The following text was taken from Hiram Morgan’s ‘Faith and Fatherland or Queen and Country? An Unpublished Exchange Between O’Neill and the State at the Height of the Nine Years War’ in Dúiche Néill: Journal of the O’Neill country historical society, 1994. It can be read online here.
The articles presented are a manifesto drawn up as O’Neill’s final negotiating position with the English crown, sometimes called his ‘War Aims’; they also aimed at drawing the Anglo-Irish of the Pale to O’Neill’s cause. The articles notably appeal to the common Catholicism and Irishness of the lords of the Pale and the Gaelic chiefs. As Morgan notes, this strategy failed: ‘They may have learned to speak the Irish language but they valued the purity of their English culture and had ingrained habits of loyalty to the English crown. They considered themselves not only more civilised but also by the same token better Catholics than the Irish. At bottom they considered the Gaelic lords too tyrannical in government to be trusted with the leadership of a civil society.’
For further context and additional information we recommend reading the aforementioned article in its full, as well as James O’Neill’s book The Nine Years War 1593-1603.
‘Articles intended to be stood upon by Tyrone’, Nov-Dec 1599.
Sir Robert Cecil has endorsed these with the word ‘Ewtopia’
1. That the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion be openly preached and taught throughout all Ireland, as well cities as borough towns, by Bishops, seminary priests, Jesuits and other religious men.
2. That the Church of Ireland be wholly governed by the Pope.
3. That all cathedrals and parish churches, abbeys, and all other religious houses, with all tithes and church lands, now in the hands of the English, be presently restored to the Catholic churchmen.
4. That all Irish priests and religious men, now prisoners in England or Ireland, be presently set at liberty, with all temporal Irishmen, that are troubled for their conscience, and to go where they will without further trouble.
5. That all Irish priests and religious men may freely pass and repass, by sea and land, to and from foreign countries.
6. That no Englishman be a churchman in Ireland.
7. That there be erected an university upon the Crown rents of Ireland, wherein all sciences shall be taught according to the manner of the Catholic Roman Church.
8. That the Governor of Ireland be at least an Earl, and of the Privy Council of England, bearing the name of Viceroy.
9. That the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, Lord Admiral, the Council of State, the Justices of the laws, Queen’s Attorney, Queen’s Serjeant, and all other officers appertaining to the Council and law of Ireland, be Irishmen.
10. That all principal governments of Ireland, as Connaught, Munster, &c., be governed by Irish noblemen.
11. That the Master of Ordnance, and half the soldiers with their officers resident in Ireland, be Irishmen.
12. That no Irishman’s heirs shall lose their lands for the faults of their ancestors.
13. That no Irishman’s heir under age shall fall in the Queen’s or her successors’ hands, as a ward, but that the living be put to the heir’s profit, and the advancement of his younger brethren, and marriages of his sisters, if he have any.
14. That no children nor any other friends be taken as pledges for the good abearing of their parents, and, if there be any such pledges now in the hands of the English, they must be presently released.
15. That all statutes made against the preferment of Irishmen; as well in their own country as abroad, be presently recalled.
16. That the Queen nor her successors may in no sort press an Irishman to serve against his will.
17. That O’Neill, O’Donnell, and the Earl of Desmond, with all their partakers, may peaceably enjoy all lands and privileges that did appertain to their predecessors 200 years past.
18. That all Irishmen, of what quality they be, may freely travel in foreign countries for their better experience, without making any of the Queen’s officers acquainted withal.
19. That all Irishmen may as freely travel and traffic all merchandises in England as Englishmen, paying the same rights and tributes as the English do.
20. That all Irishmen may freely traffic with all merchandises, that shall be thought necessary by the Council of State of Ireland for the profit of their Republic, with foreigners or in foreign countries, and that no Irishman shall be troubled for the passage of priests or other religious men.
21. That all Irishmen that will may learn, and use all occupations and arts whatsoever.
22. That all Irishmen may freely build ships of what burden they will, furnishing the same with artillery and all munition at their pleasure.
Taken from Cal. S.P. Ire, 1599-1600, pp.279-80 in which the language has been modernised.