hugh O'Neill Earl of Tyrone
For Ireland throughout most of her early history, actually was pentarchy, with kings ruling the five divisions: Ulster in the North, Munster in the South, Connaught in the West and North South Leinster in the East.
From  Ulster came the O'Neill's and the O'Donnels.  From Leinster came the O'Tools, O'Byrnes, O'Gormans, Murphys,  Mulligans and Leahys.  From  Munster the McCarthy's, Clancy's Caseys,  O'Carrols, Oharsa, Callahans, O'Keefs, Sullivans and Colemans.  From Connaught the McDermots, O'Rourkes and teh McDonalds.
The High Kings were famous for their swift horses, beautiful wives, jeweled chess sets,  silver armor and unflinching courage.  When the O'Neill clan arrived in Ireland the competing chiefs agreed that the first one a shore should have  the pick of the best land.  With that the Red Handed O'Neill as he was afterward known  cut off his hand and flung it ashore so a portion of him  would get there first. This bloodied hand has since been the center piece of the O'Neill family crest.
The Romans never got to Ireland, but everyone else did, so the kings had to stop their squabbling from time  to time to ward off the invaders.  In the 5th Century the Danes came; they plundered the fishing fleets, ransacked the monasteries and inspired the round towers where monks hid the sacred vessels.  They also built the first cities - Dublin,  Wexford, Limerick, and Cork.  
Finally they were defeated in 1014 by the greatest of the warrior kings, the mighty Brian  Boru, who fought with a crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other.
Cormac the Great, 3rd Century King who lived on the hill of Tara surrounded by his wolfhounds and  a retinue that included a druid a bard, a juggler, a piper, a harpist and a leach told an ambitious subject "A King is elected from the goodness of his shape and family, from his experience and wisdom, from his prudence and nanimity, from his eloquence and bravery in battle and from the number of his friends.
The English came in the 12th century at the request of one of the kings disgruntled because of a typical donnybrook in the Irish Royal House.  Henry II was the first of many English Monarchs who discovered that fighting the Irish was like staging a regatta on one of those Irish Lakes that kept disappearing.