Background
The eldest son of King Conn Bacach O'Neill. Phelim's mother was Lady Alice Fitzgerald, the daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare. His father and maternal grandfather were probably the two most powerful men in Ireland in the 1540s.
Phelim Caoch (the blind) was a son of Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, then The O'Neill, lord of Tir Eoghan. Phelim was raised in the Gaelic fashion at his father's principal residence, his castle at Dungannon, County Tyrone, and was groomed as his father's taniste to one day succeed as lord of Tir Eoghan himself.
Career
Conn came from a long line of Ulster kings and was known throughout all the O'Neill provinces as "The O'Neill" or the most supreme among all the O'Neill Lords. The O'Neill was traditionally the supreme rí or provincial king of Ulster, with traditional authority over the uirríthe or subservient kings of the province. Phelim grew up learning the diplomacy and art of rule and war in Ulster.
He took part in activities of his father's kingdom, including a stint as a hostage to the English just before his death. A part of Irish culture of that period was the custom of raiding. Raids against neighbouring lords for cattle was a primary past time for young noblemen.
Especially in Ulster, cattle was main element of wealth. Thus the outcome of a raid weakened or promoted a junior Lord in the sixteenth century Ireland. Phelim was married to Honora O'Neill, daughter of Sir Phelim O'Neill, lord Edenduffcarrick and the Clanaboy O'Neills.
They had a son named Tirlough Brassileagh O'Neill. He gained this patrinomy based on being fostered by the Clan Brassill in southern Ulster, after the death of his father. In early 1542 'The son of O'Neill (Felim Caech, son of Con, son of Con) was killed with one cast of a javelin by MacDonnell Gallowglagh" according to the entry recording his death in the Annals of the Four Masters of Ireland.
He had been killed after a longstanding quarrel with his father's principal Galloglass commander Gillespic MacDonnell. Phelim Caoch was assassinated in the months just prior to his father's submission to King Henry VIII.
One is left to wonder what might have happened had Phelim lived. After Phelim Caoch's assassination Gillespic MacDonnell's galloglass sept became committed the adherents of Mathew (Feardorcha) and his descendants, and consistent supporters of English policy.
