The Right Honourable the Lord O’Neill, Shane’s Castle in the County of Antrim is the fourth Baron, who succeeded to the tile in 1944. The O’Neills stem from the oldest traceable family in Europe.
Lord O’Neill has a distinguish record of service to heritage and history. He is a past trustee of the Ulster Local History Trust. He was chairman of the Northern Ireland National Trust, a member of the Museums and Galleries Commissions, a trustee of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Vice-chairman of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, a member of the Board of Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland and chairman of the Northern Ireland Museums Council.
Lord O’Neill agreed to become patron of the Ulster Local History Trust in 2013, on the death of its first patron, the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.