Shane O'Neill (Irish exile)

Colonel Shane O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone (Irish: Seán Ó Néill; Spanish: Juan O'Neill; also anglicised John O'Neill; 18 October 1599 – 29 January 1641) was an Irish-born nobleman, soldier and member of the Spanish nobility who primarily lived and served in Continental Europe. He fought in the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) and the Reapers' War.

Shane was born during the Irish Nine Years' War, the son of Irish confederate leader Hugh O'Neill. Shane and his extended family permanently left Ireland in 1607 due to hostility from the English government. Shane grew up in the Spanish Netherlands. By 1610 he was his father's eldest surviving son, and he eventually moved to Spain to serve in the Spanish army. Though James I of England had attainted his father's title (Earl of Tyrone) in 1614, the Spanish court made Shane the third holder of the equivalent Spanish title El Conde de Tyrone.

Shane succeeded his elder half-brother Henry as colonel of the original Irish regiment in Flanders. He was a major supporter of a proposed 1627 Spanish invasion of Ireland. Shane was often in conflict with fellow Irish refugee noble Hugh Albert O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, even though their fathers had been wartime allies. Following military success at the Siege of Fuenterrabía, Shane was appointed a member of the Council of War in 1640. He died in Catalonia at the Battle of Montjuïc the following year, and was succeeded by his son Hugo Eugenio O'Neill as both Earl and colonel of the regiment.