tullaghoge fort and inauguration site

Equivalent to the crowning of a monarch, the inauguration gave the individual the right to bear the title 'the O'Neill', the head of the family that had ruled for centuries over Tyrone - an area larger than that covered by the modern county of the same name. The inauguration ceremony was conducted by the throwing of a shoe over the head of the new O'Neill, to indicate that he would follow in the footsteps of his distinguished ancestors who had borne the title. In the last years of her life, Queen Elizabeth I was determined to oust Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, from his title and lordship, and when Hugh finally had to submit to the Queen's deputy, Mountjoy, in the April of 1603, he vowed to renounce 'the name and title of O'Neill'. He had been inaugurated on a stone chair on top of Tullaghoge, which had had the reputation of having been blessed by none other than St. Patrick himself, and in 1602, Mountjoy deliberately smashed this venerable inauguration throne, so that nothing now remains of it.