Last of our kind: part II By M.O’Neill

It’s been over 300 years that the progenitor and founder of the O’Neill’s of Puerto Rico Don Juan O’Neill arrived on the island, The O’Neill’s of Puerto Rico are currently of the SNP L48/S162: R1b1a2a1a1a5c with a unique haplotype only found among the majority of the O’Neill’s of Puerto Rico (descendants of Don Juan O’Neill) This looks to be the last of a long bloodline with only a certain few people that match mutations on their Haplotype and they with origins from in Yorkshire, England.

All roads lead to a search of the history of Yorkshire and how it relates to our origins. In the late 5th century and early 6th century the tribe of the Angles from the Schleswig-Holstein peninsula subjugated the whole of Eastern Yorkshire circa 560. During the late 700’s A.D. the Danish Vikings crossed the North Sea and plundered the coast of Northumbria.

Circa the mid-9^th century the Yngling King Ragnar Lodbrok led the Danes into Northumbria, but was captured by the Angles and accounts say in a snake pit. In 865 his eldest son Ivar the Boneless landed on East Anglia, where they slew King Edmund the Martyr. Then Danes/ Ynglings headed north and took York in 866.

We do know that the Swedish Munsö dynasty also did become overlords of Jórvík, due to a promised loyalty to the Munsö Kings of Dublin by the Danes in England.

It all comes down to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles A.D. 921 clearly stating:

This year King Edward repaired the town of Gladmouth; and the same year King Sihtric slew Neil his brother.

For those who have not read my other post on the blog Sihtric Ua Ímair (Sihtric Cáech): 917–921 Killed Niall Glundubh. Sihtric and was also the king of Jórvík what is now Yorkshire, England. The Uí Ímair, or the Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled over Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid-9th century, losing control of the first in the mid-10^th. This male line is said to be extinct, yet they married among the Ui Neill. The progenitor Ivar is described in the Irish annals as the brother of Amlaíb Conung and Auisle.

Those who have read my previous post:

The Annals of the Four Masters record in 860 that “Aedh Finnlaith son of Niall Caille and Flann son of Conang went with the lord of the foreigners to plunder Meath”, and the Annals of Ulster record in 863 that "Three kings of the foreigners, Amlaib and Imar and Auisle plundered the land of Flann, son of Conaing, and Lorcan son of Cathal king of Mide was with them in this". There is no dispute that alliances and marriages happened among the Vikings and the Irish in these times. Then things get interesting when the son of the man that killed Niall Glundubh mac Áedo, Amlaíb mac Sihtric is the brother in law of Domhnall Ardmacha Ua Neill, who was the High King of Ireland from 956 to 980, and was the son of Muirchertach mac Neill, and the grandson of Niall Glundubh mac Áedo, and the MRCA of the MacLochlainns and Royal O’Neill’s. He is believed to have been the first to use O’Neill as a surname, for those who do not know Amlaíb mac Sihtric,he was born circa 927 died circa 981; also known as Óláfr Sigtryggsson, Óláfr kváran, but commonly called Amlaíb Cuarán, was a 10th century Norse-Gael who was king of Northumbria and king of Dublin. He had a son named Glúniairn Járnkné (“Iron Knee"), son of his wife Dúnlaith, daughter of Muirchertach mac Néill, and sister of Domhnall Ardmacha Ua Neill.

  

We will never know the true genetic make-up of the O’Neill’s and the Irish population before the 1600’s, since the total population was reduced by plague, famine, war, genocide, immigration of soldiers etc. This makes it harder to find any matches in Ireland assuming that our ancestor left any descendants in Ireland at all, and highly doubt that they did at all. The only three ways this theory can be proven is by one of the males O’Neill’s of the Clannaboy and the Fews come forward with a y-dna sample , and the other is two obtain the y-dna samples from the ancient O’Neill’s . The last one is by some miracle a y-dna sample is obtained from the remains of a medieval Norse, or Dane Viking and the y-dna matches ours Haplotype and SNP.