| Red Hugh O'Donnell,
son of the Lord of Tyrconnell made a dramatic escape from the Record
Tower on the 6th June 1592. He returned to Co. Donegal and assumed
leadership of his Clan. He united with his neighbour, Hugh O' Neill,
the head of the confederacy of Ulster Chieftains, and began a major
campaign of open revolt against the English garrisons in Ulster, which
was the least anglicised province of Ireland. They achieved many victories
in the Nine Years War and nearly succeeded in their goal, when they
dramatically defeated an English army at the 'Battle of the Yellow
Ford' - a defeat 'that shook the Dublin administration till it tottered'.
Dublin's normal compliment of 1,200 armed soldiers was seriously depleted
and the town left inadequately defended, as many were sent to the
war. A report in the Calendar of State Papers of October 1597 describe
that 'the rebels rage all over the Pale, so that almost no part of
it is free from their killings, burnings, preying and despoiling'.
Following their victories, O'Neill and O'Donnell force-marched
their army in the midst of winter, to the southern coast of Co.
Cork in order to relieve a Spanish invasion force of 3,500 men under
Don Juan de Agila. They had landed at Kinsale on the 21st September
to help the Irish cause and were under siege by forces of the new
Lord Deputy Mountjoy. The last stand of Gaelic Ireland took place
in the early hours of Christmas morning 1601, when they were beaten
by superior discipline and routed in open warfare at the Battle
of Kinsale - the Spanish failing to take part.
O'Donnell went to Spain in another attempt to get help, but Phillip
II was short of money for another such expedition. He died in mysterious
circumstances at Simicas and was believed to have been poisoned
by Blake - an agent of the Lord Deputy. O'Neill, a hunted man, eventually
gave up his guerrilla war, submitted to Lord Deputy Mountjoy and
signed the 'Treaty of Melifont' on the 30th March 1603. He was taken
to Dublin Castle where he received a pardon and was informed that
Queen Elizabeth had died six days previously. He is reported to
have been unable to hold back his tears.
On 4th September 1607, feeling threatened by the influx of settlers
and the persecutionary policies of the new Lord Deputy, Arthur Chichester,
O'Neill and the new Chieftain Rory O'Donnell, sailed from Rathmullin,
Co. Donegal, with one hundred followers, never to return. This exodus
of the great Irish Chieftains was a total disaster for the Gaelic
Irish; who now had no protection against what was foreign domination
and assimilation. This, the 'Flight of the Earls' has long been
lamented by successive generations of poets and bards. "This
night sees Éireann desolate, our very souls pass overseas".
The Earls were convicted of high treason and their lands forfeited.
Lord Deputy Chichester saw his opportunity for immediate removal
of the Irish and replacement with 'loyal subjects'. He put this
plan to the English Council to ensure that rebellion would never
again take place in Ulster and it was accepted. Two years later
the 'Articles of Plantation' stated that the majority of Irish Catholics
should be removed to specially designated areas - an idea similar
to the later North American Indian reservations. Chichester, who
later became founder and First Baron of Belfast, stated in his notes
of remembrance that he had killed all the Irish he had come across,
irrespective of sex or rank.
The former Earls' lands of Counties Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh
and Fermanagh were targeted for colonisation. That same year, 1609,
he urged "motives and reasons to induce the Citie of London
to undertake plantation in the North of Ireland". The City
of London Guilds, were granted the area and Derry was named Londonderry.
The use of either name - Derry or Londonderry, still signifies political
allegiance. This plantation was a relocation of people on a massive
scale, far greater than had been previously attempted and proved
to be permanent. By 1700 approximately 170,000 planters including
thirteen thousand Lowland Scots settled in these 'new lands'. Native
labour was required to make the land viable and in 1628, the Government
allowed Irish tenants to live on one quarter of the lands.
The grievances of the dispossessed Irish festered and exploded
in the Rebellion of 1641. A confederate army marched on Dublin and
came close to capturing the city. However the plot to take Dublin
Castle was betrayed and the attempted seizure thwarted. In Ulster,
upwards of 80 Protestants were killed at Portadown Bridge and possibly
12,000 in all during the six months of the rebellion. These atrocities
sent a shock wave through the Ulster Protestant community that is
still remembered today. A Catholic Confederate army which supported
King Charles I of the House of Stuart, was led by Owen Roe O'Neill,
the Spanish born nephew of Red Hugh, defeated an English army at
the Battle of Benburb. King Charles was deposed and beheaded after
the English Civil War.
The army of the royalist Lord Lieutenant Ormonde was defeated by
that of Parliamentarian Colonel Michael Jones at the Battle of Rathmines,
1649. In retaliation for the disloyalty of the Irish, the newly
appointed Lord Lieutenant, Oliver Cromwell was sent to Ireland by
the English Parliament. He landed in Dublin in 1649 with an invasion
force of 4,000 cavalry and 7,000 soldiers. In a short ferocious
campaign, 4,000 towns' people of Drogheda and Wexford were massacred.
All opposition was crushed and Cromwell gave the 'disloyal Irish'
the choice of going 'to Hell or to Connaught' - which is the least
fertile of Ireland's four provinces. While in Ireland, his home
was in Dublin Castle and one of his sons was born there. After Cromwell's
death, the English monarchy was restored under Charles II, son of
Charles I. Cromwell's body was disinterred at Westminster Abbey
and ceremonially executed.
The Dutch, Protestant, Prince William of the House of Orange (son-in-law
of Charles I) deposed the Catholic King James II (brother of Charles
II & brother-in-law of William of Orange) and became King William
III of England. James landed in Kinsale on the 12th March 1689,
with the intention of regaining his crown throughout Ireland. He
marched to Dublin accompanied by the French Ambassador, French,
Jacobean and Irish Officers with 6,000 French soldiers that were
supplied by King Louis the XIV, who was at war with the Netherlands.
Leaving Dublin Castle, James proceeded in full procession to King's
Inns, where the Parliament convened, reversed the 'Act of Settlement'
and other penal restrictions and resolved that the Parliament of
England could not legislate for Ireland. On the 7th May, Ireland
possessed a complete and independent government. He had the Dean
of St. Patrick's imprisoned in the Castle's Wardrobe Tower (the
present Record Tower) and marched north to Derry with an army of
largely Irish Catholics but which also contained Protestant royalists.
However the Presbyterians of Derry refused to recognise him as their
Monarch and on the 7th of December 1689, slammed the gates of the
town before King James's 'Redshanks'. Non-combatants were allowed
to leave and over the next 105 days, starvation and disease crippled
the city. The Siege of Derry was eventually lifted by 'hesitant'
Williamite ships, which breached the boom across the River Foyle.
'No surrender' has remained the watchword of Protestant Ulster ever
since.
William came in pursuit, landed at Carrickfergus and quickly took
Dublin. With a force of 36,000 soldiers (comprising of English,
German, Dutch and Danish troops as well as French Huguenots who
had fled Louis XIV persecutions in France, and Ulster Protestants),
he defeated King James' army of 25,000 at the Battle of the Boyne
on the 12th July 1690 and so solidified Protestant rule. King James
left the field of battle first and spent the night, of that 'glorious
twelfth' at Dublin Castle before sailing for France. William attended
a thanks-giving service in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Protestant Dublin
rejoiced and William attended court at the Castle. Pope Innocent
XI, an enemy of Louis XIV, also celebrated when he was informed
of the welcome news of Williams victory and ordered a 'Te Deum'
to be sung in St. Peters Basilica, Rome.
The war ended a year later, with the death of 10,000 Irish troops
at the 'Battle of Aughrim'. The resultant 'Treaty of Limerick' guaranteed
the rights and property of the defeated Irish in return for loyalty.
The 17th Century, had opened with the defeat of the Irish Chieftains
at the Battle of Kinsale and saw the end of the Gaelic order with
the 'Flight of the Earls'- 'Would that God have permitted them to
remain in their inheritance!'. The 17th Century closed with the
'Flight of the Wild Geese', when 14,000 fighting men left Ireland
forever to form the Irish Brigades of Continental Europe. The poet
Emily Lawless captured the anguish in her collection 'With the Wild
Geese' (1902)
War battered dogs are we,
Fighters in every clime;
Fillers of trench and of grave,
Mockers bemocked by time,
War-dogs hungry and grey,
Gnawing a naked bone,
Fighters in every clime..
Every cause but our own.
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