O’Neill resigned on 28 April 1969. David Bleakley has painted a not unfriendly portrait of his tenure in office: …he was in many ways a prisoner of the aristocratic remoteness associated with the O’Neill line. It was at once his greatest asset and his heaviest liability – good for foreign consumption, but difficult to retail at home… It was right for O’Neill to make the attempt and a great pity that more of his party had not made the move earlier… But O’Neill laboured under the difficulty of his clan: he moved among the Roman Catholic population like some ancient lord, anxious to do the decent
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