THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The Red Hand of Ulster
History
BY
JOHN G. ROWE
Author of "in Nelson's Day," "Por His Father's Honour.
"The Pilgrims of Grace." etc.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1915
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I loved a love a royal love
In the golden long ago ;
And she was fair as fair could be,
The foam upon the broken sea,
The sheen of sun, or moon or star,
The sparkle from the diamond spar,
Not half so rare and radiant are
As my own love my royal love
In the golden long ago."
Edmund Ltamy, M.P.
PREFACE.
"The story of our native land, from weary age to age,
Is writ in blood and scalding tears on many a gloomy page."
My idea, in compiling this book, was to get away
from " the blood and scalding tears " as much as
possible, to avoid the horrible and gruesome, those
detestable cruelties and inhumanities which have
too long made Irish History a nightmare to all, which
must fill the minds of even adult readers with sickening
horror and bitter resentment, and the recapitulation
of which to-day can serve no good purpose, but merely
keep alive racial hatreds.
I have sought, on the other hand, to display in the
most glowing colours all the romance and glory bound
up in the history of a land which, I assert, is perhaps
more entitled to be called one of romance than any
other on the face of the earth, and that from earliest
times up to the present. And my object in doing so
is to awaken a deep and true love of our country and
her heroic past in the hearts of the rising generation.
V1U PREFACE.
If a perusal of this book inspire the student of Irish
History to prosecute deeper research, the author will
feel that his task a labour of love on the whole
has not been labour wasted, has not been vain.
JOHN G. ROWE.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT ERIN.
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE COMING OP THE MILESIANS . . 3
II. THE RED BRANCH KNIGHTS AND CUCHULLAIN 10
III. FINN MAcCooL AND THE ANCIENT FENIANS
NIAL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES . .22
IV. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY
ST. PATRICK ...:.. 32
V. THE COMING OF THE DANES. How MALACHY
WON " THE COLLAR OF GOLD," AND BRIAN
BORU BROKE THE DANISH POWER AT
CLONTARF 41
PART II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION.
VI. How DERMOT MACMURROUGH BROUGHT
THE ENGLISH OVER . . . -57
VII. THE BRUGES IN IRELAND . . . - . 66
VIII. KING ART MACMURROUGH, THE DREAD OF
THE PALE . . - . . . -75
PART III.
THE GERALDINES.
IX. SILKEN THOMAS . . . . -85
X. SHANE THE PROUD ,;/ . . . -93
XI. GRANUA UAILE. GLENMALURE. THE FALL
OF THE GERALDINES . . . -99
CONTENTS.
PART IV.
THE TWO HUGHS.
CHAP. PAGE
XII. THE KIDNAPPING OF RED HUGH O'DOXNELL 109
XIII. CLONTIBRET AND THE YELLOW FORD . .115
XIV. KINSALE. THE DEFENCE OF DUNBOY.
O'SULUVAN'S FAMOUS RETREAT . .123
PART V.
THE CONFEDERATE WAR.
XV. How OWEN ROE O'NEILL GAVE ms SWORD
TO HIS SIRELAND ; AND HIS GREAT VICTORY
AT BENBURB 133
XVI. CROMWELL IN IRELAND. His REPULSE AT
CLONMEL . . . . . . 144
PART VI.
FOR JAMES OR WILLIAM ?
XVII. THE DEFENCE OF DERRY . . . . 155
XVIII. THE BOYNE WATER. SARSFIELD'S RIDE.
THE WOMEN OF LIMERICK . . .164
XIX. HOW THEY HELD THE BRIDGE AT ATHLONE.
AUGHRIM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK . 173
PART VII.
THE IRISH BRIGADE.
XX.- SARSFIELD'S DEATH. How THE IRISH SAVED
CREMONA . . . . . . 183
XXI. LACY AND WOGAN. THE CROWNING VICTORY
OF FONTENOY. COUNT LALLY . .190
CONTENTS. XI
PART VIII.
THE DAYS OF GRATTAN.
CHAP. PAGE
XXII. THUROT'S RAID. THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS.
GRATTAN AND FLOOD .... 199
XXIII. WOLFE TONE AND THE UNITED IRISHMEN.
THE FRENCH INVASION OF 1796. " REMEM-
BER ORR." 206
XXIV. THE CAPTURE OF LORD EDWARD. "NINETY-
EIGHT." WEXFORD RISES . . -215
XXV. PEASANT VICTORIES. Ross. ARKLOW.
VINEGAR HILL. BALLYELLIS . . . 223
XXVI. HUMBERT'S INVASION. THE FATE OF TONE.
HOLT AND DWYER ..... 235
XXVII. How THE " UNION " WAS PASSED . . 244
XXVIII. ROBERT EMMET 252
PART IX.
MORAL OR PHYSICAL FORCE ?
XXIX. DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE LIBERATOR . . 263
XXX. THE YOUNG IRELANDERS .... 272
XXXI. JAMES STEPHENS AND THE FENIAN MOVE-
MENT ....... 279
XXXII. THE RISING OF THE STH OF MARCH, '67 . 284
XXXIII. THE MANCHESTER RESCUE . . . 292
PART X.
HOME RULE.
XXXIV. THE HOME RULE AGITATION. THE PHOENIX
PARK TRAGEDY ..... 303
XXXV. PARNELL'S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FALL . 314
XXXVI. IN SIGHT OF HOME RULE .... 324
XXXVII. HOME RULE ON THE CARPET . . .331
PART I.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT ERIN.
Let Erin remember the days of old,
Ere her faithless sons betrayed her,
When Malachy wore the collar of gold,
Which he won from the proud invader,
When her kings with standards of green unfurled,
Led the Red Branch knights to danger,
Ere the emerald gem of the western world
Was set in the crown of a stranger.
THOMAS MOORE.
THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
THE COMING OF THE Ml^ESIANS TO " THE ISI<E
OF DESTINY." QUEEN MACHA " OF THE GOLDEN
HAIR." KING EOCHY " THE SIGHER," AND THE
PARTITION OF J.NNIS-FAII, INTO FIVE KINGDOMS.
Ireland, the land of Eire, called also by the ancients
Inis fail or the " isle of destiny," can claim, perhaps
better than any other country, to have been, from the
earliest times, a land of romance.
In the far-back mythical ages, we see it emerging
from the mists of the morning of history as " the
Promised Isle " of the Milesians, the martial race who
came from Spain, though they were not Spaniards.
The Milesians were a Scythian people, moving ever
westward, " in the track of the setting sun," seeking,
according to tradition, an island promised them as
the descendants of Gadhele, or Gadelihs, on account of
whom they were also known as Gadheles, or Gaels.
It is said that it was on the i7th of May, 1029
B.C., they thus first sighted Ireland ; and what finer
picture can a historian, dealing with the romantic side
of Irish history, open with than such a scene as this ?
The Milesians, so called from Milidh, or Milesius,
4 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
their king, lay off Wexford Harbour in thirty ships.
Aboard each ship were thirty warriors, with their wives,
children and dependents. Milidh, their patriarch-
monarch, was dead, but his wife, the aged Queen-
Mother, Scota, was there, with her eight stalwart sons.
Possibly the same poetic fancy was in their hearts as
John I,ocke, the gifted Irish poet of the nineteenth
century, voiced in his beautiful poem " Dawn on the
Irish Coast " :
Oh, manam le Dia ! but there it is,
The dawn on the hills of Ireland !
God's angels lifting the night's black veil
From the fair sweet face of my sireland.
Oh, Ireland, isn't it grand you look,
Like a bride in her rich adorning ?
And with all the pent-up love of my heart,
I bid you the top of the morning.
These Milesian invaders guarded in their midst
a Sacred Banner, symbolising to them both their
origin and their mission, the promise given to their
race, a flag on which was represented a dead serpent
and the rod of Moses, for, so the legend runs, their
ancestor, Gadelius, was bitten while a child by a
serpent and miraculously cured by Moses in return for
the kindness of his countrymen to the persecuted
Israelites. Moses, the legend adds, also prophesied
or promised that they should inhabit a country " in
which no venomous reptile could live, an island they
should seek and find in the track of the setting
sun."
Now a people called Danaans, or the Tuatha de
Danaan, were in possession of Ireland at the time.
THE COMING OF THE MILESIANS. 5
They had defeated and driven the Firbolgs, earlier
colonists again, into the west parts. The Danaans
are supposed to have been Celts or Belgae ; the
Firbolgs are generally believed to have come from
Greece. Preceding the Firbolgs, Ireland is said to
have been colonised by the Nemedians, a Scythian
people like the Milesians ; and before them again by
the Partholans, a Grecian race allied to the Firbolgs.
Thomas Moore, in one of his " Melodies," thus
describes the coming of the Milesians :
" They came from a land beyond the sea,
And now o'er the western main,
Set sail in their good ships, gallantly,
From the sunny land of Spain.
' Oh, where's the Isle we've seen in dreams.
Our destin'd home or grave ? '
Thus sang they as, by the morning's beams,
They swept the Atlantic wave.
And lo, where afar o'er ocean shines
A sparkle of radiant green.
As though in that deep lay emerald mines,
Whose light through the wave was seen,
' 'Tis Innisfail 'tis Innisfail ! '
Rings o'er the echoing sea ;
While, bending to heaven, the warriors hail
That home of the brave and free.
Then turned they unto the Eastern wave,
Where now their Day-God's eye
A look of such sunny omen gave
As lighted up sea and sky.
Nor frown was seen through sky or sea,
Nor tear o'er leaf or sod,
When first on their Isle of Destiny
Our great forefathers trod."
6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Innisfail, the Isle of Destiny, was reached, and the
Milesians hastened to effect a landing. But we are
told that a great mist forthwith came on, hiding the
land, and they attributed this to the incantations of
the Danaans, who were supposed to be great necro-
mancers. Then followed a tremendous hurricane,
scattering the fleet ; so it would seem that even in
those early days Irish winds objected to aliens landing
on Irish soil.
No less than five of the eight sons of Milidh perished
in the storm, together with many lesser chiefs and
warriors. However, the survivors landed, some near
Drogheda, others in Kerry ; and like men who meant
business, they promptly burned their ships to destroy
all thoughts of retreat or flight. In the fighting that
ensued, the Danaans were signally defeated, but with
the loss to the Milesians of Scota, their aged Queen-
Mother, who died as she had lived, a warrior-queen,
in a great battle near Tralee. On the Danaan side
fell three princes, who were brothers and married to
three sisters. The names of these three princesses,
Eire, Banba or Banva, and Fiola, are often used to
signify Ireland. These three queens fell by each
other's hands on hearing of the disastrous result of
the battle.
From the name of their great queen, Scota, the
Milesians were also called Scots. They afterwards
colonised Alba (Scotland), subduing the Picts, and
hence the name of Scotland.
As A. M. Sullivan in his " Story of Ireland " says,
" the queens of ancient Ireland figure prominently
in our history." And so, perhaps, Erin is well repre-
THE COMING OF THE MILESIANS. 5
Thay had defeated and driven the Firbolgs, earlier
colonists again, into the west parts. The Danaans
are supposed to have been Celts or Belgae ; the
Firbolgs are generally believed to have come from
Greece. Preceding the Firbolgs, Ireland is said to
have been colonised by the Nemedians, a Scythian
people like the Milesians ; and before them again by
the Partholans, a Grecian race allied to the Firbolgs.
Thomas Moore, in one of his " Melodies," thus
describes the coming of the Milesians :
" They came from a land beyond the sea,
And now o'er the western main
Set sail in their good ships, gallantly,
From the sunny land of Spain.
' Oh, where's the Isle we've seen in dreams,
Our destin'd home or grave ? '
Thus sang they as, by the morning's beams,
They swept the Atlantic wave.
And lo, where afar o'er ocean shines
A sparkle of radiant green,
As though in that deep lay emerald mines
Whose light through the wave was seen,
' Tis Innisfail 'tis Innisfail ! '
Rings o'er the echoing sea ;
While, bending to heaven, the warriors hail
That home of the brave and free.
Then turned they unto the Eastern wave
Where now their Day-God's eye
A look of sach sunny omen gave
As lighted up sea and sky.
Nor frown was seen through sky or sea,
Nor tear o'er leaf or sod,
When first on their Isle of Destiny
Our great forefathers trod."
8 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
He was a noble-looking man, with dark hair, and
when he was led captive before the queen, who had
never seen him before, she formed a deep attachment
for him. Refusing to put him to death as counselled
by her officers, she bade him and his brothers and their
retainers build her a palace near Armagh. When they
had done so, she named it E mania, and took up her
residence there, and it was the palace of the Kings
of Ulster for six centuries. Its site is marked to-day
by the Navan " fort " or " ring," a rath or barrow
some twelve acres in extent.
Queen Macha now offered Cimbaeth his liberty and
a princedom elsewhere ; but he replied that he pre-
ferred to remain and be her slave for all time, and,
kneeling at her feet, he plainly showed her that her
regard was reciprocated. This royal romance had a
fitting termination. Macha thereupon offered her
willing knight her hand and throne, and they shared
the throne of Ireland until death parted them, ruling
the country well and bringing great prosperity to it.
They founded near Emania " a regal city containing
many thousands of inhabitants," viz., Armagh, i.e., Ard-
Macha or Macha's height.
We now come to him who has been variously styled
" The Irish Achilles," and " The Greatest Champion of
the Scottish (i.e., Irish) race," the " incomparable "
Cuchullain. He stands forth so prominently in the
annals of the Heroic Age of Erin, that the period is
often denoted as the Cuchullain cycle, and innumerable
have been the books, essays and poems written about
him. Needless to say, there is a great deal of legend-
ary, as well as historic, lore connected with him.
THE COMING OF THE MILESIANS. 9
The soldier Milesian race lived only for the battle-
field, the chase, and the banqueting-hall. Furiously
into the serried ranks of the enemy, the Milesian
chieftain rushed in his war-chariot, standing erect by
the charioteer, driving at top speed, and right and
left he wreaked death and havoc with his javelins and
spear.
By King Eochy " the Signer," so called because of his
continually lamenting the loss of his sons in a battle at
Drumcree, some time before the Cuchullain period, the
country had most unfortunately been divided into five
parts. Over each of these Eochy appointed a sub-king,
styling himself the Ard-Righ, or High-King. These
five kingdoms were Ulidia (Ulster), Lagenia (Leinster),
Conact (Connaught), Thomond or North Mononia
(Munster Clare more particularly) ; and Desmond or
South Munster.
Eochy gave his daughter Mave or Mab in marriage
to the sub-king of Connaughf, building her a palace at
Cruachan or Rathcroghan. This Queen Mave is another
of Ireland's famous warrior-queens. On her husband's
death she reigned alone for ten years.
10 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER II.
THE STONE OF DESTINY. THE LEGEND OF THE
RED HAND OF ULSTER. THE RED BRANCH
KNIGHTS AND CUCHULLAIN, THE " IRISH
ACHILLES." KING CONNOR MACNESSA AND THE
BRAIN-BALL.
The Tuatha de Danaans are said to have brought
to Ireland the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, also
called " Jacob's Stone." It was a stone fabulously
reputed to be that on which Jacob rested his head at
L,uza. It was used as the coronation stone of the
supreme kings of Ireland in these early Druidic days.
For some reason, about the beginning of Christianity,
it was removed to Scotland. Thenceforward it became
the stone on which Scottish Kings were crowned, and
was kept for that purpose at Scone in Perthshire.
Until the dawn of Christianity it was believed to
have extraordinary virtues, and in Scotland, for long
after, the superstition attached to it that " wherever
the stone should be found, some one of the race
should reign." Edward I. of England, determined that
he and his successors should rule in Scotland, and for
that matter, in all Great Britain, in 1300, having
temporarily crushed the Scots, carried off this stone
THE STONE OF DESTINY. II
to Westminister, where it stiil remains, inclosed in
the coronation chair of the Kings of England.
Although the Milesians recognised one supreme king,
they were split up into clans, and the clans again
into septs, or smaller sections, the natural outcome
of the family instinct, and a condition to be found
among all primitive peoples. That the clan system
was not earlier broken up is generally supposed to
have been the cause of a great deal of the mis-
fortunes of both Ireland and Scotland. But this is
somewhat of a moot point. .Certainly it resulted
in endless petty jealousies and bitter feuds, fatal
disunion and treachery, even in the face of the
common enemy. So, too, did the partition of Innisfail
into five kingdoms.
A romantic legend, handed down to us of the first
of the great clan O'Neill, accounts for the famous
armorial bearing of the Red Hand of Ulster. When
the Milesian chiefs were exploring and dividing among
themselves the subjugated " Isle of Destiny," " in
order to quicken the emulation between the captains,
the leader proclaimed," as they approached the shores
of Ulster, " Whosoever shall first touch the land yonder,
to him shall all the adjacent land be given." It is
also alleged that the king promised his daughter's
hand as a further inducement, a very likely thing in
those days. Then did the young Chief of the House
of Nial or Neill, who loved the maiden and saw a rival's
boat passing his in the race, sever at one blow with
his trusty sword or axe his right hand at the wrist. He
caught the bleeding member as it fell on the deck,
and, with all the power of his strong left arm, flung it
12 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
ashore, on to the beach, ahead of the straining prow of
his rival. He had touched the land first, and Ulster
became his patrimony and the royal maid his wife.
The '* Sunburst " was the national flag of the Irish
after the coming of the Milesians, possibly adopted by
them in commemoration of the first dawn they saw
shining upon their Isle of Destiny, and the Bloody or
Red Hand became the cognizance of the royal house
of Ulidia or Ulster.
We have come to the period immediately preceding
the time of our Saviour, that known in Ireland, on
account of its great champion, as already stated, as
the Cuchullain era. Connor MacNessa was king of
Ulidia or Ulster, and Eochy the Tenth was High- King
at Tara. MacNessa meant son of Nessa, Nessa being
Connor's mother not his father. She was from all
accounts, a scheming woman who contrived to
persuade her second husband the rightful king, Fergus
MacRoigh, to give up his throne to her son, on
condition that she married him. Connor, however,
was one of the best kings that ever ruled in Ireland,
and may be likened in every way to King Arthur of
British fame.
He founded an order of knighthood that may
be compared to that of King Arthur's Round Table.
This was the famous order of the Knights of the Red
Branch. Most children, on first hearing of the Red
Branch knights of these early days of Ireland
" When her kings, with standards of green unfurled,
Led the Red Branch knights to danger,"
imagine that they were so called because they wore
red plumes like branches or boughs of trees in
THE STONE OF DESTINY. 13
their helmets. Not so, however. The word " red "
in this case meant " royal," the " Royal Branch,"
for the most distinguished members of the order
were descended from the founder of the clan Roe, Roe
or Ruagh, meaning simply Red.
The most famous of these Red Branch knights were,
first and foremost the hero, Cuchullain ; then I^aeg
MacRian (his charioteer), Conall Cearnach, Eoghan
or Eugene MacDurtacht, Cormac Colingas, Laeghaire
Buadach, Celtchar MacUithir, and the three sons of
Usna Naisi, Anli and Ardan.
King Connor lodged his gallant champions in one
of three great palaces that formed his court at
Emania. These three palaces were, first, his own, or
the Royal Dun or Residence ; then the " Speckled
Court," and the " Red Branch." The " Speckled
Court " was so called from the varied colour of the
arms of the warriors stored therein. Some authorities,
however allege that the designation " Red Branch "
was assumed from the heads and other gory
memorials of their enemies that were kept in their
palace, styled Craobh Derg, or Red Court.
We are told that King Connor's own private palace
contained 150 rooms, and was constructed of red yew
wood and bordered with copper, his own apartment
having its walls faced with bronze and silver, with birds
on these metals, their heads set with shining carbuncles.
Thirty warriors might have dined together in the royal
chamber.
The nam2 Cuchullain was only a sobriquet. The
warrior's birth-name was Setanta. He was King Con-
nor's sister's son, and born on the rath of Dun Dealgan,
14 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
or, as it is known to-day, Castletown Mount, outside
Dundalk (the anglicised form of Dundealgan. Dealgan
was a Firbolg chief). It was here that Edward Bruce
was crowned King of Ireland in A.D. 1316. Our hero
is often referred to as Cuchullain of Muirtheimhne,
which was his patrimony, and comprised the county
of Ivouth. From his earliest childhood Setanta, or
Cuchullain, displayed a love of arms and warlike
amusements. While yet a boy he ran away from his
home and made his way to Emania, alone and
unattended. He fell foul of a group of boys outside
the royal palace, and, proclaiming his identity, was
laughed to scorn, whereupon he dashed among the
scoffers, knocking them down right and left.
" And the war-steeds of the Ultonians (Ulidians)
neighed loudly in their stables, and from the armoury
of the Red Branch rose a clangour of brass. . . .
the singing of swords, long silent, and the brazen
thunder of the revolution of wheels." The royal shield
hanging on the wall, so the story goes, gave forth
its usual moaning sound whenever its owner was in
danger, whence it was known as " Ocean," and another
shield, known as " the Gate of Battle," belonging to
the champion Celtchar MacUithir, boomed forth. Out
rushed all within the three mansions ; and the druids
foretold " that a warrior had arisen greater than had
yet been seen in Erin."
Meanwhile, a boy named I,aeg MacRian, son of the
petty king or chief of Gavra, had taken Setanta's part,
and helped him against the others. The two lads
became fast friends, and Laeg afterwards was the hero's
charioteer and life-long companion. The boys Setanta
THE STONE OF DESTINY. 15
had fallen foul of belonged to the military school of
the Red Branch knights, founded by King Connor.
Setanta was now received into the school and became
the protege of King Connor.
One day, shortly after, the King and his retinue
were visiting at the dun or mansion of the great
armourer of the Ultonians, Chullain or Cullen by name.
He lived on the summit or slope of Slieve Gullion,
which was named after him. " There was never in
Erin a better smith than he." "It was he who made
the armour and the shields, the swords and spears and
war-chariots of the Ultonian or Ulidian warriors." In
the night when all in the dun or mansion had retired,
after the banquet to which Chullain had entertained
them Setanta, who had been left behind, arrived, and
was attacked by the great ban-dog which guarded
the premises. Setanta killed the dog, and Chullain was
so distressed over its loss that the young champion
elected to perform the services of a watchdog for him
in reparation.
Thenceforward he was no longer known by the
name of Setanta, but by the sobriquet of Cu Chullain
or Chullain's Hound.
Cuchullain was now formally initiated into the great
" Red Branch " order of knighthood ; and we see him
next in his war-chariot, driven by his friend L,aeg and
drawn by his two renowned steeds, " I^iath Macha "
and " Black Shanglan," rushing to do battle against
the three sons of Nectain, sworn foes of the Ultonians.
He killed them one after the other in single combat.
Our hero fell in love with the beautiful and accom-
plished lady Eimer, daughter of Feargal, a nobleman
1 6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
residing at Lusk in County Dublin. The lady's father
objected to the match, in accordance with the unwritten
canon of true romance. He proceeded to Emania, and
strategically aroused the curiosity of certain of the Red
Branch knights, and particularly Cuchullain, to see the
great military academy of Donal at Scatha or Skye,
one of the Scottish isles. Cuchullain went to Scatha,
but before doing so had " a secret interview with his
lady-love, and they pledged mutual troth and con-
stancy." In Scatha he made the acquaintance of a
young warrior and fellow-pupil, Ferdia, a Firbolg
hailing from Connaught, which province indeed the
Firbolgs held possession of for more than a thousand
years.
On his return home, Feargal refused to let him see
Eimer, and kept her close prisoner. Our hero induced
her to elope with him. He was hotly pursued, and
had to turn his chariot at every ford from Lusk to
Muirtheimhne to give battle. But he and the fair
Eimer, and her maid and Laeg eventually reached his
own castle of Dun Dealgan safely.
His next exploit forms the subject of the great epic
of ancient Irish literature. This is the historic Tain
Bo Chuailgne or " Cattle Raid of Cooley." Cooley is
the great promontory or tongue of land lying between
Dundalk and Newry. It was part of Cuchullain's
patrimony.
Queen Mave, of Connaught, the daughter of Eochy
the Signer, had married King Connor MacNessa of
Ulster ; but they had not got on well together and
had separated, with bitter mutual recriminations.
Connor was her first husband ; then, as we have
THE STONE OF DESTINY. I?
seen, she was espoused to the sub-king of Connaught,
and now, on his death, she married a Leinster Prince
named Ailill, by whom she had many sons and one
daughter, Findabar or " the Fairbrowed."
Mave and her husband had a dispute as to a bull, a
fine animal known as " the White-horned." Ailill
would have it that there was not its equal in the land,
and Mave said there was. He challenged her to find
one, and she took up the challenge, consulting her
messengers or couriers to tell her of one. MacRath,
her chief courier, said there was a finer bull in the
cantred of Cooley in Ulster, and its name was
Don Chuailgne, or Brown Bull. One named Dare
owned the bull, and he refused Queen Mave's offer
to buy it. The warrior queen determined to take
it by force, and she raised an army and invaded
Ulster.
The Ulster chiefs were, at the time, all laid prostrate
with a periodical debility, said to be the result of a
curse pronounced upon them. Cuchullain, the fable
says, was free of the curse. Alone he hung " upon
the invaders' flank, a fiery scourge," and finally he
challenged all their leading champions to meet him in
single combat. Then ensued the famous " Fight
at the Ford," of Ardee, long celebrated by the bards.
Cuchullain in succession fought ninety Connaught
heroes, one a day, laying them all low. The ninety-
first to face him was his former friend and fellow-pupil
in the Isle of Scatha, Ferdia.
Cuchullain at first refused to fight with him, but
at length was forced to do so. After three days'
fighting Ferdia was killed. Ferdia fought for love of
l8 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Findabar, the Fairbrowed, whose hand Queen Mave
had promised him.
The Queen now ended the battle of single combat,
marched on, ravaged Ulster, up to the gates of Emania,
swept Cooley, seized the Brown Bull, and returned
homeward triumphant. But the Red Branch knights
recovered from their prostration, and, pursuing the
retreating army, " impeded with the spoils of war,"
overtook it and defeated it in a great battle at Clara
in County Westmeath. King Connor MacNessa then
led a punitive expedition against the Leinster septs
for having aided Queen Mave ; and, at the famous
battle of Rosnaree, Cuchullain, by a valorous charge in
his war-chariot, turned " rout into victory."
Smarting under defeat, Queen Mave again raised
a mighty army and invaded Ulster, taking advantage
of the absence of King Connor and the Red Branch
knights in another part of the kingdom. Emania was
taken and given to the flames, and Connor's palace and
the Court of the Red Branch were likewise " gutted
with fire." With vengeance in their hearts, the
champions of Uladh hurried back. Down upon the
serried ranks of the foe thundered the Red Branch
knights, each erect in his flying chariot, with spear
poised and broad shield covering his breast ; and
foremost in the battle-front as ever raced Cuchullain,
" the Hound of Uladh, lord of war."
" Splendid o'er the plain he speeds,
. . . " Louder whirr his whirling wheels."
With Laeg, his faithful charioteer and friend, guiding
and lashing the two horses, the fabled " I,iath Macha "
and " Black Shanglan," to faster and i aster speed
THE STONE OF DESTINY 1 9
" Never hoofs like them shall ring,
Rapid as the winds of spring "
he ploughed lanes, " deep and broad," through the
reeling ranks of the foe, strewing the plain wherever
he turned with dead and dying.
But lo ! the chariot of L,ugaidh MacCuroi, King
of Munster, swept up, not to meet him, but to take
him in the rear. A poisoned javelin flew from
MacCuroi's practised hand, and pierced the champion
through the chest, as he turned too late to defend
himself. Transfixed, he fell and rolled out of the
chariot. Unbeaten still, though dying, he dragged
himself to a tall pillar-stone near by, marking the
grave of a warrior slain in some previous war.
Holding to it, he got upon his feet, determined to
die standing, as became the Champion of Uladh.
He bound himself to the stone with his mantle, which
he tore in two and passed about him like a sash, and
thus he died. " Thus they beheld him, standing with
the drawn sword in his hand and the rays of the
setting sun bright on his panic-striking helmet."
His " Leaning Stone " still stands at Ratheddy, near
Knockbridge, outside Dundalk. It has a vertical
crack, and the strata of the stone on the one side
of this run at right angles to those of the other,
curiously enough.
Laeg MacRian, his charioteer and friend, fell with
him on that fatal field, being stricken down
immediately afterwards, hampered, as he was with
the horses, by a second unerring javelin from the
same hand. But promptly their deaths were avenged.
Another Red Branch hero, Conall Cearnach, tore up
20 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
mad with rage at the death of his beloved Chief, and
straightway spitted the Munster monarch on his lance.
" Home they bore her warrior dead " the mourning
knights of the Red Branch, and Eimer, his fond
spouse, on seeing the dead body of her lord, threw
herself down beside it, and there and then died of
grief.
Such is the story of Cuchullain, and there can be no
doubt that it is founded on a good deal of truth, and
so is entitled to a place in a work that claims to be
" the Romance of Irish History."
There is one allegation against Connor MacNessa's
honour. Moore has dealt with it in his " Lament for
the Children of Usna." The story goes that Deirdre
was a lovely maiden, beloved by Connor, but she eloped
with a young noble named Naisi, a son of Usna.
To be revenged, Connor invited Naisi and his two
brothers to return to Emania from their retreat in
Alba (Scotland) , and he then slaughtered them and their
attendants. A dreadful civil war followed, which
nearly resulted in Connor's destruction.
But doubts have been cast upon the story of his
treachery, for in all other respects he proved himself
a brave and noble man ; and most fitting was the
end which, according to tradition, befel him. The
pagan Irish sometimes took the brains of their slain
foes, mixed them up with lime, and, rolling them into
balls, let these harden, and kept them as trophies.
Once in a way they used them as missiles from
slings. With one of these brain-balls King Connor
was wounded in a battle. His physician warned him
that to remove it from his head, in which it was
THE STONE OF DESTINY. 21
" buried two-thirds of its depth," would mean his instant
death, but said that if it were left where it was he
might live many years, provided always that he did
not over-excite himself. Years passed, when news
reached him, 'tis said, of the true God having been
crucified. Heathen though he was, King Connor's
generous heart was touched.
" He rushed to the woods, striking wildly at boughs
that dropped down with each blow,
And he cried : ' Were I 'midst the vile rabble, I'd
cleave them to earth even so,
With the strokes of a high king of Erin, the whirls
of my keen- tempered sword,
I would save from their horrible fury that mild and
that merciful lyord.'
His frame shook and heaved with emotion ; the
brain-ball leaped forth from his head,
And, commending his soul to that Saviour, King
Connor MacNessa fell dead."
22 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER III.
MORAN " THE JUST." THE BORU TRIBUTE CON OF
THE HUNDRED BATTLES. FINN MACCOOL AND
THE ANCIENT FENIANS. NIAL OF THE NINE
HOSTAGES AND HIS SUBJUGATION OF SCOTLAND,
BRITAIN AND GAUL.
Far as the Roman soldier penetrated, he never set foot
on Irish soil, and this fact is often thought to have
been a calamity rather than an advantage. Had the
Romans subjugated Ireland as they did Britain, they
would have consolidated the Kingdom and destroyed
the bad effect of the clan system. Britain, however,
did not benefit very much by Roman rule, and was left
in a parlous condition at the time of the Anglo-
Saxon invasion.
The Romans, however, were acquainted with the
inhabitants of Krin, and Irish soldiers fought the
conquerors of the world on the continent. Ireland
was known to the Romans by various names : lerne,
Juverna, Hibernia and Scotia.
The Firbolgs and other subject races, classed under
the generic name of Attacotti by Latin historians,
conspired after the reign of Connor MacNessa to rid
themselves of their Milesian taskmasters. It was a
most carefully planned massacre. All the royal and
MORAN " THE JUST." 23
noble families of the dominant race were invited to
a great meeting for games and athletic exercises on
the plain of Knock Ma, in the county of Galway,
and at the end of nine days they were suddenly set
upon by a great body of conspirators, and slaughtered
to a man.
Three princesses of the royal line escaped to Alba
or Scotland, and there each bore a posthumous son.
Cairbre or Carbry, a Firbolg chief, was placed upon
the throne, but during the five years of his reign the
country is said to have been visited with all manner
of evil : corn only bore one grain to the stalk, the
cattle gave no milk, the fruit trees were blighted and
the rivers dried up. Carbry died, and his son Moran,
surnamed " the Just," refused to accept the crown
that had been won by such treachery and cold-blooded
slaughter, and demanded that one of the three young
Milesian princes be made ruler instead. The people
complied with his wish. The three princes of the
blood were sent for, returned, and one of them was put
upon the throne, while Moran, the Just, was made
the chief judge of the land ; and never was the
nation so happy as under this new administration.
The legend goes that Moran' s chain of office,
bequeathed through the succeeding centuries, " would
tighten around the neck of the judge if he were un-
justly judging a cause."
King Tuathal now made Meath into a mensal pro-
vince for the special support of the High King. He
formed the new province of equal proportions of each
of the other four provinces. The King of I/einster
having tricked him, Tuathal imposed on that province
24 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
the famous Boru or Borumha tribute. This meant
" cow-tribute," and L,einster had to pay yearly 150 cows,
and a like number of pigs, pieces of cloth, married
slaves and slave girls. Needless to say, such an exaction,
levied remorselessly through succeeding reigns, led
to terrific and endless civil war and sowed the
country with blood. It was not abolished until
centuries had gone by.
Con of the Hundred Battles, though his name has
come down to us as a great hero, possibly on account
of a mistaken idea that he was a splendid warrior,
seems to have been a most unsuccessful fighter, and
by no means worthy of his fame. The sub-king of
L,einster, Eoghan or Mogh Nuadat, the son of the King
of Munster a prince of the royal line of Heber
proved himself a far finer soldier, defeating him in ten
successive battles. Con had to submit to the humi-
liation of surrendering half his kingdom to Eoghan or
Owen. The two monarchs agreed to divide Ireland
equally between them, the dividing line being a chain
of sand hills extending from Dublin to Galway Bay, by
Clonmacnoise and Clonard, and called the Eiscir Riada,
or Raised Chariot Drive. Con had the northern
half and Eoghan the southern, and the two nations
were respectively known as L,eith Chuinn or Leh-Conn,
and Leh Mogha, Mogha being Eoghan's sobriquet or
other name. Eoghan, however, went to war again
with Con, who this time defeated and slew him outside
Tullamore.
One thing alone would seem to entitle Con of the
Hundred Battles to the fame he possesses, and that is
his apparent founding of the Fiana Eiron, or Fenians,
MORAN " THE JUST." 25
a militia or standing army. It numbered some 9,000
men under its great leader Finn MacCumhal or Finn
MacCool, whose fame rivals that of Cuchullain and
has been as widely sung by poets and bards. The
latter-day word " Fenian," used to signify the revolu-
tionaries of 1865-67, was taken from this historic
legion.
Much that is apocryphal, of course, has been handed
down to us about the Fiana or Feni, but there can
be no doubt that the body existed, the same as did the
Red Branch order of knighthood at an earlier period,
and their famous leader, Finn MacCool, was a real
personage, and a warrior of deserved renown. The
members of the legion were probably not ordinary
soldiers, but men of noble birth, and superior education,
maintained by Con and his successors in order to
guard the territory and uphold the authority of the
High King. They were, in other words, his bodyguard
or Household Guards.
From May to All Hallows they supported themselves
by hunting, though at all times holding themselves in
readiness to perform whatever duty the Ard-Righ or
High King called upon them to do, such as putting
down public enemies, exacting tributes, guarding the
harbours and coasts from foreign invasion, upholding
justice, defending frontiers, etc. During the rest of
the year they were quartered on the people. They
received a certain fixed pay and were divided into
three cohorts or " caths," each consisting of three
thousand men. Each " Cath " or " battle " was
divided into tens and multiples of ten under officers
of lesser or superior degree, as the case might be. It
26 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
is popularly supposed that they took their name from
Finn, but he was not their first leader. This was
Finn's father, who more probably named his son after
the legion.
Certain codes of honour were laid down for them,
much the same as King Arthur might have imposed
upon his Knights of the Round Table. No single
warrior might fly before less than ten foemen ; no
Fenian might offer violence or insult to a woman,
or receive a dowry with his wife, but choose her for
herself alone. A Fenian, too, might not " refuse to
part with anything he might possess."
The Order kept the native wolfdog for hunting pur-
poses, that noble animal which is one of the national
emblems of Erin. It is said that " their enormous dogs
. . . . when conveyed to Rome, frightened the
Romans. These dogs were really very gentle and
affectionate, though every one of them could pull
down a red deer or the fierce wild bull."
Some authorities assert that the Feni or Fians
had existed in Ireland long before the time of Con and
Finn, that each province had its own separate body,
and that these different legions were continually
warring against one another.
Goll " the One - Eyed," son of Morna, or
MacMorna, for instance, is said to have commanded
the Connaught Fenians, and to have slain Finn's
father, Cumhal or Cool, in a battle at Castleknock.
Cumhal was fighting against High-King Con then for
Eoghan, the southern High-King. By the subsequent
battle at Tullamore, Con the Hundred Fighter re-
covered sway over all Ireland. Goll MacMorna, ac-
MORAN " THE JUST." 27
cording to tradition, now became Captain-General of
the Fiana.
Con perished, in the 35th year of his reign, at the
treacherous hands of Tibraitt Tireach, the King of
Ulster's grandson. Cormac MacArt or the son of Art,
Con's grandson, succeeding his father, is said to
have invaded Scotland and reduced it to submission
He revised the laws and ordered the ollamhs to
correct the Psalter of Tara. This book has not come
down to us through the centuries, unhappily.
King Cormac bestowed the command of the Feni
upon Finn, out of respect for his father's cool courage
and talents, not apparently because of any personal
prowess on Finn's own part. From all veracious
accounts Finn appears to have excelled " in wisdom and
subtlety," but to have been of no great size or strength
of body. The flag of the Feni was the Gal Greine, or
Sun Burst, and the Order wore their hair long and
curling, and saffron-coloured tunic and trews.
Finn's son, Ossian, achieved undying celebrity as a
poet as well as a warrior ; and it is his songs that have
transmitted the exploits of his father Finn and the
Feni to posterity. Ossian " is the great central figure
in the literature of ancient Erin " (D' Alton). "Truly,"
says Standish O'Grady, " a great race were these Fians,
and their glory will never die."
Other Fians of note were Oscar (Finn's grandson),
Caelta MacRonan, Diarmid, Ligan the " Swift of Foot,"
Goll MacMorna, Fergus " The Eloquent," bard and poet,
and Conan the boaster and coward, surnamed the Bald.
The Fians undoubtedly helped Cormac to conquer
Scotland, and on this occasion their strength was
28 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
raised to seven Caths or 21,000 men. Whether they were
ever called upon to repel foreign invasion is doubtful,
but, according to a legend, Finn's greatest exploit was
in defending Ventry Harbour against the " Emperor
of the Whole World," possibly the Romans.
Finn kept almost royal state in his two duns or
moated palaces, at Moyally in King's County and the
Hill of Allen, County Kildare. In Finn's old age,
King Cormac bestowed the hand of one of the royal
princesses, the I/ady Grainne or Grania upon him, but
Diarmid, one of Finn's young officers, was beloved by
the lady, who thereupon at the marriage-feast drugged
all the Feni except her lover, and then eloped with
him. Finn was very much enraged, but was appeased
by being given another of the King's daughters,
Alvie.
The " Four Masters " give the date of Finn's death
as " Age of Christ, 283," and he is said to have been
killed by a treacherous fisherman, who was beheaded
for the crime by the warrior-bard Caelta MacRonan,
for " all the Fians loved him (Finn) like a father."
Cormac's son, Carbry, disbanded the Feni because
of some alleged treachery. They thereupon went over
in a body to the King of Munster, who invaded Meath.
At a decisive battle at Gavra (Gowra), near Tara,
Oscar, Finn's grandson and the chief of the Feni, was
among the slain, and King Carbry, badly wounded,
perished the same evening by the hand of an assassin.
With Oscar, the Feni appear to have been practi-
cally wiped out at Gavra, and we hear of them no
more It is alleged that, as they were never called
upon to repel foreign invasion, their chief raison d'etre,
MORAN " THE JUST." 2Q
" they became restive, insolent and rebellious," and
so induced the High-King Carbry's action towards
them. The Hill of Howth, outside Dublin, is said to
have been where the Feni resorted annually for
military exercises, and the aspirant for admission
into the Order or legion had here to pass some very
exacting tests.
He had to be able to ward off with a shield the
blunted javelins of nine warriors pitted against him
If he were touched by even one of the spears he was
disqualified. Then, given something of a start, he had
to not be overtaken by some of the swiftest runners
of the legion. Moreover, he had to pass an examination
in literature and poetry, though what such acquire-
ments had to do with the making of a soldier is a
question, unless they were imposed so as to keep the
legion select and confined to men of superior education,
even in those days when kings and nobles did not
excel very much in that direction.
Other accounts of Finn represent him as pursuing
Diarmid and Grainne with relentless and diabolical
hate, as acting most treacherously in many instances,
and as having been present, in the background, like
a modern general out of the way of all harm at
the disastrous battle of Gavra ; then wandering over
the corpse-strewn field afterwards and finding the
dying Oscar, finally dying himself a lonely death, with
Caelta MacRonan by his bedside, comforting his last
moments.
Whichever may be the true accounts, we prefer
that in which Finn forms the nobler figure and consider
it the more likely to be correct, because of his fame
30 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
handed down to us through all these centuries and
which would never have so rung down through the
annals of time had it been ignobly won.
In an old poem entitled " The Rage of Ossian" (Buille
Oisin), " in the halls of Finn " at Allen, there are said
to have been seen " at each banquet .... a
thousand costly cups or goblets with rims of pure
gold." Without the main building were twelve others
housing all the warriors of the legion and " in each
princely habitation twelve fires constant flamed," and
round each fire sat a hundred warriors of the Fiana.
Ireland may now be said to have reached the zenith
of her military power and prestige. The High- King
Crimthan carried her arms, not only into Scotland but
into England, and levied tribute from the inhabitants
of both these nations. His successor, Nial, surnamed
" of the Nine Hostages," did the same and also
invaded Armorica (Brittany). Rome at this time was
on her last legs, tottering to her fall, as D'Alton
says, and King Nial, joining forces with the Picts
of Scotland, " made Britain his tributary province."
The Roman legions had to be recalled, by the historic
" Groans of the Britons," to expel him. He would not
have had to recoil even before the trained and disci-
plined troops of Rome, only the Attacotti or Firbolgs
in his ranks, ever waiting their opportunity to strike
against their masters, turned traitors and went over in
a body to the Romans.
Nial obtained his surname " Of the Nine Hos-
tages " from the number of hostages he took from the
several provinces he subdued. Into the heart and fairest
regions of Gaul (France) did King Nial penetrate with
MORAN " THE JUST. 3!
his all-conquering legions, opposing and defeating the
Roman soldiers as well as the Gauls themselves.
The warrior-king, the all-conquering Nial, perished
rather ingloriously, after a reign of twenty-seven
years, being assassinated on the banks of the Loire
in France by one Eochy, the son of the King of
Leinster, whom he had banished into exile. He was
succeeded by his nephew Dathi, who continued his
conquests in Gaul or France, and was killed by light-
ning while leading his army through the Alps, in the
year of our Lord 426, after another glorious reign
of twenty-three years.
32 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER IV.
THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY ST. PATRICK.
St. Patrick is said to have been a boy of sixteen
when he was captured by King Nial's warrior-bands.
Where he was born is uncertain, but some authori-
ties say that his father was a Roman magistrate
near Boulogne in Armoric Gaul, or Brittany, and
named Calpurnius. His mother's name was Con-
chessa, and she is supposed to have been a sister
of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours.
At this time Christianity had spread pretty well all
over the continent and had crushed out Druidism in
Britain or Albion. Some writers assert that Kirk-
patrick, a few miles from Dumbarton, in Scotland, was
St. Patrick's native place. Anyway, St. Patrick or
Patricius was brought to Ireland, one of thousands of
other poor captives, and sold as a slave to a sub-chief
named Milcho, who had his residence near Ballymena,
in County Antrim.
Patricius or Patrick tended cattle and pigs for his
master on the slopes of Mount Slievemish, and
dragged out a most miserable existence thus for
his owner was not of the kindest disposition for
six long years, wearing the humblest garb and
eating of the coarsest food. Incessantly, though, he
St. Columkille
St. Patrick
St. Brendan
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY ST. PATRICK. 33
prayed to God for deliverance as well as fortitude
in his trials ; and, about 395, he contrived to escape
to the coast and obtain a free passage on a vessel
lying at anchor there. The legend goes that he was
visited by an angel in his sleep, who told him where
to find gold to purchase his freedom from Milcho,
and also instructed him to make for a port two
hundred miles distant, where he would find a ship
awaiting him. We can take this story for what it
is worth, but certainly it would seem most likely
that he did buy his freedom somehow, as other-
wise one would imagine that Milcho could have
claimed him as an escaped slave, on his later re-
appearance in the country.
Reaching Tours, Patrick entered a monastic school
and studied for the priesthood, first under St. Martin,
and later under St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre.
In 431 he was sent to Rome, recommended to
Pope Celestine I. by St. Germanus, and the
following year, being, it is said, about forty-five
years of age, he was consecrated bishop. Ever
since his advancement to the priesthood he had
cherished the grand idea of carrying the faith of
Christ into that land where he had lived as a slave,
and Pope Celestine, approached by him on the
matter, readily commissioned him to proceed to Ireland
as its Apostle.*
Accordingly in that same year, 432, St. Patrick
and some twenty companions set sail for Ireland
* Some authorities assert that St. Patrick did not receive a com-
mission from Pope Celestine, and it is now impossible to reconcile
the contending statements as regards the saint's early life.
D
34 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
and landed in Wicklow, near Bray, at a place subse-
quently called Kilmantan, after one of his priests.
The natives resented his landing and he was
obliged to re-embark, when he sailed northward
in the hope of getting a hearing from his old master,
Milcho.
But Milcho, too, would not listen to him. How-
ever, he went on to Downpatrick, and thence to
Lecale or Magh-Innis in Strangford lyough, where
the chief, Dichu, on hearing he had come on an
errand of peace and not war or spoil, invited him to
his dun or moated palace. Patrick preached the gospel
to Dichu and all his household with the result
that they were instructed in the new faith, and all
consented to be baptised. Furthermore, Dichu gave
St. Patrick a barn in which to say Mass ; and the
church, subsequently built on the site of this barn,
was called " Saul," from Sabhal, a barn.
Patrick now determined to go to the palace of the
Ard-Righ at Tara. The High-King at the time
was Laeghaire, son of Nial of the Nine Hostages,
and cousin of the late King Dathi. At the time
the Druids were celebrating a great festival, and the
law of the land made it an offence punishable with
death to light any fire until the Arch-Druid had
kindled the sacred flame on Tara's Hill from the rays
of their great deity, the sun. landing at the mouth
of the Boyne, St. Patrick and his missioners marched
on foot to the hill of Slane. There, as it was Holy
Saturday, the eve of Easter, in ignorance of the law
of the land, St. Patrick ordered the Paschal Fire to
be lit.
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY ST. PATRICK. 35
Its blaze was visible at Tara and created consi-
derable surprise and excitement, as might be expected.
King Laeghaire demanded the meaning of it from
those about him, and then one of his druids is said
to have prophetically exclaimed :
" We cannot say who has kindled the fire, but if
it be not quenched this night, 'twill never be quenched
in Erin."
The flame lighted that night of Christianity has
never yet been extinguished in Ireland.
I/aeghaire ordered that the offender be brought before
him, and St. Patrick came, and boldly proclaimed
before the monarch and all his court at Tara " that
he had come to quench the fires of pagan sacrifice
in Ireland and light the flame of Christian faith."
It was on this famous occasion that he is said to
have stooped and picked up a shamrock from the
green sod beneath his feet in order to illustrate the mys-
tery of the Blessed Trinity, three Persons in One
God. So arose the use of the shamrock as the
national emblem of Ireland.
I/aeghaire's queen, Eileen or Ailinn, a daughter of the
sub-king of Cashel, as well as the chief poet Dubtach,
the famous brehon or judge Ere (who became first
Bishop of Slane) and numerous others were converted.
But the Ard-Righ himself remained obdurate, and
the druids assailed Patrick bitterly and tried to com-
pass his death by treachery. However, Laeghaire,
probably influenced by his queen, accorded him per-
mission to preach throughout the land so long as he
did not disturb its peace.
From Tara St. Patrick went to Teltown, where a
36 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
great athletic meeting was being held, and converted
many there. Thence passing through Longford, and
founding a church at Ardagh, he went on to the
palace of the Kings of Connaught, Rathcroghan,
famed of Queen Mave, as already recorded. Seven
years he is said to have spent in Connaught, converting
the people ; and after that time he went through
Ossory to Cashel of the Kings, the capital and royal
palace of Munster.
Angus was the name of the Munster King, and the
romantic tale is told that while the Saint was
preaching he accidentally struck the butt of his crozier,
spiked so as to permit of its owner planting it upright
in the turf beside him, through the monarch's foot,
and did not discover the fact until he had finished
his sermon. St. Patrick was then naturally all con-
cern, seeing the royal foot bathed in blood and trans-
fixed by his crozier.
" Oh, why did you not tell me, king ? " he asked
in troubled tones.
" I thought," replied Angus, " that it was part
of the ceremony, to indicate in a manner the wounds
the Lord bore for man's redemption."
" Oh, noble king ! " thereupon exclaimed the Saint,
deeply touched by his simple faith, " For thy re-
ward, thy successors shall flourish here many years,
and all win eternal life."
Twenty-seven monarchs of Angus's race succeeded
him, and reigned at Cashel.
After numerous baptisms in Munster, St. Patrick
went to Ulster and founded Armagh, retiring to Saul,
his favourite retreat, as his end drew nigh. He died
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY ST. PATRICK. 37
on March I7th, the day on which all Irishmen
celebrate his memory to-day, in the year 493. It is
believed that he lies buried at Downpatrick.
All Ireland was now Christian ; the errors of Paganism
had fled her shores before the coming of the true faith,
and she now became known as " the Isle of Saints
and Scholars." Innumerable were the churches and
schools that uprose within her green valleys ; and she
now, in her turn, sent forth missionaries to other lands.
Among the saints that Ireland produced at this
period was St. Columba, or, as he is often called, St.
Columb-cille, i.e., Columba of the Churches, and
most romantic is the story of his life. He obtained
the loan of a Latin psalter from St. Finnen or Finian,
and, without the owner's permission, made a copy
of it. Wroth at this infringement of copyright, and
denouncing it as a theft, St. Finnen claimed the trans-
cription. The dispute was referred to the Ard-Righ
at Tara, then King Diarmid or Dermot, a descendant
of Nial of the Nine Hostages, for settlement or arbi-
tration. He decided against St. Columba on the
theory that as every cow owned its own calf, every
book should own its own copy ; truly a Solomon's
Judgment !
Very much dissatisfied with the verdict, St. Columba
retired into seclusion. While resting in silence, the
young prince of Connaught, Curnan MacHugh, fled
to him for protection, having accidentally killed the
steward of the High- King with a blow of his hurley
in a game of hurling. King Diarmid sent some of
his knights, who violated the sanctuary, tore Curnan
from St. Columba's arms, and put him to death.
38 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Justly indignant indeed, now, St. Columba with-
drew from the Court at Tara, and repaired to his own
people of Tyrconnell, the O'Donnells, descendants of
Nial's son Conal, as the O'Neills of Tyr-Owen were of
Eoghan or Owen, another son of the great Nial.
The Hy-Nials of the North, or O'Donnells and O'Neills,
incensed at the insult to their sainted kinsman, flew to
arms, and, marching south, attacked Diarmid, who
represented the Hy-Nials of the South.
A fearful battle, at Cooldrewny, in Sligo, resulted
in the total defeat of Diarmid, who, however, promptly
had his revenge by summoning a National Synod, at
which he accused Columba of having caused the shed-
ding of Christian blood. The Synod excommunicated
St. Columba, and in reparation he was condemned by
St. Molaise to perpetual exile from Ireland.
With a party of monks then, he set sail from
Derry for lona, and, establishing themselves there,
he and his companions started out to evangelise
Scotland or Alba, and so an Irishman, the great St.
Columba, became the Apostle of that country, meet-
ing with as great a success as St. Patrick had done
in the mother-isle.
He solemnly consecrated Aidan king of the Scots
on the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. In some accounts
of his life, St. Columb-Cille is alleged to have returned
to Ireland, having obtained a remission of his sentence
of exile by his winning so many souls to Christ, thus
wiping away the Christian blood he had previously
been the means of shedding. He returned to lona,
however, and died there, his body afterwards being
brought back to Ireland.
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY BY ST. PATRICK. 39
As for the book that had led to his exiling, it was
called the Cathach or " Battler," and the greatest
romance hangs round it. It was " enshrined in a
sort of portable altar," and, becoming the national
relic of the O'Donnells, was carried round with their
army, when they were going into battle, for more than
a thousand years. It fell into the hands of the
MacDermotts in 1497, but they restored it to the
O'Donnell clan two years later. For fourteen hun-
dred years it has been in the O'Donnell family, " and
at present belongs to a baronet of that name who
has permitted it to be exhibited in the museum of
the Royal Irish Academy, where it can be seen by
all." It is bound in silver and consists of fifty-eight
leaves of parchment.
St. Columba is said to have caused his eyes to be
bandaged on his return from exile to his native
land as he had sworn never again to look upon
its shores and to have been led blindfolded into
the great Convention of kings, princes, bishops and
chiefs at Drumceat he came to attend.
King Diarmid was the last Irish monarch to dwell
at Tara, and the reason of this is supposed to be because
St. Ruadan or Rhodanus of lyorrha cursed the palace
and all who should live within it for the Ard-Righ's
violation of sanctuary in the case of the hapless
Curnan MacHugh and another refugee, Hugh Gawrie
of Hy-Many, who had taken refuge at I^orrha.
" No more to chiefs and ladies bright the harp of Tara
swells.
The chord alone that breaks at night its tale of
ruin tells."
40 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
" The harp of Tara hung silent upon the palace
walls " (D'Alton), and thenceforth " Tara, darkened and
blighted by the Saint's curses, was deserted."
A Saxon army from Northumbria, sent by Egfrid,
the Eling of that part of England, now invaded Ireland
and ravaged the coast from Dublin to Drogheda for
a time. But a far worse foe was already on the seas
and fated to lay both Saxon England and Gaelic Ireland
prostrate at his feet for a time the heathen Dane.
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 4!
CHAPTER V.
THE COMING OF THE DANES. How MALACHY WON
" THE COLLAR OF GOLD," AND BRIAN BORU
BROKE THE DANISH POWER AT CLONTARF.
The hardy sea-rovers and fierce pirates of the eighth,
ninth and tenth centuries, who are generally classed
all together under the name of " Danes," first invaded
Ireland in 795 A.D. They landed in I^ambay Island,
near Dublin, and plundered it. Only a small party, they
went off again, but they took back with them to their
bleak northern homes glowing accounts of the smiling
green isle of Erin, and its rich treasures, only waiting
for bold spirits to bring away by the strong hand.
These Danes, Northmen, Norsemen or Vikings, as they
may be called at will, came from the inhospitable
shores of the Baltic and North Sea, and were
Pagans still, worshipping Odin, the god of war, Thor
the Thunderer, and Freya, the Scandinavian Venus.
The Irish called those that hailed from Norway and
Sweden Fingalls, i.e., white strangers, from their
fair hair and complexions, and those that came from
Denmark itself, Duvgalls, or black strangers, on
account of their swarthy faces and dark hair.
At first these wild marauders only "came in detached
parties and solely for plunder, confining their ravages to
42 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
the islands and the coast. But, becoming bolder by
reason of their success, they penetrated by degrees
into the interior of the country." Wherever they
appeared, they spread havoc and terror. They spared
neither sex nor age, slaughtering all who opposed them
and carrying off those who submitted, men, women
and children, to be sold as slaves.
Believing that death on the field of battle threw
open the gates of Valhalla, their sensual Paradise, to
them, they were as brave as they were ferocious
fearless and stubborn in battle, slow to admit them-
selves beaten. Their famous Reafan or Raven, their
battle-flag, representing a black raven on a blood-red
field, was supposed to be endowed with magic powers
and to have been woven in a single noontide by the
three daughters of one of their most famous sea-
kings, Ragnar Xodbrog. I/>dbrog did not trouble
Ireland, apparently, but confined his attentions more
to her sister isle, Britain, although some authorities
have tried to identify him with the great Danish
invader of our land, the renowned Turgesius or
Thorgils.
That those two renowned marauders were two
distinct men, and not one and the same person is
pretty evident from any close study of the period
and of the separate histories of England and Ireland.
It was about A.D. 832 that the great Viking Thorgils,
whose name is more familiar under its Latinised form
of Turgesius, landed with a great fleet of 120 ships,
and conceived the idea of making the country a
Danish kingdom, subjecting all broad Erin to his
sway. The way for this ambition of his had been
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 43
paved, to a certain extent, by the numerous previous
inroads of his countrymen. Although severely checked
from time to time the savage raiders had considerably
weakened the resistance of the Irish people. These
fled now, for the most part, at the very tidings of the
coming of their bloodthirsty Pagan foes. Moreover,
the native chiefs and petty kings played into the
hands of Turgesius by their own petty, but bitter,
jealousies and warfare.
Simultaneously entering the Boyne and the Iviffey,
Turgesius and his Danes ravaged Meath, the patri-
mony of the Ard-Righ, as well as Louth and Armagh,
forcing the primate of this latter county to flee into
Munster. The gold and silver sacred vessels of
the monasteries were the great attraction to the
rapacious Pagans, who " butchered the monks like
sheep," and it was now as monastery keeps, it has
been conclusively proved that the famous round
towers of our land were erected everywhere. Within
these towers the church plate would be conveyed
from the adjoining abbeys and monasteries at the
first signal of alarm from a sentinel posted on the
top floor ; and, if besieged, the defenders would retreat
from floor to floor, taking up the ladders after them
and raining down heavy stones and other missiles until
either help came or the foe retired baffled, the latter
case being as likely as the former.
The Ard-Righ and provincial native princes offered
but feeble opposition to the Pagans, and Danish
colonies were established at I/imerick, Dundalk, and
other places, including one at Rindoon, L,ough Ree,
where Turgesius now fixed his headquarters and ruled
44 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
as the sovereign lord of Ireland, self-styled. He was
able, too, to enforce his authority in great measure
and levied a dreadful tax or tribute from the subject
Irish people round. This tribute was called " Nosegelt "
or " Nosemoney," gelt being Danish for money, be-
cause the penalty for its non-payment was the
cutting off of the defaulter's nose.
Ruled by ruthless heathens, with their glorious monas-
teries everywhere in ruins, their schools, renowned
hitherto through Christianity, destroyed, hardly left
enough to keep body and soul together, it seemed
the end of all things to the hapless people, when
there came to the dignity of Ard-Righ now a rather
empty title and dignity it would seem one worthy at
last of its glorious traditions.
All Ulster and Connaught, with Meath, was at this
time subject to Turgesius. Meath was the Ard-
Righ's own special kingdom, and it seemed a
hopeless task for him to think of anything like an
effective blow against the Danish tyrant. But High-
King Malachy determined upon a stratagem. He
feigned compliance and complacency under Turgesius' s
rule, and offered him his daughter in marriage. The
girl was most beautiful and the Danish monarch readily
fell into the trap.
The lady with fifteen attendants went to Turgesius's
palace, which was close by King Malachy's. The
attendants were apparently lovely maidens like their
young mistress, but instead they were all young men
of handsome appearance, merely disguised, and with
arms under their disguises. At a given signal they fell
upon Turgesius and his officers, slew all in the palace
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 45
but the fierce old monarch himself, and carried him
off prisoner to Malachy, who had him bound hand and
foot and drowned in I/ough Owel. Malachy then
raised and armed the subject people, and the Danish
supremacy was, for a time, overthrown.
But Ireland did not long enjoy her immunity. Fresh
hordes of Danes poured into the devoted land, panting
to avenge the defeat of their predecessors and, if
possible, possess themselves in turn of the fair valleys
and plains.
Danish colonies at Dublin, limerick, and Water-
ford had managed to hold their own, when their
countrymen everywhere else had been driven into the
sea. With these strongholds as passage-ports into
the country, the new comers spread once more over
this in every direction. From Limerick in particu-
lar, Imar, a famous Viking, and his sons, with a great
army laid waste Munster, and exacted a tax of an
ounce of silver per head in lieu of slavery.
The Dalcassians and Eugenians were the two great
governing Southern clans, as the Hy-Nials were the
predominant and kingly race of the north of Ireland.
Thomond or North Munster (Clare to-day) was the
country of the Dalcassians, who were a very proud and
haughty race, claiming exemption from taxes under
the Ard-Righ and the hereditary right of forming the
van in battle and the rearguard in retreat. From
them, alternately with the Eugenians, were always
chosen the Kings of Cashel.
About the middle of the tenth century, the Dalcassian
prince on the throne of Munster was Mahon, and he had
a younger brother named Brian, who accompanied him
46 THE ROMANCE OP IRISH HISTORY.
in all his military expeditions against the Danes. This
younger brother of the ruling sovereign was the after-
wards justly celebrated Brian Boru or Borumha, i.e.,
" Brian of the Tribute," whose memory is the brightest
of all the ancient High Kings of Erin. Students of
both Irish and English history must remark the
great and striking resemblance between Brian Boru and
the Saxon King Alfred. Both succeeded brothers,
after being those brothers' right hand men and ablest
lieutenants in the fighting with the same terrible foe,
the Pagan Danish invaders ; both conquered these,
broke their power in one great battle, the one at
Clontarf, the other at Ethandune, and freed their res-
pective nations for ever practically from the heathen
yoke.
King Mahon for a time indeed made peace with
the all-conquering invaders, submitted to them, but
Brian would not, and, retreating into the forests and
mountains of north Munster, carried on the same sort
of guerilla warfare as his Saxon counterpart did in
the fens of Somersetshire. He sallied forth from time
to time, inflicting a severe reverse on the Danes ;
he would cut off their supplies, and, sending out
frequent foraging parties, harass them in every con-
ceivable way.
At the first favourable chance he sent a letter to his
brother, reproaching him for so tamely laying down
his arms to the foreign invader, and the letter
stung Mahon to the quick. Assembling an army again,
Mahon joined Brian's guerilla band, and, once more
united in love and arms, the two brothers met the
Danes of Limerick at Sulcoit, now Solohead, three
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 47
miles from Tipperary, and routed them completely.
The victorious Thomond men then laid siege to
Limerick itself, and captured it, and King Mahon was
firmly re-established on the throne of Cashel as King of
Munster.
But the Eugenian pretender or rival to the throne,
the Prince of Desmond or South Munster, whose name
was Molloy, conspired against King Mahon with
Donovan, the chief of Hy-Carbry, and Ivar, the
leader of the remnant of the L,imerick Danes, who
had taken refuge in the holy island of Scattery and
fortified it. A peaceful conference was suggested by
the traitors at the dun or moated fortress of
Donovan, and Mahon was invited to it, the safety of
all who attended being guaranteed by the Bishop of
Cork.
Mahon went, all unsuspecting, unarmed and un-
attended, and was treacherously seized by Donovan,
and handed over to Molloy, who suddenly plunged
his sword into him. This, under the eyes of the
horrified Bishop of Cork, who had not time to intervene.
The murdered man had with him a copy of the Gospel
of St. Finnbar, a relic much venerated in the Catholic
Church, and it is said that as he held the book open
before him, deeming Molloy would never commit such
a sacrilege as to strike him through its sacred pages, the
murderer's weapon pierced " right through the vellum
which became all stained and matted with his blood."
Brian was at Kincora, the famous palace of the
Dalcassian princes, when the news of the foul deed
reached him. He swore an oath of dreadful ven-
geance, and faithfully, only too faithfully, did he
48 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
execute it. By the rule of alternate succession,
Molloy, as the Eugenian prince, now became King
of Munster, but he reckoned without his host in Brian,
if he thought that youth incapable of avenging his
beloved brother's death. Brian, by his brother's
death King of Thomond, hurled himself first, swift as
a thunderbolt and as deadly, against the Danes under
Ivar in Scattery. Ivar and his two sons were slain
and their people utterly destroyed. Now Brian turned
on Molloy, the second but chief murderer of his
brother. In a battle at Macroom between the
Dalcassians and the Eugenians, the infamous Molloy
fell by the hand of Morrogh, Brian's eldest son, a lad
of only fifteen. Siege was laid, practically simul-
taneously, to Donovan's fortress, and in its attack the
last of the three murderers was killed.
Brian was now undisputed master of Munster, but
he determined to make himself Ard-Righ or High-
King over all Erin. He invaded Ossory and I/einster,
as well as Connaught and Meath, subduing each in
turn.
The Ard-Righ at the time was well worthy also,
as it happened, of the sceptre Malachy the Second,
or Malachy More he whom our national poet Moore
has justly celebrated as wearing " the collar of gold
which he won from the proud invader." He in his
turn, rightly resenting those unlawful incursions,
invaded Thomond and defeated the Dalcassians in a
great fight. A venerable tree, under the shade of
which the Dalcassian or Thomond kings were always
solemnly inaugurated, he cut down and used to roof
part of a new palace he was building.
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 49
Malachy too, in his half of the country, had
constantly fought and inflicted reverses on the
Danish invaders. He only allowed them to remain
on condition they paid him tribute. The exploit so
celebrated by the poet Moore and referred to above,
took place when he defeated the famous Viking
chief, Tomar, at Dublin. In those heroic days it was
a common thing for the leader of one side in a
battle to challenge to single combat the leader of
the opposing side. Malachy either challenged or was
challenged by Tomar, who was bidding fair to become
a second Turgesius, and the Irish Ard-Righ killed the
redoubtable Norse warrior in a terrific hand-to-hand
duel, and afterwards fought and killed another Danish
prince named Carolus. Tomar wore a massive collar of
gold, and Malachy took this from round his neck and
clasped it about his own, and from the nerveless
hand of the second Viking the Ard-Righ took a
magnificent jewel-hilted sword.
Naturally such a man was not going to quietly
surrender his birthright of High-King to the first
comer, and a dreadful civil war was now inaugurated
between him and Brian of Munster for the suzerainty
of the island. For long twenty years the war was
waged with varying success, and unhappily, this inter-
necine strife enabled the Dane to again make good his
footing in green Erin, so much so that at last Brian
and Malachy very prudently agreed to sink their
personal quarrel and unite against the common foe.
The two Irish Kings agreed to divide Ireland between
them into lyeh-Conn and I^egh-Mogh once more, as
their ancestors had done ; and then, joining forces, they
E
5O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
gave battle to the Danish invaders. These had come
at the solicitation of Maelmorra, King of Leinster, who
had revolted against the Ard-Righ. Harold, the
Danish Crown Prince, was in command of the invaders,
and undoubtedly the fate of the kingdom hung on the
battle that ensued at Glenmama, near Dunlavin, in
Wicklow (A.D 1000).
It was a most glorious victory for the two Irish Kings
The Danish Prince and 4,000 of his men were slain, and
the renegade Maelmorra, King of Leinster, was taken
prisoner but spared. Now was it that Brian, who was
practically High- King, obtained his surname or sobriquet
Boru " of the Tribute." To punish the Leinster
men, he re-imposed the cow-tribute or " borumha,"
which Ard-Righs had formerly exacted from them.
Most unjustly Brian turned on Malachy, who all
along would seem to have been of a nobler character
than his great rival, and insisted on being crowned
High-King. This was practically a usurpation, for the
position had hitherto only been held by descendants
of Nial of the Nine Hostages, by kings of the blood of
the Hy-Nial.
Malachy, unable to hold his own in the field, resigned
the sceptre and became, to his infinite credit, Brian's
devoted adherent as well as tributary king.
High-King Brian proved himself one of the wisest
and best rulers Erin had ever known. Once more
the country smiled with peace and prosperity Religion
again raised its head, and schools and monastic
institutions sprang up all over the land once more.
Brian held his court at Kincora with a splendour
not to be surpassed at any other royal court in
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 51
Europe. As Moore has sung, a lady, wearing gems
" rich and rare " and " a gold ring on her wand," is
said to have travelled unattended, yet unmolested,
from Tory Island to Glandore, her " maiden smile
in safety " lighting " her round the green isle."
But the treachery of the Leinster King, Maelmorra,
had only been scotched, not killed. He entered again
into conspiracy with the subject Danes, and they
sent secretly to their brethren in Norway and
Denmark, the Orkney and Shetlands, the Isle of
Man, Northumbria in England, and the Hebrides,
urging a general and united descent upon the Irish
shore.
Maelmorra's sister, Gormfleth, was the subject Danish
King of Dublin's mother, and she helped the treason
and invasion in every conceivable way " She was
the fairest of women, but she did all things ill." A
second Helen of Troy she appears to have been, and
a forerunner of that other faithless woman whose
elopement led to the Norman invasion of Ireland a
century or so later. She was the divorced wife of
Malachy and also of a former Danish prince, and
she now offered herself secretly in marriage, together
with the crown of all Ireland, to both Brodar, the
Danish king of Man, and Sigurd, Earl of the Orkneys.
Twenty thousand strong, the Danish armada landed
in Dublin Bay, the whole surface of which was covered
with their ships. Brian was not caught napping. He
received timely word of the invasion ; and, with a force
about equal to the invaders, marched swiftly on
Dublin and drew up his forces on the famous plain of
CI.ONTARF outside the city
52 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
Bloody was the fearful conflict which ensued on
Good Friday, 1014 A.D. All day the battle raged,
neither side seeming to gain the upper hand. It was
chiefly waged hand to hand with the battle-axe, in the
use of which the Irish had grown as expert as their
foes. At length the Danes began to retreat to their
ships. Malachy came up with a fresh contingent of
troops in time to fall upon them and complete the
rout. The Danes lost 7,000 men and the Irish 4,000.
But dreadful was the loss on both sides of princes
and chiefs. Brodar, the Manx Dane prince, fleeing
after the battle, came upon Brian's tent unguarded.
He and his escort burst in and found the aged
Brian who had not, on account of his age, taken
part in the actual fighting he was 88 on his
knees in prayer. The savage Viking clove in his head
with an axe, but was immediately afterwards captured
and put to death by Brian's truant guards. Morrogh,
Brian's son, who commanded in the fight, fell with
his son Turlogh, in the battle ; and Maelmorra the
traitor, the Norwegian Prince Amrud and Sigurd of
Orkney perished on the Danish side.
One more romantic episode ere this chapter is closed
As the victorious but sorrowing army of Dalcassians
was returning home to Munster, it was intercepted by
Magillapatrick, Prince of Ossory, whose father had
once been put in fetters by Brian Boru. The
wounded and bleeding heroes of Clontarf bade their
abler brethren bind them to stakes in the front rank,
so that they could strike blows with their battle-axes
though unable to stand.
This was done, and the Ossory men were so struck
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 53
with awe and admiration for their brave foes that,
with all the true generosity and chivalry of
Irishmen, they forebore to attack, cheered them and
let them proceed unmolested
PART II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION
There was a clash of weapons in the air
Ruin of peace and seasonable good ;
And, flanked by gallant natures everywhere,
The green flag staggered over fields of blood.
The Norman steed was stabled in thy fanes,
The Norman bugles rang upon the heath ;
Thy children bared their hearts and spurned their chains,
And sealed their glorious constancy in death.
" Our Faith Our Fatherland,"
By JOHN F. O'DoNNEi,!,.
HOW MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH OVER. 57
CHAPTER VI.
How DERMOT MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH
OVER.
The power of the Danes in Ireland was broken for
ever by the victory of Clontarf, but King Brian's
successful usurpation of the sceptre of the Ard-Righ
now led to other petty princes thinking of likewise
grasping the suzerainty.
Malachy became High- King again on Brian's death,
and ruled well during his life time, but when he died
the whole country fell away, the old discords cropping
up again. It was in his seventy- third year that
Malachy " the Great and Good," died, and the
Four Masters justly style him in their Annals, " the
pillar of dignity and nobility of the western world."
He was the last King of Ireland of the true old
Hy-Nial stock.
The son of Brian, now to be known as the head
of the O'Briens, became Ard-Righ and handed on
the crown to others of his family, but the O'Briens
found foes on all sides, and another family, the
O'Connors, destroyed Kincora and subdued all
Munster. Roderick O'Connor became Ard-Righ and
was paid homage by the Clan Conal. He divided
Tyrowen between the O'1/oughlins and O'Neills, and
58 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
for a time " no Ard-Righ was ever obeyed more
readily or could bring together a greater force." But
he was destined, alas, to be the last free King of Ireland
Dermot MacMurrough, whose name has been accursed
in the hearts of all Irishmen through the succeeding
centuries, was King of Leinster. In the year 1152,
he induced Devorghil, the wife of Tiernan O'Rourke,
Prince of Breffny, to elope with him. O'Rourke
appealed to the Ard-Righ for justice, and King
O'Connor promptly marched against the offender, and
compelled him to restore O'Rourke's wife and do
penance But Dermot MacMurrough nurtured revenge
and was a second Maelmorra, the traitor of Brian
Boru's day He fled the country, hated even by his
own people for his cruelty and utter baseness, and his
cousin was made King of Leinster in his stead by
the Ard-Righ.
Panting for revenge, he sought out the Norman King
of England, Henry II., at that time in Aquitaine,
a province of France ; and here let me correct a
popular error. The Saxon was not the ancient foe of
Ireland, but the Norman. The Saxon was Ireland's
old ally. Harold, the last of the Saxon Kings, had
found support and allies in Ireland, and because he
had done so his Norman conquerors bore the Irish
no good- will.
Dermot the Traitor asked aid from the English King
to get back his princedom, and the wily English
monarch saw in giving him that aid a chance of
establishing a footing in the sister isle. Henry, how-
ever, had his hands full at the time and could not
attend to the matter He, however, gave Dermot
HOW MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH OVER. 59
permission to enlist such of his followers as cared to
proceed to Ireland. Dermot returned to England,
armed with this permit, and repaired to the court
of Griffith, the Prince of North Wales. He obtained
promises of support from Griffith and several of the
Norman barons living on the Welsh borders, chief
among whom were Richard de Clare, the Earl of
Pembroke, generally known as Strongboiv, Robert
Fitzstephen, and Maurice Fitzgerald, all three
adventurers in needy circumstances.
Strongbow or Pembroke, in fact, bound Dermot
down to promising him the right of succession to
his kingdom a power which, under the law of
Tanistry, or the Irish elective method of succession,
Dermot could not rightly give and the hand of his
only daughter Eva as wife.
To open the campaign Dermot sailed back to Ireland,
accompanied only by Griffith and a band of Fleming
mercenaries, the Norman barons promising to follow
him as soon as they could get an army together.
The High-King Roderick met and slew Griffith at
Kellistown in Carlow, and Dermot humbly submitted,
giving hostages and gold for his good behaviour and
retiring to the monastery of Ferns.
In the month of May, true to his promise at any
rate, the Norman baron Fitzstephen landed with a
small force of armour-clad knights, men-at-arms, and
archers at Bannow Bay, Wexford Dermot promptly
joined the invaders with 500 horse. Wexford
surrendered to them, and Ossory was invaded, Dermot
raising a force of 3,000 of his countrymen. The
mail-clad Norman cavalry bore down all opposition,
6O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
for their foes wore no defensive armour and were
by no means as well-trained, well-armed, or well-
mounted.
High-King Roderick, alarmed at these proceed-
ings, now held a meeting of the tributary princes at
Tara ; and, as a result, a large army was brought
together, at the head of which he marched against
Dermot and his Norman allies. Outnumbered,
MacMurrough resorted to guile. He said he only
asked to be restored to his principality, and he
would recognise the suzerainty of the Ard-Righ,
dismiss his foreign allies, and introduce no more of
them into the land, but live at peace with his neigh-
bours. He offered his son Connor as a hostage, and
King Roderick very foolishly consented to the terms
he offered.
Dermot was only waiting for reinforcements from
his other Norman confederates ; and Fitzgerald
came in the autumn (A.D. 1169), with sufficient men to
induce him to break through his solemn compact
with King Roderick and march on Dublin, which
had refused to receive him back as its prince
O'Brien, king of Limerick, now revolted against
Roderick, and, deeming the time propitious for
himself seizing the position of Ard-Righ, Dermot
sent letters urging the tardy Strongbow to come
now or never.
Strongbow was not slow to respond He sent
over a small force under Raymond le Gros, or " the
Fat," in the spring of 1170, and on the 27th of August
following, he came himself with 1,600 men, of whom
200 were heavy horse. Joined by Raymond the Fat,
HOW MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH OVER. 6l
Strongbow attacked Waterford. The town was a
walled city, built by the Danes, and the citizens
resisted stoutly, twice repulsing the assailants
Raymond the Fat contrived a breach in the defences
however, and, bursting through it, the Normans got in
Dermot came with his daughter Eva in time to see
the town captured ; and, amid the smoking ruins of the
city, the ill-omened marriage of Strongbow and the
Traitor's daughter was duly solemnized. The
Normans, now swollen to 5,000 without counting the
MacMurroughs, marched through the mountains of
Wicklow upon Dublin. Fearing butchery if the city
surrendered, the citizens sent out their archbishop,
the great St. Laurence O'Toole, to parley for terms
He was received with every symptom of respect in
the Norman camp, but while the citizens were thus
deluded into temporary neglect of vigilance, two parties
of the English, under Milo de Cogan and Raymond
the Fat, broke into the city and commenced an
indiscriminate massacre
High- King Roderick had approached to the relief
of the city with a large army, but he seems at this
crisis to have been most " feeble and vacillating."
Unprepared to besiege the English within the walls of
Dublin, he broke up his camp at Clondalkin and pusil-
lanimously retired towards Connaught. Strongbow
followed at his heels, fell suddenly upon his camp
at Finglas, and routed his great host of something
like 30,000 fighting men, almost without striking a
blow. Roderick, " the vain and incapable," was
bathing at the time and narrowly escaped with his
life " Nor would his soldiers have had any reason for
62 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
regret if he was pierced by some English ance,"
writes D' Alton.
But now Nemesis overtook the traitor. Dermot Mac-
Murrough He was struck dow r n, it is said, by a
loathsome disease, to which he succumbed at Ferns,
1171. He is often referred to as Dermot ' of the
English," as he brought them into Ireland
Strongbow now proclaimed himself King of Leinster
and thus aroused the jealousy of his own rightful
sovereign, Henry II. of England, who feared that
his ambition was to become King of all Ireland:
Henry sent messengers commanding Strongbow and
the other Norman barons and knights to return to
England. Strongbow temporised by sending a sub-
missive letter, declaring that he was but trying to win
the country for his liege lord, the King, and
inviting the monarch over. Thereupon Henry, in
October 1171, sailed for Ireland with a fleet of over
400 ships and an army of 500 knights and 4,000
men-at-arms.
Apparently it was more to make a parade of his
power than attempt a conquest of the country that
he came to Ireland, and many of the native chiefs
regarded him as coming to protect them from the
cruelties of the first invaders. He landed at Water-
ford, and most of the southern princes, seeing no
hope of adequate resistance under the lead of the
incapable Roderick O'Connor, came and paid him
their homage. Among these were the Kings of
Thomond and Desmond, and the princes of Decies,
of Ossory, and of Breffny, as well as O' Carroll of
Oriel, and lesser chiefs. It is alleged that even
HOW MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH OVER. 63
High- King Roderick reluctantly admitted his authority
The Northern chiefs, the O'Neills and O'Donnells,
alone refused to acknowledge him as their liege lord
In order to ingratiate himself with the Irish, Henry
threw into prison the savage Fitzstephen for a time,
releasing him afterwards. He proceeded to parcel
out the country amongst his faithful barons "as if
he had conquered it by force of arms." Strongbow,
of course, was given Leinster, Meath was given to
one Hugh de I/acy, Ulster to John De Courcy,
Connaught to De Burgho. Milo de Cogan and
Fitzstephen got Cork. Henry, nevertheless, it is
stated, made no attempt to have himself recognised as
" King of Ireland " by the Irish, but merely posed
as an arbitrator He certainly restored something
like peace and order in the land during his six
months' stay, at the end of which time he was recalled
to England to answer to the papal legate for the
murder of St. Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and by rumours of a rebellion organised
against him by his sons.
He left the government of affairs in the hands of
Hugh de I/acy, departing from Wexford on April
I7th, 1172.
No sooner was he gone than the Norman ad-
venturers began to plunder right and left, and the
native chiefs took up arms to resist their encroachments
and enormities. Dermot the Traitor's son, Donald,
disputed Strongbow's claim to the kingdom of
lyeinster, but was treacherously put to death.
The O'Dempseys waylaid and routed some of
Strongbow's men, and O'Brien of lyimerick defeated
64 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
the redoubtable Norman himself at Thurles
Strongbow escaped by the swiftness of his horse with
only a few men, leaving 1,700 more dead upon the
field.
On this, High- King Roderick took heart of grace
and seized Trim, but Raymond the Fat and De Cogan
stormed Limerick, and found one MacCarthy ready
to help them against another. Meantime Strongbow
died of an ulcer in the foot spreading upwards
over his body. Prince John of England now visited
Ireland and treated the Irish chiefs, who came to
see him, with the utmost contumely. But he treated
his Norman adherents no better He ordered castles
to be built at Limerick, Lismore and other places.
The Irish vigorously attacked these strongholds, and
captured them, and John, well named " Lackland,"
afterwards, when left Ireland as his patrimony, was
recalled by his father.
Roderick O'Connor retired in his old age to the
abbey of Cong, and there ended his days ; and during
the whole of the next century the history of Ireland
may be summed up in one ceaseless struggle between
Anglo-Norman and Native Irish without either side
gaining much advantage. The Irish defeated the
English quite as often as the reverse, and had the native
chiefs only united and sunk their own miserable jeal-
ousies of one another, they could have swept all the
vaunted mail-clad chivalry of the invader into the sea,
again and again. But alas, they would not combine
or drop their wretched squabbling, and we find even
the two grand northern clans which up to the last
maintained their independence, the O'Neills and
HOW MACMURROUGH BROUGHT THE ENGLISH OVER. 65
O'Donnells, ready to fly at one another's throats at
the first excuse, fearful of cither's rise in power.
This most lamentable lack of unity, this ceaseless
domestic dissension could only have one result, that of
helping on the English conquest, of practically riveting
the chains forged by the early Norman invaders.
66 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
CHAPTER VII.
THE BRUGES IN IRELAND.
We have said that the Irish just as often
defeated the English as vice vasa. Milo de Cogan,
who invaded Connaught in the lifetime of the High-
King Roderick O'Connor, to help Roderick's rebellious
son Morrough against his father, was most signally
defeated, utterly routed by the High-King and the
true Connaughtmen ; and, let us give the last High-
King of Erin his due, though he was not fitted
for the part he was called upon to play, or to face
the exigencies of his time, he nevertheless main-
tained the independence of his own native Connaught
No Norman castle was therein erected, no Norman
set his foot there for long.
The most brilliant victory achieved by the Irish,
though, over their English foes in the thirteenth
century, was that of the noble and heroic
Godfrey O'Donnell in 1257. The O'Donnells,
or Clan-Conal of Tyrconnell, had so often repulsed the
English attempts at the invasion of their territory
that they had come to be looked upon as the grand
bulwark of Irish liberty and a standing and
terrible menace to the entire English colony. It
was decided to make a joint effort to crush them,
THE BRUGES IN IRELAND. 67
and to this end the Viceroy and his Lord Deputy or
Lord Justice, Maurice Fitzgerald, the first Earl of
Desmond, assembled the biggest and finest English
army that had yet mustered in one place on Irish soil.
Knights and squires and men-at-arms, horse and
men sheathed in complete steel mail of proof,
marched to the muster from every Norman castle and
settlement in the country. The far-famed and
deservedly dreaded English bowmen flocked also to
the rendezvous ; and the march on the devoted
O'Donnells was begun.
The chiejf of the clan, the Prince of Tyrconnell,
Godfrey O'Donnell, " was in fact one of the most skilful
captains of the age." It was the weight of his arm
that the English had already so often felt and feared
so much. He and his faithful clansmen met
Fitzgerald's proud host at Credan Kille or Drumcliff
in Sligo, and the battle lasted for hours. It was most
stubbornly contested on both sides. The mail-clad
chivalry of the Normans hurled itself again and again,
lances in rest, upon the " saffron-kilted Irish clansmen,"
who, however, met the living avalanche of blood and
iron with a steady front of spears, from which it recoiled
broken and disordered.
Then the few Irish horse and battle-axemen got in
amongst the deadly English archers while these were
stringing their bows, and cut them to pieces, wheeling
then upon the mail-clad knights and men-at-arms as
these reeled back from the shock of the spears, and
completing the rout. Archer and mail-clad horseman
fled, intermingled in utter confusion, from that fatal
field, pursued by the swift-galloping light Irish horse,
68 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
the nimble-footed kerne and heavy-armed gallow-
glass. Fitzgerald, seeing the day lost, disdaining
flight, rushed into the thick of the fighting in search
of the Irish prince. The two met. Fitzgerald hewed
at Godfrey and dealt him a mortal wound. But,
retaining his seat upon his horse notwithstanding the
fact that at this date and for three centuries after
it, the same as long anterior to it, the Irish rode
without stirrups, the Tyrconnell chief felled the
Lord Deputy from his saddle, bleeding and dying
also, with a swinging stroke of his battle-axe.
The O'Donnells pursued the English to Sligo and
plundered and burned that town, night alone
intervening to save the survivors from utter exter
mination.
Lord Fitzgerald retired to a Franciscan monastery
at Youghal where he died in the habit of a monk.
His conqueror, also dying, was unable to follow up
the great triumph. Nevertheless he forthwith marched
to demolish " the only castle the English had dared to
raise on the soil of Tyrconnell." This was accom-
plished ; and now we have to record, to our sorrow and
the lasting disgrace of the O'Neill of that day, that
this chief thought it a favourable opportunity to fall
upon the O'Donnells, wearied and worn and disordered
as they were after their fierce fight, and destroy
them. The heroic Godfrey, feeling death strong upon
him, ordered his men to place him upon his bed or bier
and carry him in their midst to do battle with the
dastard O'Neill.
Fortune favoured the true and brave. The men
of Tyrconnell routed their ungenerous foes of
THE BRUGES IN IRELAND 69
Tyrowen, and the great Godfrey lived long enough
to learn of the fate of the day, then expired upon his
litter, to the inconsolable grief of his victorious
clansmen.
This O'Neill the following year caused himself to be
proclaimed High-King of Ireland, but his conduct
towards the heroic Godfrey O'Donnell is proof that
he was unworthy of the title or of support by his
fellow Irishmen. He may have repented of his folly
and meant well, but he had made a very bad beginning ;
and, as it happened, his military talents too were not
equal to the task. He was defeated and killed at
Downpatrick in 1260.
The next episode of Irish history of any note was
the gallant effort of the Bruces and the Scots to
free Ireland. In 1314, the great victory of Bannockburn
by King Robert Bruce of Scotland over a vastly
superior force of English under the incompetent
Edward II., put the idea into the mind of Donald
O'Neill, a truly noble specimen of his race, of seeking
the aid of the gallant, lion-hearted Scottish monarch
to achieve Irish independence.
Donald was the son of the last Ard-Righ or High-
King, Brian O'Neill, for in spite of all the incessant
turmoil, Ireland still had her High-Kings, and they
were, more or less, recognised by both Irish chiefs
and the English colonists. As heir or next in
succession to the Ard-Righ's throne, the generous
Donald offered to forego his right in favour of King
Robert's brother, Edward Bruce, and he furthermore
exerted himself to bring all the Irish clans to amity and
union, and called on all the clergy to help him in this.
70 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
He also addressed a letter to the Pope John XXII,
giving a detailed account of Irish grievances against
the English, stating that he had no hope of getting
justice from England and he had in consequence
invited Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert of
Scotland, to come and reign over them, and imploring
the Sovereign Pontiff's blessing and support. The
Pope thought to solve the difficulty by simply urging
upon the English King the necessity of treating the
Irish with more justice.
Let it be remembered that at that day it was
reckoned no crime for an Englishman to kill an
Irishman in any way, and quite a laudable thing for
the English to break treaties with the natives, to
commit the most flagrant cruelties, robberies and
outrages, without the latter having any hope of redress
save by retaliation.
Needless, perhaps to say, the Irish chiefs did not all
respond to O'Neill's patriotic appeal, though they
had not the excuse of alleging in the circumstances
that he had his own purposes to serve. As for the
bishops and priests, they " were so cowed that they
were afraid even to complain " against English tyranny.
According to Dr. D' Alton : " Monks of Irish birth
were excluded from those establishments which their
own countrymen had built and endowed."
The Bruces, however, responded, and in May, 1315,
Edward Bruce landed at Larne in Antrim with 6,000
men, " well armed in the English fashion." How
foolish, too, was it of the Irish to keep to their
thin saffron-cloth kilts instead of adopting the iron
panoply that made their Norman foes so invincible,
THE BRUGES IN IRELAND. 71
to say nothing of adopting the superior arms of the
latter ! A man on horseback could never hope to deal
so effective a blow with sword or axe without stirrups
as with. Rising in and supported by stirrups, far
greater vigour is given to a blow.
But no, the Irish would keep to old ideas and
lost their freedom through their obstinate conservatism.
A fleet of 300 ships brought over Bruce's army, and to
those that looked upon the noble sight which they
must have presented in Larne Harbour it must
have seemed that a brighter day had at last
dawned for Ireland that indeed it was the sunburst
of freedom, after all the darkness of the past two
centuries and a half. Alas, how soon were those
bright hopes to be dashed to the ground !
The truly patriotic Donald O'Neill and a dozen
other northern chiefs promptly joined the brave Scots,
In two divisions, one under the gallant Randolph,
Earl of Moray, and the other under Edward Bruce
himself, they advanced on Carrickfergus. James
Grant, a Scottish historian, in his " British Battles,"
says that on their march they utterly routed 20,000
Anglo-Irish troops, led by Mandeville, Logan, and
Bisset. Carrickfergus itself was taken but the castle was
able to hold out, as Bruce had no military engines for
its siege, and naturally was not going to delay his
march to construct such. He passed rapidly south-
wards, laying waste the English settlements and
defeating, according to Grant, " two chiefs in the
English interest with 4,000 men, in the strong pass
of Innermalam," and capturing a great herd of
cattle.
72 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Dundalk and Ardee now fell into his hands and were
burned. Richard De Burgh, the Red Earl of Ulster,
along with some of the factious Irish chiefs of
Connaught, joined forces to oppose him with the
Viceroy, Sir Edmund Butler However, Butler and
De Burgh parted, and the latter alone advanced to
meet Bruce. Acting under the wise Donald O'Neill's
advice, Bruce retreated and then resorted to a ruse,
for the Red Earl's force was vastly superior to his.
He quietly drew all his men out of his camp at
Ballymena, leaving the fires burning, the banners
flying and the tents standing, and making a circuit,
attacked the English in flank. " De Burgh's army was
swept off the field by the headlong and irresistible
onslaught of the Scots and Irish clansmen, his best
soldiers were killed, his bravest knights were among
the slain, his brother William was taken prisoner."
The victorious Scoto-Irish army marched on
steadily southward. All Ulster was now in their hands,
save only Carrickfergus Castle. At Kells, Sir Roger
Mortimer attempted to check them with 15,000 men.
They swept this force out of their path, and
Mortimer fled to Dublin and embarked for England.
Some of the Norman De I,acys now joined the
Patriots, the first of the Norman settlers to show
themselves " more Irish than the Irish themselves."
At Arscoll, Butler faced the Patriots with 30,000
men. But this great army was defeated by Bruce
also, chiefly through the discord in the English camp
among the Anglo-Irish leaders. The goddess of discord
had long opposed Ireland's efforts at independence ; she
was now temporarily befriending them
THE BRUGES IN IRELAND 73
Bruce was compelled, however, through lack of
provisions to retreat to Dundalk ; and there on the
ist of May, 1316, amid the acclamations of the Irish,
he was formally crowned King of Ireland under the
title of Edward I
Fickle Fortune seemed to turn against the brave
Bruce immediately after. He and his Irish allies suffered
several reverses, and a particularly severe one at Athenry,
where the Connaughtmen, the O'Connors, who had
declared for the patriot cause, lost 8,000 slain, being
mown down in swaths by the English bowmen before they
could use their battle-axes. The gallant young Phelim
O'Connor, Prince of Connaught, aged 23, was among the
slain. Carrickfergus Castle, however, reduced by starva-
tion, surrendered to Bruce ; and now the renowned
warrior, King Robert Bruce himself, came over to Ireland
to aid his brother, bringing reinforcements with him.
Unable to blockade Dublin for lack of ships, the two
royal brothers marched into Munster, where they met
no opposition nor any support, the factious and
unpatriotic O'Brien and other chiefs allying themselves
with their national foes. Roger Mortimer, returned to
Ireland as Viceroy, had brought back 15,000 men with
him, and the Geraldines, Butlers, and De L,a Poer had
mustered 30,000 at Kilkenny. A dreadful famine, too,
fell upon the land. With no provisions and unwilling to
ravage the territory of even their factious Irish foes,
there was nothing for the two brothers but retreat, which
they did through Cashel, Kildare and Trim, reaching
Dundalk safely. The English, though far outnumbering
them, feared to waylay them, thinned and weakened by
disease and famine, too, though they were
74 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Robert Bruce returned to Scotland, for his own king-
dom was again threatened ; but promised to send
reinforcements. In 1318, the dreadful famine being past,
and food once more plentiful, Sir John de Bermingham
took the field against Bruce, advancing northward with
20,000 men. Against the shrewd counsels of Donald
O'Neill and the other Irish chiefs, the brave but head-
strong King Edward dared to give battle with a force
little more than 2,000 strong.
The battle took place at Faughart, near Dundalk,
and almost at the first onset the heavy mail-clad English
cavalry bore down the Scottish front. An English knight,
Sir John Maupas, a burgher of Dundalk, knowing that
the fortune of the day depended on Bruce, rushed into
the Scottish ranks and slew him " with a blow of a
leaden plummet or slung-shot," from which type of
weapon it would seem that the deed was achieved by
stealing suddenly upon him and taking him unawares,
striking him down indeed by a coward blow, not in fair
hand-to-hand fight as is generally supposed.
Maupas paid the penalty anyway of his rashness,
being instantly cut to pieces by the enraged Scots.
KING ART MACMURROUGH. 75
CHAPTER VIII.
KING ART MACMURROUGH, THE DREAD OF
THE PALE.
The death of the gallant, but ill-fated, Bruce ended an
expedition, which, as Grant wrote, " had it been wisely
managed, might have changed for ever the future history
of the three kingdoms." Bruce's head was cut off and
sent to the English King, who created Bermingham,
with the main body of his clan to Tyrowen, and the
Earl of Louth. Donald O'Neill managed to retreat
remnant of Scots under John Thompson reached Carrick-
fergus, where they met King Robert of Scotland, who,
true to his promise, landed with reinforcements a day or
two after the fight. Depressed by his brother's death,
King Robert returned to Scotland, carrying back with
him the survivors of the ill-fated expedition.
Once more we have dreadful anarchy in the land,
Anglo-Irish and Irish alternately fighting one another
and among themselves, sowing the country with blood
and tears, reaping the whirlwind with a vengeance as
the fruits of their forefathers' mad behaviour, and still
following in those forefathers' footsteps and continuing
to sow the wind.
Edward III. of England, the warrior king, to do him
justice, in order to pacify the Irish and allow himself
76 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
more freedom and men to prosecute his wars in France,
certainly ordered that there should be one law for Irish
and English. But that law was made practically a dead
letter by the avaricious cunning officials of the English
" Pale." " The Pale," it may be explained, was the
name given to the territory within which English
authority and laws held sway, the word " pale " meaning
a boundary or limit. Compare paling, a fence. A
statute, indeed, was framed at Kilkenny, by which the
intermarriage of English and Irish was to be treated as
high treason, and any Englishman, using the Irish
language or dress, or in any way acting neighbourly to
the Irish, should forfeit all his property and be im-
prisoned. The outcome of this most diabolical measure
was that the Irish clans learned a little sense. If they
did not band together and wage a regular war, they at
least attacked the colonists separately on all sides. The
O'Neills became paramount once more in Ulster ;
O'Farrell, Prince of Annaly or L,eitrim, " in one trium-
phant foray, swept all trace of the foreigner out of
his territories," and the MacMurroughs of Leinster,
under their prince, carried their warfare up to the very
gates of Dublin, redeeming their name gloriously from the
stigma left upon it by their ancestor Dermot " the
Traitor."
The career of Art MacMurrough, to which we have
now come, is, indeed, one of the most romantic chapters
in all the romantic history of Ireland. Art was elected
King or Prince of his native province in 1375, when only
eighteen, and he married Elizabeth Veele, the heiress to
the barony of Norragh, an English lady of the Pale. She
thus violated the above-mentioned Statute of Kilkenny,
KING ART MACMURROUGH. 77
and the English thereupon confiscated her lands in
Kildare. The English Exchequer at the same time
stopped payment to King Art of his " black rent "
an annual sum of 80 marks, which may be better
remembered as " black mail," a tax paid to the Irish on
the borders of the Pale in order that this might be
protected by them.
The Pale at this time embraced Dublin, Louth, Meath,
Kildare, Carlo w, Wexford, and Waterford.
King Art promptly gathered an army and wasted
Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford, driving the
English colonists terror-stricken into Dublin. Richard
II., King of England, the son of the famous Black
Prince, was now on the English throne. He was so
much annoyed at the reports of the contumacy and
success of King Art that he determined to visit
Ireland in person and subdue the bold rebel himself.
Richard landed at Waterford in 1394, with a host
of no less than 30,000 archers and 4,000 men-at-arms,
and the flower of England's nobility in his train.
Instead of at once tamely submitting before such
tremendous odds, King Art anticipated him by
swooping swiftly down upon the strong, walled town
of New Ross, then an English settlement. With his
allies, the O' Byrnes and O'Tooles of Wicklow, King
Art stormed the place, " burned it with its houses
and castles ^and carried away gold, silver and
hostages."
The English garrison within its walls had con-
sisted of 1,200 with long bows, then the most
dreaded of English arms 1,200 pikemen, and 400
crossbowmen. When the King of England arrived
78 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
at the town, he found it a mass of smoking ruins,
without food to supply his army.
King Art wheeled about and hung like a gadfly
on the flanks of the mighty English host, cutting
off foraging parties, enticing pursuit, or seeming to
invite open battle, and then ambushing, entangling
the foe in morasses and wild mountain defiles and
forests, occasionally risking and daringly executing
flank and rear attacks on the march, and surprise
attacks in the night. The autumn storms, too, fought
for the heroic Art. The English were buffeted by
furious gales and rainstorms : while they could not
procure a single article of food for men or horse.
Art had swept the countryside bare. Completely
out-matched, King Richard at last invited King Art
to a personal interview in Dublin, which city the
English monarch reached with his great host sadly
thinned, bedraggled and crestfallen, humiliated as it
had never dreamed of being by the despised " Irish
enemie." Art agreed to a conference, and very
foolishly and trustingly repaired to Dublin, and there
met Richard. The King of England, after receiving
him with honour, and every attention, had him
arrested and thrown into prison on a charge of con-
spiracy, but thought better of his own treachery and
released him again.
Richard agreed to continue the " black rent " to
MacMurrough and restore his wife's property ; and,
after spending Christmas in sumptuous feasting in
Dublin, and entertaining right royally MacMurrough
and other Irish princes and chiefs, he returned to
England " with much honour and small profit "
KING ART MACMURROUGH. 79
As Viceroy he left behind him Roger Mortimer, Earl
of March, the next heir to his throne. Mortimer
was induced by the crafty officials of the Pale to
try and entrap King Art MacMurrough, to make
a prisoner of him by treachery.
King Art was invited to a Norman border castle ;
but, as he sat down to the feast, he caught the
eye of his bard, who accompanied him. The bard
had discovered the meditated treachery, and, striking
his harp, sang in Gaelic a warning to his master.
" The prince maintained a calm demeanour until,
seizing a favourable pretext for reaching the yard,
he sprang to horse, dashed through his foes and,
sword in hand, hewed his way to freedom."
Justly incensed at this second act of perfidy, Art
never trusted his Norman foes again. Once more he
roused his clansmen and allies to battle. He stormed
Carlow, a formidable fortress, and in the following
year (1398), gave pitched battle to the English
Viceroy or Deputy, Mortimer, at Kells in Kilkenny.
There were some fifteen thousand men on either side,
and the battle was a complete victory for the Irish,
the English being routed, and Mortimer, the I^ord
Deputy, slain. Other victories in different parts of
Ireland came thick and fast for the patriotic party,
and " English power seemed tottering to its fall."
King Richard, once more alarmed, came again to
Ireland, landing with a great host of 20,000 men at
Waterford, as before, in 1399 Art MacMurrough,
who only had 3,000 men, pursued his former guerilla
tactics, harassing the advancing English in every con-
ceivable way ; luring them into traps, and carrying off
80 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
all the food and fodder, so that they could find none to
keep body and soul together. An enfeebled and famine-
stricken multitude rather than an army, the English
host, after eleven days' toilsome and fruitless march,
reached the Wicklow coast, and were only saved from
perishing to a man from sheer starvation by being
met there by three ships laden with provisions.
Art, now deserted by some of his allies, who were
overawed by the martial array of Richard's force,
condescended to ask for a conference. " The news
brought much joy to the English camp." De
Spencer, the Earl of Gloucester, was appointed to
meet him ; but the conference came to nothing, Art
proudly declining to treat unless he was allowed lo
hold his territory without any homage to the English
King. A French knight, named Creton, who at-
tended Gloucester at the conference, has described
Art for us as "a fine large man, wondrously active.
To look at him he seemed very stern and savage and
a very able man. He had a horse without housing
or saddle. ... In coming down it galloped so hard
that, in my opinion, I never saw hare, deer, or
any other animal . . . run with such speed as it did.
In his right hand he bore a great long dart, which
he cast with much skill."
Richard swore that he would not leave Ireland until
he had Art in his power ; but though his army was
now swollen, with the Anglo-Irish lords, to 30,000
splendidly appointed troops, he could not break or
hunt down the Lion of Leinster ; and presently he
was obliged to break his rash oath and hurry back
to England on tidings of Henry of Lancaster's
Strongbow King Edward Bruce Silken Thomas
KING ART MACMURROUGH. 8 1
insurrection and desire to depose him. He was
deposed, as a matter of fact, and ended his days
miserably, a prisoner in Pontefract Castle.
The new King, Henry IV. of England, did not trouble
Ireland, and King Art relapsed into temporary
quiescence, having wrung from the English Pale all
his demands. John Drake, the Mayor of Dublin,
attacked the O' Byrnes of Wicklow and defeated
them, slaying 3,000 of their number. On account
of this service to the English crown " permission was
given to him and his successors in office to have a
gilt sword carried before them, as was borne before
the Mayor of London. A new Lord Deputy, Sir
Stephen Scrope, determined to reduce King Art and
marched against him in 1407. Art met him at Callan,
and for a time was prevailing when reinforcements
came up for the English, and the Irish were obliged
to give way, the brave O'Nolan falling in trying to
stem the tide of defeat.
Scrope, however, was unable to follow up his
advantage and King Art was in no way dispirited or
weakened by the reverse. He gathered another army
and over-ran the English possessions, capturing castles
and towns again in rapid succession, until, at the
head of a large army, he encamped under the walls
of Dublin itself. The English, under their Viceroy,
Thomas Duke of Lancaster, marched out to drive
away the insolent intruders upon their domains, and
Art gave them battle at Kilmainham. Either force
equalled some 10,000 men, and the fight was the
Battle of Kells over again. Art signally defeated the
Viceroy, who was carried back into Dublin severely
G
82 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
wounded, while his army was almost exterminated,
the river Liffey at that point being subsequently
called the "ford of slaughter," or Athcroe.
Why King Art did not now at once assault Dublin,
it is hard to say, save that he was not equipped with
siege engines. But in the demoralisation that must
have prevailed within the city after such a defeat, a
bold attack might have carried all before it. Still, as
D' Alton says, " the Irish soldiers of that day fought
well in the open, but had not learned to capture fortified
towns." Moreover, Dublin " was well fortified, perhaps
impossible to take from the land side, nor could the
inhabitants be starved out, for the sea was open to
them and the Irish had no vessels to blockade it."
King Art's closing years were peaceful for the most
part, and in 1417 he died, in the sixtieth year of
his age, after forty-two years' glorious reign over his
people. From the fact that his chief brehon or
judge, O'Doran, perished at the same time of similar
strange symptoms, after partaking of a drink given
them by a woman at the wayside, as they passed, it
is believed he was poisoned by his enemies.
No braver soldier, no nobler character than King
Art MacMurrough Kavanagh, illuminates the history
of our native land. He ranks with Owen Roe O'Neill
and Sarsfield, and in an age of detestable factionism
and petty jealousies, to his greater glory be it said,
" he never turned in anger on a brother Irishman."
The Four Masters speak of him in terms of lavish
praise, too, as the founder of churches and monasteries
by his bounties and contributions, and for his
hospitality and knowledge.
PART III.
THE GERAIvDINES.
Alas for my love my royal love
Of the golden long ago !
For gone are all her warrior bands,
And rusted are her battle brands,
And broken her sabre bright and keen,
And torn her robe of radiant green,
A slave where she was stainless queen,
My loyal love my royal love
Of the golden long ago.
'A Royal Love," by EDMUND LEAMY,|M.P.
SICKEN THOMAS. 85
CHAPTER IX.
SILKEN THOMAS.
The brief three years' success of the Bruces in
Ireland had so alarmed the English monarch for the
safety of his possessions there that he had, in order to
retain the allegiance of the most powerful of the
Anglo-Irish barons, created James Butler, Earl of
Ormond, and Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond,
and these two great chiefs were made Earls Palatine
over Tipperary and Kerry respectively. Within their
palatinates these two families of the Butlers and
Fitzgeralds, or Geraldines, as the latter came to be
called affectionately by the people, were practically
kings in their own right, " they could make peace
or war at will, create barons and knights, erect courts
for the trial of civil and criminal causes, appoint
sheriffs and judges ; the king's officers had no
authority." (Murphy).
The deposition of Richard II., and the seizure of the
English crown by the usurper Henry IV., surnamed of
Bolingbroke, where he was born, led to the fearful
Wars of the Roses, or Yorkists and Lancastrians,
which devastated England for many years. In this
fratricidal strife, the Butlers took the Lancastrian or
86 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Red Rose side, and the Geraldines, the Yorkist or
White Rose side, and the mass of the Irish people,
though little interested really in the struggle, took the
Yorkist side also ; in the first place, because they
considered that a descendant of Richard II. was
more entitled to the crown than the descendant of
the usurper ; and, in the second place, out of love for
the claimant himself, Richard Duke of York, who
was appointed L,ord Lieutenant or Viceroy in 1449,
and endeared himself to the hearts of all, native Irish
as well as Anglo-Irish, if not the crafty grasping
officials of the Pale, by his humanity and conciliatory,
kindly acts.
Unfortunately, perhaps, for both England and
Ireland, this great and truly noble man perished in
an early part of the war that his claim to the English
throne engendered. Had he lived and won the English
crown, how different things might have been in both
lands ! The Butlers and Geraldines flew to arms for
their respective roses, and they met in battle at
Pilltown in Kilkenny, where the Butlers were
defeated. The House of York temporarily triumphed,
too, in England, and the Geraldines were in the
ascendancy ; and Ireland enjoyed a certain amount
of peace and quietness, for York's son, now Edward
IV. as also Richard III. (Crookback) the youngest
son of that noble house, had warm corners in their
hearts for the land that had befriended their father and
their cause.
So amicable was now the understanding between
the natives and English that the Statute of Kilkenny
was a dead letter. English barons and nobles married
SILKEN THOMAS. 87
Irish wives and adopted the Irish dress, and, as Thomas
Davis wrote :
" Not often had their children been by Irish mothers
nursed,
When from their full and generous hearts an Irish
feeling burst."
Now, indeed, did the Geraldines become, as the
saying is, " more Irish than the Irish themselves."
Thomas, the Eighth Earl of Desmond, was made Lord
Deputy in 1463, and won the good opinions of all
except the Lancastrian wire pullers, who contrived to
ruin him. The ultimate triumph of the Lancastrians,
or Red Rose party, by the defeat and death of
Crookback Richard at the battle of Bosworth, led to
the decline of the power of the Geraldines and the
rise of that of their hereditary foes, the Butlers or
Ormonds.
The new Lancastrian King of England, however,
Henry VII., feared to at once displace the Geraldines,
and so continued Gerald Fitzgerald, Eighth Earl of
Kildare he belonged to another branch of the family,
distinct from the Desmonds as Deputy. This Gerald
was known as " the Great Earl." His brother was
Chancellor and his father-in-law Treasurer. At this
time, owing to the lapse of the Statute of Kilkenny
and the frequent intermarriage and better under-
standing existing between the native Irish and the
Anglo-Irish, the actual English Pale had dwindled
to little more than the county of Dublin and a portion
of Meath and Louth. The English colonists in all other
parts of the country were known as " the Degenerate
88 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
English," because they had suffered themselves to
become absorbed by, or subject to, the native tribes.
In fact, the Fitzgeralds and Butlers were now
practically Irish tribes. Had the Reformation not
come there can be no doubt that before much longer
the Irish and Anglo-Irish would have formed one
race, like the Normans and Saxons did, and possibly
have broken away from England completely.
Henry VII. was only waiting for the chance to
break the power of the Geraldines in Ireland, and the
Deputy now played into his hands by receiving and
crowning Lambert Simnel, a Yorkist claimant, as the
rightful king of England. An Irish army was sent to
England with the Pretender, led by Lords Thomas
and Maurice Fitzgerald. The king's army defeated
them at Stoke-on-Trent, and the Pretender was made
a scullion in the royal kitchen.
Still the politic and rather cowardly Henry
continued Kildare as Deputy, with the result that the
Earl of Desmond supported a second impostor, Perkin
Warbeck, but subsequently dropped him. Kildare held
aloof, but Henry was now determined to change the
order of things. He sent over Sir Edward Poynings
as Lord Deputy, deposing Kildare. Poynings assembled
a parliament at Drogheda and passed the famous
" Poynings' Law," which confirmed the infamous
Statute of Kilkenny, and reduced all parliaments in
Ireland to mere mouthpieces of England. They
could make no laws unless the English King and his
Privy Council had approved them. 9
Henry VII. was succeeded on the throne of England
by Henry VIII, the Bluebeard of history. His
SILKEN THOMAS. 89
father had reinstated the Geraldines in power, and
Garret Oge, the Ninth Earl of Kildare, was Lord
Deputy. His enemies, the Butlers, engineered matters
so well at Westminster that he was summoned
thither by the King to answer various charges, amongst
others a breach of the Statute of Kilkenny by
marrying his two daughters to the Irish chiefs of
Offaly and Ely and the wasting of the lands of the
Butlers.
Ere going, he appointed his eldest son, Lord Thomas,
as his Deputy. Lord Thomas was a young man of 21,
and was called from his love of rich attire, " Silken
Thomas." A rumour reached the ears of this young
man that his father had been beheaded. Inflamed with
anger, he at once proceeded to the Council Chamber,
accompanied by some of his grief-stricken kinsmen, his
guards and retainers. The council was sitting in St.
Mary's Abbey, Dublin. Lord Thomas was in his robes
of state, and before him marched the mace-bearer with
symbol of office, and the sword of state in a rich scabbard
of velvet, carried by its proper officer. It was the
nth of June, 1534.
" Way for the Lord Deputy ! " And into the midst
of the Council stalked Lord Thomas with a stern-set face,
compressed lips, and gloomy, flashing eyes.
" Keep your seats, my lords," he cried in Irish, as all
rose at his entrance. " I have come hither, not to
preside over this council, but to tell you of the dastard
deed that hath been done in London, my noble father's
murder, base and cruel murder. My lords, this sword of
state is yours, not mine. I received it with an oath
and have used it to your benefit. Now I have need of
9O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
mine own sword which I dare to trust. This common
sword flatters me with a golden scabbard, but it hath in
it a pestilent edge. I return it to you, and you must save
yourselves from me and mine as open enemies hence-
forth. I am no longer Henry's Deputy ; I am his foe ;
and if all the hearts of England and Ireland that have
cause to would join in this quarrel, as I trust they will,
then shall he be a byword, as I trust he shall, for his
heresy, lust and tyranny, for which certainly the age to
come will pronounce him a prince of the most abomin-
able and hateful memory. I hereby cast off all duty
and allegiance to your master."
With that he flung the sword of state upon the council-
table, and likewise flung off his robes of office, tossing
them to his feet. His followers shouted the old war-cry
of the Kildare Geraldines, " Croom Aboo ! " " Croom,
a strong castle of the family, to victory " and also
" Righ Thomas go bragh ! " (" King Thomas for ever ! ")
The shouts were taken up by the whole of the
Geraldine train within and without the chamber and
abbey, to the horror of the Councillors, and Lord
Thomas's bard, Neale Roe O'Kennedy, struck up an
Irish battle chant, to the stirring strains of which
Silken Thomas and his followers strode from the place,
unheeding the entreaties of Archbishop Cromer of
Armagh, one of the Council, to forbear from thus
rushing heedlessly to his doom.
Young Lord Thomas, or " Silken Thomas," as we
prefer to call him, was quickly at the head of a combined
army of the Irish and Anglo-Irish. He forthwith
attacked Dublin, displaying a vigour and determination,
for all his headstrong, impetuous behaviour, that other
SILKEN THOMAS. 9 1
rebels had lacked. A plague was ravaging the city
and its resistance was feeble. He captured it, but the
castle held out against him. Archbishop Allen, one of
Henry's creatures, fled by ship, but the vessel ran ashore
at Clontarf. The Archbishop was captured by Kildare's
men, and brought before him at Artane.
" Remove the churl," he cried contemptuously,
when the Archbishop pleaded for his life and liberty,
and the words were taken to mean murder The Arch-
bishop was promptly slaughtered.
This foul deed was Silken Thomas's undoing, for it
estranged from him all the nobler spirits among the
Anglo-Irish lords and Irish chiefs. The Dublin
citizens, too, shut their gates upon him on his return
from harrying the lands of the hated Butlers or Ormond-
ists, and he was unable to force an entry again. He
applied to the Pope and the Emperor Charles V. for aid,
but the Pope excommunicated him for his alleged
complicity in the murder of Archbishop Allen, and this,
with the discovery that his father, Garret Oge, had
not been executed at all, caused many of his allies to
fall away.
The English garrison at Dublin was reinforced by
fresh troops under the new Deputy Sir William
Skeffington, who, however, was an old man and very
incapable. The rebellion dragged out until March, 1535,
the Butlers and the Pale keeping Silken Thomas and his
followers engaged alternately, by ravaging his lands
of Kildare.
Maynooth Castle was Lord Thomas's great stronghold,
and it was considered impregnable, so that he only
left within it a garrison of 100 men, of whom 60 were
Q2 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
gunners. Skeffington besieged it with heavy ordnance
never before seen in Ireland. On the third day of the
siege the north-west wall of the donjon, or keep, was
brought down, burying the cannon on that side under
its ruins. The besiegers, however, were not able, for all
their vastly superior numbers, to effect an entry into
the place until five more days had passed, when, in the
final assault, sixty of the garrison fell. The remaining
thirty-seven were then taken prisoners, and condemned
to death.
Lord Grey was now made Deputy in place of the
incompetent Skeffington ; and shortly after Lord
Thomas surrendered on condition that his life was spared.
He was sent to England and confined in the Tower of
London. The King was wroth at his life being spared,
and the Butlers also ; and, in 1537, the foolish
but heroic Silken Thomas was executed at Tyburn,
along with his five uncles who " had taken no part in
the rising," and three of whom had actually opposed
him.
SHANE THE PROUD. 93
CHAPTER X.
SHANE THE PROUD.
The sole survivor of the great and noble house of the
Geraldines was now a boy of twelve years of age, and
the English Government sought to lay hands on him
also, clearly with the design of extirpating the family.
But he had staunch friends who concealed him. First
he was hidden by O'Brien of Thomond, who passed him
on to his aunt in Cork, I,ady Eleanor MacCarthy. She
was on the point of being married to Manus O'Donnell,
Chief of Tyrconnell, and smuggled him to the North
with her.
Henry VIII. offered rewards for his capture, but
the Geraldines were now regarded on all sides as
Irish of the Irish, and not only did the Irish chiefs
shelter and befriend the hunted lad, they formed a league
the " First Geraldine league ' to protect him and
restore him to his father's estates. This league in-
cluded the O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Briens, the Desmonds,
O'Connor of Offaly, O'Carrolls, and the chiefs of
Moylurg and Breffny. To ensure his personal safety he
was assigned a bodyguard of 24 horse-men, who
accompanied him wheresoever he went ! After two
years he was put on a vessel bound for St. Malo,
disguised as a peasant, and, accompanied by his faithful
94 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
tutor, Father Leverus, made his way to Rome. There
his kinsman, Cardinal Pole, educated him as befitted his
rank, and in the reign of Queen Mary, Gerald Fitzgerald
returned from his exile, recovered his birthright, and
became Earl of Kildare.
Henry VIII. had thrown over allegiance to the See of
Rome and taken the title of " Supreme Head on earth
of the Church of England." He desired to have the
same authority in Ireland. An " Act of Supremacy,"
similar to the English one was rushed through a Parlia-
ment summoned in Dublin in 1536, but for the most
part the Act was a dead letter, Irish and Anglo-Irish
alike in the great mass remaining firm adherents of the
Roman Pontiff, and although bishops were supplanted
and monasteries destroyed by the King's troops, it
was not until Elizabeth's reign that anything like real
persecution set in.
Con O'Neill, the head of the clan, had been created
" Earl of Tyrone " by Henry VIII., but his son Shaun
or John, famous as " Shane the Proud," contemptuously
flung aside the Saxon honour of " Earl," and denied his
father's right to thus barter away or surrender the lands
of the tribe to the English Crown. He proudly received
at the hands of his clan the title of The O'Neill, thrust-
ing aside his elder but illegitimate brother Matthew,
who had been created " Baron of Dungannon " by the
English monarch, and made heir to the earldom.
Matthew, the King's O'Neill, sought the aid of the
English government to establish his claim. The Deputy
who was the Earl of Sussex, readily responded to the
request, and invaded Ulster. Shane defeated him
and his ally in no less than three battles.
SHANE THE PROUD. 95
The great stain on Shane's escutcheon is his inexcus-
able treatment of Calvagh O'Donnell. He carried off
this chief's wife, and, by many other lawless acts,
made enemies for himself in his own camp, among
those who had at first been his stoutest allies, such
as the Antrim Scots and the O'Reillys.
Sir Henry Sidney, Deputy for Sussex, entered into a
parley with Shane, and agreed, on condition of a
cessation of hostilities against the Pale, to lay the Irish
Chief's grievances before Queen Elizabeth herself. The
Queen first acceded to Shane's demands, but subsequently
changed her mind, and directed Sussex to put forth the
utmost efforts to crush him. Shane met the Viceroy's
troops near Armagh. The Irish chief had but 120
horse and a few Scots and gallowglasses with him,
"scarce half in numbers " that of the English army,
yet he boldly charged this, and " by the cowardice
of one wretch (Wingfield) was like, in one hour, to have
left not one man of that army alive, and after to have
taken me and the rest at Armagh," to quote Sussex's
own despatch.
Shane, after this victory, entered and ravaged the
Pale from end to end. My I^ord Sussex "bargained
with one of Shane's servants, Neal Grey, to assassinate
him, but the plot miscarried. The Viceroy openly avowed
to the Queen what he had tried to do, nor did he
receive any reprimand." (D'Alton.) By the Queen's
special command, the Earl of Kildare next went to the
recalcitrant Irishman, and induced him to go to
England to see Queen Elizabeth. The fearless Northern
Chief trusted to the honour of Kildare, and went, on
the understanding that no attack was to be made on
96 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
his territory in his absence, and his personal safety
going and coming was to be guaranteed.
On the 6th of January, 1562, therefore, he went to
London, and was received by Elizabeth with all honour.
According to John Mitchel, he took with him " a
gallant train of guards, bareheaded with curled hair
(as if the Statute of Kilkenny had never been passed)
hanging down their shoulders, armed with battle-axes
and arrayed in their saffron doublets an astonishment
to the worthy burghers of Condon and Westminster."
Shane comported himself at the English court with great
dignity and such a haughty bearing that a courtier
described him as " O'Neill the Great, cousin of St.
Patrick, friend to the Queen of England, enemy to all
the world besides." Elizabeth, probably attracted by
his handsome person, gave him assurances of her royal
support, and confirmed him in the title of The O'Neill.
He returned to Ireland, but found the English soldiers
occupying Armagh and a new Earl of Tyrone set up
against him. Shane thereupon threw over the conditions
the Queen had imposed upon him, and which necessity
alone had made him accept. He ravaged the lands of
those Irish chiefs who had submitted to English
authority, while still maintaining a pretended friendship
with the Viceroy.
That wily statesman, unable to cope with him in
the field, sent him a present of wine. The wine was
found to be poisoned, the Northern Chief and those
of his followers who drank some of it being taken
seriously ill. Shane now built a castle on the shore of
Lough Neagh, which he called Fuith na Gaill, or "Hatred
of the English," and he forbade anyone to speak English
Silken Thomas resigning his post as Deputy
SHANE THE PROUD. 97
in his presence. It is said he even hanged a man
whom he saw eating an English biscuit. He now turned
on the English wholeheartedly, attacked Dundalk,
captured Newry and Dundrum, and, entering Con-
naught, demanded tribute from the Earl of Clan-
ricarde. In his own territory the Brehon law " was
executed with vigour," and such was the security within
it that many quitted the Pale to live under his rule."
(D'Alton.)
In 1567, having invaded Tyrconnell, he was attacked
by the O'Donnells on the shores of Lough Swilly,
near Letterkenny. He was completely defeated,
numbers of his men perishing in the river Swilly in the
rout. Something like 3,000 of his clan fell in that
disastrous conflict, and Shane fled, temporarily bereft
of his reason with unavailing rage and despair. He
foolishly took refuge among the MacDonnells or Antrim
Scots, whom he had treated as harshly as the
O'Donnells. Received at first with every symptom
of cordiality, as he was sitting down to the banquet
he was set upon and simply " hacked to pieces," his
head being preserved and sent to the I/ord Deputy by
one Captain Piers, an Englishman, to obtain the
reward of 1,000 marks that had been offered for it.
In the words of John Savage :
" He was ' turbulent ' with traitors he was haughty with the
foe
He was ' cruel ' say ye, Saxons ? Ay ! he dealt ye blow
for blow !
He was ' rough ' and ' wild/ and who's not wild to see his
hearthstone razed ?
He was ' merciless as fire ' ay, ye kindled him he blazed !
H
98 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
He was ' proud ' ; yes, proud of birthright, and because he flung
away
Your Saxon stars of princedom, as the rock does mocking
spray.
He was wild, insane for vengeance ay, and preached it till
Tyrone
Was ruddy, ready, wild too, with ' Red Hands to clutch their
own.'
GRANT; A UAI^E. 99
CHAPTER XI.
GRANUA UAILE. GIVENMALURE. THE FAIJ, OF THE
GERAI<DINES.
While a woman wielded the sceptre of power in
England, another was doing so at this period in County
Mayo. This was the renowned Granua Uaile, or,
as the English called her, Grace O'Malley. She " ruled
triumphant over the whole western coast, and was able
to defeat, in a naval battle, the sheriff of Galway and
all his forces, off her castle " of Carrigahooly. The last
warrior queen of Erin, she maintained a fleet of ships
and warred with her enemies both by sea and land.
Her father was Dubdaire O'Malley, the Chief of the
Baronies of Murrisk and Burrishoole, the country all
round Clew Bay. At an early age she had " acquired
that passionate love of the sea, as well as that skill and
courage in seafaring, which made her at once the idol of
her clansmen and the greatest captain in the Western
seas." (Dr. Healy.) All the O'Malleys had been sailors
from time immemorial, and she in her girlhood
frequently accompanied her father and his sept on
naval excursions. She married, first, Donal O'Flaherty ;
and with regard to the O'Flahertys, the people of
Galway 's fervent prayer was, " From the ferocious
O'Flahertys, Good Lord deliver us." This prayer is
100 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
inscribed over the west gate of Galway. Donal was
the Prince of lar-Connaught, the Chief Lord of all
Connemara, and so it was a worthy match.
Granua's chief fortress was a castle on Clare Island,
where was mooring for her larger ships. Her smaller
craft were kept at Carrigahooly, where she had another
stronghold and usually resided. A hole was to be seen
in the ruined seawall of her chamber through which
a cable was passed from her own ship to her bedpost,
so that she might be apprised of any sudden alarm.
Upon her galleys and bigger ships she flew the sea-
horse of O'Malley or O'Melia, as the name is often pro-
nounced in those parts, and the lions of O' Flaherty.
The young sea-queen went to reside with her husband
at Bunowan Castle, his chief seat, but they did not
long enjoy their married life. Donal was killed in battle,
and shortly afterwards her eldest son Owen was basely
and treacherously murdered by Sir Richard Bingham.
Granua took refuge with her other children in Clare
Island, and one of her daughters married Richard
Burke, whom the English called by the terrible name
of " the Devil's Hook," an attempt at translating his
Irish sobriquet of " the Demon of the Hook," or
Promontory of Corraun. From Clare Island, Grace
now descended with her galleys upon various parts of
the coast, committing numerous piracies in revenge
for the murder of her son. The Devil's Hook backed
her up well on land, and five hundred pounds reward
was offered for her capture ; and soldiers were sent
to storm Carrigahooly. They were driven back, with
loss, to Galway, after besieging the castle for about
a fortnight !
GRANUA UAILE. 1 01
Granua now seized the Castle of Doona by stratagem,
whereupon the English made peace with her ; and she
married another Burke and chief of the Clan-William,
called Iron Richard, or " Richard of Iron," because he
always wore a coat of mail. In 1576, Sir Henry
Sidney, the Deputy, visited Galway, and the corsair
queen, with her iron-clad husband, went to see him.
She offered her services " to me wherever I would com-
mand her," related Sidney, " with three galleys and
200 fighting men, either in Ireland or in Scotland."
Sidney knighted Iron Richard, so that Granua became
Lady Burke.
Granua had more than three galleys, each capable
of carrying 60 or 70 fighting men, with thirty oarsmen
to propel them. She built her ships of the oak of
the Murrisk woods. Not long did she remain at peace
with the English. Resuming her piratical expeditions,
she was captured on one by the Earl of Desmond, near
Tarbert, on the Shannon. She was released by the
Deputy, and later obtained her husband's pardon also.
Iron Richard died, and she was deprived of his lands,
whereupon she set sail in her fleet from Clare Island
to England, to visit the Queen of England and obtain
redress. On the voyage she had a posthumous son
whom she named " Tibbot of the Ship."
She reached London in August, 1593, and it is said
that she was in nowise dazzled by the splendour of
her sister queen's court. Elizabeth received her cour-
teously, and made her son an Earl, and from him the
Viscounts Mayo are descended. Granua was about
sixty at the time. On her return to Ireland, she
landed at Howth and sought hospitality at the castle.
T02 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
She was refused it, whereupon she carried off the young
heir of Howth, who was taking the air with his nurse
in the grounds, to her galley and made all sail for
Clew Bay. Lord Howth was forced, in order to recover
his son, to promise to keep open house in future at
dinner time.
Grace died at peace with all her neighbours, after
her eventful and stormy life, and was buried on Clare
Island.
Meanwhile, to resist the change of religion, a second
Geraldine League had been formed, and the head of
the family, Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald obtained
a Bull from Pope Gregory XIII., stimulating the Irish
to fight for their national freedom and the old faith.
Gregory also fitted out four ships and put it under
the command of an English adventurer, Thomas
Stukeley. Stukeley sailed, but not to Ireland. He
carried his fleet to the support of the King of Portugal
and fought for that monarch against the Moors, falling
with him in battle.
Fitzmaurice fled to the continent and obtained some
Spanish help. He landed with his Spanish allies at
Smerwick in County Kerry, and entrenched himself in
the fortress of Dunanore. There 200 of the O'Flahertys
joined him by sea from Connaught ; but his relative,
the Karl of Desmond, was too pusillanimous to rally
to his succour, and the rebels had to disperse. The
gallant Fitzmaurice with a few men was making for
the Galtees when, near lyimerick, they borrowed some
horses of their kinsmen, the Burkes of Clanwilliam,
without consulting the owners.
These fiercely pursued them. Sir James, it is said,
GRANUA UAII<E. 103
attempted to explain matters, but they would not
listen, and shot him, wounding him mortally. The
heroic Geraldine dashed at the wretched factionists,
and with two swift strokes of his trusty blade, slew the
two young Burkes, then fell dead from his own cruel
wound.
The father of the Burkes was created Baron of
Castleconnell by Queen Elizabeth for this service by
his sons, and their widows were pensioned.
John Fitzgerald, the brother of the Earl of Desmond,
now took command of the little band of patriots, and
finding himself pursued by the Deputy Drury, he
turned at bay, became in his turn the assailant and
defeated the English, who lost 300 men, at Springfield,
near L,imerick. Shortly after though, Drury's successor,
Malby, encountered the victors, and completely routed
them at Croom.
Desmond himself now could no longer hesitate. Beset
on all sides with difficulties, faced with the necessity
of either conforming to the new religion and betraying
his relatives and co-religionists or of throwing in his
lot with them, he chose the latter, decidedly the nobler
part. He joined the league and became its leader
although he was wholly unfitted by his pusillanimity
for a military commander. He won one or two victories,
it is true, or those under him did, but the Deputy took
his two chief strongholds, Askeaton and Carrickfoyle.
Viscount Baltinglass, however, had revolted within
the Pale, inspired by Desmond's tardy action, and allied
himself with the unconquerable Fiach MacHugh
O'Byrne, the great Wicklow Chief, who was struggling
for an independent Ireland all through his life, and
104 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
was the friend of every friend of his country, the foe of
its every foe. Lord Grey de Wilton, the Deputy,
thought it a favourable chance to wipe out this re-
calcitrant clan of the O' Byrnes, and led a powerful
army into Wicklow, anticipating an easy victory in
his overweening conceit.
Deep into the mountainous fastnesses of Glenmalure
the English pushed, although the heavy guns had to be
left behind and cavalry could not act on account of
the boggy nature of the ground here, its rocky nature
there. No sign of the " Irish enemie " was to be seen,
and the march was slow and painful on account of
the difficulties of the defile. The sides of this became
densely wooded, and suddenly the vanguard found its
progress barred by felled trees with the branches facing
it, presenting a perfect chevaux-de-frise that would have
to be hacked through with axes.
Simultaneously a close and deadly fire of musketry
was opened upon them from the woods on either
hand. Men fell rapidly under the leaden storm ; all
was confusion in an instant, and out from their cover
poured the Irish with ringing shouts of " O' Byrne
aboo ! " and " O'Toole aboo ! " for the two clans were
always practically as one, ever staunch allies. With spear,
and sword, and battle-axe, they completed the rout.
Sir Francis Cosby, the infamous perpetrator of the
Massacre of Mullaghmast, which, true to our intention
of avoiding the horrible, we have not otherwise
mentioned, was amongst the slain, along with Carew,
Moore, Audley, and other distinguished officers ; and
800 rank and file perished. The Deputy saved himself
by the speed of his horse, and the O' Byrnes and
GRANUA UAILE. 105
O'Tooles plundered the Pale up to the very gates of
Dublin.
Once again might this stronghold have fallen if there
had been an energetic and competent man at the head
of the rebellion, instead of the vacillating, timid
Desmond, and the equally incapable Baltinglass.
The lion-hearted Fiach MacHugh O' Byrne was there-
after called the " Firebrand of the Mountains." He
burned with impunity the town of Rathcoole, only half
a dozen miles from the capital.
The Desmond Rebellion dragged on. Ormond and
Pelham, the New Deputy, had now, however, reduced
the Geraldine strongholds everywhere, and the great
victory of Glenmalure was but the last flicker of the
dying embers as it were. Nevertheless, a more resolute
commander-in-chief might have turned it to good
account, particularly as immediately after it, four ships
came into Smerwick Harbour with 800 Spaniards and
Italians to help the cause, with 5,000 stand of arms and
a large sum of money. They fortified Dunanore, but
were left to fight alone, and I/ord Grey de Wilton had
time to march from Dublin and wipe out his defeat at
Glenmalure by besieging and reducing the fortress.
Ivife and liberty were guaranteed to the Spaniards if
they laid down their arms, and, as Charles Kingsley
tells us in his " Westward Ho ! " on doing so they
were butchered to a man by such gentlemen of light
and learning such great men of Elizabeth's time as Sir
Walter Raleigh and the poet Edmond Spenser.
The Spanish commander was spared, and afterwards
degraded by his countrymen for cowardice, and certainly
he might have done something more than shut himself
106 THE ROMANCE OP IRISH HISTORY.
up in a fort and wait for his foes to come and blockade
him.
The aged Earl of Desmond was now a hunted outlaw.
Driven from the woods of Aherlow, where he lay hidden
for a time, he took some cattle at Tralee from a chief
named Moriarty, who, as usual, thereupon had to become
a traitor to his country's cause and pursue the poor
hunted old man to his death. The factionists, bursting
into the hovel where the Earl lay, hewed him to death.
This ended the Geraldine rising ; 600,000 acres of the
Desmond lands were confiscated, and an attempt was
made to people them with English settlers, named
" Undertakers." But the attempt failed, English
settlers would not come, so that the Irish still remained
in possession of the land, if not of the loaves and
fishes. Still, " the might of the noble race of the
Southern Geraldines was extinguished for ever."
Yet, as Thomas Davis wrote :
'True Geraldines, brave Geraldines, as torrents mould
the earth,
You channelled deep Old Ireland's heart by constancy
and worth."
A previous Earl Desmond, defeated and taken prisoner
by his hereditary foes the Butlers, was being borne from
the field of battle on a litter supported on the shoulders
of some of his captors, for he was badly wounded, when
one of the young Butlers, riding up alongside him, taunt-
ingly asked :
" Where is now the proud Earl of Desmond ? "
" Where he ought to be with his heel upon the necks
of the Butlers," was the excellent, if cutting, reply.
PART IV.
THE TWO HUGHS.
Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding,
Loudly the war-cries arise on the gale ;
Fleetly the steed by Lough Swilly is bounding,
To join the thick squadrons on Saimer's green vale.
On, every mountaineer,
Stranger to flight or fear,
Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh !
Bonnaght and gallowglass,
Throng from each mountain pass,
On for old Erin ! O'Donnell aboo !
" O'Donnell Aboo ! " by M. J. McCANN.
THE KIDNAPPING OF RED HUGH O'DONNELL. IOQ
CHAPTER XII.
THE KIDNAPPING OF RED HUGH O'DONNEIJ,
It was a pleasant day in summer, 1587, when a small
ship sailed into I^ough Swilly and anchored off Rath-
mullen. She flew the English ensign, and the captain
announced that he had come to sell some rare Spanish
wines he had. At Rathmullen dwelt MacSweeney " of
the Battle-axes/' with whom in fosterage, according to
the old Irish custom, was the heir and hope of the
great O'Donnell clan of Tyrconnell, young Hugh Roe
O'Donnell, more familiarly and affectionately known
in Irish history as " Red Hugh," on account of his fresh
ruddy complexion.
He was a lad of fifteen at the time. Along with
his foster-father he was invited aboard to inspect the
wines, and unsuspiciously the pair descended to the
cabin with the captain. The door was at once locked
upon them, the hatches battened down and the ship
set sail, their bereft relations and friends ashore being
unable to pursue for lack of a vessel.
It was a clever device of the I/ord Deputy, Sir
John Perrott, to kidnap the young prince of Tyr-
connell, and hold him as a hostage for the good
behaviour of his clan.
110 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The ship took the helpless lad and his fellow-prisoner
to Dublin, where they were confined without hope of
release.
In the following year, 1588, occurred the invasion
of the famous Spanish Armada the great fleet fitted
out by King Philip of Spain to conquer England. A
terrific gale fought England's battle better than she
could have done herself. The mighty floating fortresses
of Spain were scattered and driven, some round the
Scottish coast, others round the Irish. For the most
part the Irish chiefs befriended the ship-wrecked
Spaniards at the risk of bringing the wrath of the
English on their heads. A few factionists, of course,
butchered the hapless poor wretches, or surrendered
them to the tender mercies of the English governors,
for the sake of ingratiating themselves with these.
No one perhaps in Ireland did more to help the
distressed Spaniards than the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh
O'Neill, the head of the great clan of that name. He
had been brought up at Elizabeth's court ; was a most
loyal subject of England, and had fought against the
Spaniards at Smerwick. Yet now he was suspected of
succouring England's enemies and even of conspiring
with the King of Spain by means of the Spanish
sailors he had assisted.
He was most indignant at the accusation and
journeyed to London to vindicate his loyalty to
Elizabeth, who, as before, was charmed with his hand-
some person and suave tongue. He returned to
Ireland with permission to arm and drill several
thousands of soldiers ; but the Queen did not give
him permission to roof all his houses at Dungannon
THE KIDNAPPING OF RED HUGH O 'DONNEU,. Ill
with lead, nor suspect the reason of his so doing.
That lead came in very useful for making bullets
and cannon-balls later on, as the wily Earl intended
it should.
Two more years went by, during which the O'Neills
were brought to a high pitch of military discipline. For
the purpose of fighting against the Queen's enemies ?
We shall see.
Hugh O'Neill was making friends everywhere, among
the Irish chiefs particularly. He killed for ever the
bitter feud that had so long existed between the
O'Neills and O'Donnells by marrying the daughter of
Sir Hugh O'Donnell, Red Hugh's father. It was only
natural, too, that he should plead with the royal
favourite Leicester for his young brother-in-law, Red
Hugh's release. Leicester died without being able to
effect it, but in the winter of 1590, through the secret
agency of Hugh O'Neill, Red Hugh, now eighteen
years of age, succeeded in escaping from Dublin castle
with two of his fellow-prisoners. A rope had been
smuggled in to them, thanks to O'Neill's gold and a
venal gaoler, and by means of this rope they lowered
themselves from a window. They were met outside
the castle walls by friends with swift horses ; but
they were missed and pursued.
Red Hugh and his friends managed to reach the
foot hills of Wicklow, where they meant to take refuge
with the " Firebrand of the Mountain," stout-hearted
Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne, the Victor of Glenmalure,
still as ever in rebellion. They were unable to do so
through the exigencies of the weather, and were forced
to seek shelter with the O'Tooles. These, fearing the
112 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
wrath of the Deputy, arrested him and delivered him
up to his pursuers.
The young prince was now loaded with fetters ; but
Hugh O'Neill was not baffled. He employed his gold
and subtlety once more to effect his young namesake's
escape a second time. On Christmas Night, a year
later, a file was passed in to Red Hugh, with which he
cut through the irons ; then, with two young com-
panions, the sons of Shane the Proud, Art and Henry
O'Neill, he let himself down a silken rope, which had
been wrapped round the file, into a sewer that passed
out under the Castle wall into the ditch.
A faithful follower of O'Neill, Turlogh Boy O'Hagan,
was waiting for them, and Fiach MacHugh O' Byrne
was also in the secret this time. O'Neill had not taken
the Wicklow Chief into his confidence before, knowing
well that he would succour anyone escaping from Dublin
Castle and fearing correspondence might be intercepted.
The fugitives made for Ballinacor where O'Byrne lay,
but the night was pitch dark, snow or sleet was falling,
and in some way they missed and passed the spies
that the Wicklow Chieftain had sent forward to meet
them.
Red Hugh and the two young O'Neills were ill-clad,
having left behind in the ditch their outer garments
which they had soiled in the passage of the foul sewer.
They felt the cold intensely, and, through missing
O'Byrne's men, had to tramp through the wet snow
on foot. In the darkness, outside the walls of the
city, probably while looking for O'Byrne's clansmen,
they lost Henry O'Neill, and this depressed them more
than their sufferings.
THE KIDNAPPING OF RED HUGH O'DONNEU,. 113
Knowing that delay was dangerous, the others pushed
on all that night and the following day, until they were
quite exhausted. The snow fell fast and they had no
food with them. Moreover, Art O'Neill had hurt him-
self by falling from the rope into the sewer. Red
Hugh and O'Hagan had to carry him between them,
and at length the two youths sank down, utterly worn
out, under a rock not far from O' Byrne's stronghold,
leaving them there, O'Hagan went forward, buffeted
by the storm, and, reaching Ballinacor, brought the
brave Fiach MacHugh and his followers trooping back
with him to the rescue.
They were in time to save the life of Red Hugh, but
poor Art O'Neill had succumbed to the intense cold.
They buried him there under the rock, and carried
the hope of the O'Donnells back with all speed to
Ballinacor, where he was safe from pursuit. Red Hugh
remained in that secure retreat until arrangements could
be made to send him to his own people.
In spite of all the watches the Lord Deputy set on
the road and the spies the Government employed, Red
Hugh O'Donnell regained the home of his people, and
was promptly inaugurated chief of the clan on the rock
of Kilmacrenan, his father, an old man, retiring in his
favour.
Henry O'Neill had not been recaptured, but had met
the clansmen of O' Byrne looking for them, so that he
too was enabled to reach his northern home. It is
amusing to read that on his arrival there Hugh O'Neill,
in order to still further throw dust into English eyes,
pretended to arrest him and throw him into prison.
Hugh did not keep him there though, and his con-
I
114 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
finement, brief as it was, was also by no means
irksome, we trow.
Smarting with resentment at his treatment, Red Hugh
O'Donnell listened eagerly to the proposals of the wily
O'Neill. These proposals were a league between their
two great clans, indeed between every clan that would
come in, for the freedom of their country for ever
from the English yoke. The Maguires of Fermanagh,
the O'Rourkes of Breffny, and the MacMahons, were
also approached and readily joined the secret con-
federacy.
Red Hugh and Maguire struck at once. They laid
siege to Enniskillen Castle, which had been taken from
Maguire and garrisoned by the English. The garrison
was soon in sore straits for food, and a relieving force
was despatched from Connaught by Bingham, the
governor of that province. The fiery O'Donnell had
gone elsewhere to carry the war, but Maguire was
reinforced by Cormac O'Neill, Tyrone's brother. They
intercepted the relieving force at a ford and cut it to
pieces, and the place was afterwards called the " Ford
of the Biscuits," as the English lost all their food sup-
plies, which included an immense quantity of biscuits.
CU)NTIBRET AND THE YEUvOW FORD. 115
CHAPTER XIII.
Cl,ONTIBRET AND THE YEUyOW FORD.
Hugh O'Neill, though his brother was in rebellion,
was still feigning loyalty. His wife, Red Hugh's
sister, had died, and he now met at Newry Castle
a beautiful English lady named Mabel Bagnal, the
sister of Sir Henry Bagnal, Chief Marshal of Ireland.
He fell in love with her, but the Marshal did
all in his power to prevent the match. Mabel
Bagnal was a sweet and gracious maiden, and
she reciprocated the love of the manly, noble-looking
Irish earl. Friends aided her to escape the vigilance
of her gloomy-browed brother, and the lovers met in
secret, plighted their troth, and finally eloped and were
married. Enraged beyond measure at this, Sir Henry
Bagnal was ever afterwards Hugh O'Neill's bitter
enemy, although they were now brothers-in-law, and
remained deaf to all the gentle Mabel's attempts at
reconciliation. He was so bitter a foe that he strove his
utmost, by fair means and foul, to effect O'Neill's ruin,
going so far as "trying to murder him." On this the
devoted wife threw aside all sisterly affection and helped
her husband in his plans for the overthrow of her own
race in the land of her adoption.
Il6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Red Hugh meanwhile had penetrated to Annaly,
the princedom of the O'Farrells L,ongford as it is
to-day and with the remnant of that clan was driv-
ing the English before him. O'Neill now threw aside
the cloak of pretence and hypocrisy, and early in 1595
swept Cavan, while his brother, Art, attacked and
captured Portmore on the Blackwater, clearing Tyrone
of all English.
The two Hughs, now openly leagued in arms against
England, despatched letters to Spain and the Pope,
begging assistance in arms and men, as they were fight-
ing for the Catholic faith as well as nationality.
Monaghan was next assailed, and Sir Henry Bagnal,
O'NeuTs implacable foe, marched to relieve it with
i, 800 men. O'Neill suffered him to do so, then
attacked him as he was returning home and slew 200
of his troops.
Sir John Norris, an able general, was sent over to
Ireland by Elizabeth with 3,000 men He marched to
relieve Monaghan, which O'Neill was again blockading.
O'Neill faced him at Clontibret, five miles from
Monaghan. A river lay between the two armies.
Norris charged across the stream and was driven back,
receiving a wound himself, and his brother, Sir Thomas,
the same. Under an Anglo-Irish officer from Meath,
named Seagrave, a giant in size and strength, the
English heavily mailed cavalry next attempted the
passage of the stream. They got across and Seagrave,
singling out O'Neill, charged him at full speed.
The great Hugh, though only of ordinary stature,
did not shirk the encounter, but " met him in full career,
and the lances of each were shivered to pieces on the
CLONTIBRET AND THE YEU,OW FORD. 117
other's corselet." Grappling now hand to hand, they
fell from their saddles and continued the deadly struggle
on the ground, O'Neill being undermost. Drawing his
dagger, however, he managed to thrust it between
the plates of Seagrave's armour and slew the giant.
As the victor reeled to his feet, the air was rent with
thunderous cries of Lamh dearg aboo ! (The Red
Hand to Victory), and rushing with renewed enthusiasm
on the reeling English cavalry, the clansmen swept
these back across the stream into the ranks of their own
infantry, and the whole English army fled south, leaving
their standard, the Red Cross of St. George, and
many dead, behind. As a result of this victory
Monaghan surrendered.
Success after success now attended the arms of the
Confederate Chiefs. O'Neill was the brain of that
confederacy and the dashing Red Hugh its sword.
All North Connaught was swept clear of English
by the latter, but the brave old Fiach MacHugh
O' Byrne was surprised by the Lord Deputy in his
stronghold of Glenmalure and slain.
In the following year, 1596, three ships arrived from
Spain with arms and ammunition for O'Donnell
and O'Neill, and the English now decided to invade
Ulster by three different routes. Captain Richard
Tyrrell, one of O'Neill's officers, ambushed one of these
three armies near Mullingar, at a place ever since called
:< Tyrrell's Pass." The same tactics were pursued as
by the O' Byrnes against Lord Grey de Wilton at
Glenmalure. The troops were suddenly fired on from
both sides of the wooded pass, and a slaughter
rather than a battle ensued. Only two English
Il8 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
< oldiers escaped alive, one who was sent by Tyrrell
back with the news to Mullingar, and the English
commander himself, Barnwell, son of Lord Trimleston,
who was taken prisoner and sent as such before O'Neill.
At Drumfluich, O'Neill himself attacked the Lord
Deputy's army and defeated it with heavy loss, the
Deputy, Lord Borough, being mortally wounded. The
third army, under Sir Conyers Clifford, was forced to
retire in its turn by gallant Red Hugh
Portmore was now besieged by O'Neill, and in the
summer of 1598, his old enemy and brother-in-law,
Bagnal, marched to relieve the place with 5,000 men.
O'Neill, Red Hugh, Maguire, MacWilliam, and the
MacDonnells of Antrim disputed his advance with an
almost equal number of men. Again was a ford the
scene of the conflict, O'Neill taking up a strong posi-
tion at a spot called BEAL-AN-ATHA-BUIDHE (The
Mouth of the YELLOW FORD), about two miles
from Armagh.
There on August I4th, O'Neill gained a complete vic-
tory. As the English advanced to the attack they were
annoyed by sharpshooters hid among the trees and
thickets. Bagnal ordered a charge of his heavy mailed
horse with lances " six cubits in length." O'Neill had
had some pits dug and covered over with wattles and
grass, after the manner of the Scots under Robert
Bruce at Bannockburn. The English cavalry, charging
impetuously forward, tumbled into these pits, and,
promptly assailed by O'Neill's light-armed horse, were
thrown into utter confusion and routed. The English
marshal pushed forward his cannon and battered the
Irish front, driving it back somewhat. O'Neill, there-
CLONTIBRET AND THE YELLOW FORD. 1 19
upon hurled all his men, horse and foot, upon the
advancing foe, and in the terrific hand-to-hand fight
that ensued, the English could not stand before the
clansmen of O'Neill and O'Donnell.
Back they were being flung helplessly when a quantity
of gunpowder exploded in their ranks, " through
the rashness and unskilfulness of a gunner," and this
increased the panic setting in. Bagnal, a brave man if a
gloomy one, strove his utmost to rally his reeling troops,
and, the better to do so, raised the beaver or visor of his
helmet. An Irish musket-ball flew true to its mark,
and, shot through the brain, the I^ord Marshal of
England tumbled dead from his horse. It wanted but
that to decide the fortunes of the day. The division he led
gave way, fled, and the other two divisions were also
presently flying in utter rout, pursued by the
hurrahing clansmen.
With Bagnal, 2,500 English rank and file lay dead
upon the field, 23 superior officers, and a number of
lieutenants, ensigns and sergeants. The Irish captured
34 banners, 12,000 gold pieces, and all the artillery,
provisions and musical instruments of the vanquished,
while they themselves only lost 200 killed and some
600 wounded.
This great victory of the Yellow Ford is one of the
most notable of all the battles fought on Irish soil.
It " was the greatest overthrow that the English ever
suffered since they set foot in Ireland, and O'Neill was
by the Irish celebrated as the deliverer of his country
from thraldom."
Portmore and Armagh immediately submitted to
O'Neill, and Freedom now lit her torch from end to end
120 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
of the island. The Munster Chiefs, Irish and Anglo-
Irish, joined hands, and, driving the English settlers
and " Undertakers " from their lands, came into the
confederacy, to O'Neill and O'Donnell's great joy.
It was O'Donnell's dashing attack on the rear of
Bagnal's army that had completed its overthrow,
while O'Neill in person had charged its front with his
horse.
The Queen, thoroughly alarmed now, sent over her
favourite, the Karl of Essex, with an army of 20,000
men and 2,000 horse to crush the Confederate Chiefs.
Essex, instead of assailing O'Neill, marched into Munster.
It is quite possible that, aware of his own shortcomings
as a military commander, he feared to meet the redoubt-
able Tyrone even with so overwhelmingly superior an
army, and thought to swell it by reinforcements from
Ormond and the other factionist lords.
In a narrow defile at Ballybrittas, near Maryborough,
the brave O'Moores dared to waylay him and slew 500
of his men. The battle-ground was afterwards found
so littered with the plumes of the killed and wounded
English knights that the fight is known as the " Pass of
the Plumes."
Red Hugh O'Donnell defeated and slew the brave
Sir Conyers Clifford, the Governor of Connaught, on
the I5th of August, 1599, intercepting him in the
Curlew Mountains. The English lost 1,400 men.
Reinforced by 2,000 men, Essex was now induced by
an upbraiding letter from the Queen to march against
O'Neill.
That wily commander proposed a conference, to which
Essex readily agreed, and the two leaders met near
CLONTIBRET AND THE YEUX>W FORD. 121
Anaghclart Bridge across the River Lagan. The result
of their meeting was a truce, and Essex returned to
London to lay the matter before the Queen. She,
incensed at his not having crushed O'Neill, sent him
to the Tower. O'Neill made a royal progress through
Ireland, marching by way of Westmeath and Tipperary
to Cork, where, at Inniscara, he met the Munster Chief-
tains and remained some three weeks. It was a great
triumph ! Ireland was temporarily a free nation again,
practically.
Elizabeth now sent over a very different type of
man to all her former generals to fight O'Neill. This
was Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who found a
worthy assistant in Sir George Carew, the Governor or
President of Munster. Instead of meeting O'Neill
in the field, these two servants of the Queen despatched
forged letters to the lesser Irish chiefs, asserting that
as friends they wished to warn them that others were
betraying them. The forgeries were supposed to be
from the alleged traitors. In this way they set chief
against chief, sowed distrust of one another among the
Confederates, so that none knew but that his neighbour
was selling him.
Nial Garve O'Donnell, a relation of Red Hugh's, was
won over to the Queen's service either by this means
or by tempting offers of emoluments and rewards, and
so was Art O'Neill. Dermot O'Connor was induced to
betray his kinsman, the Earl of Desmond, into Carew's
hands. This Desmond was known as the " Sugane
Earl." The Waterford Geraldines, the Burkes, and the
White Knight, as the Chieftain of Mitchelstown was
called, also turned traitors to the cause. Desmond was
122 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
called the Sugane, or " Straw-rope," Earl in derision
by the factionist Irish and the English, as he had been
given the title of Earl by O'Neill and not the Queen.
In the north there were other traitors beside Nial
Garve O'Donnell and Art O'Neill. Sir Cahir O'Doherty
went over to the English with the MacDevitts, and
O'Connor Sligo turned his coat a second time. Red
Hugh O'Donnell had overlooked his former treachery,
but now, learning of his fresh perfidy, made a rapid
march, seized him and threw him into prison at Lough
Esk.
An English officer named Sir Henry Dowcra landed
in Derry, and from there sallied forth, destroying the
crops. Carew likewise destroyed the people's food in
Munster. But, deserted and betrayed on all sides,
the two Hughs set themselves back to back and still
dealt telling blows against English power. In this
stress, the two chiefs were cheered to learn that 3,000
Spaniards had landed at Kinsale and possessed them-
selves of the town and two adjacent castles. It was
September, 1601
KINSAI<E. 123
CHAPTER XIV.
KINSALE. THE DEFENCE OF DUNBOY. O'SULUVAN'S
FAMOUS RETREAT.
With 17,000 men, Mountjoy and Carew besieged the
Spaniards, and Red Hugh and O'Neill made all haste
to relieve their foreign allies. Carew was detached to
intercept Red Hugh with a force double that young
chieftain's, but the gallant O'Donnell, taking advantage
of a severe frost which froze all the bogs and streams,
evaded him and made a forced march that Carew him-
self called " the greatest march that hath been heard
of." Within twenty-four hours Red Hugh covered a
distance of forty English miles, with carriages and
horses, crossing mountains and morasses that would
have been impassable but for the frost.
The dashing young chieftain reached Kinsale, and
forthwith started besieging the besiegers, and with
considerable success. Within a month the slower-
moving, but abler O'Neill was with him ; and the Eng-
lish were in an ugly corner, hemmed in by foes. A
plan was formed by Red Hugh to surprise the English
camp by night, and it was expected that Don Juan
d'Aquila, the commander of the Spaniards in the town,
would sally forth on hearing the sounds of conflict
and aid in the overthrow of the foe.
124 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
O'Neill was against any such attack and counselled
patience ; but Red Hugh's enthusiasm and impetuosity
carried the day at the council-board. Then did an
execrable wretch named Brian MacMahon send secret
intelligence of the projected night attack to Carew,
in exchange for a bottle of whisky !
At a much later period, viz., in the rebellion of 1798,
Irishmen had also good cause to curse drink and the
drunkard.
It was a wild and dark night the one chosen, and the
Irish army lost its way, and, instead of surprising the
English, were themselves suddenly set upon and
surprised by them. The heroic, if headstrong, Red
Hugh held his own for a time, calling on his brother chiefs
to make a stand until O'Neill with the main body could
come up. Instead, the cravens to a man fled and left
him. O'Neill came up, but could not co-operate on
account of the intervening morasses, and he was now
attacked at disadvantage by overwhelming numbers
and forced to give ground.
The Irish of both divisions retreated in fairly good
order, but Mount joy, seeing his opportunity in the fact
that the ground beyond was an open plain, admirable
for cavalry to operate on, vigorously followed up the
retreat, hurling his squadrons fiercely forward. The
retreat became a rout, and for two miles a fierce pursuit
was maintained. Over 1,000 of the Irish were slain,
some authorities say 2,000, a number equivalent to all
that Red Hugh had been able to bring south with him
and not leave his own country open to his dastard
cousin, Nial Garve.
At Innishannon, where the Irish were rallied by
125
O'Neill, it was decided that Red Hugh should proceed
to Spain for further aid ; and as Don Juan D'Aquila
had tamely surrendered, O'Neill and the other northern
chiefs struck camp and retreated towards Ulster. The
noble Red Hugh sailed for Spain and was received with
the highest honour by the Spanish King, who promised
him reinforcements. He was staying at the Castle of
Simancas, when he was poisoned by one James Blake,
an emissary of the worse miscreant Carew, in some way
that has never transpired.
The gallant young Prince of Tyrconnell was only
29 when thus cut off by a murderer's hand. His body
was interred with royal honours by the noble-hearted
Spanish King in the Cathedral of Valladolid. Peace
to his ashes, the gallant and true !
O'Sullivan Beare continued the now hopeless struggle
in the south by retaking his castle of Dunboy and holding
it in hopes of O'Donnell's return. Its garrison consisted
of only 143 men under his steward or seneschal, Richard
MacGeoghegan. Carew laid siege to it with 4,000 men.
The defenders held out for eleven days until the place
was almost battered to pieces about their ears with the
powerful ordnance Carew had. MacGeoghegan then
proposed terms. These were rejected, and the heroes
determined to defend the place to the last. Contesting
every foot of ground, they retreated to the cellar and
barricaded themselves there so effectively that the
English had to bring up a cannon to blow an entrance.
As the cannon exploded and the stormers burst in,
the wounded hero MacGeoghegan attempted to cast
a blazing torch into a barrel of gunpowder and blow
himself with his comrades, foes and all, sky-high. Weak
126 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
and ill, his aim fell short, and he was immediately hewn
to pieces and the torch trampled out.
O'Sullivan himself was not in the stronghold. He
now, with the remnant of his tribe, 600 women, children
and old people, and 400 warriors, made one of the most
splendid retreats ever recorded, suffering all manner of
perils and hardships en route, fighting nearly every
step of the way, to the friendly O'Rourke country of
Breffny, or Leitrim, adjoining Tyrone.
" Alone and unaided, O'Sullivan knew he could not
maintain himself in Munster ; and he formed the des-
perate resolution of fighting his way to Ulster." With
400 soldiers and 600 women and children, as we have
said, he set out. " His march northward was a con-
tinual battle." The MacCarthys attacked him in
Muskerry. He beat them off, as he also did a brother
of Lord Barry at Liscarroll. It was January, 1603
the depth of winter. He marched through Limerick
into Tipperary, where the sheriff attacked him and was
repulsed with heavy loss.
" A vanguard of 40 men always went in front ; next
came the sick and wounded, the women and children,
next the baggage and the ammunition, and last of all,
protecting the rear, Donal (O'Sullivan) himself with
the bulk of his little force."
They reached the Shannon near Portumna, and not
having boats with which to cross, they killed eleven of
their horses and stretched the animals' skins upon
boat-frames they constructed " in the wood close by,"
eating the flesh, for they were short of food. Pushing
on to Aughrim, they were there attacked by a superior
army under Sir Thomas Burke and Colonel Henry
KINS ALE. 127
Malby. O'Sullivan and his little band, of only 300
now, fell on and routed their foes, killing Malby.
Through Roscommon, by Ballinlough, they continued
their march, with the snow falling heavily and the wind
blowing " a bitter blast." At Knock Vicar the pea-
santry assisted them, but "of the thousand who left
Glengariffe but a fortnight before, only 35 18 armed
men, 16 servants and one woman entered O'Rourke's
castle at I,eitrim." (D'Alton.) About 50 more came
in next day, and others were found by the search
parties sent out by O'Rourke, while yet some were
sheltered by the peasantry here and there chiefly the
women and children.
This retreat was " the most romantic and gallant
achievement of the age," said Thomas Davis. Haverty
calls it " one of the most extraordinary retreats recorded
in history," and McGee, " a retreat almost unparalleled."
Donal O'Sullivan sailed for Spain in 1604, and was
made Earl of Berehaven by King Philip who received
him with every honour and assigned him " 300 pieces
of gold monthly."
We will hasten to close the chapter of defeat and
disaster. The great Hugh O'Neill held out undaun-
tedly to the end, and at length wrung a full pardon from
Mountjoy at Mellifont Abbey on the 30th March, 1603
a full pardon for himself and all still in rebellion, the
free exercise of their religion, proscribed though it was,
and undisturbed possession of their lands. Elizabeth
died without hearing of the treaty, and the son of Mary
Queen of Scots ascended the English throne as James I.
of England. He had been brought up a Protestant
and decided to " plant " Ulster with English and Scotch
128 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
settlers. A sham plot was arranged to ruin Hugh O'Neill
and Red Hugh's brother, Rory O'Donnell. They were
induced to attend a meeting at Maynooth Castle. It
was construed into a fresh conspiracy against the Crown,
and they were charged with high treason and cited to
appear in London for trial.
Realising that their lives or liberties were in danger,
the two Earls, for Rory O'Donnell had been created
an earl also Earl of Tyrconnell with their families
and friends, decided to leave the country. On Sep-
tember I4th, 1607, they set sail from Rathmullen on
Lough Swilly for France, bidding farewell for ever to
their native land, that land for which they had fought
so bravely and well.
This sad event in Irish history is known as " The
Flight of the Earls." With them sailed Maguire, the
faithful and staunch, who, as a matter of fact, had
returned to Ireland, risking capture in a French ship>
to bring the two earls away. The great Hugh O'Neill
survived all his fellow-exiles, and passed away on the
20th July, 1616, nine years after his flight. He died
at Rome and the Sovereign Pontiff celebrated his
obsequies "on a scale of grandeur such as is only
accorded to royal princes and kings."
In his History of Ireland, the Rev. Dr. D'Alton writes :
" In him the Irish lost their greatest leader, the greatest
that had ever led them into battle or presided over their
councils. Both Red Hugh and Art MacMurrough were
daring chiefs, but the former wanted steadiness and
patience, while the latter confined his efforts to Leinster
alone. Unlike O'Donnell, O'Neill was cautious and
foreseeing, laying his plans with care and refusing to be
KINSAI,E. 129
led by impulse or passion. . . Had he been born a
century earlier, he would probably have driven the
English from Ireland. . . In his own day, against
the whole forces of England, he all but succeeded
and failed only because of the universal treachery which
surrounded him."
Henry IV. of France, the famous "Navarre," publicly
called Hugh O'Neill " the third soldier of the age."
Peace, too, to his ashes, lying guarded within the
Imperial City until the last trumpet ! Peace to him,
true brother, true husband, true friend, true foe, " true
to home and faith and freedom to the last ! "
The vile Nial Garve O'Donnell, O'Cahan, and other
traitors received the reward they deserved for their
treachery. Suspected by their English friends they
were thrown into gaol, where they languished till their
deaths Nial Garve for twenty years.
Who will say after that that there is no such thing
as poetic justice on this earth ?
PART V.
THE CONFEDERATE WAR.
A nation's right, a nation's right
God gave it, and gave, too,
A nation's sword, a nation's might,
Danger to guard it through.
'Tis freedom from a foreign yoke,
'Tis just and equal laws,
Which deal unto the humblest folk,
As in a noble cause.
On nations fixed in right and truth,
God will bestow eternal youth.
" Nationality," by THOMAS DAVIS.
HOW OWEX ROE O'NEIIJ, GAVE HIS SWORD. 133
CHAPTER XV.
How OWEN ROE O'NEIU, GAVE HIS SWORD TO HIS
SIRELAND ; AND HIS GREAT VICTORY AT BENBURB.
The great French historian, Thierry, in his work on
the Norman Conquest of England and Ireland, launches
out into glowing eulogies of the long-enduring struggle
of the Irish people to retain its freedom as compared
with the exceedingly slight one of the Anglo-Saxon
race.
And yet perseverance under difficulties and constant
reverses is supposed to be the great trait of the English
character, bull-dog resistance that never knows defeat,
whereas it is often asserted, as it it were a truism there
was no denying, that the Irish race are not persevering
enough. England was practically conquered by the
Normans in as many years as it took them centuries
to conquer the smaller sister isle.
Thierry compares the heroic struggle of our race for
independence against the Norman invader with the
nine hundred years' struggle of the Spaniards against
the Moors. He " calls the fidelity of Irishmen to a
cause ever lost, . . . the unconquerable tenacity of
the Irish, this immortal clinging to the hopes of one
day winning their independence, one of the noblest and
most touching things in all history."
134 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Yet there are mean, paltry natures that can see no
glory in a defeated cause, that can see nothing to
admire in fighting unto death rather than surrendering ;
whose only idea of glory and triumph is to shout with
the largest number, the conqueror, to trample on the
weak, to exult over the downfall of the brave and good
and true.
Yet the truth remains that in some causes, and that of
freedom is one of them, it is as glorious to fail as to
succeed. Success is not necessarily the measure of the
virtue of a cause.
" Freedom's battle, once begun, bequeathed from bleeding sire
to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won."
After " the Flight of the Earls," the entire six counties
of Ulster were declared forfeited to the English Crown,
and the new Scottish King of England, the false-hearted
James Stuart, false alike to the memory of his mother
as everything else, determined, as we have said, to
" plant " the North of Ireland with Scotch and English
settlers, all well affected in religion, and extirpate the
old Irish race.
Every inducement was held out to likely colonists
Rich broad acres of the fertile land were conferred as a
gift upon various Protestant bishops, guilds of London
tradesmen, and even on Trinity College. It was
London tradesmen who were given the City of Deny,
of which they therefore changed the name to London-
derry. Many privileges were also held out as a further
lure, as if any further lure were needed, to obtain colon-
ists. All that the planters were expected to do in
HOW OWEN ROE O'NEIU, GAVE HIS SWORD. 135
return for these benefits was to rob and murder their
Irish neighbours, " to hunt down the native population
as they would any other wild game," to show them and
their religion no consideration or mercy or tolerance
whatsoever.
Of course, Court favourites and " undertakers "
were found in thousands to take on so soft a job, and
so was effected what was called " The Plantation of
Ulster." By the Scotch and English settlers the
Irishman was robbed of everything worth possessing,
and was driven into the bogs and mountains, and then
called a robber or a wild " rapparee," because he dared
to object to such treatment and commit the awful crime
of trying to recover his own home and property The
Rapparees were desperate men, heroic patriots all,
fighting to the bitter end against a tyranny that was
simply diabolical in its perfection.
With the succession of Charles I., the down- trodden
and persecuted Irish hoped for a mitigation of the civil
and religious intolerance under which they lived. The
new monarch was a kindly man, unlike his father, who
was empty-headed, cowardly, and cruel. Moreover,
Charles had married a Catholic princess, Henrietta of
France. But the wily Viceroy, Straflord, neutralised
all the efforts of the Irish people to obtain the redress
the King promised them. For his services to the
English people in this respect, he was attainted and
executed by a decree of their Parliament in 1641, and
there could not have been many tears shed for him in
Ireland.
Sick of it all, the Irish people in this same year
determined to make another bold bid for independence.
136 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Roger or Rory O'Moore, a descendant of the despoiled
chiefs of Leix, entered into a conspiracy with Sir Phelim
O'Neill, chief of a lesser branch of his clan, Lord
Maguire of Enniskillen, Sir Con MacGennis, Colonel
MacMahon, and others, to revolt simultaneously,
seize Dublin Castle, where there were stored 12,000 stand
of arms, and other strong places, make prisoners of all the
gentry who were opposed to them, and expel the English
planters. The Scotch, as a kindred race, were not to be
molested. No blood was to be shed unless they were
met with armed resistance.
To any common-sense man, this seems a very reason-
able and just rising.
Everything might have gone well with the Patriots,
for there were only some 2,000 troops in the country,
and these quite unprepared ; but Colonel MacMahon
confided the plot to one Owen O' Connelly, who promptly
carried information of it to the Lords Justices Parsons
and Borlase. Maguire and MacMahon were arrested,
O'Moore and others managed to escape ; and the rising
took place on the appointed day, the 22nd of October,
1641. Sir Phelim O'Neill captured Dungannon and
Charlemont Castle ; the MacMahons captured Mon-
aghan ; the O'Farrells, Longford, or ancient Annaly ;
the Maguires, Fermanagh. All Ulster, with the ex-
ception of a few towns, within two days was in the hands
of the insurgents, Sir Con MacGennis taking Newry
with certain stores of arms and munitions of war.
The English planters fled in terror from their ill-
gotten homes and lands, and spread lying tales of
dreadful massacre and pillage and robbery by the
unlawful, but certainly rightful, new owners of the soil.
HOW OWEN ROE O'NEILL GAVE HIS SWORD. 137
Sir Phelim O'Neill was now elected as head of the
Patriot army, and the Catholic Bishops met at Kilkenny
on May loth, 1642, and bound all taking part in the
struggle to bear " true faith and allegiance to King
Charles and his successors," thus raising the " rising "
from a mere rebellion to a war in support of the English
monarch, at that time waging a fierce struggle for his
crown and head with his own rebellious Parliament.
All on the Patriot or Royalist side were called " The
Confederate Catholics of Ireland."
Meanwhile, as was evident from the Synod being held
at Kilkenny, all I^einster and Munster were now in
arms also, and the war was being prosecuted fiercely
on all sides. But the early successes of the Confederates
had not been followed up with energy, and the English
and Scotch were enabled to recover from the first blow,
and by weight of better sinews of war more money,
better arms, better generals, etc. were beginning to
triumph again. Sir Phelim O'Neill, with the best
intentions, was incompetent as a leader and wasted
three months besieging Drogheda, while the foe were
sweeping the country everywhere, winning back the
strongholds that had been captured at the outset.
The Anglo-Irish, bound by the ties of religion if not
of blood, had thrown in their lot with the old Irish,
but lyords Mountgarret, Muskerry, and Gormanstown,
Barry, and the other leaders were all anything but
capable commanders. As usual, the great Earl of
Ormond was on the English side and had 3,000 foot and
500 horse at his back ; and he had a worthy lieutenant
in the savage Inchiquin, an Irishman brought up to
hate his own countrymen and those allied to him by
138 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
blood. Of all the infamous characters of Irish history
commend us to this Lord Inchiquin, an O'Brien
" Murrough of the Burnings " as he was nicknamed
on account of his savage cruelty to men, women and
children.
Clanricarde, too, in Connaught fought on the side
of the enemies of his country ; but Lord Mayo allied
himself with the popular cause.
At this time there were a great many gallant Irishmen,
as at a later period, exiles on the Continent, in conse-
quence of the tyrannies of the previous reigns that had
driven them out of the country, righting in foreign
armies. Father Luke Wadding, a patriotic Catholic
priest, took it upon himself to go abroad and endeavour
to enlist all this splendid military material, these Irish
officers in foreign services, in the cause of their
struggling country, as also to collect money for the
carrying on of the war.
The most famous of all these foreign Irish veterans
was the renowned Owen Roe MacArt O'Neill, a nephew
of the great Hugh O'Neill, the victor of Clontibret and
Beal-an-atha-Buidhe. He had left Ireland at an early
age and was at this time a colonel in the army of the
King of Spain, having seen considerable service in
Flanders and achieved world-wide fame by the brilliant
defence of Arras, in 1640, against three French armies.
He corresponded with Rory O'Moore, the organiser
of the " Rising," and determined to take a part in the
struggle of his native land.
Gathering together what men he could, including
two hundred trained officers, he set sail with three ships
from Dunkirk. He took with him also a good supply
HOW OWEN ROE O'NEIU, GAVE HIS SWORD. 139
of arms and ammunition. On the voyage to Ireland he
captured two small English vessels. He landed at
Doe Castle in Donegal, July 6th, 1642, and was received
with open arms by his kinsman, Sir Phelim O'Neill,
who now readily and voluntarily relinquished to his
superior talents the rank of commander-in-chief of the
Confederate Army. Shortly after, other exiles under
Colonel Preston, brother of Lord Gormanstown, landed
in Wexford, and at last things looked hopeful for the
Patriot cause. But Ireland would have done better
without Preston !
Owen Roe at once set about training, equipping and
increasing the force put at his command, which num-
bered only 1,500 men, so great had been the defections
through repeated failure and disaster. The Scotch
General, Leslie, Earl of Leven, with 20,000 men, all
disciplined soldiers, feared to come to blows with him.
But levies were fast coming in to swell Owen Roe's
meagre little force. On October 24th the famous
" Confederation of Kilkenny " met, and it elected a
Supreme Council of six persons from each province,
of which Lord Mountgarret was made president. Owen
Roe was constituted general of the Ulster army and
Preston of that of Leinster, thus planting in the breast
of the last-mentioned jealousy of his brother-com-
mander. A " General Assembly " of the lords and
bishops and gentry was also convened, and passed
resolutions ordering 30,000 men to be raised, with a
sum of 30,000.
Owen Roe soon gave tangible evidence of his military
ability. He met a superior force of English under
General Monk and Lord Moore at Portlester, five miles
140 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
from Trim, in Meath, and routed it, I^ord Moore being
killed, with a great many of his troops, and Monk and
the rest made fly for their lives back to Dublin. The
Irish triumphed elsewhere, at Fermoy, where the English
general, Sir Charles Vavasor, was captured and several
hundreds of his men left dead on the field.
Disputes now arose, however, between the Irish
and Anglo-Irish. The latter were all for peace and
trusting that the King, who had no power in his own
country and was at war there with his rebellious Parlia-
ment, would grant their demands if they laid down their
arms. They were deluded in this by specious
promises held out to them by Ormond and the
Protestant Royalists. A " cessation " was eventually
agreed to, the Confederates promising the King 30,000
and help in Scotland. The help was sent under Sir
Alexander MacDonnell, surnamed " Colkitto," who
joined the brave Montrose and went through his cam-
paign.
In the following month, October 1645, John Baptist
Rinuccini, the Archbishop of Fermo, arrived in Ireland,
sent as Nuncio by the Pope. He brought arms and
ammunition and money for the Confederate cause,
and was received with the utmost enthusiasm. The
munitions of war that he brought included 2,000
muskets, 4,000 swords, 4,000 pistols, 2,000 pikeheads
and 20,000 Ibs. of powder, and were quite a Godsend to
the Patriots.
Inspired by this valuable aid, Owen Roe O'Neill
now took the field properly, threw aside the fetters of
ignoble truces and other hindrances that had hitherto
hampered his every attempt at decisive action, and
HOW OWEN ROE O'NEILL GAVE HIS SWORD. 14!
marched against the Scottish Parliamentary general
Munroe, who was wasting Ulster.
The two armies encountered one another at
BENBURB, on the banks of the Blackwater, some miles
north of Armagh, on the 5th of June, 1646. Munroe
had with him 6,000 foot and 800 horse ; Owen Roe's
army consisted of only 5,000 foot and 400 horse. Munroe's
brother, George, commanded another force at Coleraine
and was marching to his reinforcement.
Owen Roe detached the two regiments of MacMahon
and MacNiney to intercept George Munroe, which they
did, surprising him and cutting his force to pieces.
They then rejoined the main body in time to encourage
it with their success and take part in the still more
glorious victory of Benburb. Along the Blackwater
O'Neill had disposed his army between two hills, with
the rear protected by a wood. The Scotch came on in
full force and were first faced by Colonel Richard
O'Farrell, one of Owen Roe's most distinguished officers.
O'Farrell held a narrow defile through which the Scotch
had to force their way. He disputed its passage until
their artillery forced him to fall back.
The Scotch horse now charged but were checked by
the steady fire of O'Neill's infantry, and so excellently
had Owen Roe posted these that only one man was
struck by the foe's artillery. For four hours O'Neill
kept the enemy in play, wearing out his horse by ineffec-
tual charges, and gradually forcing him into a narrow
angle between the Blackwater and one of its tributaries.
The return of the Irish horse from the wiping out of
George Munroe's force increased the confusion in the
English and Scotch ranks.
142 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
O'Neill now ordered a charge along the whole line,
and "like an avalanche let loose, the Irish crashed upon
their foe." The Scottish horse attempted to break the
advancing line, but were charged in turn by the Irish
horse, who threw them back in disorder upon their
first line. Wofully shattered, this was hurled back in
succession upon the second line, and, sweeping all
before them, the Irish captured the foemen's guns,
when all became an utter rout.
" The Irish infantry charged up hill without firing
a shot," says Grant, " and closed in with sabre and pike.
. . . In vain did Munroe's cavalry charge this
determined infantry ; it threw back from its face
squadron after squadron, and kept constantly, rapidly
and evenly advancing. . . . though exposed to the
play of Munroe's guns and musketry." And again,
O'Neill's "foot moved on in steady columns, and his
horse in the spaces between the first and second
charges of his masses."
Thus it is evident that Owen Roe's army won by
no mere impetuous dash, but displayed superior tactics
and a higher discipline than Munroe's veterans.
The Scotch and English left 3,248 dead on the field.
Numbers more perished by drowning in trying to cross
the river, or fell among the bogs, pursued by the nimble-
footed Irish kernes. All their guns, tents, baggage,
and arms, with 32 colours, 1,500 draught horses and
provisions for two months, besides Lord Montgomery
and 21 officers, 150 men and stores of ammunition
were captured by the Irish, who on their side only had
70 men killed and 200 wounded !
General Munroe himself, leaving his hat, sword and
HOW OWEN ROE O'NEIIJ, GAVE HIS SWORD. 143
cloak behind, fled at top speed with the remnant of his
late proud force to Lisburn and thence to Carrickfergus.
It was a glorious victory ; and, some days later,
the 32 captured standards were borne in solemn pro-
cession by the chiefs of the Irish nobility at Limerick,
followed by the Papal Nuncio, the Archbishop of Cashel
and three bishops, to St. Mary's Cathedral where the
Te Deum was chanted and a Mass of thanksgiving
celebrated.
Owen Roe's countenance was exceedingly gentle and
gracious in expression. He wore a thick square brown
beard, and his eyes were large, bold and eloquent of
feeling ; his nose was a sharp, thin compromise between
the aquiline and the Roman a nose like Julius Caesar's.
The face, though, was not sufficiently stern or inflexible
for a leader of those troublous days. He suffered him-
self, out of modesty and nobility of character, to be too
much thrust aside by men of inferior military capacities
but ineffably superior self-conceit and more violent
temperament. The portrait of him that has come down
to us shows him wearing a flat cap like a Scotch bonnet,
with a jewelled clasp, and a shaggy fur cloak over a
steel corselet.
144 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XVI.
CROMWELL IN IRELAND. His REPULSE AT CLONMEL.
But the pusillanimity of the Anglo-Irish, who still
wanted alliance with the Ormondist party and the
King, in great measure counteracted this splendid
triumph of the popular cause, and Ormond, " the great "
Duke or Karl as he has been called, actually surrendered
Dublin to the Parliamentarians, receiving 5,000 and a
pension of 2,000 per annum. After this unspeakable
treachery, however, to even his King, he fled the
country. Ormond sold his King rather than hand
over the capital to O'Neill and Preston who were
investing it.
And now Preston's jealousy of O'Neill aided in the
ruin of the cause also. His military talents were by
no means of a high order, yet he sought to eclipse
Benburb. With 7,000 foot and 1,000 horse he encoun-
tered an inferior force of English under General Jones,
the new Parliamentary Governor of Dublin, at Dungan
Hill, near Trim, abandoning an excellent position to
crush the latter. He was most ignominously defeated
and lost, it is said, over 5,000 men. It was a dreadful
disaster ; the Confederate army of Leinster was prac-
tically exterminated. Owen Roe came up with 12,000
men, and Jones retired within the walls of Dublin.
CROMWELL IN IRELAND. 145
The savage Inchiquin, too, reduced Munster, though
he shrank from attacking the famous Sir Alexander
McDonnell, known as " Colkitto " (the Left-handed)
at Clonmel. Colkitto and his brave Antrim Mac-
Donnells had, as we have said " formed the backbone
of the army which, under the gallant Montrose, did such
splendid service for King Charles." The heroic Col-
kitto was afterwards put to the sword in cold blood
by Inchiquin, with whom some of the Confederate
Council actually afterwards made a truce, completely
tying the hands of Owen Roe. Ormond returned to
the people he had betrayed, and, joined by Preston and
Inchiquin, invested Dublin. The garrison made a
sortie and " the great " Earl was completely routed
with a loss of nearly 7,000 men.
A new, and indeed a terrible, foe now landed in
Ireland. This was the future great Lord High Protector
of England, Oliver Cromwell. He landed at Ringsend,
near Dublin, on August I4th, 1649, with 9,000 foot and
4,000 horse, his equally dreaded " Ironsides." With his
force increased by the Dublin army to 17,000 men he
attacked Drogheda, held for the Confederates by a
gallant English Catholic officer, Sir Arthur Aston,
and 3,000 men. Speedily breaching the wall of the town
with his heavy ordnance, Cromwell flung a storming
party forward. It was twice repulsed, with the loss of
its colonel, but eventually forced a passage into the
town and this was won. The heroic Sir Arthur Aston,
however, and 250 others barricaded themselves in the
Milmount, a place of some strength in the south town,
and made such resistance that Cromwell offered them
quarter if they surrendered. Relying on the Lord
L
146 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Deputy's word, the garrison laid down its arms, and was
immediately butchered to a man. The slaughter did
not stop at that. For five days it went on, and non-
combatants, men, women and children were massacred
with the armed men. But our intention is to avoid
such barbarous horrors as the merciless, iron-hearted
Cromwell now inaugurated, and so we will not give
further details. His purpose was to create terror
and thus unnerve his foes, and his plan succeeded in a
measure.
He next turned his attention to Wexford. The
Wexford people would have none of Ormond's men,
and would only hear of having a garrison of 1,200
reliable Ulster men under Colonel Sinnott and Sir
Edmond Butler. Here Captain Stafford, the Royalist
commander of the castle, secretly corresponded with
Cromwell and admitted the Puritans into the castle,
turning his guns then upon the betrayed and amazed
town. The Irish were thus driven from the walls and
the English entered, and again, as at Drogheda, put
men, women and little children to the sword. In the
market-place, now known as the " Bull Ring," 300
women, kneeling for protection around the great cross,
were butchered by the inhuman " Ironsides " like sheep.
During the carnage, a priest stood on the steps of the
cross holding aloft a crucifix, calling on the women to
die bravely for Christ and his saints stood there, thus
exhorting and encouraging, until he was himself struck
down by an English soldier's steel.
If we execrate the traitor of Wexford, let us honour
that noble priest, also a Stafford Father Raymond
Stafford.
CROMWEUv IN IRELAND. 147
At Ross or New Ross, General Luke Taffe wrung
honourable terms from Cromwell, and General O'Farrell,
with only 500 Ulster men, forced him to raise the siege
of Waterford. Cromwell's army was now suffering from
fever and dysentery, and had Owen Roe O'Neill been
able to measure swords with him, it is not at all im-
probable that the future Lord High Protector would
have found his match we mean in the field of battle.
But just before Cromwell's arrival in Ireland, the
gallant Irish leader had been seized with a strange
malady, " attributed by some to slow poison."* He now
lay sick unto death at Cloughoughter in County Cavan,
even as he was on the point of marching south against
Cromwell. There he died on November 6th, 1649,
the last hope of the Irish Confederates. The great Earl
of Ormond promptly fled the country again, fearing to
meet Cromwell.
Wintering at Cork, Cromwell continued his campaign,
capturing Kilkenny and many other places. He laid
siege to Clonmel, defended by Hugh O'Neill, a nephew
of Owen Roe, and to whose soldierly abilities even
Carlyle gives praise. The vauntedly " invincible Iron-
sides " of Cromwell were hurled back under his eyes
with a loss of 2,500 of their number after four hours'
hard and incessant fighting. Never before had they
suffered such a carnal reverse ; and the entire Irish
garrison only numbered 1,500 men. Every man of it
had practically accounted for two of the inhuman
butchers of Wexford and Drogheda.
* The tradition, "absurdly erroneous," is that he danced in
poisoned slippers.
148 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The grand defence of Clonmel was a fight Irishmen
have just cause to be proud of. Cromwell, finding the
sword useless, had tried treachery and made a secret
arrangement with Major Thomas Fennell, General
O'Neill's second-in-command, to betray the garrison.
" O'Neill suspected something ; Fennell was arrested,
and on promise of pardon revealed the whole plot ;
O'Neill strengthened the position the Northern gate "
and allowed the 500 Puritans to be admitted as
arranged. Then the gates were slammed to in the faces
of the others waiting to enter, and the 500, assailed on
all sides, were quickly killed.
Weakened thus in numbers, Cromwell obtained
reinforcements and breached the west wall. O'Neill
secretly formed a lane, 80 yards long, on the other side
of the breach, during the night; when the English poured
into this, thinking to carry all before them, they found
themselves in this lane, or " pound," hemmed in on
either hand by a bank of earth, timber and stones,
six or seven feet in height, with a footbank behind for
the Irish lining it to stand upon and hew and thrust
and shoot over it at their trapped foes. Two heavy guns
were set at the end of the lane to enfilade it, and in
houses along the lane picked musketeers were posted.
A deep ditch was dug in front of the guns, which were
mounted behind a parapet.
When the lane was completely filled with the storming
party the Irish suddenly popped up on both sides of
it and fell on with pike and sword, musket and scythe,
while the two guns, hitherto masked and unsuspected
by the foe, swept it with chainshot, ploughing two awful
tracks of dead and dying throughout its whole length.
CROMWEU, IN IRELAND. 149
Shut up in the narrow space and thus terribly
beset, the English could do nothing. It was a veritable
death-trap and they were mown down to the number of
2,000 dead.
A second attempt to storm that lane of death was
no more successful ; and, declaring the Irish invincible,
Cromwell turned the siege into a blockade, whereupon
O'Neill made a sortie upon an unsuspecting post of the
Puritans and cut it off to a man.
But the heroic defenders' provisions and ammunition
were exhausted. Secretly in the night General O'Neill
drew all his men out of the town and retired to Water-
ford, what time, acting on his instructions, the Mayor
went to Cromwell with an offer to surrender the place on
condition the lives, liberties and estates of all were
secured. Cromwell was willing to get the place on any
terms and agreed to those proposed. He was exceed-
ingly wroth when he found how he had been tricked,
but he abided by the conditions, well content to take the
town where he had encountered " the stoutest enemy
his army had ever met with in Ireland." In that
death-trap lane within the breach, he lost one of his
colonels, Cullin, who was shot dead, and another,
I/angley, had his left hand lopped off with a scythe.
Cromwell's campaign in Ireland was not therefore,
as is too often supposed, one of uninterrupted success.
The " Defence of Clonmel " was undoubtedly its most
glorious episode, and far more worthy of note than the
massacres of Wexford and Drogheda.
Cromwell now turned over the command to his son-
in-law, Ireton, and quitted Ireland, returning to England
on May zgth. It is just possible that he was afraid his
150 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
prestige would suffer if lie remained much longer in
the country.
Heber MacMahon, Bishop of Clogher, had taken
command of the Ulster army after Owen Roe's death.
He was defeated by Coote and Venables, taken prisoner
and hanged. General Preston, at Waterford, surren-
dered to Ireton, and this Puritan general now laid siege
to Limerick.
The heroic General Hugh O'Neill, the defender of
Clonmel, was military governor of Limerick, but he
had with him the same officer who had betrayed him
before, Major Fennell, now a Colonel. This man was
a born traitor. He betrayed the pass of the Shannon
to Ireton the ford at Killaloe, and it is probable
that he went to Limerick for the express purpose of
betrayal.
The town held out in spite of the heavy guns and
mortar-pieces that the English, closely investing the
place, played upon its walls, replying by a counter-
cannonade and sorties that did considerable execution.
Every attempt to carry the city by storm was beaten
back. Ireton offered honourable terms and the towns-
people heroically rejected them, though O'Neill, seeing
the hopelessness of the struggle, was for accepting them.
For four more months the siege dragged on, the Irish
hurling back the stormers from the walls every time
these advanced.
But a worse foe than the English arms entered the
city the plague and reduced its fighting strength to
2,500 men. Faction, too, set in, to further sap its
resources ; and now was the traitor Fennell's oppor-
tunity. He, with some other traitors and factionists,
CROMWELL IN IRELAND. 15!
seized St. John's Gate, threw it open, and, admitting
200 English troops, threatened to turn the guns of the
gate on the city if terms were not made.
Two days later the town surrendered, and, by the
Articles of Agreement or Treaty, all were allowed life
and property except 24 persons General Hugh
O'Neill, General Purcell, the Bishops of Limerick
and Emly, and others. All these were put to death,
except Bishop O'Dwyer of Limerick, who escaped
disguised as a soldier, and General O'Neill, " who was
spared because of the odium his execution would cause
in foreign countries." It is said that Bishop O'Brien
of Emly, when sentenced to death, turned to Ireton
and predicted that he would follow him beyond the
grave within a fortnight. Ireton died of the plague
in the city he had captured within the time named.
He had lost 8,000 men in reducing heroic Limerick.
The traitor Fennell received a just reward. He was
hanged by the English for two murders he was proved
to have committed. The heroic Hugh O'Neill, on the
other hand, the betrayed, was sent to the Tower of
London, " but the Spanish ambassador interfered on
his behalf, and he was allowed to go to Spain." There
" he was received with the honour due to a brave soldier
and patriot." He assumed the title of Earl of Tyrone,
and in 1660 petitioned Charles II. for restoration of
the honours and estates of his ancestors. But Charles
turned a deaf ear presumably.
Athlone, Galway, and the remaining strongholds of
the Confederates now surrendered one by one, and
once more Ireland was prostrate under the iron heel
of England. Of what followed, of the " Cromwellian
152 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Settlement of Ireland," it is not our province to say
much, as we have no desire to harrow our readers'
minds. Suffice it to say that the native population
were treated most cruelly. " To Hell or Connaught "
was the cry, and any Irish people found east of the
Shannon after May ist, 1654, were to be put to death.
But many refused to be thus driven into the barren
wilds of the West and carried on a fierce guerilla war-
fare under the name of " Rapparees " or " Tories," as
before. No less than 4,000 Irish soldiers quitted the
country of their birth and took service in the armies
of France, Spain and Poland. Religious persecution
now reached an unparalleled degree in Ireland, priests
being hunted down mercilessly for 10 per head.
PART VI.
FOR JAMES OR WILLIAM
Do you remember long ago,
Kathaleen,
When your lover whispered low
" Shall I stay or shall I go,
Kathaleen ? "
And you answered proudly, " Go,
Join King James and strike a blow
For the Green."
" After Aughrim," by ARTHUR GERAIJ> GEOGHEGAN.
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY. 155
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY.
The reign of the Commonwealth or Puritan Govern-
ment in England was short-lived and practically
collapsed with the death of the dictator, Oliver
Cromwell. With their usual inconsistency, the English
people at once swung round to the other extreme,
and, throwing all the restraints and democratic
notions of Puritanism to the winds, welcomed back
the son of the King they had executed welcomed back
Charles II. with such obsequious expressions of loyalty
as to make that satirical monarch dryly remark that
"if he had only known how much the people loved
him he would have come before."
With the Restoration of royalty in England, the Irish
people hoped for better treatment, but the " great earl "
of Ormond, who had done so little good for the cause
of King Charles I., had the ear of the new King, and
took care to deceive him, and obtain a dukedom for
himself. Charles II., too, with all the goodwill in
the world, was afraid to show too much leniency to the
Irish and offend his new subjects, whose fickleness or
changeableness he fully appreciated.
His brother, who was a Catholic, succeeded him on
the English throne, and was called James II. This
156 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
monarch soon ran counter to the will of his people
by attempting to introduce toleration and religious
equality. He was a convert to the Catholic religion,,
and his eldest daughter, Mary, was a Protestant, and
had married William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
and Stadtholder of Holland, who was not only the
King's son-in-law therefore, but also his nephew. The
English people invited Prince William to come and
dispossess James of the throne, and, needless to say,,
the Dutch prince came quickly.
He landed at Torbay in the south of England on
November 5th, 1688, with 15,000 men, and James II.,
deserted by his army and fleet and all his Court
favourites, had to fly to France, whereby he was
declared to have abdicated. William entered London
in triumph.
James II. had appointed Richard Talbot, created
Earl of Tyrconnell, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Tyrconnell was a Catholic, and now he proceeded to
disband and disarm the Protestant militia and raise
a Catholic army. The Ulster Protestants naturally
resented this and took alarm, seizing on several of the
principal places, such as Deny, Enniskillen, Sligo,
Coleraine, and Culmore Fort. James II. 's only hope of
recovering the crown that his daughter and son-in-law
had deprived him of, was by retaining Ireland and
waging war from its shores. Well aided by the French
King, he landed, therefore, at Kinsale in March, 1689,
and was received, on account of his religion as much
as the fact that they considered him the rightful king
with open arms by the great mass of the Irish people.
Tyrconnell met him at Cork, and an army of 30,000
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY. 157
men, horse and foot, was speedily raised to fight for
him. But the Irish had been forbidden the use of
arms since Cromwell's time, so were wholly undis-
ciplined. The officers were for the most part country
gentlemen with no military knowledge either, and
the very blacksmiths did not know how to make
arms. The only soldiers at all in the army worthy of
the name were the Rapparees, or Tories, the hunted
outlaws who had lived, like Robin Hood and " his
merrie men " of English renown, in the hills and
glens, waging a savage guerilla warfare upon those
who had driven them from their lands and homes.
These Rapparees were so named from the half-pikes
adopted by them both as weapons and distinctive
tokens and called " rapparees." And these lacked the
steadiness of disciplined troops, being accustomed only
to guerilla or irregular warfare, that of the ambush and
sudden onfall, the fierce reprisal, to only fighting at
advantage and to seeking safety in flight when taken at
disadvantage.
Of this raw army, Tyrconnell, a most incompetent
man, was made commander, and a French general,
De Rosen, was second in command. A regiment under
Lord Antrim was sent by Tyrconnell to seize and
garrison Derry. I^undy, the governor, was a secret
partisan of James and was for surrendering the place,
but while negotiations were pending a great mob of the
*' 'Prentice Boys " rushed up and shut the gates in the
face of King James's commissioners and soldiers, raising
the shout of " No Surrender ! "
The cry was taken up by the townspeople, who
were all Protestants, and had been greatly swollen in
158 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
numbers by terrified refugees from other parts co-
religionists of course.
" No surrender ! We will hold the place for King
William of Orange ! "
It would certainly seem that at first the Williamite
garrison and volunteer combatants within the city
were numerically stronger than their besiegers, and
two regiments arrived from England to swell their
number. Nevertheless the place was not well equipped
for a siege, the fortifications were only " a simple wall
overgrown with grass and weeds ; there was not even
a ditch before the gates." Provisions, too, were
scarce, the guns poorly mounted, and there were not
many horses for cavalry.
Seeing the spirit of the townspeople, lyundy fled in
the disguise of a porter, leaving the city without a head.
" But there were not wanting men of energy and ability
to step into his place. The Rev. George Walker, the
Protestant Rector of Donaghmore, was made governor,
and two officers, Major Baker and Captain Murray,
assumed the military command. If they had little
else in the town they had plenty of ammunition,
480 barrels of gunpowder having been smuggled into
it. Stronger works, too, were now pushed forward
with.
James's troops summoned the place to surrender,
but they were fired on by way of answer, and so the very
much disappointed Catholic King sat down to besiege
the place. In all there were 7,500 trained officers
and soldiers in Derry, and the Volunteers, according to
" one who was in the city and ought to know," brought
the fighting strength up to 12,000. Moreover, they had
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY. 159
22 guns, " two of which were placed on the tower of the
cathedral."
The besieging forces did not exceed 10,000 men ;* and
they had but six guns !
King James left General Maumont to prosecute the
siege and departed for the more congenial atmosphere
of Dublin, where he could play at being a monarch still.
Maumont, on account of the poor ordnance he had,
determined to first attempt an escalade or assault by
storm, knowing well the dash and impetuosity of even an
undisciplined Irish army. But the onslaught was as
fiercely met. The 'prentice boys and other volunteers
flocked to the wall to the support of the Williamite
troops, who at first gave way and suffered the Jacobites
to capture the entrenchments at Windmill Hill. With
pike and musket, axe and adze and iron bars, the de-
fenders battled desperately with the wild Irish stormers.
The women, the wives of the colonists, were inspired
with the general enthusiasm, and, mingling with their
husbands behind the wall and trenches, handed these
ammunition or loaded their muskets for them. Some
women even rushed to the fray, like their sisters of
another faith did at Limerick later, and hurled stones
and broken bottles and household utensils at the
assailants. These were repulsed with a loss of 400 men
killed and wounded and Captain Butler son of L,ord
Mountgarret the leader of the assault, who was
captured with six other officers.
The siege now became a blockade. It was decided
'The Duke of Berwick said the besiegers were only 6,000, possibly
to start with. The highest estimate is only 20,000.
l6o THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
to reduce the place by starvation ; and in order to
prevent supplies coming up the River Foyle into the
place the besiegers built a " boom " or barricade across
the stream between Culmore Fort and the town
actually between Charles Fort and Grange Fort. Several
boats full of stones were first sunk at the point, then a
row of stakes was driven into the bottom of the river,
and great balks of timber were lashed together and
fastened to either shore by cables a foot thick.
For over three months the siege dragged out, all
attempts of the Irish to storm the walls being gallantly
repelled and the defenders occasionally sallying forth
and inflicting loss on their besiegers. But the brave
garrison was reduced to the last extremities of star-
vation : strong men within its ranks died of hunger.
Weeds and herbs were eaten, a mouse sold for sixpence,
a rat for a shilling, and tallow and hides were greedily
consumed, and this though there was at the mouth of
the river a fleet with abundant supplies from England.
At length, on the 28th of July, three frigates, the
Mountjoy, the Phoenix, and the Dartmouth, determined
to try and force the boom in the river and carry pro-
visions up to the beleaguered city. Returning the
heavy fire poured upon them from the forts on either
side of the river, the three vessels boldly stood up this
The first ship, the Mountjoy, charged the boom, and,
recoiling, ran aground. She was refloated by her
gallant crew and again put at the boom, which gave way
before the shock.
Passing through the breach, the vessels continued on
to the city and took the long-looked-for relief to the
starving garrison. Disheartened, the Jacobite general
Bursting the boom across the Foyle
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY. l6l
Hamilton General Maumont had been killed earlier
raised the siege, " the most memorable and desperate
recorded in the annals of the British Isles."
But, look at it how one may, if the garrison are to be
admired for their stubborn tenacity, patience and
" spirit of self-sacrifice which has been rarely equalled
in war" (D' Alton), must we not also admire a raw,
wholly undisciplined, half-armed army of 10,000
recruits the Duke of Berwick asserted the besiegers
did not exceed 6,000 who, with only six guns, could
shut up 12,000 well armed combatants, 7,500 of whom
were trained veterans, equipped with 22 guns, within
any place at all, and not only shut them up, but keep
them there when maddened by starvation.
Due honour to both sides, let us say.
The besiegers lost fully 8,000 men, according to
Grant, the besieged 3,000. Other, and perhaps more
reliable, authorities place the defenders' loss as high
as 6,000.
Another reverse that the Jacobites suffered about the
same time was near Enniskillen. The garrison of that
town intercepted a force under Lord Mountcashel
advancing to besiege them and utterly routed it at
Newtownbutler, with a loss of 2,000 slain and 400
prisoners. Mountcashel himself was wounded and
captured.
All Ulster had now declared for William except
Carrickfergus and Charlemont, which were the only
two fortified places' in the hands of the Jacobites, as
James's followers were called from Jacobus, the I,atin
for James. James had summoned a Parliament and
it met at Dublin on May 27th, and is known as " the
M
l62 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Patriot Parliament of 1689." The House of Peers
consisted of 54 members, only 14 of whom were Pro-
testants, but of these six were Protestant bishops.
No Catholic bishop, strange to say, was summoned.
In the Commons there were 224 members who also
consisted mostly of Catholics. Sir Richard Nagle, a
lawyer, who had written against the Act of Settlement,
was appointed Speaker. This " Patriot Parliament "
repealed all the penal laws and gave liberty of conscience
to all. It also granted bounties for ship-building and
for the establishment of schools of navigation, and
attainted of high treason over 2,000 persons who had
joined the Prince of Orange, declaring their estates
forfeit, and imposed a tax of 20,000 monthly for the
maintenance of the army.
King William of England struck quickly. He sent
Marshal Schomberg with a powerful army over to
Belfast, and Carrickfergus surrendered after a week's
siege, the garrison having exhausted their ammunition.
Schomberg, however, avoided a pitched battle with the
Irish and went into winter quarters at Dundalk. He
then blockaded Charlemont Castle, which was held for
James by Teague O'Regan with only 800 men. Schom-
berg had as many thousands with him and a fine siege
train. O'Regan was a hunchback and an elderly
man ; he held Charlemont for several months and was
reduced by hunger to the last extremity. Even then
he would only hear of surrendering on being allowed to
march out with all the honours of war. Schomberg
agreed, and forth O'Regan marched with arms and
baggage, and colours flying, his men weak and wasted
with starvation and half-healed wounds, accompanied
THE DEFENCE OF DERRY. 163
by " a large number of women and children, eagerly
gnawing pieces of dry hides with the hair on ; a small
portion of filthy meal and a few pounds of tainted
beef being the only provisions remaining in the fort."
King James conferred on the gallant O' Regan the
honour of knighthood and made him Governor of
Sligo.
And now came William of Orange himself to fight for
his newly gotten crown. On June I4th, 1690, he landed
at Carrickfergus with an army of 45,000 men, most of
whom were continental veterans, well armed, well
drilled, well officered. He had a train of 60 guns.
James at once advanced against him from Dublin with
an army of, at most, 23,000 men, Irish and French,
and with but 12 pieces of cannon. It was a piece of
bravery not to be expected of James.
164 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BOYNE WATER. SARSFIEI^D'S RIDE. THE WOMEN
OF LIMERICK.
The two armies faced each other on the banks of the
Boyne, where was fought a battle the result of which
could not have been in doubt for a moment. William's
army far outnumbered the Jacobites, was almost two
to their one, and was, moreover, better led and better
equipped in every way. The Williamites were veterans
to a man, while only a few thousands of James's army
were well trained French troops ; the rest were the raw
Irish levies, hastily drilled, and now, for the first time
seeing real battle, and that pitted against the finest
soldiers in the world. The odds were big, too, in the
case of artillery. As we have said, William had 60 large
guns, and James only 12.
Nevertheless, those raw Irish recruits fought with the
usual intrepidity of their race on that fateful ist of July,
1690.
As if to bear out the truth of the saying that " those
whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad,"
James sent away six of his 12 guns to Dublin and
neglected to destroy the bridge of Slane, the key to his
position ! Only at the last moment, too, was the
ford at Rosnaree guarded, Sir Neil O'Neill being sent just
THE BOYNE WATER. 165
in time, though vainly, to defend it with 800 dragoons,
when he should have had cannon and means of throwing
up barricades. Charles I. of England, who was executed
by Cromwell and the Parliamentarians, was said " to
have been his own best general." James II. may well
be said to have been his own worst general, and but for
the gallant Patrick Sarsfield, who was created Earl of
l,ucan and was descended on his mother's side from the
O'Moores, Princes of I/eix, James was not blessed with
a brilliant throng of generals by any means.
For an entire hour, the Irish dragoons of Sir Neil
O'Neill disputed the passage of the ford, exposed to
the fire of a numerous artillery and charges of cavalry
greatly their superiors in number. They drove the
Dutch Guards and Schomberg's regiment back several
times into the river until at last Sir Neil fell from his
horse mortally wounded, when the Williamites forced
their way across. Outflanked, L,auzun, James's French
general, sent all his Frenchmen and the horse under
Sarsfield, with the six guns, to drive back that wing of
the foe.
The centre of the Jacobite position was now left
without a gun, and with only the raw Irish recruits to
hold it against the redoubtable King William himself.
Marshal Schomberg led his troops into the river at the
fords of Oldbridge. Bravely the Irish contested his
passage, although a few of the raw levies bolted, it is
said. If the whole lot had done so there would not have
been much to marvel at, seeing they were being heavily
cannonaded and had not a single gun to reply with ;
that they were all undisciplined, ill-officered troops
and were confronting veterans.
1 66 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
And yet the Williamites were hurled back with the
loss of two of their generals, Caillemote and Schomberg
himself, as well as the Rev Mr. Walker, the militant
parson who had defended Derry. King William himself
had been wounded earlier in the fight and had to hasten
to the scene to prevent disaster. His arrival put a
different complexion on affairs. The Irish foot were
borne back, overwhelmed by numbers, and at length
gave way on all sides. But the Irish horse " continued
to resist desperately." The French infantry, too,
covered the retreat well. William was struck by two
balls, one of which carried away his boot.
The Irish fell back on Duleek, turning at bay and
making a last stand at the Naul at nine o'clock. James
fled in terror from the scene taking Sarsfield, the only
officer capable of redeeming the day, with him to act
as his bodyguard. The tale is told that on arriving at
Dublin, the cowardly monarch said to L,ady Tyrconnell
that the Irish troops had shamefully run away.
" But your Majesty won the race," cuttingly replied
the lady.
The very next day he posted off to Kinsale, whence he
sailed for France, taking thither the news of his own
defeat.
At the Boyne the loss on both sides was about a
thousand killed and wounded, but the Williamites lost
Marshal Schomberg and Caillemote, two of their
general officers, and William himself was wounded,
The whole of the tent equipage, baggage, arms, etc.,
of the Irish were captured, however, with many
standards, horses, and prisoners. Their six field-pieces
do not appear to have been taken, the only artillery they
THE BOYNE WATER. 167
had, and the French and Swiss infantry retired in good
order, covered by the Irish horse, and marched into
Dublin in perfect discipline, " with their drums beating,
and colours flying, their white uniforms blackened by
dust and in many instances splashed with blood "
(Grant). So it could not have been such a hopeless
defeat, and with a commander worthy of the name
might well have been retrieved.
The Irish, however, under the incompetent Tyrconnell,
whose wife possibly might have made a better leader,
abandoned Dublin and concentrated at Limerick.
Happily now, Tyrconnell followed James to France
and the command devolved on General Sarsfield. He
had inherited the family estates at Lucan with an income
of 2,000 a year and had married the Lady Honor,
second daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde. He had
held a lieutenancy in the English Guards, and had
followed the deposed James II. to France and then to
Ireland.
Athlone Castle was held for the Jacobites by Colonel
Richard Grace, an old Confederate Catholic of 1641,
" now laden with years, but as bold of heart and brave
of spirit as when first he drew a sword for Ireland."
King William detached General Douglas with 12,000
men and a siege train of 12 cannon and 2 mortars to reduce
the place. When called on to surrender, the hero Grace
fired his pistol in the air, and said that was his answer.
Grace had demolished the English suburb of the
town and broken down the bridge. Douglas besieged
the place, bombarding it fiercely but ineffectively for
ten days ; then, hearing that Sarsfield was coming with
15,000 men, he again asked Grace to surrender. Grace's
l68 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
reply this time was to hang out a red flag, a sign of
" war to the death." With his ammunition nearly
exhausted and dreading an attack from Sarsfield, whose
name was already becoming one of terror to the William-
ites, Douglas withdrew, leaving old Governor Grace
victorious.
Sarsfield gathered together 20,000 foot and 3,500
horse in Limerick. The French General Lauzun, when
he saw the fortifications of the city, scoffingly said they
could be taken with roasted apples, and carried off the
whole of the French troops to Gal way, to support a
fatuous lunatic who believed himself to be the chosen
deliverer of the Irish race, one Balderg, or " Red
Mouth " O'Donnell. Chosen deliverer, indeed ! The
same O'Donnell did not hesitate later to betray his
countrymen.
One gallant French captain, however, named De
Boisseleau, to whom all honour be paid, stood by Sars-
field, and having had considerable experience in forti-
fication work, set himself to strengthen and improve
the defences of Limerick in every conceivable way.
King William arrived before the gates of the city in
person on August gih, 1690, and seized on the fords
north of it. On the very next day a Huguenot deserter
from his army got into the city and informed Sarsfield
that a convoy was on its way from Dublin with heavy
siege guns, pontoons and large stores of ammunition.
Sarsfield determined on a bold move.
He sought the aid and counsel of a daring and
noted Rapparee chief fighting under him, the famous
" Galloping O'Hogan," who knew every hole and corner
in the county. O'Hogan was as ready and eager as
THE BOYNE WATER. 1 69
himself for the daring attempt suggested ; and with
500 picked horsemen, the pair slipped out of Limerick
secretly under cover of the darkness on that same
Sunday midnight, August loth, by way of Thomond
Bridge, crossing thus into Clare.
Led unerringly by O'Hogan, they struck rapidly
north, making a detour to avoid William's outposts,
and crossed the Shannon again at Killaloe. Daybreak
saw the resolute little band snugly hiding in the recesses
or glens of Keeper Hill. There they remained all day,
Sarsfield sending out scouts to locate the convoy and
discover all that they might.
Only 100 strong, the convoy encamped for the night
at Ballyneety, 17 miles from Limerick, and by a very
curious coincidence chose the name of its deadly foe,
Sarsfield himself, as its password for the night a fact
one of Sarsfield's scouts informed him of. Steal-
thily, under the skilful guidance still of Galloping
O'Hogan, Sarsfield stole through the inky night upon the
camp. The outer sentry challenged :
" The password ? "
" Sarsfield," answered the owner of the name.
" Right ! Pass on," answered the sentry.
The troop passed him by without awakening suspi-
cion.
Again came the challenge from a second sentry.
" Sarsfield is the word, and Sarsfield is the man ! "
were the famous words the daring Irish general cried
in ringing tones, and at the signal the whole 500 horse-
men thundered down with flashing sabres and terrifying
war-shout upon the sleeping camp.
The startled Williamites sprang up, fuddled with
I/O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
their slumbers, only to be cut down or made prisoners,
and in a few minutes all was over. The siege train was
captured. Sarsfield ordered the pontoons, which were
to be used for making bridges by which William's army
might cross the river, to be smashed to atoms, what
time all the guns were filled chokeful with powder,
and then turned muzzle downward and half buried in
the earth, the ammunition waggons being ringed close
around with everything else that the Irish troopers
could not conveniently carry off with them.
A train of gunpowder was then laid, and fired, as the
troops drew off to a safe distance. With a flash that
was seen in William's own camp and a report which
shook the surrounding hills and woke a thousand
deafening echoes among them, guns and waggons and
pontoons were all blown up together ceased to be.
Back Sarsfield and his gallant troop then rode as they
had come, still safely piloted by the faithful O'Hogan,
and they took back with them 100 saddle horses, the
horses of the entire convoy, with the 400 draught horses
of the train laden with what provisions and ammunition
had been possible in the haste necessary.
William had, as a matter of fact, been warned by a
partisan of his, who had seen Sarsfield cross the Shannon,
and had sent a force to intercept him. But O'Hogan
led the band across on the return at Banagher, and so
it regained the city walls in safety, to the enthusiastic
delight of all within these, townspeople and garrison
alike.
Furious at this set-back, William sent to Waterford
for another siege-train, and this time took good care that
it should reach him safely. With these guns he now
THE BOYNE WATER.
hammered a breach near St. John's Gate and hurled
forward 10,000 men to storm it. The deadly struggle
for supremacy that ensued has been recorded in song and
story and won undying fame for the heroic defenders.
The very women joined in repulsing the attack, as
we have mentioned already in describing the Siege of
Derry. They rushed into the thick of the fight along
with their brothers and fathers and husbands, the
heroic townsmen, and hurled stones and bottles and
bricks at the enemy.
" The women fought before the men ;
Each man became a match for ten ;
And back they drove the foemen then
From lyimerick on the azure river."
The blacksmith fought with his sledgehammer,
the butcher with his cleaver or caught up the
pike or musket of the fainting, bleeding Irish
soldier. The Williamites got into the streets, but
of those who did few got out again. The resistance
was heroic and fierce in the extreme. Back the Eng-
lish, Dutch, Danes, Prussians, French Huguenots, and
other heterogeneous constituents of William's army
were hurled with dreadful loss. The Brandenburgh
regiment, a Prussian one, had captured the Black
Battery when a mine set by Sarsfield was sprung under
their feet and blew up half their number.
For four hours on end that terrible fight was waged,
and over 2,000 of William's proud army were either
killed or wounded in it.
William had had enough of Limerick, and three days
later he raised the siege and marched away to Water-
172 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
ford, whence he sailed for England, leaving the prose-
cution of the war to others.
Sarsfield was not exactly a handsome man, and there
is something inexpressibly sad in his portrayed coun-
tenance as we know it. It is this sadness which, per-
haps, detracts from his good looks, and makes us deem
him not handsome, for the features are regular and
good, the eyes large and bold, the nose aquiline, the
mouth and chin firm. I,ike Owen Roe O'Neill, he
suffered from over-unobstrusiveness, unwillingness to
thrust himself forward, out of a mistaken sense of
modesty.
HOW THEY HELD THE BRIDGE AT ATHLONE. 173
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW THEY HELD THE BRIDGE AT ATHLONE AuGHRIM.
THE TREATY OF LIMERICK.
Churchill, who afterwards achieved such renown on
the continent as the Duke of Marlborough, the future
victor of Blenheim, Ramillies, etc., now took command
of the Williamite forces in Ireland. At the head of
16,000 men he forced Cork to surrender on honourable
terms, and likewise Kinsale. Tyrconnell now unfor-
tunately returned from France, and the brave Sarsfield
was superseded in the command of the Jacobites by
General St. Ruth, a very capable but very bumptious
commander. General Ginkle had succeeded Churchill
at the head of the Williamite forces. The two armies
met at Athlone, the English 18,000 strong, the Irish
20,000.
The Shannon divides the town of Athlone in two, and
the one in Leinster was called the English town, and that
on the Connaught side, the Irish town. By dint of
heavy cannonading, Ginkle drove the overweening St.
Ruth out of the English town and got possession of it.
The town, however, was left in ruins and flames, and
the Irish broke down the bridge connecting it with the
Irish town. Covered by their superior artillery, the
Williamites contrived to throw some beams over the
174 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
broken arches and partially span the gap. But very
little more planking and a passage across the river would
be available for their army to cross.
A sergeant of Maxwell's Irish dragoons, named
Costume, sprang from the ranks. " Are there ten men
here who will die with me for Ireland ? "
Ten ! A hundred and more offered. But Sergeant
Costume would only have ten men at a time.
" Encasing themselves in complete armour," and
armed with axes, the gallant eleven rushed from behind
their breastwork on to the newly laid beams and vigor-
ously hewed and hacked at these. The whole Leinster
bank of the river wreathed itself in smoke instantly
and the bridgehead was swept by a hurricane of
bullets from muskets and grapeshot from cannon.
Riddled like sieves the heroic Costume and his ten
equally gallant companions fell to rise no more. Some
of the beams had gone, but the eleven had perished to
a man.
Again a hero sprang from the ranks and called on ten
others to follow him. Again eleven men clad in armour
bounded on to that death-swept bridge and daring the
tornado of lead and iron pelting around, hewed at the
timbers. Nine fell but the other two completed the
work of destruction sent the last beam tumbling
into the river, and then regained the shelter of the
entrenchments, amid the admiring and triumphant
huzzas of their comrades.
It was a feat worthy to be recorded with that of
far-famed Thermopylae, where Leonidas the Greek
and his 300 fell holding the pass against a whole host of
Persians ; it stands parallel with that exploit immor-
HOW THEY HELD THE BRIDGE AT ATHUWE. 175
talised by the English writer Macaulay, " How Horatius
kept the bridge in the brave days of old."
Let me second A. M. Sullivan's lament that no
memorial has ever been erected to the memory of the
heroic Costume and his companions.
But their valiant self-sacrifice was unavailing after all.
Ginkle, who appears to have been a greater commander
than King William himself, threw a body of troops across
the river below the bridge and took the Irish town
also, chiefly through St. Ruth's culpable carelessness
and over-confidence. He was jealous of Sarsfield
and shared no counsel with him, though the latter was
his second-in-command. The Irish lost 1,000 men at
Athlone and fell back on Aughrim, near Ballinasloe.
Ginkle's force had now swollen to 26,000 men and he
was better equipped than ever with artillery. He found
the Irish posted on a strong situation with a bog on
either hand and the centre on a hill, called Kilcommodon.
It was the I2th of July, 1691. There were two cause-
ways across the morass in front, and Ginkle attempted
to carry these by an assault in force. He was driven back
with heavy loss. But again the jealous and vain St.
Ruth had not taken Sarsfield into his plans, and had
relegated that brave and capable officer to the sub-
ordinate position of commander of the cavalry reserve,
posting him in the rear behind the hill " with strict
orders to remain there. . . . On that eventful day
the greatest soldier of the Irish race was thus con-
demned to inglorious inactivity." (D' Alton.)
Defeated and terribly cut up, the English were in
full retreat and St. Ruth was about to give the order
for a general advance, when a cannon ball " took his
176 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
head away clean by the neck." A panic immediately set
in, and the first intimation Sarsfield had of his leader's
death was seeing, with consternation and amazement,
the whole army breaking up like a house of cards and
flying back down the hill towards him. All he could do
was to cover the retreat, and this he did to the best of
his power. Nevertheless, over 5,000 Irish fell in that
awful rout, while the English and their allies lost
about 2,000.
Galway surrendered on honourable terms to the
victors ; and Ginkle marched on and invested Limerick,
the last city left to the Jacobites and into which the
still unbeaten Sarsfield had thrown himself with the
remnant of his forces.
On the 25th August, the siege opened with a terrific
bombardment, and a breach was effected in the wall
of the English town. Ginkle, however, remembering
King William's awful repulse, feared to attempt to
enter it. Sarsfield endeavoured to get 4,000 horses
into the city but was unable to do so, and a sortie was
repulsed with heavy loss. A traitor in the garrison,
one Henry Luttrell, betrayed the passage over the
Shannon, and, throwing a pontoon bridge across in the
night at the point, Ginkle took up a position on the
Clare side of the river, completely surrounding the
city.
Sarsfield intercepted a letter from Luttrell to Ginkle
and arrested the traitor, though they were intimate
friends. Ginkle now offered conditions, and, Sarsfield
approving these, a truce was made, and on the 3rd
of October, the city surrendered on honourable terms.
The famous treaty of Limerick was signed by Sarsfield
HOW THEY HEI<D THE BRIDGE AT ATHI,ONE.
on a large boulder or slab of stone, which still stands at
the memorable spot, marking it. No one goes to
Limerick without seeing the " Treaty Stone." It stands
on a carved pedestal ascended by three or four flat stone
steps and bearing an inscription. The stone itself is a
rough, unhewn mass, chipped by relic-hunters through
the centuries since.
A few days after the capitulation, a French fleet
arrived with reinforcements for Sarsfield of 3,000 men
and 10,000 stand of arms, with ammunition and pro-
visions. But this help came too late. Ginkle was in
terror that Sarsfield, thus reinforced, would tear up the
treaty, disclaim it ; but the gallant Irish general, true
to foe as well as friend, only said mournfully :
" Too late ! The treaty is signed. We have pledged
our honour and the honour of Ireland. Though a
hundred thousand Frenchmen were here to help us now,
we must keep our plighted troth."
And so to the number of 14,000 infantry with colours
flying, drums beating, and matches alight, the garrison
of Limerick marched proudly out through the lines of
their silent if triumphant foes.
By the Treaty the Irish were to enjoy full civil and
religious liberty, and those who had fought for James II.
to retain their estates and merely be required to take
an oath of allegiance to King William III. instead of the
oath of supremacy, which was particularly obnoxious to
Catholics. Furthermore, all Irish soldiers who wished
to go should be allowed a free passage to France.
King William was not a bad man. Had he had his
way no doubt he would have brought peace and happiness
to Ireland He meant to faithfully keep the promises
178 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
he made, but his partisans would not allow him to do so
The English Parliament did not intend for one moment
to abide by the conditions of the Treaty of Limerick,
but to break them at the first chance in the selfish in-
terests of all of their way of thinking settled in the
land.
William, too, was anxious not to lose this splendid
fighting material that under Sarsfield had given him
such trouble to subdue, and Ginkle was instructed to
hold out promises of preferment to those Irish soldiers
who would enlist under his banner.
The 14,000 Irish infantry had filed, " into the great
green meadow on the Clare bank of the Shannon," says
Grant, " Printed copies of Ginkle's proclamation were
scattered thickly about, and many British officers went
through the ranks, imploring the men not to ruin them-
selves and describing to them the advantages which
the soldiers of King William enjoyed. But soon the
moment for decision came. They were ordered to
march past in review order. . Shirtless and
shoeless they might be then, but their hearts were
stout and true. First marched the Royal Regiment
of Ireland, 1,400 strong, and all save seven passed the
fatal point, preferring exile with their king to relin-
quishing the faith of their fathers." (Grant.)
In all only 1,046 men out of the 14,000 elected to
join the British army, 2,000 decided to retire to their
homes, and a solid 11,000, with Sarsfield at their head,
arrayed themselves beneath the banners of the French
under the Count de Chateau-Renaud.
Altogether, 19,000 Irish troops set sail for France,
under Sarsfield, Wauchope, and their gallant French
HOW THEY HEI,D THE BRIDGE AT ATHI/5NE. 179
ally at Limerick, D'Usson ; and no sooner were the
English colonists thus safe from their vengeance than
the Treaty of Limerick was violated, as we have said.
No faith was to be kept with the Irish, against whom
worse penal laws than ever were now passed by the
English Parliament at the demand of the English and
Scotch settlers and for the unjust benefit of these.
Some of the Protestant Bishops protested, to their
credit be it said, against this infamous conduct, but
their expostulation was to no purpose. The cruellest
laws were passed against the Catholics, so that it would
seem to have been the vengeance of cowards, who
deemed themselves safe now from those 19,000 Irish
" swordsmen " who had gone into exile.
On those horrid Penal laws we will just briefly touch,
for our province in this book is not to depress or sadden
the reader but to inspire him with admiration for the
glory and romance of his country. Still, let us point
out that there is glory and romance in heroic suffering
equally as in seeking " the bubble reputation e'en at the
cannon's mouth " ; glory and romance in fortitude
under great privation and trial, as well as in charging
to victory on the battlefield. And no nation has come
through the furnace of dire suffering so bravely as the
Irish race. Fire tempers the steel ; so too, trial and
suffering ennoble the heart and spirit, not triumph and
the tyranny that continuous triumph engenders.
Under the Penal Laws all Catholic prelates, clergy and
monks had to quit the country by the ist of May, 1698 ;
a Protestant woman marrying a Catholic lost all her
property which went to her next Protestant heir ; a
priest or minister marrying such a couple would be
l8o THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
imprisoned for a year and fined 20 ; no Catholic could
become a lawyer, a doctor, or a member of Parliament,
nor yet send his children abroad for education, although
no Catholic could be a school-teacher ; no Catholic
could buy land or possess a horse worth more than
&>.
What happened ? The Irish remained staunch to
their religion through all " this inhuman tyranny
the blackest known to history." In lonely caves and
remote glens the people met in secret to worship God
according to their persecuted religion, and often priest
and people were attacked by the soldiery there, when
the priest was butchered on the altar with many of
his faithful and devoted flock.
A cruel blow, too, was dealt at Irish trade At the
instance of the English traders, in 1699, the English
Parliament destroyed the Irish woollen industry,
prohibiting altogether the export of wool from Ireland,
throwing 40,000 people out of employment and reducing
them to absolute ruin.
The consequence of all this brutal persecution and
injustice was that the country was overrun more than
ever by bands of rapparees or tories. Bands of armed
men went abroad at night, houghing cattle, mutilating
sheep, and terrorising or murdering English settlers in
lonely farms.
But let us leave this picture of savage injustice and
equally savage reprisal, of cruel persecution, and a
noble, suffering, patient people, and betake ourselves
to the shores of France in the wake of the Irish
" swordsmen "
PART VII.
THE IRISH BRIGADE.
Oh, Erin ! In thine hour of need,
Thy warriors wandered o'er the earth
For others' liberties they bled,
Nor guarded the land that gave them birth ;
In foreign field it was their doom
To seek their fame ; to find their tomb
" Oh, Erin ! " by JOHN
Now England, now thy bull-dog courage show
That courage ever claimed for thee alone ;
This is no weak assault, no wavering foe
The Irish wolf-dog at thy throat has flown ;
Though many a time his fangs have shed thy blood
When starved, and scourged, and kept upon the chain
On equal terms he ne'er till now has stood
Before thee thus upon the battle plain."
" The Battle of Fontenoy," by W. J. CORBET, M.P.
SARSFIELD'S DEATH 183
CHAPTER XX.
SARSFIELD'S DEATH. How THE " WILD GEESE " SAVED
CREMONA.
The 19,000 Irish soldiers who had sailed for France
" were joined by many others, who in the years and
wars that were to follow have made the very name
of the Irish Brigade of France synonymous with all
that is glorious and gallant."
In 1692 there were no less than 30,000 Irish soldiers
in France, and they were promptly organised into what
was known as the Irish Brigade. It consisted of two
troops of horse guards, two regiments of foot guards,
two regiments of dismounted dragoons, eight regiments
of foot, and three independent companies. Sarsfield
commanded the second troop of horse guards and the
Duke of Berwick the first.
Almost immediately the Brigade were in action
against their old Williamite foes, and their first battle
was a victory over these, the battle of Steinkirk, where
William III. of England was utterly defeated by the
French under Marshal Luxembourg, who publicly
thanked Sarsfield and his Irish cavalry for his share
in the dashing charge that bore all before it.
But alas ! on July 29th, 1693, was fought the battle
of I^anden, where again, although the English were
184 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
beaten, after a most stubborn fight, the gallant Sarsfield
was struck down by a musket ball at the head of his
men, in the hour of victory. He fell from his horse
mortally wounded, but lingered some days, when he
died.
As he lay on the battle-field with the shouts of his
victorious comrades ringing in his ears, the shouts that
once again told him the English were falling back,
beaten and discomfited, he put his hand to his breast
as if to staunch the wound, and, drawing it away
covered with blood, looked at it sorrowfully and said :
" Oh ! That this were for Ireland ! "
" History," says Thomas Davis, " records no nobler
saying."
A fine and inspiring statue of Patrick Sarsfield,
than which there is no nobler name on Ireland's long
roll of heroic spirits, stands in that city which he twice
so gallantly defended against his country's foes, and the
name of which must ever be associated with his own.
When one thinks of Sarsfield one thinks of Limerick,
and vice versa. The statue represents him in the uniform
of the period in heroic pose with sword and arm extended,
the light of battle in his eyes and face, leading on his
men to victory. It stands close by the Black Battery
where the Prussian Brandenburghers were almost
annihilated by the exploding mine.
After Sarsfield's death, the most famous officer of the
Irish Brigade was Donal O'Brien, Lord Clare. Thomas
Davis has justly celebrated " Clare's Dragoons." But
this splendid body of horse had no share in the next
most brilliant feat of the Brigade. We refer to " the
world-famous repulse of the attack on Cremona " Of
SARSFIELD'S DEATH. 185
that unparalleled feat, James Grant gives a full and
exhaustive account in his " British Battles on Land and
Sea," and thus begins the chapter : " Though they were
not serving under the British flag, the defence of Cre-
mona by the Irish was one of the most brilliant deeds
performed at the opening of the eighteenth century."
This was the work of the " Old Brigade," Mount-
cashel's, who had all along been engaged in the Italian
campaign and had not fought William at the Boyne or
Limerick.
Marshal Villeroy lay in comfortable, too comfortable
quarters, with his army, in the well fortified city of
Cremona, on the banks of the Po River. There were
4,000 troops in the place, of whom only 600 were Irish
under Colonels Dillon and Burke. Prince Eugene and
the Austrians were far away, and the city believed itself
safe from attack. But one Cassoli, an Italian priest,
having no love for the French, entered into corres-
pondence with Prince Eugene of Savoy, and offered to
deliver the place into Austrian hands. Father Cassoli
lived near the gate of St. Margaret which, being disused,
had been bricked up. An old Roman sewer, broad and
lofty, passed under the city walls, too, just there, and
came up under Father Cassoli's house.
On the night of February 2nd, 1702, Cassoli secretly
admitted a party of Austrian soldiers, disguised as
artisans, through this sewer into his house. They
promptly broke down the green masonry of the adjoining
gate, and, like a living flood, in poured Prince Eugene's
army, horse and foot, which had crept up to the walls
without, undetected by the French who were keeping
most indifferent guard.
186 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The night was bitterly cold and sleeting and snowing.
Dispersing quickly through the various avenues, the
Austrians proceeded to possess themselves of every
post of vantage and surprise the sleeping French.
At the Po gate, close by, was a guard of 35 Irishmen,
the only guard apparently keeping anything like proper
watch in the whole city, for their officer, Major Daniel
O'Mahony was a great martinet or disciplinarian.
The 35 promptly fired on the on-coming Imperialists,
and then took refuge behind a stockade where they were
invulnerable, and against which their assailants in vain
raged. Half the 35 thrust their bayonets between the
palisades, while their comrades reloaded. They poured
in volley after volley, hurling back Count de Merci
and his Austrian grenadiers, as well as an attack from
250 dragoons.
The firing aroused the French everywhere. But as
they turned out many of them were shot down and cut
to pieces by the Austrians, now swarming horse and
foot through every street. Marshal Villeroy, rushing
out of his hotel, was captured by an Irish officer in the
Austrian service, a Captain McDonnell, a Mayo man.
Frantically the Marshal offered McDonnell 10,000
pistoles, a pension of 2,000 crowns annually and the
command of a French cavalry regiment if he would
release him.
But Captain McDonnell, though he had nothing to
live on but his pay as a captain, proudly replied to these
tempting offers :
" Monsieur, I prefer honour to fortune, and shall
maintain my honour untarnished by any such treachery
as you desire to seduce me into. You are my prisoner,
SARSFIELD'S DEATH. 187
Monsieur, and as such it is my duty to deliver you up
to those I serve, and I will certainly perform that duty."
The check at the Po gate enabled the rest of the Irish,
the two battalions of Dillon and Burke to turn out and
come to the relief of their guard. Major O'Mahony
made them turn out only half dressed, in spite of the
cold and sleet. In shirts and trousers, with their
muskets and bayonets, the Irishmen charged Count de
Merci and drove him back, then turned two guns on the
Imperialists and cleared the street.
Prince de Vaudemont, one of Eugene's lieutenants,
was outside the Po gate with 2,000 cavalry and 3,000
infantry, but through De Merci's set-back he could not
get into the city, and the Irish at the gate now broke
down the bridge outside and effectually barred his
hopes of entering. Some of the French under the Count
Revel rallied and managed to recover a post in another
part of the city, from which they began to slowly drive
back the Austrians.
In desperation, Prince Eugene hurled cavalry and
foot in succession against the Irish 600 at the Po gate.
But these held all the approaches thither and success-
fully flung back every attempt to reach it. Vaudemont
was helpless with his 5,000 on the other side. Eugene
sent McDonnell to try and induce his fellow-Irishmen
to surrender on promise of a large sum of money and
service under himself at higher pay.
O'Mahony, enraged at such an infamous proposal,
arrested McDonnell, saying he had no right to attempt
to thus suborn loyal men. Eugene then tried to induce
Villeroy, his prisoner, to send a message to the Irish to
lay down their arms.
1 88 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
" I am no longer their general, and may not," smilingly
answered Villeroy.
Count Revel managed to communicate with O'Mahony,
and directed the Irish to try and cut their way through
the foe to his assistance. Although the houses lining
the streets were filled with Austrian marksmen, the
Irish almost forced their way through, and at last,
after eight hours' incessant fighting, finding it impossible
to hold the city, Prince Eugene withdrew his troops
out of the gate by which he had entered He carried
off Marshal Villeroy and about 500 French officers
and men whom he had taken prisoners, but he left
more than 2,000 of his own troops dead in the
streets.
The Irish had saved Cremona, but at heavy loss to
themselves. Of their brave 600, they lost 239 dead or
prisoners. Burke's regiment lost 16 officers and 92
soldiers, while Dillon's regiment, led by the gallant
O'Mahony, lost 13 officers and 118 rank and file
Count de Revel fell on O'Mahony's neck and kissed
him there in the corpse-strewn public square where they
met ; then sent him to bear the news of his glorious
exploit to Louis XIV. The Grand Monarque received
O'Mahony with high honour and created him a colonel
and a count of France, with a pension, and sent special
thanks to the two Irish regiments through him, raising
their pay forthwith.
Count O'Mahony subsequently rose to the rank of
Major-General, and achieved further distinction at
Almanza and other places.
At Blenheim, although the English under Marlborough
defeated the French, the Irish covered themselves with
SARSFIELD'S DEATH. 189
glory by cutting a German regiment to pieces, and
Clare's Dragoons sustained the retreat. The gallant
Lord Clare, however, was killed, receiving nine wounds
in the still more disastrous defeat of RamiUies.
1 90 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
CHAPTER XXI.
LACY AND WOGAN. THE CROWNING VICTORY OF
FONTENOY. COUNT LAU,Y.
But not all the " Wild Geese," as these Irish exiles
were affectionately called in Ireland, fought for France,
as we have shown in the case of Captain MacDonnell,
who was in the Austrian service. Field-Marshal Count
Peter Lacy, for instance, also won lasting fame in
Russia. He had taken part in the siege of Limerick
and accompanied Sarsfield to France. He then joined
the service of Peter the Great and fought against the
Swedes, being brigadier-general at the famous battle
of Pultowa, where Charles XII. of Sweden was crushed.
Later, he was made General-in-Chief of Russian infantry,
and next we find him fighting against the Poles and
placing a new king on the throne of that country.
In 1737, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
Russian army and conducted campaigns against the
Khan of the Crimea and the Swedes respectively,
eventually dying peacefully in his bed at the age of 73,
on his estates in Livonia.
In the Spanish service, O'Donnells, O'Neills, O'Reillys,
and Blakes and O'Farrells rose to eminence, and there
were no less than five Irish regiments at one time.
Another of the famous Irish exiles at this period
LACY AND WOGAN
was Chevalier Charles Wogan, who took part in the
Elder Pretender's or " First Jacobite " Rising of 1715
in England. He was captured at Preston, but escaped
with half a dozen others from Newgate Gaol in the heart
of London, by a bold dash overpowering the guards
and throwing open the gates. In 1718, the Pretender,
or James III., was to marry Princess Maria Clementina
Sobieski, grand-daughter of the famous Polish patriot
king, John Sobieski, a most lovely woman, as her
portraits testify. She eventually married James and
became the mother of " Bonnie Prince Charlie," the
" Young Pretender."
But it was England's interest to prevent the proposed
match, and the Princess Clementina was arrested with her
mother by the Austrian Emperor at the instance of
England and imprisoned at Innspruck. Wogan deter-
mined to effect her release, and with three brother Irish
officers, Major Gaydon, Captain O'Toole and Captain
John Misset, with the wife and maid of the last-men-
tioned, set out disguised for Innspruck, using forged
passports.
Arrived at Innspruck, Wogan contrived to pass a
letter in to the princess, and the escape was arranged
for April 27th, 1719. On that night Mrs. Misset's maid
changed clothes with the princess, who was supposed
to be confined to her bed with illness, and now stole
out of the castle in the midst of a storm of hail and snow
Wogan and his companions were waiting outside with
a postchaise and horses handy. Away they galloped
at top speed through the night, the princess and Mrs.
Misset in the chaise, Gaydon driving, and Wogan riding
alongside, with O'Toole and Misset following at some
I Q2 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
distance to intercept any one carrying tidings of the
escape or any pursuit. They made for Rome, where
Clementina married James.
Wogan and his companions were created Roman
senators by the Pope, an honour hitherto reserved for
royal personages and men of distinguished bravery or
merit. Wogan afterwards fought against the Moors
and died in 1747, a governor of one of the Spanish
provinces
" The crowning victory of the Irish Brigade, the
brightest star in the glittering firmament of their military
glory" (T McCarthy), was FONTENOY. Who of
Irish blood has not heard of it ? It is " a name which
to this day thrills the Irish heart with pride," wrote
A. M. Sullivan ; and, as John Mitchel said, " it was
an event in the history of Ireland."
On May nth, 1745, the English and their allies, to
the number of 55,000 men, faced the French under
Marshal Saxe and King Louis XV. in person, numbering
40,000 at Fontenoy, a small village near Tournay, on
the left bank of the Scheldt. The Duke of Cumberland,
King George's brutal son, known as the " Butcher of
Culloden " afterwards, for his cruelty to the followers
of Bonnie Prince Charlie, was in command of the
English and their allies. The French had been besieging
Tournay and the Allies were marching to relieve it.
All the Irish regiments in the French service the
entire Irish Brigade, strange to say were present,
under Charles O'Brien, Lord Clare and Earl of Thomond.
The Dutch attacked the French right at St. Antoine,
and the English and Hanoverians the French centre and
left. On the right the Dutch were driven back ; but
I,ACY AND WOGAN. 193
Cumberland formed his division into a solid column or
phalanx of 15,000 men, with seven cannon in its front,
and as many on either flank, and thus, marching steadily
forward, with regular volleys forced his way, in spite
of a withering fire, past all the redoubts right up to and
into the French centre. Every attempt on the part
of the French cavalry and infantry to break up or stop
the progress of that solid column of English and Germans
was vain. Broken and disordered, the finest troops
of France had to recoil before the merciless fire of the
English cannon and the steady volleys from its front
and flanks.
All seemed lost, many of the French troops were
already in flight, and King L,ouis was preparing to seek
his own safety, when Colonel I/ally of the Irish Brigade
came galloping up to the Duke de Richelieu, a royal
favourite, and suggested that four guns held in reserve
be used to batter in the head of the English column
and then that the Irish Brigade charge the enemy in
flank, backed up by the French cavalry.
Richelieu carried the suggestion to Marshal Saxe,
who instantly acted upon it, and word was sent to I/ord
Clare to charge. Only the Irish foot took part in the
charge, to the number of nearly 6,000 men ; the cavalry
were elsewhere with the French horse. The English
formed the right of the phalanx, the Hanoverians the
left, and it was against the right flank that the Irish
Brigade were flung, Thus, by a strange coincidence,
the old-time foes met once again in a most decisive
struggle.
Clad in scarlet uniforms with white breeches, the
seven regiments of Irishmen advanced as if on parade,
194 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
reserving their fire until the order to charge was given.
Then, pouring in a well-delivered volley from every
musket which sent the English tumbling over each other
in dozens, they closed with the bayonet, to the thun-
derous shout of :
" Cuimhnigidh ar I/uimneac agus fheile na Sassenach !
(" Remember Limerick and British faith or perfidy ! ")
Terrific was the impact ; and like water, the English
broke before the Irish bayonets in spite of the desperate
efforts of their officers to hold them together.
" Through shattered ranks and sever'd files and trampled
flags," the Irish tore, sweeping all before them. The
English were hurled back on the Hanoverians, throwing
them into confusion ; and like a child's sand castle
before an inrush of the tide, or a house of cards with its
foundations knocked away, the whole mighty and
hitherto invincible column of 15,000 men crumpled
up, fell to pieces, was swept together confusedly and
away back, down the hillside it had so proudly mounted,
leaving a dreadful littered track of dead and dying,
lost cannon, banners, drums, muskets, accoutrements,
and carriages. 15 of the 20 cannons were captured.
These were turned upcn the tumbling, disordered, fleeing
masses, adding to their panic. The French cavalry
" dashed in upon their track " and the rout was complete.
In ten minutes it was all over ; and, as Thomas Davis
wrote
" On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, like eagles in the sun,
With bloody plumes the Irish stand the field is fought
and won ! "
But the heavy fire maintained by the English upon the
Brigade when advancing to the charge cost it dear
LACY AND WOGAN. IQ5
98 officers and 400 men killed and wounded. The
French lost 7,000 and the Allies 21,000, of which last
number the English lost nearly 8,000 killed and wounded,
and more than 2,000 prisoners, so that the Irish loss was
very insignificant after all, compared with that of their
hereditary foes.
" The Duke of Cumberland was never able to face
the enemy again " (Grant) ; and Ghent, Bruges,
Ostend and Oudenarde at once surrendered to the
French. King lyouis rode down to the bivouac of the
Irish that night and thanked them personally, and
when the English King, George II., heard of the defeat
of his army by the Irish exiles, " he uttered that memor-
able imprecation on the penal code ' Cursed be the
laws which deprive me of such subjects ! ' When
Bonnie Prince Charlie drew his sword before the disas-
trous fight of Culloden, he cried : " Come, gentlemen,
let us give Cumberland another Fontenoy ! "
It was Fontenoy, too, which encouraged Prince Charlie
to make his bold and romantic attempt to recover the
lost crown of his grandfather. His chief of command
was Colonel O'Sullivan, and Irishmen helped him with
both money and a ship.
Colonel Count I,ally-Tollendal, who had so distin-
guished himself at Fontenoy, achieved still greater
renown. His family had come from Galway. .Born in
1702, he was the son of Sir Gerald L,ally who had fought
under Sarsfield and gone into exile after limerick.
He tried to raise an army for Bonnie Prince Charlie,
and, on the collapse of the latter's " rising," he went to
India. In 1758, he was commander-in-chief of the
French possessions there, and did his best to drive the
IQ6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
English out of the country. Had he been well sup-
ported, he might have done so. As it was, hampered
and betrayed by his French comrades-in-arms, deserted
by the French Government at home, he was defeated
by the English at Wandewash and subsequently obliged
to surrender Pondicherry, which town nevertheless he
gallantly defended until starving.
On his return to France his powerful enemies con-
trived to have him thrown into the Bastile, and even-
tually condemned and executed. In 1778, however,
I^ouis XVI. cancelled the decree of attainder against
him as unjust and illegal, and restored to his son the
honours he had been deprived of.
Colonel Count Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator's
uncle, was the last distinguished officer of the Irish
Brigade, which was disbanded by the French Republic
in 1792 because it had remained faithful to the French
royal family. In that same year it had been presented
by the Bourbon prince, who afterwards became Louis
XVIII., with a flag bearing an Irish harp and the words
" 1692-1792, Semper et Ubique fidelis " (Ever and every-
where faithful.)
PART VIII.
THE DAYS OF GRATTAN.
The soggarths led, the pikemen fought
Like lions brought to bay,
And Wexford proved her prowess well.
In many a bloody fray,
Where wronged and wronger foot to foot,
In deadly grip was seen,
And England's hated red went down
Before the Irish green.
The Priests of Ninety-Eight," by REV. P. M.
At the Siege of Ross did my father fall,
And at Gorey my loving brothers all,
I am the last of my name and race,
And I go to Wexford to take their place.
" The Croppy Boy/' by CARROIA MAI.ONB.
THUROT'S RAID. 199
CHAPTER XXII.
THUROT'S RAID. THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS. GRATTAN
AND FLOOD.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, England
was alarmed by rumours of a threatened French in-
vasion, and sure enough a daring French commodore,
named Fra^ois Thurot, but who was really an Irishman
named O'Farrell, continually ravaged the British coasts,
until his " name was a terror and byword from south
of Berwick to north of Caithness." He was called
" The Corsair " and he swept British shipping from the
North Sea.
" This man's name became a terror to the merchants
of Britain," wrote Smollett, " for his valour was not
more remarkable in battle than his conduct in eluding
the British cruisers. ... It must be likewise
owned . . . that this bold mariner, though des-
titute of the advantages of birth, was remarkably
distinguished by his generosity and compassion to those
who had the misfortune to fall into his power, and that
his deportment in every respect entitled him to more
honourable rank in the service of his country."
With the Friponne, a corvette, he captured " upwards
of sixty " English merchant ships. He was then given
two frigates and two corvettes, and with this little
20O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
squadron of five ships he infested the coast of Scotland
in May, 1758. Off Leith, with two ships, he fought an
English squadron of four all most heavily armed, and
left it so badly mauled that it could hardly crawl into
port. Covered with glory by this and other successes,
he was presented by King I^ouis XV. to Madame de
Pompadour, and he was entrusted with another squad-
ron of five frigates and a corvette, and despatched from
Dunkirk to ravage the Irish coast.
One of his ships foundered at sea, and another, having
to throw all its guns overboard to prevent doing the same,
returned home. Thurot or O'Farrell, on the 2ist of
February, 1760, sailed into Carrickfergus Bay and,
lying off Island Magee, of ill-repute in Irish history
notable for an alleged dreadful massacre by the Scotch
Puritans in 1642, he landed in his boats with 1,000
men, and captured the castle from Colonel Jennings
and the garrison of 150 soldiers. The Corsair
levied rations from the town and the merchants of
Belfast, threatening to burn the latter place, and he
carried off two vessels, laden with linen, from Belfast
Lough.
After remaining at Carrickfergus for five days, he
sailed off, and near the Isle of Man encountered the
English fleet. A terrible conflict ensued, 'in which
Thurot " fought with the fury of despair till a musket-
ball stretched him on the deck in mortal agony." By
that time his little squadron was more or less disabled.
He was only 33, and died in the arms of his wife, an
English lady, who was with him. His body was buried
on the Scottish coast, and we are told that the peasant
girls of Wigton and Galloway " still remember him in
THUROT'S RAID. 201
their songs as the gallant and gentle Thurret, for so
they pronounce his name."
In 1761 first appeared the Whiteboys, gangs of " moon-
lighters " who wore linen frocks over their coats. They
were suppressed by the military, but rose again in
1786 and 1822. The Insurrection Act was passed to
deal with them in the latter year.
With the breaking out of the American War of
Independence in 1775, a whole host of American and
French privateers appeared off the coast, chief amongst
them being Paul Jones, the terrible Scotchman flying
the American flag, the young republic's first admiral.
He also, after many depredations and exploits on the
English and Scottish coasts, entered Carrickfergus Bay,
where he fought and sank an English ship of war.
It was England's difficulty and Ireland's oppor-
tunity. With one voice the Irish people, Protestant
and Catholic alike, demanded that, as England could
not protect them against foreign attacks and possible
invasion, they should be allowed to organise a volunteer
force. Belfast immediately started enrolling men, and
within a year there were some 40,000 men under arms.
These were supplied them grudgingly by the Govern-
ment, but they provided their own uniforms and elected
their own officers. Among the officers were most of
the public men of the day. The famous and patriotic
Henry Grattan and the equally patriotic Henry Flood
were colonels, while James Caulfield, the Earl of
Charlemont, was given supreme command, with I/ord
Clanricarde and the Duke of Leinster in authority
under him.
Henry Grattan, who was a member of parliament
202 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
for Charlemont at 29 years of age, and had raised him-
self to the position of leader of the " Patriot Party "
by his wonderful oratorical powers, moved in 1778 an
address to the King to the effect " that the state of
Ireland required to be urgently considered." The
Government opposed him, but before the year was out
a Catholic Relief Bill was passed, allowing Catholics
to take land on lease, " and to inherit land in the same
way as Protestants."
Grattan also agitated for the removal of the res-
trictions and disabilities imposed on Irish trade by the
English Parliament, and to obtain liberty of conscience
for all Irishmen. He was, of course, a Protestant ;
otherwise he could not have sat in Parliament at that
time. He was the son of the Recorder of Dublin.
The English manufacturers, those of Manchester,
Liverpool and Bristol, " shouted themselves hoarse
with rage and even threatened to take up arms," if
the disabilities were removed. Thereupon the Volun-
teers, on the 4th of November, 1779, mustered round
the statue of William III. in College Green, Dublin,
and paraded with arms in their hands and cannon,
bearing on the muzzles labels with the significant
and patriotic legend, " Free trade or this." The cannon
roared amid the acclamations of the onlookers. It
was a grand day for Ireland. The captive warrior
queen had raised her head proudly once again for all
" her blood-clotted chain."
Henry Flood, who had accepted a place under the
Government, supported the motion in Parliament with
Hussey Burgh, the Prime Sergeant, and the Government
had to consent to it as also to a second motion in both
THUROT'S RAID. 203
Houses thanking the Volunteers for their patriotic
conduct.
The address was sent to England, but an evasive
reply was returned. Thereupon Grattan and Hussey
Burgh carried a motion refusing any new taxes. The
English Parliament yielded, and Irish exports were free.
But the Patriot Party were not yet satisfied. They
were determined to win the absolute independence of
the Irish Parliament from English control, and to this
end the great Henry Grattan worked tooth and nail,
joined now again by Henry Flood, who had thrown
up his office under Government.
A great convention of the Ulster Volunteers was
held in the Protestant Church of Dungannon on Feb-
ruary I5th, 1782, and, amid the utmost enthusiasm,
the national demands, as voiced by the immortal
Grattan, were endorsed. The Dungannon Convention
was followed, to Grattan's joy, by the repeal of still
more of the harsh penal laws against Catholics. A
Catholic might now have a horse worth more than 5,
teach in school, etc.
The whole country was united in its resolution to be
free and independent of England ; and in the face of this
determined attitude of the Irish people, backed, as it
was by the unequivocal support of 100,000 armed and
trained Volunteers, the English Government gave way,
dreading, no doubt, that Ireland might follow the action
of the lately revolted American colonies and break
away by force otherwise.
On the i6th of May, 1782, the Duke of Portland, who
was Lord Lieutenant, announced THE PARLIAMENTARY
OR LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF IRELAND.
204 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The country went mad with joy ; but Flood, more
circumspect and far-seeing than the generous-hearted
Grattan, contended that the English Parliament still
maintained its supremacy over the Irish Parliament
and demanded that this supremacy be renounced by
England. Grattan called him ungenerous and un-
grateful, and they quarrelled bitterly, on which
English statesmen must have rejoiced greatly, for
united they were invincible, whereas now the country
was divided by factionism. However, Flood won his
point and forced England to pass the " Act of Renun-
ciation," renouncing its supremacy over the Irish Parlia-
ment and declaring it to be entirely free in matters of
legislature and judicature.
The Volunteer organisation, deprived now of its
raison d'etre, dwindled, and fell to pieces, most un-
happily for later times. Grattan next advocated Catholic
Emancipation, and Flood opposed it. With regard to
this Irish Parliament the Commons consisted of 300
members, of whom 64 represented counties, and 172
were returned for boroughs, which were mostly pocket-
boroughs, that is, they were owned by a few peers or
wealthy gentlemen who bought and sold them, like
articles of commerce, to place-hunters, and toadies.
The people had very little voice in the election of their
representatives at all.
In 1783, therefore, Flood brought in a Parliamentary
Reform Bill to ensure popular representation, although
it contained no suggestion of Catholic enfranchisement.
The Volunteers supported the Bill and assembled in
force at the Rotunda, whereupon the Commons rejected
it on the score that it was presented " under the man-
THUROT S RAID. 205
date of a military convention." The Volunteers very
weakly dissolved and did nothing, I/ord Charlemont,
their leader, not having in him the makings of a great
spirit. " From that time forward the Volunteers
ceased to influence public affairs." (Murphy.)
Flood retired from the Irish Parliament and went
to England and was elected to the English House of
Commons as member for Winchester. But he died
shortly after in 1791.
Gangs of the worst type of Protestants, in 1784,
drunken ruffians, calling themselves " Peep-o'-Day
Boys," went about the country in the dead of night, or,
as their name implied, just at dawn, visiting the houses
of Catholics, and on the pretence of searching for arms,
terrorising and maltreating the inhabitants. In self-
defence the Catholic farmers banded themselves together
under the name of " Defenders," and furious conflicts
ensued, when any of the rival factions met. The worst
fight was the so-called " Battle of the Diamond," in
September, 1795, at the hamlet of that name in Armagh.
Many " Defenders " were killed, and to commemorate
this conflict the first Orange L,odge was formed imme-
diately after, and so the Orangemen or Orange Society
came into being.
Other secret societies about this time were the
" Oakboys," and " the Hearts of Steel," or " Steelboys."
These were Protestant farmers banding themselves
together to resist the encroachments or exactions of
landlords, for the most part. The Oakboys wore green
branches of oak in their hats.
206 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXIII.
WOLFE TONE AND THE " UNITED IRISHMEN." THE
FRENCH INVASION OF 1796. " REMEMBER ORR."
Ireland had won a free and independent Parliament,
thanks to Grattan and the Volunteers, and this Parlia-
ment is often referred to as " Grattan's Parliament."
But, as we have already pointed out, it did not fairly
represent the country. The great mass of the people,
the Catholics, were not represented in it at all, a Catholic
not being allowed to sit in it. And the Protestants were
not fairly represented, either. The seats, as we explained
in the preceding chapter, were mostly pocket boroughs,
in the power of the great landholders and Ministers of
the Crown, to give to their own tools. Very few even
of the Protestant section of the population had votes
at all. Moreover, the Government were all nominees
of the English crown or English cabinet, and so really
not much could be expected from such a venal legis-
lature until sweeping alterations were made in it.
With a view to obtaining parliamentary reform, in
the first place to peacefully agitating for vote by
ballot, household suffrage and the enfranchisement
of Catholics as well as repeal of the penal laws against
them, a young Protestant barrister, named Theobald
Wolfe Tone, founded in Belfast a society that will ever
WOLFE TONE AND THE " UNITED IRISHMEN. 207
be linked with his name the society of United Irish-
men.
The fame of Wolfe Tone and the society he formed is
world-wide. Tone was only 28 years of age at the time,
and his portraits have familiarised us with his exceed-
ingly handsome, manly, open, engaging countenance
the reflex of courage, frankness, generosity and nobility
of soul.
He was a republican at heart, and a celebration of the
French Revolution in July, 1791, in Belfast, with mili-
tary pomp, by the armed volunteers and townspeople
gave him the idea of his society, or at any rate of making
use of the occasion for the advancement of its scheme.
He quickly gathered into the society, which was not
at first a secret one although all its members took a
solemn oath to further its objects such other since
celebrated men of the time as Samuel Neilson (the
proprietor of the " Northern Star " newspaper), Thomas
Russell, James Napper Tandy, Archibald Hamilton
Rowan, the Hon. Simon Butler, Dr. Drennan, Oliver
Bond, William Sampson, etc., etc. All these gentlemen
were Protestants, but the aim of the Society was to
wholly eradicate religious differences among Irishmen
and unite them all as brothers in the sacred cause
of the welfare of their country. Consequently, a
Catholic was readily admitted into the society ; his
creed was made no bar whatever to his admission.
On the contrary, the society openly advocated the cause
of Catholicism.
The membership, as it deserved, increased by leaps
and bounds ; Catholics and Protestants of the middle
and lower classes joined it in thousands, and the Govern-
208 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
ment became alarmed, realising how formidable a
united Irish nation would be.
First denouncing the society as seditious and arrest-
ing and imprisoning its most prominent members, the
Executive at Dublin Castle then grudgingly passed a
Convention Act, allowing Catholics to vote for members
of Parliament and to occupy certain civil and military
offices. This great concession was made to try and wean
the Catholics from the society, to whose agitation really
they owed it. Simon Butler, Oliver Bond, and Hamilton
Rowan were all three arrested, and fined 500 and
sentenced to terms of imprisonment as well, for presiding
or speaking at meetings of the United Irishmen.
The result of this tyrannical attempt to suppress free
speech was that the society became a secret revolu-
tionary body, " pledged to obtain separation from
England and a republican government."
Wolfe Tone, to avoid arrest, went first to America,
and then to Paris, where he saw the heads of the French
Republic and conspired with them for an invasion of
Ireland, or rather for an expedition to be sent to help
the Irish people to free themselves completely from
England.
To effect this became Tone's life-work, and he met
with considerable success. In 1796 the French Directory
fitted out an armament of 43 ships of war, carrying
13,975 troops, officers and men, and arms, artillery
and ammunition for 45,000 men, for the invasion of
Ireland, putting it under the command of General
Hoche. Had this officer lived he might have rivalled
the great Napoleon, for he was one of the ablest and
most tried generals in the French army. He was
Wolfe Tone Lord Edward Fitzgerald Robert Emmett
WOLFE TONE AND THE " UNITED IRISHMEN." 20g
known as " the Pacificator of I/a Vendee," for when
that particular part of France espoused the cause of
the Bourbons and resisted the republicans with great
success, he subdued it when others had most signally
failed by combining military ability with humanity.
If the above formidable force had landed in Ireland,
there can be no doubt that, for good or ill, it would have
separated Ireland from England. But " man proposes
and God disposes " ; it was fated otherwise.
Wolfe Tone, elate with hope and triumph, sailed with
the expedition, which left Brest on the i6th December,
1796. The weather was unpropitious. In the darkness
first, and later in a fog, some of the ships became
separated from the others. However, 35 made the coast
of Kerry when a terrific gale arose and dispersed them.
Most of them were blown out to sea, but 16 got safely
into Bantry Bay. General Grouchy, Napoleon's Jonah*
later, as he was now apparently of the expedition,
hesitated to land, although he had 6,500 men. Wolfe
Tone, who was with him, begged of him to do so. The
Fraternite, the flagship of the fleet, with the gallant
Hoche and the Admiral on board, was not among the
16 ships in the bay. It had parted from the rest
of the fleet the first night of the voyage.
Grouchy was at last induced to call a council of war,
and this, to Tone's exceeding joy, decided the landing
should take place next day. In the night the wind
freshened to a violent gale again. The ships dragged
their anchors, and were every one of them at last,
* Grouchy failed to turn up in time to help Napoleon at Waterloo,
and lost him a previous fight as well through tardiness.
P
210 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
to Tone's despair, driven out to sea. The ships had to
put back to France, where they arrived all so much
disabled that the expedition had to be abandoned.
There were only 4,000 troops in all Munster at the
time, and Grouchy's 6,500, had they landed overnight,
instead of waiting for the morrow, must have been
joined by the peasantry in great numbers and have
" marched without hindrance to Cork .....
and perhaps even to the capital."
At this time Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the brother of
the Duke of Leinster, had taken the oath of the United
Irishmen and was elected Commander-in-Chief of the
military revolutionary organisation that was being
rapidly formed. He had served in the English army
in Canada where he achieved considerable distinction.
Handsome, frank, and chivalrous, and endowed with
all the advantages of high rank and noble lineage,
he won the hearts of all with whom he came in contact,
and his lofty patriotism, added to these qualities or
recommendations, has likewise won him the lasting
affection of the Irish people, amongst whom he is still
familiarly known as " Lord Edward."
Associated with him on the Executive Directory of
the Society were Thomas Addis Emmet, Arthur
O'Connor and Dr. William James McNevin. There
was a fifth member of this Directory, but who he was is
apparently a secret that will never be solved. It is
believed though, that he was Lord Cloncurry, another
patriotic nobleman, who never openly acknowledged
his connection with the society, but certainly approved
and aided it. By the end of 1797, 500,000 men had
been secretly enrolled in the society, and of these about
WOI.FE TONE AND THE " UNITED IRISHMEN." 211
half were armed with pikes or muskets. The wearing
of the hair cut or " cropped " close became the fashion
with them, and so they were called by the soldiery
" croppies," which name became synonymous for a
rebel.
Informed of this by their numerous secret service
agents and spies, the Government became panicstricken.
The expedition under Hoche had already thoroughly
alarmed them, and they now determined, by the foulest
means possible, to cause a premature explosion of the
insurrection that they saw coming and would have so
much cause to dread. They knew that the inde-
fatigable Wolfe Tone was leaving no stone unturned
to bring about another armed invasion of Ireland, that
he was eternally worrying Napoleon and Holland,
then called the Batavian Republic, to fit out expedi-
tions. Napoleon tricked Wolfe Tone, deceived him,
and paid the penalty at Waterloo ; ay, and earlier,
at the Battle of the Nile.
The Batavian Republic was as good as its promises to
Tone. It fitted out a fleet of 26 vessels and 15,000 men
for the invasion of Ireland, thanks to him and General
Hoche, his great friend, and John Edward lyewins,
another agent of the United Irishmen. This fleet sailed
from the Texel under Admiral de Winter, but was
attacked off Camperdown by an English fleet of equal
or slightly superior force and defeated. " Never had
the English seamen harder work than in subduing
the almost equal gunnery and stubborn courage of the
gallant Dutchmen on this memorable day." (Sanderson.)
Tone had despaired of the Texel fleet ever sailing
and had rejoined his wife and children in Paris ; and so
212 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
it sailed without him. The next blow that Tone suffered
was the death in September of that same year of his
warm-hearted friend, General Hoche.
It needed but the Batavian expedition to complete
the panic and savage design of the English ministers,
and, while they arrested the most prominent of the
patriot leaders everywhere, they now let loose the
soldiery, and particularly the yeomanry and militia,
upon the unarmed and helpless people. Men, women
and children were ill-used and tortured in a way that
makes the blood run cold to read of, in a way that we
care not to pollute our pages by narrating.
These uniformed ruffians were given full permission
by the law, called " martial law," to treat the peasantry
and people everywhere as they pleased, so as to try and
goad them into rebellion. Was there ever a more
diabolical scheme ? I,ord Castlereagh, one of the
ministers, openly admitted that the Government had
this object. We shall hear more of Castlereagh later,
but we may say here that his end was suicide.
So outrageously did the soldiers behave to even
innocent and law-abiding people that the gallant Sir
Ralph Abercrombie threw up his post of commander-
in-chief of the forces in Ireland in disgust, while the
heroic Sir John Moore, another Scotsman, appalled at
the treatment of the people, exclaimed : " Were I
an Irishman, I should be a rebel ! "
The Duke of Leinster also resigned the command
of the Leinster militia by way of protest, and all decent
men drew out of the ranks of both yeomanry and
militia, so that, unfortunately, the very lowest of the
low drunken, inhuman savages beside whom the
TONE AND'THE " UNITED IRISHMEN." 213
French revolutionists were as lambs got the upper
hand and became general in the ranks of these two
forces.
To this day, the yeomanry and militia of " '98 "
are execrated in Ireland more than the regulars, with
the sole exception of two regiments of Hessians and
another of Welsh fencible cavalry known as the Ancient
Britons, who emulated their example. The Scotch
regiments everywhere refused to have anything to do
with such brutality, and one corps of Highlanders
turned their backs on a particularly gross scene which
may not be mentioned here.
It was made death, too, to even administer the
United Irishmen's oath ; and for this offence one,
William Orr, was tried and hanged at Carrickfergus on
the evidence of only one man, a soldier named Wheatly,
in defiance of all the notions that one man's word is as
good as another's in a court of law. The witness after-
wards " declared the evidence he had given was false."
" Remember Orr," became, like " Remember Mullagh-
mast," of an earlier period, the watchword of the United
Irishmen.
But for the precautions taken by the British Ministers
in everywhere pouncing on the leaders of the revolu-
tionary party, it is more than likely the Government
would have overshot its mark in forcing on the rebellion.
But, thanks to their host of informers and secret service
agents, they were able to lay their hands at once, as we
say, on pretty well all the popular chiefs. Oliver Bond,
Addis Emmet, Dr. McNevin, Arthur O'Connor, McCann,
Jackson, Sweetman and Father O'Coigley, were all
arrested, but Lord Edward evaded capture and was
214 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY,
concealed from time to time by various freinds of the
cause.
While thus in hiding, or, as it was called, " on his
keeping," he appointed the 23rd of May for a general
rising ; and, to fill the places of those arrested, the
Brothers Sheares, John and Henry, were elected mem-
bers of the Executive Council.
THE CAPTURE OF U)RD EDWARD. 215
CHAPTER XXIV
THE CAPTURE OF LORD EDWARD. " NINETY-EIGHT "
WEXFORD RISES.
A reward of 1,000 was offered for the arrest of Lord
Edward ; and at length, in May, a despicable wretch
named Francis Higgins, a rogue and trickster who had
raised himself from the gutter to the proprietorship
of the " Freeman's Journal," and was known contemp-
tuously as " the Sham Squire," went to Major Sirr with
information gleaned by him from a lawyer named
Francis Magan.
This Magan was apparently in Higgins's power ; he
had been a United Irishman, but had drawn out of the
Society for prudent reasons. He was, however, trusted
by the United men and had been taken into the secret
of Lord Edward's whereabouts. It was long kept a
Government secret who the traitor was, and many
innocent, true-hearted patriots were unjustly suspected,
such as Samuel Neilson, and Murphy, in whose house
Lord Edward was hiding.
The evening of the i8th May, 1798, Major Sirr, the
town major, went to the house of Mr. Nicholas Murphy,
a feather merchant, 153 Thomas Street, Dublin, and
silently contrived an entrance. He had with him Major
Swan and Captain Ryan, as well as a number of soldiers.
2l6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Swan and Ryan rushed upstairs into the bedroom
where Lord Edward was reclining, half dressed, upon a
bed, about to drink some tea. He was ill, having
contracted sore throat and general debility.
Lord Edward at sight of the intruders sprang off the
bed, and, weak and ill as he was, caught up a dagger he
had under his pillow. Swan pulled out a pistol, and
Lord Edward struck at him, wounding him in the hand
and breast. Crying out that he was " murdered,"
Swan fired at the young nobleman. The shot missed.
Captain Ryan now intervened with a sword cane, and
Major Sirr, with the soldiers, came hurrying upon the
scene.
Ryan grappled with Lord Edward and the two fell
to the floor, Lord Edward severely wounded by thrusts
from his assailant's weapon, but stabbing the latter
repeatedly with his dagger. Lord Edward struggled
to his feet, and Ryan and Swan, both on the floor,
the former dying, clung to his legs. Major Sirr
rushed in and shot at Lord Edward with a pistol,
lodging several slugs in his right shoulder, whereupon,
overcome with weakness and loss of blood, " the gallant
Geraldine " fell back upon the bed, when he was over-
powered by the soldiers and bound hand and foot.
In the hall downstairs he made another desperate bid
for liberty, but was borne to the floor by a dozen soldiers
and wounded in the neck with a bayonet. The news
spread that Lord Edward was captured, and one
Edward Rattigan, a young timber merchant, hastily
collected a band of men and set upon the captors. But
the arrival of a fresh body of troops enabled these to get
their prisoner safely to Newgate Prison.
THE CAPTURE OF LORD EDWARD. 217
Lord Edward was married to one of the loveliest
women of her time, the gentle Pamela, a grand-daughter
of the Duke of Orleans, Philippe Egalite. They had
met casually at a theatre in Paris. The play was
" Lodoiska," and Lord Edward was introduced by a
Mr. Stone. Lord Edward was stricken with love at first
sight and proposed to her guardian for her the same
night. They were married on December 2ist, 1792,
and during the six short years of their wedded life the
young couple were devotedly attached to each other.
The portraits of Lord Edward may almost be mis-
taken for those of Robert Burns, the Scottish poet,
owing to the resemblance in the pose of the head, the
close-cut curling hair, and particularly the attire.
Lord Edward had a strikingly open, frank, handsome
countenance, in which enthusiasm and optimism are
the prevailing expressions. The eyebrows were well
arched, the eyes, large, eloquent, fearless, the forehead
broad and high, and the nose a military aquiline and
Roman combined, the mouth and chin firm, yet gentle-
looking as a woman's.
His arrest, when all had hoped he would prove another
Washington, was indeed a blow to the United Irishmen,
and practically paralysed their action, happening, as it
did, almost on the eve of the projected rising.
Samuel Neilson assembled a body of United men at
night to storm Newgate and rescue Lord Edward, but
he was captured as a suspect by the gaolers while recon-
noitring, and his men waited in vain for his return.
Lord Edward died of his wounds a fortnight later,
on the 4th June, 1798, while the rebellion was in full
swing, and he lies buried in St. Werburgh's Protestant
2l8 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Church, Dublin. The Brothers Sheares were arrested
on May 2ist, through the treachery of a pretended friend,
Captain John Warneford Armstrong, of the Kildare
militia, whose services as a military man they no doubt
hoped would be useful in the outbreak.
General Lake had taken over the command of the
royal forces and brought these up to the strength of
150,000 men. The United Irishmen had not intended
to rise until they received French or other foreign aid
in the shape of " the kernel or nucleus of an army," as
Tone wanted, so as to enable the insurgents to become
disciplined and used to arms. But the efforts of the
Government to force an outbreak were successful. The
exasperated people could endure no more of the bru-
talities practised upon them, as Lord Edward had seen,
and, on the appointed day, the 23rd of May, there were
risings everywhere over the country. Mostly they were
miserable failures. The Dublin men, under two gentle-
men named Ledwich and Keogh, were cut to pieces at
Santry by Lord Roden's dragoons. Their purpose had
been to seize Dublin castle and the artillery park at
Chapelizod.
At Prosperous, however, the insurgents despatched
the sentry, rushed into the guardroom and piked 12
men and shot Captain Swayne, afterwards firing the
barracks, and destroying to a man a company of the hated
North Cork Militia that was within it. Likewise, at
Dunboyne, the peasantry ambushed a convoy of Scotch
soldiers, slew them to a man also, and captured the
baggage ; while at Kilcullen the insurgents, under Dr.
Esmonde, defeated a troop of dragoons with a loss
of 22 men, but were afterwards attacked by a large
THE CAPTURE OF LORD EDWARD.
force of troops under General Dundas, at Kilcullen
Bridge, and routed with a loss of 130 men. A detach-
ment of British soldiers, stationed at the village of
Clane, had to cut its way to Naas with considerable
loss, and an attack on Naas was only repulsed with
the loss to the King's troops of 30 men and two officers.
On the hill of Tara, " the old seat of Milesian royalty
in Meath," several thousands of insurgents had mus-
tered and the soldiers feared to attack them, and so
resorted to a ruse. Several barrels of whisky were sent
along the road and the foolish peasants, capturing
these, and drinking the whisky, were then attacked by
the military and defeated, but only after a hard struggle.
In other places, through lack of discipline and their
own headstrong folly for the most part, the insurgents
were also routed and with heavy loss, as at Carlow, where
they " marched in a very noisy and disorderly manner "
on the town and were mown down by a deadly fire,
the garrison having had timely warning and being well
intrenched in the houses lining the main street. On
the Curragh of Kildare, Sir James Duff butchered 300
men who had laid down their arms. Wherever the
soldiery triumphed, the slaughter of the unfortunate
peasants " was out of all proportion to the resistance
offered." No mercy was shown even to unarmed
men.
Seeing his church of Boolavogue set on fire by the
Orange yeomanry and his hapless parishioners fleeing
from their blazing homes and being shot down merci-
lessly, Father John Murphy, a Catholic priest, started
the revolt in Wexford, kindled a flame which was like
to have consumed British supremacy in Ireland com-
220 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
menced an insurrection, which, had it been better
directed, must have triumphed and swept the English
out of the country. Previous to this time Father
Murphy had counselled the people to deliver up any
weapons they possessed. Now, seeing that inaction or
submission was no security, that the people's exter-
mination seemed to be the design of the Government,
he gathered some men together, armed with scythes,
tied on the ends of poles, and pitchforks for the most
part, and fell swiftly and suddenly upon the Camolin
yeomanry, wholly destroying them with their acting
commander, lieutenant Bookey. This was on the 26th
of May, 1798.
With the captured horses and arms, Father John and
his men proceeded to the residence of I^ord Mountnorris,
" where all the arms were stored that had been taken
from the people for months before. These were taken
possession of," and the insurgents then bivouacked on
Oulart Hill, eight miles from Wexford, and lit bonfires
to rouse the country round.
Numbers of the peasantry flocked into the camp, and
next morning Father John was at the head of 4,000 or
5,000 men. It was Whitsunday, and in the afternoon
a detachment of the North Cork Militia, a most detested
corps on account of its cruelty, with some yeoman
cavalry, advanced against the camp. While the cavalry
surrounded the hill to cut off the insurgents' escape,
the infantry mounted to the attack.
The insurgents lay in a ditch or depression, well under
cover, and, suddenly springing up, rushed down at head-
long charge, overbearing the militia in the very shock
of impact. In a few minutes they had killed the whole
THE CAPTURE OF LORD EDWARD. 221
detachment except L,ieut.-Colonel Foote, a sergeant
and three privates. Major Lombard was among the
slain with four other officers. Colonel Foote escaped
because he was in the rear and on horse-back, but he
received pike wounds in the breast and arm. The
yeoman cavalry fled without striking a blow, at the
sight of the fate of the foot.
Another priest, Father Michael Murphy, of Bally-
cavan, now joined the insurgents, and, as the Rev.
P. M. Furlong wrote in his poem, entitled " The Priests
of Ninety-Bight,"
" They drew the green old banner forth and flung it to
the light ;
And Wexford heard the rallying cry and gathered
in her might,
And swore around uplifted cross until the latest breath
To follow where her soggarths led to victory or
death."
With their numbers considerably augmented, the
two Fathers Murphy now marched to Camolin, where
they seized 80 stand of arms, and continuing on without
meeting any opposition through Ferns, gaining recruits
every step of the way, attacked Bnniscorthy on the
28th of May. I,ed on by a popular gentleman farmer
named John Rossiter, the peasantry eventually swept
the regulars and North Cork Militia and yeomanry out
of the town in headlong rout after more than three
hours' action. The day was very hot. Nearly a third
of the garrison were slain, including a captain and
two lieutenants.
A number of " farmers, with long duck guns, practised
marksmen from boyhood in shooting wild fowl," were
222 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
included in the peasant army. Father John proclaimed
an Irish Republic in Enniscorthy, which town now
" decked itself out in the rebel colours of green."
Father John Murphy, according to O'Connor Morris,
was a " real leader ... a true ruler of men, almost
a born general He attacked the garrison
in the place (Enniscorthy) with real military skill,
making a flanking movement with vigour and effect."
He is described by another authority as a man of forty-
five years of age, light-complexioned, slightly bald,
and about five feet nine inches in height, with a loud,
ringing voice.
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. 223
CHAPTER XXV.
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. NEW Ross. ARKI,OW.
VINEGAR
All Wexford was now practically in arms and pouring
into the insurgent camp, and the two Fathers Murphy,
joined by Father Clinch of Enniscorthy, determined to
capture the county town. It was defended by a garri-
son of 1,200 men which had been reinforced by the
fugitives from Enniscorthy. General Fawcett, com-
mander of Duncannon Fort, sent a force to succour
the garrison. On the 30th of May, the insurgents
surprised this force at Forth or Three Rock Mountain,
three miles from Wexford, killing a hundred of the
troops and capturing two howitzers, some ammunition
and prisoners. Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell with a
stronger force, coming up, attempted to retrieve the
defeat, but the howitzers were turned on him and he
retreated in haste and confusion, losing several men.
Under the nominal command of General Edward
Roche, lately a sergeant of yeomanry, who had joined
them, the insurgents advanced on Wexford, when the
garrison fled in terror. Its flight might easily have been
cut off. The whole strength of the county now, thirty
thousand men, the insurgents formed three camps and
three separate divisions, and decided to strike respec-
224 TH]e ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
tively north, west and south-west ; a great mistake for,
had they at once hurled their full force northward, they
probably would have triumphed by weight of numbers.
Father John Murphy, too, unhappily for their plans,
retired from the position of commander-in-chief, and
a Protestant barrister of landed property and consider-
able influence, named Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey >
of Bargy Castle, took his place.
Harvey had no military knowledge, and his insignifi-
cant personality was also against him as a leader of
an undisciplined peasant army. The two Fathers
Murphy had already shown their ability, and Father
John might have been to Ireland what " the illustrious
Father Morelos " was to Mexico, her Washington or
" Liberator." Matthew Keogh, a Protestant and a
captain of the Sixth Regiment, who joined the insur-
gents, would also have been better fitted for the post
of commander-in-chief on account of his military know-
ledge, instead of being made Governor of Wexford
and thus doomed to useless inactivity.
On the ist June, the northern division, advancing
upon Gorey, was repulsed with a loss of nearly 100 men.
The troops, encouraged by this success, then marched
to attack the rebel camp, on Carrigrua Hill, but the
insurgents formed an ambuscade and trapped the main
body of the troops. The peasantry lined the hedges
and thickets on either side of the road at Tubberneering
or Clough, and, first pouring in a deadly fire, fell on
with the pike. Colonel Walpole who was in command
of the troops was shot dead, and his detachment, horse
and foot, was cut to pieces in a few minutes with the
loss of its three guns. The rear of the division, under
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES 22$
Colonel Cope, fell back rapidly, the rebels turning the
three guns on it and punishing it severely. Father
Philip Roche was the leader of the peasantry here.
Gorey was now captured by the insurgents, who
decided to march on to Arklow.
The western division of the insurgents, encamped on
Vinegar Hill, attacked Newtownbarry, under two
gentlemen named Doyle and Redmond, and Father
Kearns, on the 2nd June. The rebels stormed the
town, but then very foolishly spread through it, and
gave themselves up to drinking and jollification. The
troops rallied, returned, and drove them out with a loss
of 200 men. However, the Royalists had to abandon
Newtownbarry the same day, and the peasant army
occupied it.
On the 5th June, 1798, Bagenal Harvey, with the
south-western division of this, advanced against New
Ross. A gentleman named Furlong, sent forward to
summon the town to surrender under a flag of truce,
was shot dead by the English soldiers, whereupon, in-
censed at this violation of all the recognised laws of
war, the insurgents, without waiting for orders, swarmed
down upon the town " in one disorderly body, drove
back the cavalry and infantry by the fierceness of their
charge, and captured the cannon." The troops rallied
in the heart of the town, but the insurgents fought a
passage into it, " notwithstanding that many guns were
planted in the cross lanes, to sweep the main street."
The most desperate struggle took place at the Three-
Bullet gate.
After some fierce fighting the troops " fled over the
bridge with precipitation, to the Kilkenny side of the
Q
226 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Barrow " (Grant). The town was won, but with " fatal
imprudence," the peasants acted the same as at New-
townbarry, dispersed through the town and began to
drink. " Soon hundreds were imbecile and besotted
with liquor." Major-General Johnson rallied his panic-
stricken troops, brought them back to the scene, and,
falling on the drunken rebels, drove them out in his turn,
but not until half the town was on fire.
The rebels returned to the attack, and, by dogged
fighting, won the centre of the town again when will
it be believed ? they repeated their folly, and once
more began to drink. Again they were beaten out ;
a third time they penetrated, with obstinate bravery
to the heart of the town, the firing continuing until
night time when at last, wanting officers to direct them,
they were finally driven out, after a most stubborn
engagement of more than ten hours.
They left, one authority says, 2,600 killed and woun-
ded behind them, and many of the wounded were
deliberately burned to death or put to the sword in cold
blood by the vengeful troops. Another account gives
their loss only at 1,000 men, which is the more likely
number, for the rebels actually engaged in the three
assaults "at no time exceeded 5,000." For some
unaccountable reason General Bagenal Harvey remained
outside the town, resting on his arms with the main
body of his army, and left all the fighting to a gallant
youth, General John Kelly of Killann, contenting him-
self with sending forward only a small reinforcement
under General Thomas Cloney. Had Kelly and Cloney
only been supported, New Ross would have remained
in the hands of the insurgents.
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. 227
The Rev. James B. Dollard has commemorated
Kelly of Killann and his dashing charge at New Ross
in verse :
" The hush before the battle,
Wraps famed Three-Bullet Gate,
And there, with matches burning,
The English gunners wait.
Grim wall and gaping cannon
Defy the might of man
Not so ! with charging Wexford,
And Kelly of Killann !
Like lightnings round Slieve Cailtha
The flashing of his pikes !
His charge like bolt from heaven
Black Brandon's brow that strikes !
The troops on earth ne'er mustered,
His bristling front could scan
And face with hearts unshaken,
Fierce Kelly of Killann !
The gallant Kelly fell severely wounded in the third
assault, and on this his followers gave way, Cloney
covering the retreat admirably. The heavy loss of the
insurgents was entirely due to their drunkenness,
those who were sober suffering very little in the
pursuit.
Naturally the peasantry were greatly dissatisfied
after this disaster with Harvey's leadership, and he
was called on to resign, when Father Philip Roche, a
perfect giant of a man, who was the victor at Tubber-
neering and possessed unbounded influence, was elected
in his place.
The garrison of New Ross had consisted of about
i, 600 men, some of these being regular troops, supported
228 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY
by a battery of field guns. The assailants were never,
as we have said, more than 5,000. " The fight within
the pent-in spaces was most desperate ; the artillery in
vain swept hundreds down, the best horsemen of England
recoiled, beaten, before the serried forest of pikes or fell
under the deadly hail of concealed sharpshooters."
Sir Richard Musgrave says " that such was their
enthusiasm (that of the peasantry) that, though whole
ranks of men were seen to fall, they were succeeded by
others, who seemed to court the fate of their com-
panions, by rushing on our troops with renovated
ardour." Of the troops, 500 officers and men fell,
including Lord Mountjoy, Colonel of the Dublin Militia,
who was shot in the first onset.
" My curse upon all drinking 'twas that that brought
us down ;
It lost us Ross and Newtownbarry, and many another
town."
Maddened by the troops' burning of a hospital con
taining a number of wounded insurgents at New Ross
and the butchery of all peasants taken prisoners, with
or without arms, some of the Wexfordmen set fire
to a barn at Scullabogue and burnt about eighty
loyalists.
The Northern division next attacked Arklow on the
9th of June. Esmond Kyan, a young gentleman of
influence and undeniable worth, skilfully directed the
three guns the insurgents had, disabling one of the
enemy's pieces. But later, leading a charge of pikemen,
he was shot in the shoulder.
The two Fathers Murphy, who were in command,
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. 22Q
managed their men with great ability " and several
times they had the advantage." The troops were
intrenched " behind strong barricades and well-suppor-
ted by artillery " (Grant).
Father Michael Murphy also personally led a column
of pikemen repeatedly against the barricades, unsup-
ported by the gunmen, who, to the number of 2,000,
having exhausted their ammunition early in the fight,
marched off the field. " The pikemen captured one
of the royal cannon and despatched the gunners," but
a cannon-shot struck and killed Father Michael, and on
that his men lost heart and gave way. Nevertheless, it
was a drawn battle. General Needham, the king's
general, was only prevented from retreating by his
second-in-command, Skerritt, and did not dare to leave
his intrenchments and barricades. The peasantry
needed only to have vigorously followed up their partial
success, to have cleared the road to Dublin.
Had the gunmen and pikemen been intermingled in
the proportions, say, of three or five pikemen to one
gunman, a solid mass of 6,000 to 10,000 men could have
been hurled in a charge against the barricades and
would probably have carried them. As it was, the
whole brunt of the fighting fell on the pikemen, who
were exposed, as they charged over the open ground,
to a ceaseless fire of the musketry and grapeshot, without
being able to reply of course, and only covered by
Kyan's three guns.
Father John Murphy at this fight was at the disad-
vantage of having only " the latest levies " of the
rebel army men who " were, for the most part, miser-
ably armed The bodies of sharpshooters seem to have
230 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
been at New Ross " (O'Connor Morris). Father Michael
Murphy was within thirty yards of the enemy's line
leading on his brigade to the charge, when struck by
the cannon-shot. He was on horseback and bore a
green flag " bearing the words ' Death or Liberty ' on a
a white cross."
Father John's column, " advancing by the sea
road, captured all the enemy's advanced positions
and drove the troops in confusion across the river
into the town." Under Father John was a gallant youth
of nineteen, Miles Byrne, who afterwards wrote a graphic
account of this and other fights in Wexford. " Though
the contest lasted from four o'clock until late in the
evening, and was very determined on both sides, the
losses were not great." Gordon, a loyalist, though
fair-minded historian, only puts the rebel loss at 300,
and this would further seem to show that the peasantry
were not defeated and only desisted from attack, in
grief at the loss of so respected a leader as Father Michael
Murphy. Miles Byrne indeed claimed Arklow as a
victory, and bitterly lamented that it should have been
abandoned.
As usual, " the insurgents had shown conspicuous
courage, and Castlereagh declared he could never have
believed that untrained peasants would have fought so
well."
As Thomas Davis, the Protestant national poet,
wrote, " Great hearts ! how faithful ye were. How ye
bristled up when the foe came on ; how ye set your
teeth to die as his shells and round shot fell steadily ;
and with how firm a cheer ye dashed at him, if he
gave you any chance at all of a grapple ! From the
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. 23!
wild burst with which ye triumphed at Oulart Hill,
down to the faint gasp wherewith the last of your last
column died in the corn fields of Meath, there is nothing
to shame your valour, your faith, or your patriotism.
You wanted arms and you wanted leaders. Had you
had them you would have guarded a green flag in Dublin
Castle, a week after you beat Walpole. Isolated,
unorganised, unofficered, half armed, girt by a swarm
of foes, you ceased to fight, but you neither betrayed
nor repented. Your sons need not fear to speak of
Ninety-eight."
After the " drawn battle " of Arklow, it was decided
by the Wexford leaders to do what they should have
done at first, muster all their remaining forces on
Vinegar Hill, at Enniscorthy, and hazard all in one
big fight. But it was too late now to win by weight of
numbers. General Lake was closing around them with
20,000 men, equal numbers with their own poor, half-
armed, wholly undisciplined force. On the 2ist of
June, he advanced against their position on Vinegar
Hill with 13,000 men, cavalry and infantry, besides a
strong force of artillery. His strength would have
been greater, but, for some unexplained reason, General
Needham's column failed to turn up in its appointed
place at the rear of the rebel camp.
Under Lake, who was known as " the People's
Butcher," were Generals Dundas, Duff, Loftus, Johnson,
and Eustace, in command of as many divisions. The
Wexfordmen had 13 guns of small, almost toylike
calibre, mostly ship's guns brought in by the patriotic
captains of ships in Wexford harbour. The supply of
ammunition was scanty. Nevertheless, from behind
232 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
some rude earthen intrenchments they had thrown up,
the half-armed peasants made a gallant stand. " Their
leaders encouraged them by words, their women by
cries. They gave the enemy back defiant shouts, as
they faced with despairing valour the storm of shot
and shell that burst on the four sides of their position."
(I/uby). General Lake's horse was shot under him.
For an hour and a half the peasantry stood their
ground, and only broke and fled when the enemy had
mounted the hilltop. There fell Father Clinch, resisting
to the last. He was shot while riding a large white
horse and urging on his men with a huge sabre. Edward
Hay, a rebel general, was captured, with others, and
between 500 and 600 were killed.
By " Needham's gap," the routed peasants were
enabled to retreat to Wexford through a country where
they could not be pursued by cavalry or cannon, " so
that they suffered no punishment worth speaking of in
the pursuit." The pikemen could always give a good
account of themselves against their foes at close quar-
ters.
General Sir John Moore attacked the fugitives
from Vinegar Hill, or, rather, was attacked by them,
near Lacken Hill or Goff's Bridge. They thought to
retrieve the day by seizing on New Ross " in the absence
of the troops." Fighting " very steadily " for four
hours, they " retired only when their ammunition was
exhausted."
Seeing that all was lost now, they broke up into
various small bodies, and tried to cut their respective
ways through the ring of foes that girt them in. One
under Father Kearns and Anthony Perry was defeated
FURTHER PEASANT VICTORIES. 233
and dispersed ; but Father John Murphy, who first
raised the standard of revolt in Wexford, led his
band through Carlow, defeated some militia at Gores-
bridge, and, entering Kilkenny, captured Castlecomer.
Cornered at Kilcomney Hill, however, and forced to fight
at disadvantage, they were defeated ; and Father John,
surrendering, was cruelly scourged and executed, his
body being publicly burned and his head spiked on the
market house at Tullow by General Duff.
Father Philip Roche was also taken, brutally mal-
treated, and hanged ; but another small force, under
Mr. Edward Fitzgerald of New Park, who must not be
confused with Lord Edward, and the brothers Byrne
of Ballymanus, broke through, like Father John, into
Wicklow, and joined the Wicklow insurgents under
" General " Joseph Holt and the even more renowned
Michael Dwyer. With them was young Miles Byrne,
who was a son of Mr. Garret Byrne of Ballymanus.
He afterwards became an officer in the French army
under Napoleon.
They attacked Hacketstown on June 25th, but were
repulsed and pursued by a strong force. On the 29th,
at Ballyellis, outside Carnew, they turned at bay and
formed an ambuscade. The Ancient Britons, a hated
Welsh fencible cavalry regiment, were in hot pursuit,
and, coming on round a turn in the road at full gallop,
found the way stopped by a barricade of cars thrown
across the road. A mass of pikemen sallied out from
behind a wall and closed up the road behind, attacking
them with headlong fury. Gunmen lined the wall and
poured in a flank fire. The soldiers could not escape, for
the other side of the road was skirted by a wide ditch
234 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
and swampy ground, in which their horses stuck. Every
man of them was wiped out.
On the 4th of July, however, this body of Wexford-
men suffered defeat at Whiteheaps, and the formidable
Wexford rising was over.
HUMBERT'S INVASION. 235
CHAPTER XXVI.
HUMBERT'S INVASION. THE FATE OF TONE. Hoi/r
AND DWYER.
Not altogether unaided did the Wexfordmen struggle.
On the 8th of June, the Downshire men surprised and
defeated the royalists with a loss of 60 men, but on the
I2th were defeated by a large force of troops at Ballina-
hinch. Henry Munro was the leader of the insurgents
here. And on the 7th June a gallant Presbyterian
gentleman, named Henry Joy McCracken, with 9,000
men, attacked Antrim to\vn and drove out the garrison,
killing Lord O'Neill among others. A force sent by
General Nugent to retake the town was at first un-
successful, but at length, by bringing up artillery,
compelled McCracken and his men to retreat. A
few other slight actions took place, but here, as in the
rest of Ireland, the outbreak was quickly crushed.
Lieutenant William Aylmer of the Kildare militia,
nephew of Sir Fenton Aylmer, commanded the pike-
men in an attempt at Ovidstown Hill. But instead of
charging in a solid mass, as he called on them to do,
his men wheeled behind a thin line of bushes and were
simply mown down by the fire of the troops. He,
however, contrived to escape and joined the Wexford-
men, who elected him General, and he and General
236 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Fitzgerald of New Park, the victor of Ballyellis, after
the defeat at Whiteheaps, kept a considerable band on
foot in the mountains on the border of Wicklow and
Kildare. The pair eventually negotiated with the
humane General Dundas, to whom they surrendered, on
the I2th of July, " on condition that all the other leaders
who had adventured with them should be at liberty
to retire whither they pleased out of the British do-
minions."
This treaty was afterwards shamefully broken in the
case of the brave Esmond Kyan, who, on surrendering,
was court-martialled and hanged ; but Fitzgerald and
Aylmer's lives were spared, and they were expatriated.
It was urged at the heroic Kyan's trial that, as he had
been the means of saving some loyalist prisoners from
being massacred by the rabble in Wexford not the
fighting men he evidently possessed considerable in-
fluence over the rebels, and that he should have used
this influence to dissuade them from insurrection,
instead of encouraging them in it. So his humanity
cost him dear The same argument was used against
Bagenal Harvey ; and consequently another rebel
chief, with true Irish wit, exclaimed, " Thank heaven
no one can accuse me of having saved any Protestant
prisoners."
When all was over some weeks, three French frigates
entered Killala Bay and landed some 1,260 French
officers and men with three pieces of cannon, under a
General Humbert. This was on August 22nd, 1798.
Had they arrived before Vinegar Hill, the war might
have been different.
Humbert seized Killala, and thousands of the peas-
HUMBERT'S INVASION. 237
antry promptly joined him Leaving 200 men to hold
the town, he marched on Castlebar, where General
Lake had gathered an army of 6,000 men to oppose
him. " He was expected to arrive by one road ; he
chose another," through Windy Gap, and the pass
of Barnaghee, and, encountering the English army,
routed it by one charge, before a blow could be
struck.
Such was the panic of the royal troops and the
headlong way in which cavalry and foot alike fled, that
the rout is still known as " the Races of Castlebar."
The terrified royal troops did not halt until they reached
Tuam. The English lost 14 guns, 5 colours and 600 men
in killed, wounded and prisoners
Lord Cornwallis joined Lake, and the two once more
tried to come to conclusions wirh Humbert. He
repulsed them at Kilmaine, Ballinrobe, Tubbercurry,
Collooney, Ballinamore and Drumshambo in succession,
as he marched steadily on through Mayo, Sligo and
Leitrim, en route for the capital.
At Ballinamuck in the county Longford, half way to
Dublin, he was at last, on the 8th September, sur-
rounded and turned to bay by a force ten times superior
to his own. The royal troops were 30,000 strong. He
fought for half an hour, captured Lord Roden and his
dragoons in the early part of the fight, and then, over-
whelmed by numbers, surrendered. " A great and
useless slaughter," says Grant, " was made among
the fugitives " Humbert's Irish allies, to whom of
course no mercy was shown.
Matthew Tone, known as " the silent," Wolfe Tone's
brother, was among the prisoners, as also was another
238 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Franco-Irish officer named Teeling They were both
hanged.
But the English Government had not yet heard the
end of the Rising. Wolfe Tone sailed on September
20th, with a fresh French expedition under General
Hardi It consisted of nine vessels, having on board
3,000 men. Head winds separated the fleet, and,
on October loth, only four vessels entered Lough
Swilly. An English fleet of nine ships, under Admiral
Warren, appeared in view, and a desperate battle
ensued. Tone, who wore the uniform of a French
General, to which rank he had been advanced, w r as on
the flagship, the Hoche. She was attacked by no less
than four British men-of-war, but she resisted for six
hours, Tone righting as bravely as any and refusing
to seek safety in a small boat when advised to do so.
When she was only like a log on the water the Hoche
struck her flag.
Tone had commanded one of the batteries and
seemed " like a man seeking to rush upon death."
He did not wish to survive defeat and failure yet
again.
Taken to I,etterkenny, at a dinner given to the
French officers Tone was recognised by Sir George
Hill an old schoolfellow in Trinity College and an
Orange magistrate who had him arrested. He was
tried by court-martial, and, of course, found guilty.
He claimed a soldier's death as an officer in the French
army, that he be shot, not hanged like a dog. But his
foes refused to grant him such a death ; and so he is
supposed to have opened a vein in his neck with a
knife. After lingering for some days in pain, he died
HUMBERT'S INVASION. 239
on the igth of November, 1798. Many believed at the
time that he was privately murdered in his prison.
His body lies in the churchyard of Bodenstown,
Kildare. " Thus passed away," says Dr. Madden,
" one of the master-spirits of his time." Thus perished
one of the most formidable enemies England had ever
had to deal with in Ireland. " England," wrote
Daniel Crilly, " was rid of the most powerful and subtle
opponent to her sway in Ireland since the days of Hugh
O'Neill." " His fearless and unselfish devotion to his
country's cause, for which he gave up all worldly
pleasure, comfort and ambition, has made his name
enshrined for all time in the hearts of his countrymen."
(Ferguson).
" General " Joseph Holt, who was a Protestant
farmer of substance before the outbreak, kept the flag
of insurrection flying among the Wicklow Mountains
until the 8th November. His corps of " Mountain
Cavalry," which included in its ranks Hackett, as
colonel, and the bold Michael Dwyer as captain, repea-
tedly routed troops sent against it, chased these back to
Dublin. The Government offered 300 reward for
Holt's capture, and increased it later. He surrendered
on honourable terms, through I^ord Powerscourt, and
was exiled. Captain Michael Dwyer refused to come
in and participate in the pardon, and, with a few daring
spirits, easily swollen at any time to thirty or more men,
continued the hopeless struggle for years. We shall
hear of him again in 1803, when he was still holding
out.
One of his most famous exploits was that on the I9th
December, 1798. He was surprised in a cottage at
240 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Bernamuck in the Glen of Imale, among the Wicklow
Mountains, his snug retreat, having with him only
three companions. The soldiers Highlanders had sur-
rounded the cabin and called on him to surrender.
He refused. It was the dead of night and the ground
was deep in snow. Each of the four outlaws, for such
they had been made, defended a side of the hut and
kept the assailants at bay, killing several, until these
succeeded in setting the roof on fire.
By that time two of the outlaws, Samuel McAlister
and John Savage, were desperately wounded.
" Captain," said McAlister then, addressing Dwyer,
" Savage and I are done for. We'll throw open the door
and rush out. The soldiers will empty their pieces into
us. Then you and Costello should be able to burst
through."
Dwyer would not have it at first, but McAlister and
Savage insisted, and they had their way. It was a
deed of the sublimest heroism. Embracing each other,
they flung open the door and
" Stood before the foemen, revealed amid the flame.
From out their levelled pieces the wished-for volley came."
Riddled with shot, the heroic McAlister and the
equally heroic Savage sank across one another. Then
out like furies, with clubbed muskets, burst Dwyer
and Pat Costello. Dwyer got through, but his sur-
viving companion was captured. Running like a deer,
the daring outlaw chief disappeared into the snow and
darkness, and easily eluded pursuit among his native
fastnesses.
The Rebellion of '98 cost the insurgents 50,000
HUMBERT'S INVASION. 241
persons, many of whom were non-combatants and
brutally slaughtered, the royalists lost 20,000.
James Napper Tandy, whose name is familiar to all
Irishmen from his mention in the popular rebel ballad
of '98, " The Wearing of the Green," had also gone to
France, like Tone, with a view to urging the Directory
to send aid to the insurgents. He received provisional
rank as a general in the French army, and got together
" a small body of Irish refugees, intending to form the
nucleus of an army in Ireland. They sailed in the
Anacreon and landed on the coast of Donegal, but
embarked again and sailed northward," the expedition
eventually coming to nothing. Tandy was arrested
at Hamburg, but released. Arrested again, he was
sentenced to death, but ultimately pardoned on condi-
tion that he left the country.
The pikes used by the insurgents, their principal,
one might almost say, only weapon, were fifteen to
eighteen feet long, the staffs being made of ash, and
the spear-like heads having a small keen-bitted axe-
head on one side with a sharpened hook on the other,
as a rule, for the purpose of cutting the reins of cavalry.
Sometimes the axe-head was omitted, but the hook
was always attached. Strange to say, the Wexfordmen
do not seem to have attempted to organise a cavalry
corps a decided mistake on their part, one would
think.
" The uniform adopted by the rebel chiefs was green,
faced with white or yellow, and laced with gold. They
wore white vests, buckskin breeches, half boots
(' Hessians ') and cocked hats adorned with cock
neck-feathers and green cockades." (Grant.)
242 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
A Grand National Committee of seven was appointed
by them to form a general board of direction, and
Bagenal Harvey was elected president ; then there
was a senate or Council of Elders, and a General Council
or Board of Deputies consisting of 500 members, so
that during its short-lived insurrection Wexford was
practically a republic.
The generals of the United Army were all duly elected,
and consisted of : Generalissimo, Father Philip Roche ;
Generals Father John and Michael Murphy, Father
Kearns and Father Clinch; Generals Bagenal Harvey,
Edward Fitzgerald, Edward Roche, Esmond Kyan,
Anthony Perry of Inch, Garret Byrne of Ballymanus,
Thomas Cloney, Edward Hay, Patrick Sutton (Coun-
cillor Sutton of Wexford), John Rossiter, John Kelly
of Killann, William Aylmer, Matthew Keogh, O'Hea,
Doyle and Redmond. Nicholas Gray, who afterwards
took part in a later rebellion, was secretary of the com-
mander-in-chief and signed all official papers.
Of the gentlemen of property and superior education
who formed members of the rebel senate or Council
of Elders, the most prominent were John Henry Col-
clough of Ballyteague and his brother, Cornelius Grogan,
Dr. M'Cullom, Mr. Brennan, who had held the post of
High Sheriff of the County, and Mr. Lysaght.
In all there were 16 to 20 priests among the insurgents,
but in no sense was it a Catholic rebellion. Many of the
most trusted leaders of the peasantry, as we have shown,
were Protestants, such as Bagenal Harvey, one of the
two Colcloughs, Grogan, Perry, Keogh, McCracken,
Munro, and Holt, to say nothing of Wolfe Tone, Lord
Edward, etc.
HUMBERT'S INVASION. 243
: They rose in dark and evil days
To right their native land ;
They kindled here a living blaze
That nothing shall withstand.
Alas, that might can vanquish right I
They fell and passed away,
But true men, like you men,
Are plenty here to day.
Then, here's their memory may it be
For us a guiding light,
To cheer our strife for liberty,
And teach us to unite.
Through good and ill be Ireland's still,
Though sad as their's your fate,
And true men, be you men,
Like those of 'Ninety-Eight.
244 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXVII.
How THE " UNION WAS PASSED."
Ireland was crushed once more and lay prone beneath
the heel of England yet again. Pitt, the British Prime
Minister, no longer had cause to dread the moral force
of the Volunteers or the physical force of an exasperated
peasantry. The power of both had been broken by
the awful insurrection of '98, so cruelly provoked and
as cruelly put down. He determined to end the Parlia-
ment he had so unwillingly conceded to Ireland, the
legislative freedom that " Grattan's Parliament " had
won, and he now advanced his scheme for the Legis-
lative Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
Resistance was out of the question by Ireland, reduced
to such utter helplessness ; and the great mass of the
people, the Catholics, were deluded by Lord Cornwallis,
the Viceroy or Lord Lieutenant, into thinking that
" Catholic Emancipation " would be granted on the Act
of Union passing into law.
On January 22nd of the year, 1799, following that
dreadful one of so much blood and heroism, the sugges-
tion of the Union was made by Cornwallis, but the
proposal was defeated by the Irish House of Commons
by a majority of five, in the debate on the Address,
although the Irish House of Lords, as might be expected,
approved it.
HOW THE " UNION WAS PASSED." 245
The country was jubilant, but, during the recess that
followed, Lords Cornwallis, Clare and Castlereagh
left no stone unturned, no vile method unused, to secure
a majority for the Union in the next Session. Needless
to say, the English Parliament had approved the
proposal. All officials who had voted against the
measure were dismissed, and peerages, pensions and
places were liberally bestowed to win votes. Owners
of " pocket " or " rotten boroughs " were bribed with
big sums of money to put in men who would vote as
was wanted, while all manner of false rumours of threat-
ening French invasions and revolutionary plots were
disseminated amongst the landed gentry, to scare them
into supporting the only means of " safety for society
and security for property, viz., a Union with Great
Britain." All these means were openly employed by
the Government to effect its end. There was no need
for concealment or caution the country was crushed
and helpless. The secret service money was also
largely used for the desired end, in bribes and corrup-
tion of all sorts.
Some of the Catholic and Protestant Bishops sup-
ported the Government measure ; but the great mass
of the people of all denominations was steadfastly
opposed to the destruction of their independent nation-
ality. The Catholics did not want emancipation at the
expense of that.
Parliament reassembled in 1800, and Lord Castlereagh,
who was Chief Secretary, brought forward the Union
Bill. Sir Lawrence Parsons, in a powerful oration,
proposed an amendment " that it was desirable to
maintain the independence of the Irish Parliament
246 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
as settled in 1782." Ponsonby, Bushe and Plunket
also spoke on the patriot side, as also a Mr. Egan.
The last-mentioned was addressing the House when a
whisper ran through it.
" Grattan ! Grattan is here ! "
The great Patriot leader had been an invalid and out
of the country, trying to recruit his health, broken by his
heroic devotion to his country in Parliament.
A tremendous shout arose without on College Green.
It was taken up in the lobbies. The doors of the
Chamber of the Commons was thrown open and " the
inspired countenance of Henry Grattan " was revealed.
Emaciated, but with preternaturally kindling eye, he
tottered feebly forward, supported by Ponsonby and
Moore.
The whole House rose respectfully, cheer following
upon cheer. Ix>rd Castlereagh bowed formally. Grattan
had been returned for the close borough of Wicklow,
which belonged to a Mr. Tighe. Egan willingly gave
way to the great orator, who, unable to stand, asked
permission to speak sitting ; and then he was heard
" to thunder again those iron words that thrill 'd like
the clash of spears." He spoke for two hours " with
unprecedented fire and splendour."
But all in vain his eloquence, his forcible argument
that " it was not in the power of the Parliament to put
an end to its own existence." In vain his glowing
words, his efforts to awaken some spark of patriot fire
in the corrupt hearts of his hearers. The division that
followed, after eighteen hours' debate, resulted in a
majority of 42 for the Government.
Pitt, the English Premier, had wanted a majority
HOW THE " UNION WAS PASSED." 247
of not less than 50. Desperately, "inch by inch,"
Grattan and the Patriots fought the measure in its
progress through the House the Speaker, Mr. Foster,
being one of its most vehement opponents from first
to last.
When in the final division in the Commons, 153
voted for it and 88 against, Foster's " lips seemed to
decline their office. At length, with an eye averted
from the object which he hated, he proclaimed, with a
subdued voice, ' the ayes have it.' For an instant he
stood statue-like, then indignantly and in disgust,
flung the bill upon the table and sank into his chair with
an exhausted spirit." (Barrington.)
The Bill received the royal assent on August 2nd,
1800, and the two Parliaments of Great Britain and
Ireland were declared to be henceforth one. Ireland
was no longer a nation ; she had sold her birthright,
or rather it had been sold over her head by her corrupt
Ascendancy representatives !
Batteries of artillery were kept in readiness to sweep
the streets around the old Parliament House on the day
the Bill passed, in case of a popular outbreak.
The Act of Union came into operation on the ist
January, 1801. As to its chief articles, they will be
found in any history, no matter how small, and so need
not be recapitulated here. A sordid business from first
to last, the selling of a nation's birthright, the Act's
only claim to inclusion here in a romance of Irish history
is its patriotic resistance by such as Grattan and Foster.
Grattan became a member of the United, or English,
House of Commons in 1805, and a persistent advocate
there of Catholic rights. He lived till 1820.
248 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
The Rev. Dr. Dalton, in his " History of Ireland,"
thus compares Grattan and Flood : " Both were men
of the highest ability .... Flood was cold, measured,
calculating; Grattan impetuous and energetic . . .
In voice and manner and gesture Flood had the advan-
tage, for Grattan's voice was thin and his gestures
ungraceful, but amid the force and fire of his delivery,
the wealth and splendour of his imagery, the beauty
of his diction, these defects were forgotten ; and if
Flood was a strong river advancing with measured
flow, Grattan was a mountain torrent . . . . -.;
carrying in its rushing course everything in its path.
In the moral qualities all the advantages were on
Grattan's side. Flood was jealous and vain, Grattan
was neither ; Flood deserted the popular cause for
office, Grattan was incorruptible ; he loved Ireland
with an undivided heart, and to serve her was his highest
ambition. The ascendancy of his talents and character
was quickly recognised, and he soon occupied the place
which Flood had filled."
Grattan had a handsome and singularly sweet,
winning countenance, though rather elongated, unlike
the broad, heavy, massive face we usually associate
with the orator and as exemplified by O'Connell, Glad-
stone, John Bright, and others. Flood's nose spoiled
his face, curving inward and then outward, to a sharp
aggressive point.
The pair are generally represented in Volunteer
uniform ; and, in the well-known picture of the Irish
House of Commons before the Union, are shown standing
together in the foreground, on the right hand side,
Flood whispering something of evident moment, with
HOW THE " UNION WAS PASSED." 249
forefinger raised to emphasise what he is saying, in the
ear of Grattan, who is listening attentively and as
evidently weighing his words.
In the same famous picture, John Philpot Curran,
the eloquent and celebrated advocate of the United
Irishmen, a trim-built, rugged-faced little Irishman,
is addressing the House, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
the patriotic Geraldine who figured so prominently
in the rebellion of 1798, is easily discernible on the
left hand side by reason of the fact that he preferred his
own head of hair to the powdered wigs of those about
him.
It was an age of duelling, and Grattan, Deader of
the House of Commons as he was, " was ever ready to
sustain with his pistols the force of his arguments."
He fought a duel with Lord Earlsfort, and another with
Isaac Corry, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Corry
had made " a coarse and virulent attack on him, calling
him an ' unimpeached traitor.' " Grattan thereupon
" overwhelmed Corry in a torrent of invective scarcely
ever equalled in any Parliament." It was during the
debate on the Union. Corry particularly resented
being called "a dancing master " by Grattan, and he
challenged Grattan. Grattan " went from the House
to fight him and shot him through the arm," and " in
consequence became more powerful and more popular
than ever."
So universal was duelling and so preposterous the
ideas entertained of it, that " no gentleman was con-
sidered to have taken his proper station in life till he
had ' smelt powder,' as it was called ; no barrister could
go on circuit till he had obtained a reputation in this
250 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
way and many men of the bar, practising
half a century ago, owed their eminence not to powers
of eloquence or to legal ability, but to a daring spirit
and the number of duels they had fought."
The same author quoted above relates that when
Dr. Hodgkinson, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, then
a very old man, was consulted as to the best course
of study to pursue for the bar, whether the student
should begin with Fearne or Chitty, he replied :
" My young friend, practise four hours a day at
Rigby's pistol gallery and it will advance you to the
woolsack faster than all the Fearnes and Chittys in the
library."
Sir Jonah Barrington gives a catalogue of barristers
who killed their man and of judges who actually fought
their way to the bench.
Naturally this state of things bred a very lawless
state of society, and in Grattan's day the idle young
gentlemen about town, known as " Bucks," associated
themselves into various clubs, where they comported
themselves in the most outrageous manner. Many
of them, calling themselves " Pinkindindies," went
about with a small portion cut off the scabbards of their
swords everyone with any pretension to gentility
then wore a sword so that they could prick or " pink,"
with the naked points, anyone with whom they
quarrelled.
These Bucks were for the most part only cowardly
bullies, and merely behaved thus as a rule when they
had the courage of numbers. " Tiger " Roche, perhaps
the most famous of these swaggering roysterers, was,
however, a queer compound of courage and cowardice,
HOW THE " UNION WAS PASSED." 251
displaying either quality at different times. Another
noted bully was " Fighting Fitzgerald." " Tiger "
Roche once, singlehanded, went to the aid of an old
gentleman, his son and daughter who were assailed
by a party of " Pinkindindies," and set about the
cowardly gang so vigorously that he wounded some
and put the rest to ignominious flight.
" How did they pass the Union ?
By perjury and fraud ;
By slaves who sold their land for gold
As Judas sold his God. . . .
How thrive we by the Union ?
Look round your native land ;
In ruined trade and wealth decayed
See slavery's surest brand."
252 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ROBERT EMMET.
Ireland was generally supposed to be still crushed,
but in 1803, a fresh insurrection startled everybody
and showed that, phoenix-like, patriotism could arise
from out the ashes of its dead self.
Robert Emmet, a younger brother of Thomas Addis
Emmet, one of the leaders of the United Irishmen,
still cherished hopes of a successful rebellion against
England. He was only 25, and full of ardour and
enthusiasm and a deep, abiding love of his country.
To-day he stands out high above all others as Ireland's
dearest patriot son, the idolised patriot-martyr of the
great mass of the people. Wolfe Tone, I^ord Edward,
Owen Roe O'Neill, Sarsfield all these, bright and
illustrious names on Ireland's roll of fame as they are,
give second place in the heart of the Irish people to
Robert Emmet.
He was a Protestant and the son of a distinguished
Dublin physician, and he had been expelled from
Trinity College because of his revolutionary ideas.
His portraits show a small, compact head, with a thin,
thoughtful, yet sternly resolute face, indicating a highly
cultured and refined nature ; close-cut black hair,
falling in slightly curling, carelessly parted manner
ROBERT EMMET. 253
over a broad, high, rounding brow ; the nose, a decidedly
aggressive Roman, that of the born soldier ; the lips
tight-shut, yet full of eloquence ; the eyes large, brilliant,
defiant ; the chin firm and well-set. In stature he
was about five feet eight, and though slight in person,
he was most active and capable of enduring great
fatigue.
It is believed that in '98, being then only 20, he acted
as confidential agent for the United Irishmen abroad
He interviewed Napoleon and Talleyrand in Paris, and,
unlike Wolfe Tone, " was impressed with the future
Emperor's insincerity " as regarded Ireland and its
invasion. Seeing England embroiled in the great war
with France, he now, in 1802, determined to attempt
another rebellion. He conferred with Lord Cloncurry,
the patriotic nobleman who, as related, is supposed to
have been the mysterious and unknown fifth member
of the United Irish Directory. Cloncurry does not
appear, however, to have engaged in this wild scheme,
for such it was undoubtedly.
Along with Miles Byrne, James Hope, Thomas
Russell, who had been a lieutenant in the 64th Regi-
ment of Foot and a prominent United Irishman, Nicholas
Gray (Bagenal Harvey's secretary) and others including
Michael Dwyer, the famous Wicklow insurgent chief,
still in rebellion at that period, he formed a plan for the
sudden seizure of Dublin castle and the ministers of
the Crown there, and thus inaugurating a general
insurrection. Michael Dwyer, who visited Emmet in
disguise in Dublin, along with his two lieutenants,
Martin Burke and Hugh Byrne, was opposed to the
scheme as impracticable, but was nevertheless quite
254 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
willing to take part in it, and help it forward in every
way.
Emmet formed depots of arms in various streets in
Dublin, the principal one being in Marshalsea Lane,
off Thomas Street. Here arms and ammunition were
manufactured, forty men being constantly employed.
Uniforms were also being made by tailors in the secret
at these depots. Over 10,000 pikes and many muskets,
pistols and blunderbusses were afterwards found in
them. Emmet himself invented a hand grenade, or
infernal machine, to explode in the face of advancing
troops. July 23rd, 1803, was fixed for the rising,
but, on the i8th July, an explosion at one of the depots
in Patrick Street brought the authorities down on the
conspirators. Some arms were found, but the majority
were secreted in time.
On the day fixed for the rising, treachery and pusil-
lanimity ruined everything. Michael Dwyer and the
Wicklow men waited in vain for the messenger that was
to be sent them. The Kildare men were turned back by
a traitor, who told them the rising had been postponed.
Miles Byrne and 300 Wexfordmen also received no word
and so remained inactive, expecting it every minute.
Emmet himself was deceived. To the last he thought
he had large bodies of men at his disposal. With a
miserable following of 80 men, he sallied out at eight in
the evening, dressed in his uniform of green and gold,
from the depot in Marshalsea Lane. Some of the men
were drunk, and nearly all insubordinate. A man
rushed up crying that the soldiers were coming.
Emmet pushed on with those immediately about
him, but the stragglers began to pillage shops, attacked
ROBERT EMMET. 255
a Mr. Leech of the custom-house, and piked him. Then
the coach of Lord Kilwarden, the Chief Justice, a most
humane man, came up, and the mad , unruly mob stopped
the coach, and one Shannon ran his pike through the
unfortunate judge. His nephew who was with him
was also killed, but his daughter was left unmolested.
Emmet himself came rushing back, filled with horror
and disgust at such bloodshed, and saw her in safety
into a neighbouring house. It is supposed that Kil-
warden was mistaken by the insurgents for Lord
Carleton, who had sentenced the Brothers Sheares.
In any case the deed was a diabolical and wanton
crime.
Emmet had now lost all control over the savage mob.
A detachment of troops appeared at the corner of
Cut-purse Row, and fired on it, when it scattered at once.
Small parties carried on a few skirmishes, attacking the
guardhouse on the Coombe, and killing Colonel Brown
and two members of the Liberty Rangers. But they,
too, were dispersed, and Robert Emmet was a ruined,
outlawed, conscience-stricken and broken-hearted man.
He could easily have got out of the country though,
for he succeeded in reaching Dwyer's secret retreat
in the Wicklow mountains, but he loved Sarah Curran,
the youngest daughter of the illustrious advocate,
John Philpot Curran. Curran did not approve of the
match, and the lovers had plighted their troth in secret.
Emmet returned to his old lodgings at Harold's Cross,
a suicidal act, in order to have a last interview with his
betrothed, as she passed on her way to her father's
country house, the Priory, near Dundrum.
There he was arrested on August 25th by Major Sirr
256 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
the well-known town major, and he was subsequently
identified by Dr. Elrington, a Provost of Trinity
College.
On September iQth, he was tried for high treason.
He refused to make any defence. Curran, incensed
at his daughter's name being mentioned in connection
with him, had declined to act as his counsel. The trial
lasted only one day before I/ord Norbury, and at
midnight a verdict of guilty was returned against him.
Before sentence was passed upon him he made the
famous and eloquent speech in which he requested
" the charity of the world's silence, and that his tomb
remain uninscribed and his memory in oblivion until
other times and other men could do justice to his
character."
" When my country takes her place among the
nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my
epitaph be written," he said in conclusion.
At noon the following day, September 20th, 1803,
he was led to execution, the gibbet being erected in
Thomas Street, at the head of Bridgefoot Street, and
directly opposite the Protestant Church of St. Catherine.
" A carriage, containing Miss Curran and a friend,
was drawn up on the roadside, near Kilmainham, and,
evidently by preconcert, as the vehicle containing Emmet
passed on its way to the place of execution, the unhappy
pair exchanged their last greeting on earth." Sarah
Curran was closely veiled, but the eyes of love were
sharp. Robert Emmet put his head out of the window
of the carriage in which he was and gazed intently,
waving his hand several times till out of sight. " At
the moment Emmet passed the lady removed her veil,
Robert Emmett on his way to execution
ROBERT EMMET. 257
stood up in the carriage, waved her handkerchief,
and sank back on the seat," apparently swooning.
It was believed up to the last that Thomas Russell,
who was in town for that purpose, would attempt a
rescue with the co-operation of Michael Dwyer and his
mountain band. But nothing of the kind took place.
It would have been useless, for the Government had
taken every precaution to guard against any such
attempt, strong bodies of cavalry and infantry guarding
every approach and surrounding the scaffold. With a
serene countenance and air, Bmmet suffered death,
and his head was then severed from his body and held
up to view as that of a traitor.
Thomas Moore has " embalmed for all time the sad
story of Emmet and the ill-starred lady of his love,
who ere many years passed over followed him to the
grave " (I^uby). Moore was his fellow-student and
companion, and wrote round him the two famous
songs, " Oh ! breathe not his name," and " She is
far from the land where her young hero sleeps." This
last refers to Sarah Curran, who, though she was even-
tually prevailed on to marry another a worthy, noble
gentleman who loved her tenderly never forgot him,
and died really of a broken heart, soon after, on the
shores of the Adriatic.
What pathos there must have been, what anguish
in that last memorable interview of theirs, their meeting
as he was on his way to execution ! What a scene for
a drama !
" When he who adores thee," another of Moore's
melodies, is supposed to be Emmet's dying address to
his country ; and the poet relates how once, when he
s
258 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
was playing the air of " Let Erin remember the days of
old," in the company of Emmet, the young patriot-
martyr exclaimed :
" Oh, that I were marching at the head of a thousand
men to that tune ! "
" On the whitewashed walls of every Irish peasant's
home, beside the pictures of the Pope and of O'Connell,
there is another that is familiar to us all," writes Dr.
D' Alton, "It is that of Emmet in his white trousers
and vest, his Hessian boots, his coat of green and gold,
his military cloak, his cocked hat in his hand, his face
spiritualised by enthusiasm, his eyes filled with the light
that has never shone upon land or sea. Wherever the
Irish race has gone it is the same, and abroad or at home
the name of Emmet is one with which to conjure."
Another familiar picture of him is with his arms folded,
facing his judges at his trial, dressed in civilian attire.
Sarah Curran was not exactly handsome, nor was she
tall. She was very slight with dark complexion, and
eyes large and black. " Her look was the mildest,
sweetest and softest ever seen." The gentleman she
eventually married was Major Sturgeon, whom she met
while on a visit to a Quaker family in Cork named
Penrose.
Thomas Russell, Emmet's friend, had been captured
before the execution, and he in his turn suffered death.
He lies buried in the Protestant churchyard of Down-
patrick. Miles Byrne escaped to France and rose to
eminence in the French army, becoming a chef de
bataillon under Napoleon.
Michael Dwyer held out in the Wicklow mountains
some time longer, when, influenced by the arguments
ROBERT EMMET. 259
of Mr. Hume of Humewood, he surrendered on honour-
able conditions, and was expatriated to Australia.
He died in 1814 in Sydney, New South Wales, and
was buried there.
" General " Holt, his old brother-in-arms, had also
been transported to New South Wales, but received a
pardon in 1809 and returned to Ireland, dying in 1826
at Kingstown.
PART IX.
MORAL OR PHYSICAL FORCE.
Chisel the likeness of the Chief
Not in gaiety, nor grief ;
Change not by your art to stone
Ireland's laugh or Ireland's moan . .
But would you by your art unroll
His own and Ireland's secret soul
And give to others time to scan
The greatest greatness of the man ?
Fierce defiance let him be
Hurling at our enemy
From a base as fair and sure
As our love is true and pure. . . .
On his broad brow let there be
A type of Ireland's history ;
Pious, generous, deep and warm,
Strong and changeful as a storm . . .
Knit his look to purpose stern. . . .
And the hope that leads him on ...
Thus he spoke and thus he stood,
Proffering in our cause his blood. . .
Chisel thus, and thus alone,
If to the man you'd change the stone."
"O'Connell's Statue," by THOMAS DAVIS.
DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE LIBERATOR 263
CHAPTER XXIX.
DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE LIBERATOR.
The Irish Catholics, who had hoped that the Union
would be accompanied, or shortly followed, by the
removal of the disabilities under which they laboured,
very quickly found out that that hope was but a delu-
sion and a snare. A vigorous agitation for Catholic
Emancipation was now started and brought to the
front a man whose name soon became a power in the
land, a man who was destined to win by his wonderful
forensic eloquence those rights so long denied him and
his fellow-religionists.
This was the renowned Daniel O'Connell, rightfully
called " the Liberator. " He was born 1775, near
Cahirciveen in Kerry. Adopting the legal profession, he
was called to the Bar in the year of horror and heroism,
1798. In 1800 he spoke at a meeting against the
Union, and after it he became the leader of the Catholics
of Ireland, being elected, in 1810, the chairman of their
committee. With his legal knowledge and great
shrewdness, he was able to evade the law of several
new Acts, which were made to suppress the various
associations that he formed, and so fearlessly continued
his agitation.
At one of the Catholic meetings that took place in
264 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
January, 1815, O'Connell referred to the corporation
of Dublin as " beggarly." To this reference a Mr.
D'Esterre took exception and challenged O'Connell
to a duel with pistols. O'Connell though many of
his friends believed the whole affair was simply a plot
of his enemies to try and get rid of him accepted the
challenge, and had for his second a noted duellist, Major
MacNamara, known as " Fireball " MacNamara, on
account of his duelling propensities.
D'Esterre and O'Connell met at Bishop's Court
outside Dublin, and O'Connell mortally wounded his
antagonist with his first shot, D'Esterre missing him.
O'Connell, however, deeply regretted having caused the
unfortunate man's death. In the same year he was
challenged to fight another duel by Secretary Peel,
but they never met, O'Connell being arrested in
London on his way to the Continent where the duel was
to take place.
So high ran sectarian feeling in England that he made
very little progress until 1821, when a Catholic Relief
Bill rewarded his efforts and passed the Commons, to
be thrown out by the Lords. O'Connell, two years
later (1823) founded the Catholic Association, members
subscribing a pound a year and associates one shilling.
Then penny monthly subscriptions were adopted.
These subscriptions were called the " Catholic Rent,"
and soon averaged 500 a week. Government, alarmed,
promptly suppressed the Association by Act of Parlia-
ment, whereupon O'Connell re-started it under another
name, that of " The New Catholic Association," when,
ashamed of themselves possibly, the authorities did not
again interfere.
DANIEL 0'CONNEI<L, THE UBERATOR. 265
In the general election of 1826, the Protestant mem-
bers for Waterford, Louth and Monaghan, were pledged
to support the Catholic cause ; and in 1828, a vacancy
occurring in the representation of Clare through Vesey
Fitzgerald accepting office in the Duke of Wellington's
ministry, and having to seek re-election, O'Connell
resolved to stand against him.
O'Connell obtained 2,057 votes and Fitzgerald, 1,075.
It was argued that, as a Catholic, O'Connell could not
sit in Parliament. The law, however, as he knew, did
not directly prevent him doing so, but it required him
to take an oath denying certain doctrines of his faith
which no Catholic could take.
After the election, O'Connell's journey back to Dublin
was a regular triumphal march. The Government were
terror-stricken, but the Duke of Wellington, himself
an Irishman and the British Prime Minister, said Catho-
lic Emancipation must become law or there would be
civil war in Ireland again. " I advocate the measure,"
he said. " first and foremost to prevent another rebellion
like '98, and, secondly, out of gratitude to those Irish
soldiers who helped so much to win Waterloo."
Sir Robert Peel, therefore, brought in the Catholic
Relief Act in 1829, making Catholics eligible for all offices,
civil and military, excepting the Regency, the Lord
Lieutenancy of Ireland and the Lord Chancellorship
of England, and framing a new form of oath for Catholics
elected to any office to take, omitting what was objec-
tionable. At the same time, though, an Act was passed
disfranchising all 403. holders by whose help chiefly
O'Connell had been elected and substituting a 10
freehold as qualification for a vote, a most dastardly
266 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
piece of business, at which all decent-minded English-
men were heartily disgusted. The number of votes
by this electioneering dodge were reduced instantan-
eously from 200,000 to 26,000. It seems incredible that
any men could have been found even in the most
hollow-hearted and bigoted national assembly to pass
such an unjust and cowardly Bill.
O'Connell now claimed his seat in the House of Com-
mons. As he had been elected before the passing of
the Emancipation Act, he was called on to take the
old obnoxious Oath of Supremacy. This declared cer-
tain Catholic doctrines to be " impious and idolatrous."
" I decline, Mr. Clerk," he thereupon replied, " to
take this oath. Part of it I know to be false ; another
part of it I do not believe to be true."
As he persisted in his refusal, the Speaker eventually
ordered him to retire. O'Connell looked round the
House, bowed, but still stood opposite to the Speaker,
without making any further observation. The Speaker
hereupon called on him a second time to withdraw,
and then O'Connell, bowing, did so in silence.
Later Sir Robert Peel moved that O'Connell be heard
at the Bar of the House. This was agreed to, and the
" Liberator " there advanced his claim in a long and
powerfully argumentative speech. But his claim was
rejected. He appeared three times at the Bar, each
time refusing to take the old oath.
On this a writ for a fresh election was issued. O'Con-
nell again stood and was re-elected, when the new oath,
with all the old objectionable features deleted, was
presented to him. He readily took this oath, and so
was allowed to sit. He was the first Catholic to do so
DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE LIBERATOR. 267
since the Penal days, and a new era had dawned for
Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1820, a new and formidable secret society came into
existence. This was Ribbonism or the Ribbonmen.
It was purely a Catholic peasant organisation, and was
at first directed against unjust landlords. A great
many agrarian murders are attributed to the more
violent members between 1858 and 1879. Later it was
directed against the Orangemen, and faction fights
frequently occurred. It extended in the 'fifties to
Irishmen settled in England and became amongst them
a sort of secret trade unionism, no man being allowed
to work with them unless he joined them. In the time
of the Fenians, 1865-7, the Ribbonmen refused for the
most part to be drawn into that organisation, because
the latter embraced Protestants as well as Catholics.
In June, 1871, Ribbonism was suppressed by law.
From the first the Catholic clergy waged a determined
war upon it, denouncing it from the altar, yet it re-
mained from first to last exclusively Catholic. It had
secret signs, handgrips, and passwords, and produced
a remarkable character named Richard Jones, who
was convicted in 1840. He was its grand secretary, and
apparently did his best to turn the organisation into a
political conspiracy against the Government. But his
efforts were not successful. Ribbonism remained to the
end merely an agrarian or labour combination.
A dreadful " Tithe War " was meanwhile raging over
the country, and conflicts resulting in loss of life fre-
quently took place between the peasantry and the
military and police. The tithes were a tax levied on all
farmers, Catholic as well as Protestant, for the support
268 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
of the Protestant clergy, and these levies were collected
in particularly odious ways. Coercion Acts proving
useless, measures were at last taken to satisfy the
Catholics, the number of Protestant bishops being
reduced from eighteen to ten, and the church rate
abolished. This was a tax for the maintenance or repair
of Protestant churches. In 1838, the " Tithe Bill "
reduced the tithes by a fourth and laid them on
the landlord instead of the tenant, with the result
that " the landlord added the tithes to the rent."
(Murphy).
In this same year, 1838, the great Father Theobald
Mathew, a Capuchin friar of Cork, accomplished a
tremendous amount of good by advocating teetotalism.
In less than a year he induced 150,000 persons to take
the pledge to abstain from all intoxicating liquors.
He had already won great esteem by his heroism in a
cholera epidemic, six years before. He is known as the
" apostle of temperance " and he worked " a revolution
the like of which history does not record," with the
result that crime decreased rapidly.
Having won Catholic Emancipation, the great
Liberator now turned to the Union itself. He demanded
the Repeal of the Act of Union as essential for the pros-
perity of Ireland, and started a Repeal Organisation,
holding meetings everywhere. Vast numbers attended
these, and many of the Repealers, with the idea of
adopting the same course as the Volunteers of 1782,
came " in something like military array," so that the
Government again became alarmed. At a meeting at
Tara, the old palace of the Milesian dynasty, . 50,000
people were present.
DANIEI, O'CONNEU,, THE LIBERATOR. 269
O'Connell appointed another monster meeting at
Clontarf on Sunday, October 8th, 1843. The Lord
Lieutenant prohibited it as " calculated to excite
reasonable and well-grounded apprehension," and large
bodies of troops were drafted into Dublin and warships
stationed in the harbours all round the coast. O'Connell,
to the chagrin and bitter disappointment of many of
his most ardent supporters, said the law must be
obeyed, and so the meeting was not held. Neverthe-
less, O'Connell and others were prosecuted on the score
of conspiracy, and the Liberator was found guilty, by
a packed jury, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment
and a fine of 2,000.
The great Dan appealed to the House of Lords,
and had the verdict quashed, Lord Denman declaring
it to be " a delusion, a mockery, and a snare." O'Connell
had served three months' imprisonment, however, and
his health was undermined by it, as well as disappoint-
ment at the failure of the Repeal Movement. It but
wanted the horrible famine that fell on the land, the
awful potato-blight of 1845, to bring about the end.
Heartbroken he died at Genoa on his way to Rome,
on May I5th, 1847. ^ e was given a national funeral
" nobly befitting his title of the Uncrowned Monarch "
of Ireland.
The horrible famine to which we have referred lasted
from 1845 to 1847, through the failure everywhere of
the potato crops, and people died in thousands from
fever, dysentery and sheer starvation. The population
of our country was reduced in those three terrible,
never-to-be-forgotten years by two and a half millions
of people ! Let us hasten to leave such a heartrending
270 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
subject, with the remark that it is a lasting disgrace
to the English administration of the time.
" O'Connell was a thorough Celt," wrote the late
Justin McCarthy, M.P., in his " History of our own
times." " He represented all the impulsiveness, the
quick-changing emotions, the passionate, exaggerated
loves and hatreds . . . the ebullient humour
all the other qualities that are especially characteristic
of the Celt. . . . He had a herculean frame, a
stately presence, a face capable of expressing easily
and effectively the most rapid alternations of mood,
and a voice which all hearers admit to have been almost
unrivalled for strength and sweetness. Its power, its
pathos, its passion, its music have been described in
words of positive rapture by men who detested
O'Connell. He spoke without studied preparation.
. . . . He always spoke right to the hearts of his
hearers. . . He entered the House of Commons
when he was nearly 54 years of age. . . . Mr.
Roebuck has said that he considers O'Connell the greatest
orator he ever heard in the House of Commons. Charles
Dickens, when a reporter in the gallery. . . . put
down his pencil once when engaged in reporting a speech
of O'Connell on one of the tithe riots in Ireland, and
declared that he could not take notes of the speech,
so moved was he by its pathos."
Lady Wilde thus wrote of him : " From the moment
of his entrance into public life he became the soul of
the Catholic party. He was then 25, with a fine, tall,
manly, athletic figure, and a noble, commanding air,
with considerable dignity about the carriage and move-
ments of the head and shoulders. Amongst ten thou-
DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE LIBERATOR. 27!
sand a stranger's eye would at once have fixed on him
as the true king. Even to the last he retained his
majesty of bearing ; an intelligent, expressive face.
. . . . The most striking characteristic of the coun-
tenance was the excessive beauty and whiteness of his
forehead. It was delicately formed, too, rather broad
than high, with no demagogical lowering preponder-
ance over the eyebrows. . . . Each individual
Catholic felt that he was elevated by his leader's
courage, and ennobled by the lofty independence of
this man who knew no fear."
O'Connor Morris says, " His gifts were of the highest
order . . . and Catholic Ireland owes an incal-
culable debt to him .... His ideal was the
restoration of the old Irish Parliament, an ideal that
may have appeared attainable to a spectator of the
events of 1782."
" And shall it last, this Union,
To grind and waste us so ?
O'er hill and lea, from sea to sea,
All Ireland thunders, No !
Eight million necks are stiff to bow
We know our might as men
We conquered once before, and now
We'll conquer once again ;
And rend this cursed Union
And fling it to the wind
And Ireland's laws in Ireland's cause
Alone our hearts shall bind."
JOHN O'HAGAN.
272 THE ROMANCE OP IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE YOUNG IRELANDERS.
Some of the ablest members of the Repeal Association
had broken away from O'Connell, considering his
constitutional policy of moral force to be useless,
and advocating instead physical force again open
rebellion.
These seceders from " the constitutional party "
were called " Young Irelanders," and the chief amongst
them were John Mitchel, who practically started this
new revolutionary movement ; Thomas Davis, the
poet ; and William Smith O'Brien, who were all three
Protestants. They established the " Nation " and
" United Irishman " newspapers, which ultimately
openly incited their readers to insurrection. Mitchel
was arrested, in 1848, for seditious writings and speeches,
along with Thomas Francis Meagher, who is known as
" Meagher of the Sword " because of a stirring speech
he once made in Conciliation Hall, praising the sword
or an appeal to it as an arbiter in the disputes of
nations.
The " Young Ireland " movement was not only
revolutionary, it was a great Irish intellectual
awakening, and gave a tremendous fillip to Irish litera-
ture and poetry. Thomas Osborne Davis, the poet,
THE YOUNG IREI.ANDERS. 273
was the real leader, but he never advocated insurrection,
and had he lived this might not have happened. His
fame as a national poet rivals that of his predecessor,
Thomas Moore. He was born in Mallow, in 1814, and
died at the early age of 31, leaving, however, an im-
perishable name on Ireland's roll of brilliant men.
His poems " Fontenoy " and " The Surprise of Cremona"
will endure while his countrymen remember those
victories of the " Wild Geese," which must be for all
time. As well a sa poet, he was " a philosopher, an
historian, a man who had read much and thought
much, tolerant, kindly, forbearing, with broad, human
sympathies and a passionate love for Ireland."
A scene that took place a few months before his death
between him and O'Connell instances his keenly sen-
sitive, lovable nature and affection for his country and
her great leader O'Connell as her " Liberator."
At a crowded meeting in Conciliation Hall, O'Connell
turned fiercely on him.
" There is no such party," the Liberator exclaimed,
" as that styled Young Irelanders. It is time that this
delusion should be put an end to. Young Ireland may
play what pranks they please. I do not envy them the
name they rejoice in. I shall stand by Old Ireland,
and I have some slight notion that Old Ireland will
stand by me."
O'Connell could be very truculent in his speeches,
but his truculence was never so misdirected as it was
on that memorable occasion, never so uncalled for
as when levelled at its then recipient.
Davis, who felt unbounded admiration for O'Connell,
as we have said, " was deeply hurt, and, in replying,
T
2/4 TH E ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
burst into tears." And never tears so well became a man.
They were no shame but every credit to his manhood
and noble, deep-feeling temperament they uncovered
the great, sensitive, pulsing heart of the man to the
keen, swiftly discerning eyes of the old chief, who was
in his turn profoundly touched. Rising to his feet,
he seized and wrung Davis's hand, pouring out pro-
testations of regret ; " there were mutual explanations
and expressions of affection and goodwill ; and with the
public reconciliation of Davis and O'Connell an end was
put to this painful scene."
Yet for all its pain to the actors, we would not have
had it not happen, for it shows us, better than anything,
the truly great natures of the two men.
Davis died, as we have said, in the flower of his youth,
of scarlet fever, and his loss was keenly felt by his party,
the members of which more than once exclaimed :
" If only Davis were with us now."
His portrait shows us a square, heavy face, with a
broad, noble brow, large, inexpressibly soft, soulful
eyes, a sharp aquiline nose the nose of a practical,
as well as poetic, nature, and something of the fighter
withal a sweet, speaking mouth. The eyebrows are
well-defined, and slightly arched, the hair long, and
luxuriant and wavy, parted at one side, and joining a
slight whisker that fringes the jaw and chin.
Among others of the bright galaxy of talent that the
Young Ireland movement produced should be men-
tioned Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Thomas D'Arcy
Magee, Michael Doheny, James Clarence Mangan,
D' Alton Williams, Lady Wilde (" Speranza "), and Mr.
and Mrs. Kevin Izod O'Doherty. Mrs. O'Doherty
THE YOUNG IREI^ANDERS. 2/5
wrote under the nom-de-plume of " Eva " of the
" Nation," the organ started by the Young Ireland
party.
It was Thackeray in his " Book of Snobs," who first
called Meagher " Meagher of the Sword," and Irishmen
proudly took up the name and gave it to him.
A most dramatic scene took place at John Mitchel's
trial at Green Street on the 22nd May, before Baron
Lefroy.
" The Roman who saw his hand burning to ashes
before the tyrant, promised that 300 should follow his
example. Can I not promise for one, for two, for three,
aye for hundreds ?" he cried in the dock, looking proudly
towards his friends in court.
There was immediately a shout from all sides of it :
" For me ! For me ! Promise for me, Mitchel ! " " And
for me ! " Many reached over and grasped his hand,
and the judge hurriedly ordered the prisoner to be re-
moved. Mitchel was sentenced to 14 years' transpor-
tation, and the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended and
warrants were made out for the arrest of others.
On that William Smith O'Brien raised an insurrection
in Tipperary, and at the head of a couple of hundred
men, who responded to his call, attacked a police bar-
racks at Ballingarry. The house was strong, the police
were well armed, and the rebels were soon dispersed.
A youth named James Stephens who was shot in the
leg by the police will be heard of later.
William Smith O'Brien, the leader on this occasion,
was the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien of County
Clare, and on the death of his kinsman, the last Marquis
of Thomond, his eldest brother became Baron Inchiquin.
276 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and his
alliance with the patriot party caused a sensation in
aristocratic circles. 500 was offered for his apprehen-
sion the day before the affair at Ballingarry. Of the
men around him in that engagement, if it can be dignified
by the name of such, " not more than 20 possessed
firearms, about twice that number were armed with
pikes and pitchforks, the remainder had but their
naked hands and the stones they could gather by the
wayside." Opposed to them were 47 disciplined men
splendidly armed.
For nearly two hours the firing continued. A des-
perate spirit, Terence Bellew McManus, " rolled a cart-
load of hay up to the kitchen door of the barracks with
the intention of setting fire to it and burning down the
house. But O'Brien would not permit it . . . .
and the first and last battle of the insurrection was lost
and won." A strong force of Constabulary from
Cashel was approaching, and the rebels broke up.
O'Brien was not captured until August 5th. He
was tried for high treason at Clonmel and found guilty,
when he was sentenced to death, a sentence afterwards
commuted to transportation to Van Diemen's Land.
McManus and Meagher accompanied him. In 1854
he was granted an unconditional pardon. He returned
to Ireland after a voyage to America, and died in 1864,
being buried at Rathcronan, County Limerick.
Meagher escaped from captivity in Van Diemen's
Land in 1852. Mitchel also escaped, as did one or two
others. Mitchel and Meagher took opposite sides in the
American Civil War-r-for both had fled to America
the former the Southern or Confederate side, and the
THE YOUNG IRELANDERS. 277
latter who rose to the rank of Brigadier-General show-
ing that he did know something about the sword he had
so eloquently advocated fighting in many battles on
the Northern or Federal side. Meagher raised a Zouave
company and fought at Bull's Run, where the Irish
" saved the Federal forces from annihilation on that
field of disaster." Subsequently he organised and
commanded the American Irish Brigade of the 2nd
Army Corps. L,ike the French Irish Brigade, it " won
imperishable laurels throughout the hard-fought cam-
paigns that ended with the capture of Richmond."
Meagher himself led the historic charge at Fredericks-
burg in the teeth of the enemy's guns. In that dreadful
fight the Brigade was nearly destroyed, fighting
brother Irishmen, the Georgian militia enlisted under
the star-dotted St. Andrew's Cross of the South.
The smooth hill is bare, and the cannons are planted,
Like Gorgon fates shading its terrible brow,
The word has been passed that the stormers are wanted,
And Burnside's battalions are mustering now.
Strong earthworks are there, and the rifles behind them
Are Georgian militia an Irish brigade
Their caps have green badges as if to remind them
Of all the brave record their country has made. . .
What is it in these that shall now do the storming,
That makes every Georgian spring to his feet ? . . .
" 'Tis Meagher and his fellows I their caps bear green clover,
'Tis Greek to Greek now for the rest of the fight ! "
Twelve hundred the column, their rent flag before them
With Meagher at their head they have dashed at the hill !
Their foemen are proud of the country that bore them ;
But, Irish in love, they are enemies still . . ,
278 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
It is Green against Green, but a principle stifles
The Irishman's love in the Georgian's blow.
The column has reeled, but it is not defeated ;
In front of the guns they reform and attack,
Six times they have done it, and six times retreated
Twelve hundred they came, and two hundred go back. . .
Bright honour be theirs who for honour were fearless,
Who charged for their flag to the grim cannon's mouth ;
And honour to those who were true, though not tearless
Who bravely, that day, kept the cause of the South.*
On the cessation of the Civil War, Meagher was made
Governor of Montana Territory, in the Far West,
and descending the great Missouri river by steamer,
one wild, dark night, in July, 1867, he fell overboard
and was never seen again He was a finished scholar,
a genial friend, a matchless orator, but above all and
before all, a soldier.
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, in 1871, became Prime
Minister of Victoria, Australia, and Thomas D'Arcy
Magee, a minister of the crown in Canada. Magee has
left as his best memorial one of the ablest histories of
Ireland we possess
* From John Boyle O'Reilly's well-known poem, " Fredericks-
burg."
JAMES STEPHENS AND THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 279
CHAPTER XXXI.
JAMES STEPHENS AND THE FENIAN MOVEMENT.
The failure of the '48, or Young Ireland, revolt did not
deter two of those who had taken part in it from still
pinning their hopes of effecting Irish independence to
force of arms ; and, in 1858, these two men, James
Stephens, the youth we referred to as being wounded at
Ballingarry, and John O'Mahony, conspired to work
on the lines of Wolfe Tone and establish a secret,
oath-bound organisation for the promotion and further-
ance of another armed insurrection.
Stephens came to Ireland for that purpose, and
O'Mahony went through America. The society, first
known as " the Phoenix Society," gradually changed
its name into that of " the Fenian Brotherhood," at
the suggestion of O'Mahony, who was fond of ancient
Irish lore and chose the name from the oldtime Fenians
or national Milesian militia.
Stephens himself, though, preferred, and gave more
particularly to the Irish branch of the conspiracy,
the name of the " I.R.B.", or " Irish Republican
Brotherhood," of which he called himself the C.O.I.R.,
or " Central Organiser of the Irish Republic."
It was the time of the Indian Mutiny and the occasion
seemed propitious. Stephens met with great success
28O THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
in Ireland, most of the young men in Cork and Kerry
joining his society, among others Jeremiah O'Donovan
Rossa, Charles Kickham, Thomas Clarke Luby, and
John O%eary, who became prominent leaders. As a
secret society, however, the Catholic Church condemned
Fenianism. Nevertheless, thousands of Irish exiles in
America joined the movement, and took part in the
great civil war between North and South solely for the
purpose of learning the use of arms and " returning with
rifles on their shoulders to free their native land."
Most Irishmen in Great Britain at this time belonged
to the perfectly open and legitimate " Brotherhood of
St. Patrick," the single object of which was " to compass
the union of Irishmen for the achievement of Irish
independence." From this organisation Fenianism
drew most of its recruits ; and great impulse was given
to the new revolutionary movement by the remarkable
national demonstration which was made the occasion
of the funeral of Terence Bellew McManus, one of the
'48 or Young Ireland party. He had escaped from
Van Dieman's Land in 1851, and had just died in
California. His body was brought, attended by a
powerful escort, all the way from San Francisco and
buried in Glasnevin, Dublin, in presence of 50,000 men
and under the most impressive circumstances, on Sun-
day, November loth, 1861.
In November, 1863, Stephens started the " Irish
People " newspaper as the organ of Fenianism, and this
paper openly preached insurrection until September
1865, when the authorities swooped down on the office,
seized all the documents and plant, and arrested Rossa,
Luby, O'Leary, and others. Stephens evaded arrest
JAMES STEPHENS AND THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 28l
at the time, but was later tracked to Fairfield
House, Sandymount, outside Dublin, where the police
effected an entry and his capture. This was on Novem-
ber nth. In the dock of the police-court, he spoke
fearlessly and defiantly ; and a few days later the
utmost consternation and alarm prevailed in Govern-
ment circles, for he had escaped from Richmond Gaol,
Dublin, where he had been incarcerated !
This remarkable and historic escape or rescue was
effected by two warders, named John J. Breslin and
Daniel Byrne, who were in secret sympathy with the
Fenians, if not actually members of the brotherhood
at the time. They entered into communication with
Colonel Thomas Kelly, Stephens' successor as head of
the conspiracy and one of the Irish-American officers
who were to lead the rebel forces in the field. Kelly,
Devoy, and about a dozen others, all sworn members
of the brotherhood, armed with revolvers, waited outside
the prison walls, while Breslin and Byrne opened
Stephens's cell-door, and with the ladder used for
lighting the lamps, set against the inner wall on top
of two tables, one upon another, enabled him to get
into the governor's garden.
" He walked over to a pear tree, indicated by Breslin,
which grew close to the outer wall and which would
aid him in climbing it. Hearing no footsteps outside
he took a handful of sand and flung it over the outer
wall into the Circular Road." (Denvir).
Kelly's party were on the alert outside, and at once
threw a rope over. Stephens climbed up it to the top
of the wall and then dropped down in the midst of his
friends, who crowded together to break the fall, from the
282 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
height of 18 feet. Breslin and Byrne escaped detection
and fled to America ; while Stephens was successfully
concealed, and then drove one night with Colonel Kelly
down to the quays in an open car and slipped aboard a
fishing hooker at the North Wall. The vessel, bound
for France, was compelled by stormy weather to put
into Ayr, whence Stephens travelled in the mail train
to London, dressed as a seafaring man. He then made
his way to Calais, via Dover. A big reward was offered
for his re-capture in vain.
Mr. James O'Connor, M.P., who was introduced to
James Stephens in 1858 in Cork, has given the following
description of him. " Although he was then but thirty-
four years of age, he struck me mainly on account of
his complete baldness as a man of fifty or more. His
height was about five feet eight ; he was squarely and
compactly built, he had a long fair beard and heavy
moustache ; his movements were quick, his mind and
judgment remarkably alert and decisive. His clear,
sharp blue eye was the most striking feature of his
handsome face. So keen and penetrating was his
glance that the Skibbereen men called him Seabac,
pronounced ' shouk,' which the Press subsequently
turned into Mr. ' Shook.' ' It is probable, though,
that he was shorter than 5 ft. 8 in., for he was often
affectionately referred to by his lieutenants, mostly
big men, as " the little man."
Stephens' face was of a most amiable, kindly type,
so much so that an English friend of the author's,
happening to see a portrait of him, asked, "Who was
that noble-looking, benevolent old gentleman ? "
" That," the author responded, " was the Fenian
JAMES STEPHENS AND THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 283
Head Centre." " H'm ! There must certainly have
been something radically wrong when a man like that
promoted insurrection," the Englishman replied.
Stephens' face was somewhat square, his beard, too,
was squared, his nose aquiline but broad, and his brow
noble and expansive, the dignity of his appearance
being added to by his extreme baldness and the fact
that he wore his hair at the back rather long and curling.
284 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE RISING OF THE STH OF MARCH, '67.
In America, meanwhile, the Fenians under Colonel
William R. Roberts determined to invade Canada,
and Colonel John O'Neill led one small battalion of
Irish veterans of the Civil War across the border and
attacked Fort Erie on May 3ist, 1866. He took pos-
session of the place, hauled down the royal flag and
hoisted the rebel one of green and gold with the crownless
harp in its stead. Some troops marched against O'Neill,
who encountered them at a village called Ridgeway,
and routed them. The American government, how-
ever, promptly interfered and the Fenians were obliged
to submit.
Stephens, known now as the Head Centre, announced
the outbreak of the revolt in Ireland for 1867, and many
Irish-American officers like Brigadier-General Thomas
Francis Burke, General Halpin, Colonel Rickard Burke,
and others, spread themselves through the country
in order to command the insurgents, living in conceal-
ment the while. Early in February, 1867, one of these
Irish- American officers, Captain John M'Cafferty, con-
conceived the idea of concentrating Fenians from all
parts of England upon Chester Castle in Cheshire, and
seizing 20,000 stand of arms stored there, then, impress-
THE RISING OF THE 5TH OF MARCH, '67. 285
ing the rolling stock or trucks on the railway, travelling
swiftly to Holyhead, capturing the vessels at the quays
there, and, having destroyed the telegraphic communi-
cation with London and Dublin, crossing the Channel
to Ireland and starting the insurrection.
The plot failed through an informer named Corydon,
and the 2,000 Fenians who turned up at Chester, found
the Castle impregnably defended by a strong force of
military. Such was the perfection of the raiders'
organisation, however, that no arrests appear to have
been made at the time, and the whole of the Fenians
" disappeared as quietly and mysteriously as they came."
M'Cafferty, who had been a captain in Morgan's famous
guerillas on the Southern side in the American civil
war, was, however, traced to Whitehaven and arrested
there with a Fenian organiser named Flood.
The promised " rising " took place on the 5th March,
1867, and, easily crushed though it was, it surprised
England and the Executive by the formidable pro-
portions it might easily have assumed. But it failed
principally through lack of arms. Bands of men, under
various leaders, attacked and in many cases captured
police-barracks and coastguard stations, but a heavy
snowstorm raged, accompanied by intense cold, and all
the mountain and country roads were impassable.
The Dublin men, under Patrick Lennon, a deserter from
the gth Lancers, Patrick Doran, and Denis Duggan,
who had been in the London Irish Volunteers, surrounded
the police-barracks at Stepaside, between one and two
on the Wednesday morning, and summoned the inmates
to surrender.
On their refusal, the assailants fired into the barracks
286 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
and applied lighted straw to one of the lower windows,
whereupon the police surrendered. They were dis-
armed and made prisoners, and the Fenian band then
proceeded to Glencullen and Milltown barracks, which
they also captured. Lennon, the leader here, was to
command the cavalry in the Dublin district under
General Halpin, who was to take supreme command
in Leinster Halpin, however, declined to lead men
in so hopeless a struggle, when he saw how ill-armed
and betrayed they were, and, after the above
success, advised them to disperse. He himself was
arrested.
Another band of Dublin men, a thousand strong,
marched out to Tallaght, " unarmed, except for a few
pikes, some shot guns and an occasional revolver."
They were met by a volley from a body of police waiting
at the appointed rendezvous and routed, a number of
them being captured.
In Drogheda some thousand Fenians assembled, to
put themselves under the command of Colonel Leonard.
The police arrived and fired on them, when a brisk
fusilade took place, resulting in the killing and wounding
of several of the rebel band and the capture of more.
At Clonmel 300 Fenians were attacked by the 3ist
Foot and the Constabulary, and put to flight after a sur-
prisingly stubborn engagement, in which several rebels
were killed, and some eighteen taken prisoners, with
150 stand of arms. This band seems to have been
fairly well armed.
Two hundred armed Fenians seized Kilmallock,
County Limerick, and blockaded the police barracks.
More constabulary were hurried up, and in a pitched
THE RISING OF THE 5TH OF MARCH, '67. 287
battle three of the Fenians were killed and a great many
wounded.
Under General Thomas Francis Burke, late of the
American Confederate Army, something like 2,000
peasantry mustered at an old Danish fort in Tipperary.
The spot was known as Ballyhurst Fort and was a tree
and ditch-encircled rath, a place that with arms might
have been a strong position. Burke and three others
were mounted. The 3ist Regiment and a troop of
carbineers advanced against the fort, and from it the
Fenians fired on them. Burke, however, perceiving the
strength of the attacking force, realised the futility of
further resistance, and, as the military prepared to
charge at the point of the bayonet, bade his men scatter
and seek safety in flight and the darkness of the night.
Most of them got away, but Burke himself was taken,
a hundred yards off, as he was sliding from his horse
to conceal himself. Some sixty pikes were afterwards
picked up in and around the fort.
The coastguard station at Kilrush, in Clare, was cap-
tured and all the arms carried off, but at Ardagh, Co.
L,imerick, the assailants were repulsed. At Middleton
a Fenian band was repulsed, but captured a patrol of
four constables, and was afterwards defeated and dis-
persed at Castlemartyr, the leader, Daly, being shot
dead. The Fenians were likewise repulsed in Waterford,
but they ransacked the police barracks at Aherloe,
and burnt those at Ardmore, near Mallow, as also those
at Bottle, Co. Cork. A cart, full of pikes and pistols,
concealed under straw, was captured " through infor-
mation received " in the streets of Dublin itself, and
stores of arms were seized in other places.
288 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
" Captain Mackey," whose real name was Captain
William Francis Lomasney, an Irish-American officer,
captured Ballyknockane police barrack. He escaped
at the time and became a sort of Rob Roy or Michael
Dwyer, for later, months after, with a chosen band,
he seized the martello-tower at Foaty, making prisoners
of the gunners, and raided two or more gunmakers'
shops, carrying off what arms and ammunition they
could.
Another Fenian leader was James Francis Xavier
O'Brien, who as a youth had taken part in the '48
insurrection. O'Brien was sentenced to death for his
share in the Fenian rising, but lived to represent South
Mayo in the British Parliament under the leadership
of Parnell and later of Justin MacCarthy.
Captain John Kirwan, a veteran of the Papal Guard
in Italy, and a Knight of the Order of St. Sylvester
or the Golden Spur, was shot through the lungs and
taken prisoner in another affair outside Dublin where a
police barracks was captured. He escaped, was re-
captured, and escaped a second time to America. It
was after the battle of Castelfidardo that he was made
a Knight of the Order of St. Sylvester " for having been
the first to cross the River Musone under a heavy artillery
fire."
The sergeant in charge of Carrick-on-Suir Fort,
McCarthy by name, had become a Fenian. He con-
spired to surrender the fort to his confederates, but
was in his turn betrayed by a supposed friend, Head-
Constable Talbot. Thomas Hassett, a deserter from
the 24th Foot, in which regiment he is said to have sworn
in as Fenians no less than 270 of his comrades, had
THE RISING OF THE 5TH OF MARCH, '67. 289
suggested that the Dublin men should seize the Pigeon
House, which contained 25,000 stand of arms. A
guard of 90 soldiers had been placed in it, " and of these
60 were Fenians." His proposal, however, was not acted
on. Sentenced to penal servitude for life later, he was
one of six military prisoners rescued in 1876 by the
" Catalpa," as we relate in its place.
The most notable skirmish of the entire rising, how-
ever the one that caused the greatest sensation and
stir was that at Kilcloney Wood, near Mitchelstown.
Captain John McClure, Edward Kelly, and Peter
O'Neill Crowley, after the capture of Knockadoon
coastguard station, fought the soldiers some time in a
wood. When their ammunition was spent, and they
were crossing a river, Crowley was shot dead. Captain
McClure, who was only 21, and Kelly were captured
and sentenced to death, the punishment being after-
wards commuted to imprisonment for life. It was
the death of Crowley, who was greatly esteemed in the
neighbourhood for his hitherto quiet, blameless life,
that gave the affair so much eclat in the popular esti-
mation
A General or Colonel Godfrey Massey was to have
been commander-in-chief in Munster. He was arrested
at limerick Junction, proceeding to the rendezvous,
just as he stepped from the train, and, seeing that he
had been betrayed, he forthwith turned round on all his
associates and gave information against them. The
great informer, though, was John Joseph Corydon,
a Liverpool man. It was he revealed the Chester Castle
plot.
In Kerry, near Cahirciveen, a premature outbreak
u
2QO THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
had occurred on the I2th of February, a Colonel
O'Connor leading the insurgents. The date of the rising
had originally been fixed for the I2tb of February,
and word of its postponement had failed to reach
O'Connor and his band. On learning of their mistake
they promptly dissolved, O'Connor escaping capture.
General Thomas Burke, Patrick Doran, and others
were put upon their trial. Burke, as we have said,
had been in the American Confederate or Southern
army. He had sustained a fractured leg in the war,
from which he returned breveted Brigadier-General.
At his trial he made a speech " that was probably one
of the most eloquent ever delivered," to quote a pro-
minent detective who was present in court. Burke
denied that Massey, who had turned approver, had ever
worn the star of a colonel in the Confederate army.
Only twenty-seven years of age, Burke was a splendid-
looking man, and his general appearance, with the pathos
of his injured limb, " made a great impression on every-
one who saw and heard him." He had a sternly
handsome, manly face with a full flowing brown beard,
" cut closely from the ear to the point of the jaw, and
his bearing was most soldierly and dignified." He
had served in the cavalry and " dragged the left leg
as if accustomed to wear a sword."
In his speech, he said that " he asked for no mercy,
that he felt that, with his emaciated frame and some-
what shattered constitution, it was better that his
life should be brought to an end than that he should
drag out a miserable existence in the dens of Portland."
" I have ties to bind me to life and society as strong
as any man in this court. . . . But I can remember
THE RISING OF THE 5TH OF MARCH, '67. 2QI
the blessing I received from an aged mother's lips
as I left her the last time. She, speaking as the Spartan
mother did, said ' Go, my boy, return either with your
shield or upon it.' This reconciles me this gives me
heart. I submit to my doom. . . I hope also that,
inasmuch as God has for 700 years preserved Ireland,
notwithstanding all the tyranny to which she has been
subjected, as a separate and distinct nationality, He
will also assist her to retrieve her fallen fortunes to
rise in her beauty and majesty the Sister of Columbia,
the peer of any nation in the world."
He made this thrilling declamation, grasping the rail
of the dock with his left hand and holding up his head
proudly, his full rich beard sweeping his broad breast,
his eyes all aglow a truly impressive, and as we have
said, pathetic figure.
The judge sentenced him and Patrick Doran to be
t*
hanged, drawn and quartered. Burke " listened to the
death sentence calmly and without emotion or bravado."
Two days later, Mr. John Bright, the famous English
statesman, presented a petition to the House of Commons
protesting against the sentences of " excessive and
irritating severity " passed upon the two Fenians and
begging " that the punishments might be more appli-
cable to men whose crime and whose offence are alike
free from dishonour, however misled they may be."
Burke and Doran were not executed. Their sentences
were commuted to imprisonment, and Burke was
ultimately released at the request of the American
Government.
2Q2 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE MANCHESTER RESCUE.
As we have shown, many Fenians were in the British
army. John Boyle O'Reilly, a most talented poet and
writer, and afterwards editor of the Boston " Pilot,"
enlisted in the loth Hussars to win over as many of
his comrades as possible to Fenianism. Out of the 100
Irishmen in the regiment he converted 80 to his way of
thinking, but others " gave him away," and he and his
principal converts were arrested.
" Confound you, O'Reilly ! " shouted Colonel Valen-
tine Baker, the commander of the corps, shaking his
fist in the prisoner's face, as he crossed the barrack
square under arrest, " you have ruined the finest regi
ment in the service."
Boyle O'Reilly, Colour-Sergeant MacCarthy, Corporal
Chambers and others were all transported, but O'Reilly
escaped later
On the 2Oth of May, a mysterious brigantine appeared
hovering off the coast of Sligo, and entered Sligo Bay.
She had on board 28 Irish-American officers, and 5,000
stand of arms, three guns, and a million and a half
rounds of ammunition for the arming of the insurrec-
tionary forces. The brigantine was named originally
the " Jacmel," which name was altered at sea to the
THE MANCHESTER RESCUE. 2Q3
" Erin's Hope." The commander of the expedition was
Brigadier-General John F. Kavanagh, who had been a
member of the American Congress. He produced and
distributed Fenian commissions and sealed orders,
hoisted the green flag with the sunburst, and fired the
three heavy guns they had aboard in salute Other
Irish-American officers on board were Colonel Nagle,
Colonel Warren, Colonel Kerrigan, and lieutenant
Augustine Costello.
The vessel had slipped out of New York without
papers or colours and without awakening suspicion,
and safely run the gauntlet of the British revenue cutters.
Sailing out again, near Dungarvan she landed the Irish-
American officers and men, who were however all quickly
laid by the heels by the watchful authorities.
As the occasion was not deemed propitious for the
landing of the arms and stores, the " Erin's Hope "
sailed back to America and escaped the cruisers sent
to look for her.
Colonel Kelly, who had succeeded Stephens as head
of the Fenian organisation, and was planning another
revolt, was arrested with his aide-de-camp, a Captain
Deasy, in the early morning of September nth, 1867,
at Manchester, England. The local Fenians determined,
under the command of Captains O'Meagher Condon
and Michael O'Brien, two Irish-American officers, to
intercept the prison van on its way from the court to
Belle Vue Gaol Escorting the van were twelve armed
policemen, four sitting in front with the driver, two on
the steps behind, and four others following in a cab,
while Sergeant Brett rode inside the van.
Where the London and North Western railway arch
2Q4 TH E ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
crossed the Hyde Road obliquely, two men, armed with
revolvers, suddenly sprang in front of the van, crying
" Stop the van." At the same moment out from
behind the walls that lined the road poured a band of
about thirty or forty more, dressed like superior artisans,
who fired pistol shots and flung stones over the heads
of the police escort. One of the first two men shot down
one of the horses ; and on this the whole of the police
on the van scrambled or were dragged from it and re-
treated.
Half the assailants then formed a wide circle round the
van and held off the police and the crowd that began to
collect with pointed revolvers and occasional shots in
the air, while the other half attacked the van with all
manner of tools, trying to force the door and burst open
the sides. Sergeant Brett was ordered to hand out the
keys or open the door. He heroically refused, where-
upon a shot was fired through the lock with a view to
bursting this. Brett received the bullet in the brain,
just over the eye, and was killed instantly ; and then
a woman prisoner in the van handed the keys out through
the ventilator. The top of the van by this had been
pounded to chips.
Colonel Kelly and Captain Deasy were hurried away
by some of their rescuers, while the main body covered
their retreat. Neither was recaptured. They were
hidden in Manchester for some months after. Kelly
eventually reached Liverpool, and was smuggled aboard
one of the old National Line of steamers by an Irish
foreman ship's carpenter, named James Egan. The
National liners sailed from the Wellington dock. Egan
built the Fenian chief up in a secret compartment
THE MANCHESTER RESCUE. 2Q5
in the bunkers or bulk heading, where he was kept
supplied with food by a friend aboard until the steamer
was well at sea. A ticket had been obtained for him,
and so he freely mingled then with the other passengers.
Egan, by the way, was very proud of two duelling
pistol? he possessed, and which had formerly belonged
to the well-known O'Connellite duellist, " Fireball
MacNamara." The author, then a small boy at school,
met Egan in the 'eighties, and remembers him as a very
erect, well set-up old man, with thick snow-white
hair.
A great number of suspects were subsequently
arrested in Manchester for the van rescue, and five men,
Captain Michael O'Brien, the Irish-American officer,
who gave his name as William Gould at first ; an artisan
named Michael I/arkin ; a Royal Marine, by name
Thomas Maguire ; a young carpenter named William
Philip Allen ; and Captain O'Meagher Condon, who gave
the name of Edward Shore when arrested, were found
guilty of Sergeant Brett's death, and sentenced to capital
punishment. Seven others were condemned to five
years' penal servitude. Fourteen more who had been
arrested were discharged.
The death of Brett was clearly a case of manslaughter,
and many prominent Englishmen interested themselves
to try and obtain a reprieve for all five doomed men,
while great was the indignation expressed at their being
handcuffed in the dock before they had been found
guilty, a thing practically unknown in a British criminal
court.
As at Mitchel's trial in '48, a most dramatic incident
occurred when the five men were asked why sentence
296 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
of death should not be passed upon them, after the
verdict of guilty. Captain O'Meagher Condon, in
addressing the court, said :
" We are not afraid to die at least I am not."
" Nor I ! " " Nor 1 1 " " Nor I ! " promptly and
proudly cried his companions, and Condon, continuing,
exclaimed : "I have nothing to regret or to retract,
or take back. I can only say GOD SAVE IRELAND !"
His companions took up the cry. " God Save Ire-
land !" they all repeated proudly, raising their manacled
hands aloft, and, as they passed from the dock, they
again shouted " God Save Ireland !" a cry that has
become a watchword since with many Irishmen.
Condon's sentence was commuted, and Maguire was
released, but Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were hanged,
and are always referred to to-day as " the Manchester
Martyrs."
Up to the last it was firmly believed that the death
sentence would not be carried out in their case even.
The evidence was clearly most untrustworthy. In the
first place Thomas Maguire, who was shown to have not
been near the scene of the rescue, nor ever to have had
anything to do with Fenianism, had been found guilty
of murder, along with Allen, Larkin, O'Brien and Con-
don. So evident was it that perjury was committed
by some of the witnesses against him, that thirty news-
paper men sent up a petition to the Home Secretary
the same evening as he was sentenced, protesting their
belief that he was innocent. He was pardoned for
what he had not done. And it is alleged that O'Meagher
Condon was only reprieved because of his being an
American citizen. Condon certainly took part in
THE MANCHESTER RESCUE. 297
the rescue, and is supposed to have driven from the
court in a cab preceding the prison van, to notify the
assailants of its approach. "It is rumoured in well-
informed quarters," the newspapers of the time reported,
" that the clemency of the crown will be extended to
L,arkin, Gould (O'Brien) and Shore (Condon), their
sentences being commuted to penal servitude for life."
From this, and the evidence, it would seem that it
was Allen who fired the fatal shot, and he apparently
had a pistol on that day.
But the popular clamour in England for vengeance
upon the Fenians was too great for the weak-kneed
authorities, and accordingly Allen, I^arkin and O'Brien
suffered. To show, however, that all the English people
did not think these three men guilty of murder, the
Dowager Marchioness of Queensberry sent them a most
touching letter of condolence and hope in the hereafter,
asking for the addresses of their families and enclosing
100, " with the assurance that, so long as she lived, they
should be cared for to the utmost of her power." Larkin,
the only one of the three married, " burst into tears ;
the other prisoners were also deeply affected " by this
letter.
As they stood on the scaffold O'Brien kissed his com-
panions and whispered in their ears words, no doubt,
of encouragement and hope beyond the grave.
The three executions took place on the morning of
Saturday, November 23rd, 1867, before an exulting
rabble executions were public then and the news fell
upon Ireland " with sudden and dismal disillusion."
Public feeling manifested itself in Requiem Masses in
the Catholic Churches all over the country, and funeral
298 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
processions at which thousands attended. The funeral
procession in Cork was most imposing, while in Dublin
not less than 60,000 persons marched, through rain and
mud, behind three huge, black-draped, empty hearses,
bearing in large white letters on the side of each the
name of one of the executed men. Mr. A. M. Sullivan
and John Martin were afterwards prosecuted for a vio-
lation of the " Party Procession Act," and Mr. Sullivan,
who, in the dock, delivered a most eloquent and tren-
chant denunciation of the Manchester trial and exe-
cutions received six months' imprisonment. His brother,
T. D. Sullivan's well-known song " God Save Ireland "
is a lasting epitaph for the three Manchester Martyrs,
and has become the National anthem.
Some desperate and reckless spirits next attempted
to blow in the wall of Clerkenwell Gaol, London, with
a keg of gunpowder, on December I3th, 1867, hoping
to thus effect the escape of Colonel Rickard Burke, Casey,
and other Fenian prisoners. It was the maddest of
schemes, and the explosion caused the deaths of several
innocent poor people in the adjacent streets and terribly
injured a great many more. A man named Michael
Barrett, known as the " handsome Irishman," was
hanged for this insane act ; and after that Fenianism
subsided, its last memorable exploit being the rescue
in 1876, of six military Fenian prisoners from the convict
settlement of Freemantle, Australia, by the whaling
barque " Catalpa," fitted out in America for the pur-
pose. The escape was engineered by the two men who
were mainly responsible for that of Stephens from
Richmond Gaol, namely, John Breslin and John Devoy.
An armed steamer, the " Georgette," pursued the
THE MANCHESTER RESCUE.
" Catalpa," but the latter's captain, being on the high
seas, refused to stop and defied the pursuers, who did
not care about risking international complications by
firing on the American flag which he was flying, and so
let him and the Fenian refugees go.
PART X.
HOME RUI.E.
Shall mine eyes behold thy glory, O my country ?
Shall mine eyes behold thy glory ?
Or shall the darkness close around them, ere
The sun-blaze beat at last upon thy story ?
When the nations ope for thee their queenly circle,
As a sweet new sister hail thee,
Shall these lips be sealed in callous death and silence,
That have known but to bewail thee ?
From " After Death," by FANNY
THE HOME RULE AGITATION. 303
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE HOME RULE AGITATION. THE PHCENIX PARK
TRAGEDY.
The Fenian Movement is said to have brought
Mr. William Ewart Gladstone, the great English states-
man, to see some of the iniquities under which Ireland
laboured to have indeed converted him to a new way
of thinking as regarded this country. Certain it is that
as soon as he was placed in power after the Genera)
Election of 1868, he brought forward a Bill for the
Disestablishment of the Irish Church, " that great
scandal and iniquity " as the noble-hearted English
reformer, John Stuart Mill, called it.
In March, 1869, Gladstone introduced his Bill, speak-
ing for three hours upon it. The Irish State Church
was a gross anomaly as well as outrageous piece of
injustice, come down from the Penal Days. " Taking
only the Episcopalian Protestants (who alone wanted
it), the Catholics outnumbered them by seven to one."
Yet the seven had to pay for the upkeep of the church,
bishops and all, for that one. " In Munster the State
Church counted only one in twenty ; in Connaught
one in 25, in Ulster not more than one in 5. A large
number of parishes had not a single Protestant, and
even from these an absentee minister drew a substantial
304 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
salary." (D' Alton.) In some fine handsome churches
not half a dozen persons ever met, while the great
mass of the people round attended the poor little Catholic
chapel.
No one could justify such " intolerable robbery,"
as another outspoken Englishman called it. But the
Tory and Church party raised a howl of " spoliation and
sacrilege and confiscation," and the writer remembers
seeing a cartoon depicting Gladstone, John Bright,
and others of these fair-minded Englishmen who
sought to uproot such a foul Upas-tree, as Cromwellian
soldiers revelling in a Church and stabling their horses
also in the sacred fane.
But the Bill passed, although the lyords tried to
mangle it. Their amendments were rejected, and
Queen Victoria's intervention, along with other causes,
enabled Gladstone, John Bright, and the rest of the
Government to carry the day. The Bill was passed,
received the Royal assent, and on January ist, 1871,
something over a year later, the Irish State Church
ceased to be, to the great joy of all true-minded Irish-
men, and its bishops could no longer sit in the House of
Lords. Church property, etc., was calculated as worth
nearly 16,000,000, and it received nearly eleven
million in payment, to satisfy vested interests, com-
pensations to clergymen, etc. The surplus five million
was set aside for purposes of public utility in the country
it had so long and shamelessly plundered.
Most Irishmen were now again desirous, if they had
not always been, of trying the effect of moral force,
of trying to obtain their aims by constitutional
methods such as O'Connell had sanctioned and practi-
C. S. Parnell Daniel O'Connell John Redmond
THE HOME RUIvE AGITATION. 305
cally inaugurated, after, perhaps, Grattan and Flood.
Such men as A. M. Sullivan had all along been on the
side of such peaceful measures and opposed to the vio-
lent ones of the Fenians, and the fairmindedness of the
English Government and great Liberal party upon the
Irish State Church question augured well now for the
success of this milder policy.
In 1870, Gladstone tackled the land question, and
passed a Land Act the first we notice of so very, very
many. It legalised a custom called " tenant right,"
hitherto only appertaining in Ulster, " established a
system analogous to it in the other provinces." This
" tenant right " was, that so long as a farmer paid his
rent he should be undisturbed in his holding and be
at liberty to sell the " goodwill " of his farm to a pur-
chaser, and demand compensation from his landlord, on
surrendering his holding, for unexhausted improvements.
It was a kind of " peasant proprietary," such as John
Stuart Mill and John Bright, and other great souls
advocated. But the landlords in many cases contrived
to evade the provisions of the Act ; and so it was in
great measure a failure. Successive bad harvests also
prevented the tenants being able to pay the rack-rents
demanded, and no less than 10,000 evictions took place
during the next five years !
On this an agitation arose again for the repeal of the
Union, as the source of all the trouble, and to this end
a Mr. Isaac Butt and a Mr. John Barry started what
they called the " Home Rule Confederation, or League,"
of Great Britain.
The Home Rule agitation differed somewhat from the
Repeal agitation. Whereas " a mere repeal of the Union
x
306 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
would leave the Irish Parliament free to meddle with
Imperial matters Grattan's Parliament had the right
to grant or withhold supplies for Imperial purposes
but would yet allow the English Cabinet to appoint
the Irish Executive, the new scheme would have
purely Irish affairs managed by an Irish Parliament
and Imperial matters by the British assembly."
(O'Sullivan's "Brief Survey of Irish History.") Strange
to say, Isaac Butt had been opposed to O'Connell, and
a Conservative in his early life.* He now proved him-
self an able leader, and the new movement carried the
country by storm, although it met with considerable
opposition in England.
Before long, Mr. Joseph Biggar, M.P., initiated the
policy of " Obstruction " with a view to forcing English
politicians not to lightly reject Irish measures or flout
the opinions of the Irish people. Charles Stewart Parnell,
one of the youngest Irish members, supported Biggar
in the new policy ; but for a time they stood almost
alone even amongst their own party in support of it.
Mr. Butt disapproved of this new or " active " policy,
as Biggar and Parnell themselves called it, but after the
close of the Parliamentary session in 1877, a great
meeting was held in the Rotunda, Dublin, in support
of Mr. Biggar and Mr. Parnell, and their policy of per-
sistent and merciless " obstruction."
In the words of A. M. Sullivan, this policy was
briefly, " If nothing was to be done for Ireland, then no
business whatever was to be done, or at least, no English
* O'Connell had prophesied that before long he would be on his
side. He afterwards acted as advocate for many of the Fenians on
their trials, and he defended Gavan Duffy in 1848.
THE HOME RULE AGITATION 307
reform was to be permitted to pass without endless
difficulty." This was carrying the war into the enemy's
camp with a vengeance. Englishmen did not want to
be troubled about Ireland ; they had something else to
think of their own affairs. " Quite so," practically
said Mr. Biggar and Parnell, " then give us Home Rule
and we'll leave you in peace. Refuse it to us, and, by
our using the procedure of the House, we will prevent
you doing anything for your own country, doing any
business at all, we will reduce things in this House to a
state of chaos and absolute nullity."
Parnell showed himself a past-master in the art,
going about it with a deadly intensity, yet " in the
calmest possible way." Biggar was more ostentatious
and " was certainly the best-hated Irishman in England
at that time." Most of the Irish Parliamentary party
were gradually won over by the two obstructionists ;
the country went over to them wholeheartedly ; and,
in the same year, 1877, Butt, who had hitherto been
elected as the annual President of the Home Rule
Confederation of Great Britain, was dethroned at a
meeting at Liverpool and Parnell took his place. Mr.
Butt " still clung to the old methods, and at a conference
of Irish members in the City Hall, Dublin, he violently
assailed Obstruction as ruinous to Irish interests."
In the following year, " he asked in indignation
how any right-minded man could take the oath of alle-
giance to the Queen and then use his power as a member
of Parliament to thwart and baffle all her measures."
This gratified English public opinion, but it estranged
many of his own party, and, seeing that Parnell had the
mass of the Irish people with him, he wished to resign.
308 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
He was persuaded to remain, but in May of the next
year he fell ill and died, many thought of disappoint-
ment.
Parnell was now the leading figure in Irish Parlia-
mentary affairs. He was a young Protestant country
gentleman of Avondale, County Wicklow, and was
a descendant of the Hon. Sir John Parnell, who was
Chancellor of the Exchequer in Grattan's Parliament.
Sir John refused to support the Union, and was in-
corruptible, as Sir Jonah Barrington records. He and
his son Henry stood by Grattan to the last. Charles
Stewart Parnell was born at the ancestral mansion of
Avondale in 1846, and so was 32 years of age at this
time. He inherited from his mother, a daughter of
Commodore Stewart of the American Navy, a bitter
hatred of England, yet he was cold and unemotional,
without any of the wit or fire or enthusiasm of the aver-
age Irishman.
To give an idea of how lacking in humour he was,
he could not for the life of him understand why a crowd
that he was addressing once, in favour of a candidate at
an election named Kettle, laughed heartily when he
chanced to say that " Mr. Kettle's name was a household
word in Ireland."
He was no orator either, but he was a born leader
of men and preferred to say what he had got to say in as
few words as possible. Elected in 1875 for Meath, he
had sat for that and the following session silent and
watchful, hardly opening his mouth. He was learning
the rules of the House ! He was heard of pretty much
the next year. A man of iron resolution, like Dickens's
character in " Hard Times," all he asked for was " facts,
THE HOME RULE AGITATION. 309
hard facts." He had a tall, commanding presence,
and a strong, handsome, bearded face ; the brow was
broad and high, the nose a firm aquiline ; the jaw bold
and determined ; the eyes fearless, challenging, inscrut-
able ; the eyebrows thick, and very slightly arched.
Mr. William Shaw had succeeded Butt as Home Rule
leader, but he had not the majority of the Party with
him. It had now gone over to Parnell, and Shaw was
deposed. Parnell who, with Mr. John Dillon, had been
to America and received a tremendous ovation every-
where there, led his followers across the floor of the
House to the Tory ranks. Mr. Shaw's supporters, on
the other hand, who were known as " Nominal Home
Rulers," remained on the Whig or liberal side, but
soon after they disappeared altogether from the
scene of action.
Mr. Parnell counted now among his followers many
whose names have since become as famous as his own,
John Dillon, already mentioned, Joseph Biggar, Justin
McCarthy, T. P. O'Connor, T. D. Sullivan (the famous
Alexander M. Sullivan's poetic brother), and Thomas
Sexton. Michael Davitt, the son of an evicted Mayo
peasant, came to the front also now. He had been
imprisoned for his share in the Fenian movement.
Though he had lost his right arm in a mill in Lancashire,
where he had worked as a boy, he took part in the
attempted raid on Chester Castle and had gone about
the country afterwards buying arms for the Fenians.
He now founded the " Land League," an organisation
for " the abolition of the existing landlord system and
the introduction of peasant proprietorship." Parnell
took up the idea and the Irish National Land League
3IO THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
" became the most powerful political organisation that
had been formed in Ireland since the Union." (Justin
H. McCarthy.)
All rackrenters and evictors were " boycotted," a
word adopted in lieu of " ostracised," which it means,
from Captain Boycott, a landlord's agent, the first
victim of the system. The " landgrabber " was tabooed
in a word, by all his neighbours. Shopkeepers and
tradesmen refused to serve him or deal with him,
labourers to work for him. So disturbed did the
country now become that the Government brought
in a Coercion Act, and Michael Davitt and John Dillon
were arrested.
In the preceding November, Mr. Parnell, Mr. John
Dillon, Mr. Biggar, Mr. T. D. Sullivan and Mr. Thomas
Sexton were summoned with others to appear before the
Court of Queen's Bench, to answer allegations of con-
spiracy, made at the instance of the Attorney-General,
relative to the dreadful agrarian outrages that were
occurring all over Ireland. Lord Leitrim, who seems
to have borne a rather unenviable reputation and whose
moral character was apparently not above reproach,
had been murdered, it is supposed as an act of private,
rather than agrarian, vengeance. His murderer was
never traced. A Mr. Boyd and Lord Mountmorres
were also murdered, shot to death by masked moon-
lighters. Galway was " proclaimed," " and Mr. Parnell
retorted with one of the most defiant and provocative
speeches he ever made." At a meeting in Galway
after the " proclamation," he gave the Chief Secretary,
Mr. W. E. Forster, for advocating the use of buckshot
by the police against unlawful assemblies, the name of
THE HOME RUI,E AGITATION. 311
" Buckshot Forster/' a sobriquet that stuck to that
gentleman until his death.
Certain other more conciliatory measures passed
in 1881, and the retirement in 1882 of Mr. Forster, who
was most unpopular with the Land League party,
seemed about to bring peace to the nation which had
been in a most distracted state, when, on May 6th, 1882,
occurred a crime that shocked everybody and gave the
enemies of the Irish people an excuse for further abuse
and arguments against any attempt at ameliorating
their lot.
The new Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish,
" who was expected to carry out the most benevolent
of policies," had only just arrived in Dublin from
England. He was met by Mr. T. H. Burke, the Under-
secretary, and the two were walking in broad daylight
through the Phoenix Park towards the Viceregal Lodge,
when they were suddenly set upon by a gang of assassins,
members of an extremist secret society called the
" Invincibles." Mr. Forster's life had been constantly
threatened, and Mr. Burke also had been marked out
as a victim.
Mr. Burke was fatally stabbed by the murderers,
and Lord Frederick, gallantly turning on the assailants
with his umbrella, was likewise stabbed to death, the
gang then making their escape on a jaunting-car waiting
close by. The dreadful tragedy was actually seen
by Earl Spencer, the Viceroy, from the windows of the
Viceregal Lodge, but it was believed to be only some men
indulging in horse-play.
It caused a tremendous outcry, naturally, but Mr.
Parnell's public expression of abhorrence of the deed
312 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
was received with contempt by certain of the English
people who did not hesitate to hint that he was privy
to it, or at least had incited it. "A savage cry for
revenge went up from the whole British Empire and
reprisals were immediately entered on," according to
" The Story of Ireland " (brought up to recent times).
A stringent " Coercion Act " was passed by the Govern-
ment, and the country was practically " dragooned."
" The Invincibles," as it was subsequently discovered,
were only two dozen extremists who thought, like the
Nihilists of Russia, to strike terror into the hearts of
English politicians by the assassination of prominent
public men. In due course they were all brought to
book, and five of them were hanged, while more were
condemned to various terms of imprisonment. They
were convicted mainly on the testimony of one James
Carey, who was, as a matter of fact, one of the worst
of the gang, indeed, to all intents and purposes, its
leading spirit, and had indicated Mr. Burke to Brady,
one of the murderers.
Carey was sent secretly to Cape Colony afterwards,
but as he was on the point of going ashore at Port
Elizabeth, he was shot dead by an Irishman named
Patrick O'Donnell, in reward for his treachery.
An extremist section of Irish-Americans also consi-
dered that terrorism was the best way of converting the
English people, and sent agents over to England to
blow up public buildings, etc., with dynamite. Rightly
or wrongly, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of Stephen's
first lieutenants, and who had suffered severe imprison-
ment for his share in the Fenian conspiracy, was accused
of fostering this violent policy in the States. Certain
THE HOME RUI^E AGITATION. 313
it is that a few, but by no means anything like the great
bulk, of the old Fenians were at the bottom of it. Their
idea was to carry the war into the enemy's country,
into England itself, and there prosecute it with every
engine or weapon of destruction that the advance of
science put at their disposal. It is plain though that
they sought to avoid the loss of human life.
In March, 1883, the first of the explosions occurred
at the Local Government Board Offices, Westminster,
when the damage done to property was considerable,
but no lives were lost. Then several explosions oc-
curred on the Metropolitan and District railway. In
1884, infernal machines were found at several railway
stations, and an explosion occurred at the Detective
Office at Old Scotland Yard, when some twenty people
were injured. Then the southern end of London Bridge
was partially destroyed by an explosion, and, as regards
this one, it is supposed that " Captain Mackey," the
Rob Roy of the Fenian Rising, and two others who caused
it, were blown to atoms, with the boat in which they
were under the bridge. At the House of Commons the
following year there were three explosions, and two
constables were severely injured and had to be invalided.
Some of these outrages were never brought home to any-
one, but several men were arrested in various parts of
the country and sentenced to varying terms of imprison-
ment.
This most reprehensible violence on the part of certain
Irishmen greatly hampered the progress of Mr. Parnell
and the Irish Parliamentary party.
314 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXXV.
PARNEU/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FALI,
The great Liberal party of England now changed its
policy towards Ireland. Mr. Gladstone, its renowned
leader, dropped Coercion and introduced a HOME
RULE BILL " to make better provision for the future
government of Ireland " on the 8th of April, 1886.
The House was crammed.
" Hurrah for the brave old Irish race,
That fire or sword could not efface ;
That lives and thrives and grows apace,
However its foes assail it !
That point by point, and day by day,
Wins back its rights, and works its way,
And BURSTS ITS BONDS ! Hurray ! Hurray !
With a hundred cheers we'll hail it.
Previous to the introduction of this Bill, Mr. Parnell
and the other Irish Members of Parliament were con-
tinually being arrested, and lodged in Kilmainham
Gaol. From there, in 1882, they issued a famous
" No Rent Manifesto," advising the tenant-farmers
of Ireland " to pay no rent to the landlords until the
Government relinquished their system of terrorism
and restored the constitutional rights of the people."
It was a matter of surprise for long how this " No Rent
PARNEU/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FAU,. 315
Manifesto " got out of the gaol. The bishops and
priests, however, disapproved of the manifesto.
The Land League was suppressed, when a Ladies'
Land League was formed by Miss Fanny Parnell,
Parnell's sister, and as Parnell had predicted, his
place was taken by '' Captain Moonlight." Landlords,
their agents, and others were shot at in various places.
The newspaper United Ireland, edited by Mr.
William O'Brien, was " proclaimed " treasonable, and
suppressed in Dublin, when its publishers transferred
it to England and continued to produce it in Liverpool,
" until it was again stopped and confiscated."
But now the awful outrages that had so lately dis-
graced the country were no more. All Ireland seemed
willing to accept the hand of friendship, now at last held
out by the English democracy in the person of William
Ewart Gladstone. That great statesman's Home Rule
Bill proposed to establish a separate 'Parliament for
Ireland with limited powers.
Briefly, it proposed to establish a legislative body
sitting in Dublin, consisting of two orders, the Upper of
28 representative peers and 75 members elected for ten
years, and the Lower of the present 103 Irish members,
with an additional 101, making therefore 204 members,
elected for five years. There was to be a Lord Lieu-
tenant as hitherto, but he was to be independent of
Great Britain and only responsible to the Crown, and
his executive or privy council were to be equally inde-
pendent. The new body was to be empowered to enact
laws and to impose and collect taxes, except the customs,
but not to interfere with the army or navy or foreign
and colonial affairs, nor was it to have the power of
3l6 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
enacting any religious endowment. All the then existing
legal and police arrangements were to remain temporarily
subject to the Crown. No Irish members were to sit
at Westminster. Either order was to possess a temporary
veto and both were to meet in the one house for debate.
For three hours and a half Mr. Gladstone unfolded
his plan in the Commons, being " greeted with en-
thusiastic cheers from the Liberal and Irish benches."
" His exquisite voice, flexible in the highest degree,
rose in declamation or sank in appeal, as he denounced
the infamy of the Act of Union, or pleaded for justice
and fair-play for a long- tried and sorely oppressed land."
(D'Alton.)
The Conservative party opposed the measure, raising
the cry that " Home Rule meant Rome Rule," and a
number of the Liberals themselves seceded from Glad-
stone, eventually calling themselves Liberal-Unionists
the chief man amongst these was Mr. Joseph Chamber-
lain and voted against the Bill, which was defeated
in that same year by a majority of thirty in the Com-
mons.
Mr. Gladstone and the ministry thereupon resigned
and went to the country, when the Conservatives were
returned to power.
The " Land War " was resumed with all the old
bitterness and fierceness. On the suppression of the
Land League, the " Irish National League " had been
formed. The chief planks in its programme were Home
Rule, peasant proprietary and local self -government.
Parnell proposed a Land Bill to the effect " that the
proceedings for the recovery of rent be suspended on
payment of half the rent and arrears." There were
PARNEU/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FALL. 317
evictions for lent taking place all over Ireland, the
people being turned out as before by the roadside from
their homesteads for either inability or refusal to pay
the rent.
The Bill was rejected, whereupon Mr. William O'Brien
brought forward his famous " Plan of Campaign."
Its scheme was, briefly, that the tenant should offer a
fair rent, and, should the landlord refuse to accept it,
should bank the money with a committee specially
elected, and " fight " the landlord with the money thus
lodged ; the funds were to be supplemented by grants
from the National League funds, and evicted tenants
were to be supported.
Conflicts innumerable ensued between the police and
the people at the evictions that followed, and on this
account, even " Mr. Gladstone attacked both police and
Government with vigour." Mr. Arthur Balfour, the
Conservative Chief Secretary, came in for as much
odium as " Buckshot Forster." Newspapers were again
suppressed ; more Coercion Acts followed, and Messrs.
John Dillon, William O'Brien and T. D. Sullivan
were put in gaol, while a Mr. John Mandeville died in
prison. O'Brien refused to wear prison clothes, and so
was stripped and left without any in his cell, when
lo and behold ! next morning, on the gaoler entering,
he was seen to be wearing a brand-new suit of Blarney tweed !
Immense were the amusement and delight of the
Irish people and the chagrin of the Conservative Govern-
ment. It was a mystery how O'Brien obtained the
clothes, but it is supposed that a friendly warder went
into his cell wearing two suits.
While in prison Mr. O'Brien wrote his famous novel,
3l8 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
" When we were Boys," a stirring tale of the Fenian
period.
The London Times newspaper now published a
series of articles under the title of " Parnellism and
Crime," apparently to show Mr. Parnell's connection
with agrarian and political outrages committed in
Ireland. What purported to be a facsimile of a letter
written by Mr. Parnell in reference to the Phoenix Park
murders was printed. This letter asserted that Mr.
Burke got no more than his deserts, and that " to de-
nounce the murders was the only course open to him
(Mr. Parnell) and his colleagues in Parliament, and to
do so promptly was plainly their best policy."
Mr. Parnell at once declared the letter to be a forgery,
but did not take immediate action against the Times
whereupon his enemies proclaimed him afraid to do
so. But Parnell never hurried himself ; he bided his
time and then struck when it suited him best. He
demanded that a Parliamentary Committee of the House
of Commons should investigate the matter of the
forgeries. The Government eventually established a
Special Commission, consisting of three judges, to deal
with the matter.
The now famous " Parnell Commission " opened its
sitting in September, 1888, and the chief advocate of the
Irish members was one who later became the Lord Chief
Justice, a patriotic Irishman himself, Sir Charles
Russell. His " admirable management of the case
for his clients wonderfully increased his already brilliant
reputation " (Denvir). The letters had been obtained
from one Richard Pigott, who was shown now to be a
" discredited Irish journalist," living by blackmail,
PARNEU/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FAU,. 319
" and as a begging-letter impostor." He was subjected
to a merciless cross-examination in the witness-box
by Sir Charles Russell, who asked him to write certain
words on a sheet of paper, " livelihood," " likelihood,"
and finally " hesitancy, with a small ' h.' ' Pigott
spelled the last word, which was really the trap-word,
" hesitency." The " small h " suggestion was merely
a ruse to throw Pigott off his guard.
" Have you noticed," asked Sir Charles, " that the
writer of the body of the letter of the 8th January,
1882," one of the forgeries " spells it in the same
way ? "
The wretched forger, for such he was, almost in a
state of collapse, replied, " that having that in my
mind, I got into the habit of spelling it wrong."
Sir Charles then caused begging letters that Pigott
had sent to Mr. Forster, when Chief Secretary for Ire-
land, to be read in court, exposing the witness's past
terribly. It was pretty plain that Pigott had himself
forged the letters attributed to Mr. Parnell, and it is
a matter for surprise that Sir Charles did not make an
application for the witness's safe custody. On the
following day, a Saturday, Pigott went uninvited to
Mr. Henry Labouchere, a famous Radical M.P., and the
proprietor of Truth and to him and his literary
friend, George Augustus Sala, he confessed to having
forged the letters. He explained that he had used
genuine letters of Mr. Parnell and a Mr. Egan so as to
get the general character of the handwriting, tracing
some of the words and phrases against a window.
When the Commission re-opened on the Tuesday,
February 26th, 1889, Pigott was not to be found. He
320 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
had fled the country. Sir Charles Russell then dra-
matically proclaimed, " We deliberately charge that
behind Pigott and Houston " the secretary of the Irish
Loyal and Patriotic Union, who had obtained the letters
from Pigott and supplied them to the Times " there
has been a foul conspiracy."
Mr. Parnell obtained 5,000 damages from the
Times.
Pigott was ultimately traced to Madrid, where he
passed under the name of " Roland Ponsonby." A
police officer called on him, and Pigott, opening a hand-
bag, took out a revolver and shot himself through the
head.
But this triumph of Parnell's was counterbalanced
in 1890, by his failure to defend himself in a divorce
action brought by Captain O'Shea. It was believed
at first that he was innocent of the charge preferred
against him in this matter also, but his refusal to answer
to it proved otherwise.
In grief and consternation, the Irish Parliamentary
party, supported by the Irish Catholic prelates, decided,
by a majority, that he could no longer lead them, and
deposed him. A prominent author and journalist,
Mr. Justin McCarthy, was elected in his place, and thus
the party became divided into those who were against
and for Parnell, the latter being known as " Parnellites "
and the former as Anti-Parnellites or McCarthyites.
The long debates on the matter were held in Committee
Room No. 15, which room has consequently become
famous among Irishmen throughout the world. Parnell
himself refused to retire from public life or abide by the
decision of the majority. The Anti-Parnellites or
PARNEU/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FALL. 32!
McCarthyites numbered 45, or in all counting 5 delegates
in America, 50 ; those who still stood by the old leader
were 30 in number. Against Parnell were arrayed
Healy, Sexton, Dillon, Dr. Tanner, William O'Brien,
T. P. O'Connor, T. D. Sullivan, etc. ; and to him still
clung John Edward Redmond, and Win. H. K. Red-
mond, Clancy, Harrington, I^eamy, O'Kelly, P. O'Brien,
and others of less note.
Parnell and his followers opposed the McCarthyites
at the elections, and bitter and lamentable was now the
recrimination that went on between the two opposing
factions. Everywhere Irishmen were divided, for or
against the old Chief. In the main, Ireland decided
against him and his party, but " all Dublin was with
him," and " attended by a boisterous mob," he broke
into the offices of United Ireland, the revived Nationalist
organ, and turned it into a Parnellite one. The Free-
man's Journal also supported him. But he descended
to abuse unworthy of his great past, and the Freeman's
Journal turned against him, while a Nationalist organ
was established, known as the National Press. Parnell
then established the Irish Daily Independent. He
married Mrs. O'Shea, the woman concerned in his fall,
in June ; but in the same year " under the strain of
disappointment and excitement, and travelling in all
sorts of weather, his health began to fail. It had not
been of the best for some years previously. At the end
of September, 1891, cold and exposure brought on an
attack of rheumatism and he died suddenly on the 7th
of October at Brighton." His old and first colleague,
Joseph Gillis Biggar, of " Obstruction " fame, had died
in the previous year.
T
322 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
All Ireland now, forgetting the bitter factionism of the
last few months, mourned Parnell as one of the greatest
of her sons within recent times. He had certainly
been, at the height of his career, her " uncrowned
king." His funeral at Glasnevin on the following Sun-
day was an evidence of this, being attended by an enor-
mous crowd something like 200,000.
" The end of Parnell was a tragedy," writes the
Rev. Dr. D' Alton, " with scarce a parallel in Irish his-
tory, so many of the pages of which are blotted by tears.
Dying one year earlier, the whole Irish race would have
wept at his open grave. But the events of the last
year had alienated from him the affections of millions.
. . . . With his own hands he had deliberately
pulled down the pillars of the temple he had reared.
Yet, with all his faults, he looms large among the great-
est of Ireland's sons. . . In patience and foresight,
in tenacity of purpose and strength of will, we must,
to find his equal, go back to Hugh O'Neill or Brian
Bom. . . . Not yet, less than a quarter of a cen-
tury after his death, can full justice be done to him.
. . . But . . . when brighter and better days
come . . . Irishmen will then think of the man
who struck such vigorous blows on their behalf."
This is a noble tribute to Parnell's memory, but who
will say that it is undeserved or too fulsome ?
O'Connor Morris, a rather hostile critic, writes of
him in " Ireland from 1798 to 1898 " : " He was a
natural ruler of men ; in sheer force of character he
towered, not only over the submissive band which
crawled at his feet, but over the English politicians
he outwitted and deceived That he did
PARNEIJ/S DRAMATIC TRIUMPH AND FAU,. 323
his country good may be, perhaps, admitted." This
is grudging praise, but nevertheless it is praise, and,
coming from a political opponent and a County Court
Judge, speaks volumes for Parnell.
324 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
IN SIGHT OF HOME RULE.
James Stephens, the Fenian Head Centre, who had
been suffered to return to his native land in his old age,
paid his homage to the dead Chief by visiting the grave
and placing a wreath upon it.
The Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites remained oppo-
sed to one another for eight years after his death. John
E. Redmond, his able lieutenant, took up the mantle
of the dead Chief and became leader of his party. In
the following year, Mr. Gladstone and the Liberals,
who had been in opposition since 1886, were returned
to power. The " Grand Old Man," as Gladstone was
affectionately called by his friends and supporters,
introduced a SECOND HOME RULE BILL. It
passed through the Commons by a majority of 34,
but the Upper House threw it out.
It differed somewhat from the Bill of 1886. Instead
of two orders sitting together, there were to have been
a Legislative Council of 48 members, elected by those
rated at 20 or upwards, and a Legislative Assembly
of 103 members, elected by existing voters, the two
Houses to sit separately. The Council was to be elected
for eight years, the Assembly for five. The Viceroy
would be non-political and appointed for six years,
IN SIGHT OF HOME RULE. 325
with powers to assent to Bills or exercise a veto, subject
to consultation with the Irish Cabinet. Ireland was to
send 80 members to represent her at Westminster in
the Imperial Parliament. In all purely Irish matters
the Irish Parliament would be supreme, but it might
not endow or restrict any religious belief.
Gladstone " was not in a position to fight the Lords
on the question." He had long been threatened
with cataract in both his eyes, and, in 1894, the vener-
able statesman retired from public life. He died on
May 9th, 1898, to the sorrow even of many of his political
enemies, one of the greatest and noblest men England
ever produced, and one whom Irishmen will ever
revere and think of kindly.
Lord Rosebery succeeded Gladstone as Prime Minister,
but he was no friend of Home Rule, and now dissension
appeared even in the ranks of the Anti-Parnellites
themselves. Mr. Sexton threatened to resign, and
Mr. Dillon and Mr. Healy quarrelled.
The Conservatives came into power in 1895. Lord
Salisbury was Premier in the Lords, with Mr. Arthur
Balfour Leader of the Commons, and Joseph Chamber-
lain as Colonial Secretary. Home Rule was, therefore,
once again " in the dust." The squabbling went on in
the Irish Parliamentary ranks and, in 1896, Justin
McCarthy resigned from the chairmanship of his party.
Sexton refused the vacant chair and so John Dillon
was elected. A " National Convention " was sum-
moned in Dublin, September, 1896, and was attended
by 2,500 delegates from all parts of the Irish world.
The Redmondites, as the old Parnellites were now
called, and the Healyites, did not attend. Dr. O'Donnell,
326 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
Bishop of Raphoe, presided. But the attempt to restore
unity and unanimity in the Irish Party was a failure.
In 1898 Mr. William O'Brien started the United Irish
League, and this organisation absorbed the old National
League, and " spoke out for harmony among the
leaders."
Sir Horace Plunkett, a Protestant and Unionist land-
lord of broad mind and generous views, now won for
Ireland an " Act for establishing a Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and for other
purposes connected therewith." John Dillon suggested
a conference of Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites, and
offered to resign the chair and serve under a Parnellite
chairman, " a noble act of self-effacement and patriot-
ism." It was not, however, until 1899 that the " split "
was healed by a rapprochement between the two
parties, when Mr. John Redmond, the Parnellite
leader, became Chairman, by common consent, of the
reunited Irish party. He has led it ever since with
conspicuous ability, and is regarded to-day in much the
same light as Parnell at the zenith of his power.
The Boer War broke out, and was followed by the
death of Queen Victoria. On March 29th, 1901,
the aged Fenian Chief, James Stephens, died, at Black-
rock. He was given a grand public funeral, vast
crowds lining the streets as the six-horsed hearse,
laden with wreaths, passed to Glasnevin.
In 1902 " Colonel " Lynch, who commanded an Irish
Brigade in the Boer service against the British army,
was elected M.P. for Galway city. He was arrested on
a charge of high treason in the same year. Tried at the
King's Bench, he was sentenced to death on the 2jrd
IN SIGHT OF HOME RUI,E. 327
January, 1903. The sentence was afterwards commuted
to penal servitude for life, but he was released " on
licence " after the lapse of a year, and in 1907 he received
a free pardon.
In order to finish the Boer War, the Conservatives
had been returned to power at the General Election of
1900, and, in 1903, Mr. George Wyndham, the Chief
Secretary for Ireland, carried a Land Purchase Bill
through Parliament. Mr. Wyndham is a great-grandson
of Lord Edward, the gallant Geraldine of '98.
His Bill " contemplated the total abolition of Irish
landlordism and the final settlement of the Irish Land
question, and for this purpose a sum of 100 million
pounds was to be advanced by the State to enable the
tenants to buy." Mr. John Redmond described it
" as the greatest measure of land purchase reform ever
seriously offered to the Irish people," and Mr. T. W.
Russell, a former Unionist Irish M.P., supported it, as
did John Dillon, Timothy Healy, and William O'Brien.
In order to induce landlords to sell their land, 12 millions
were to be given to them as a bonus. The Act became
law, and, in the words of T. W. Russell, was " the
greatest measure passed for Ireland since the Union."
A great many purchases have been effected under the
Act.
In 1906, however, at the General Election, the Con-
servatives were simply routed. Mr. Balfour, their
leader, who had made himself almost as unpopular in
Ireland as Forster of the earlier regime, suffering
defeat in person at the polls. The new Premier, Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was a staunch Home
Ruler, and he had in his cabinet men of the same decided
328 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
views on Ireland, John Morley, Lloyd-George, Birrell,
Bryce, etc. Mr. Bryce became Chief Secretary, but
only held the office for a session. Mr. Augustine Birrell,
an author of high repute, succeeded him.
In 1907 Mr. Birrell brought in an Irish Councils Bill,
which was to reform the system of Irish Government.
An Irish Council was to be formed of 107 members
84 elected and 23 nominated and take over the powers
of National, Intermediate and Local Government
Boards. Sir Anthony MacDonnell is accredited with
its suggestion. The Bill was, however, dropped, as
a National Convention in Dublin would not accept it.
This Bill was practically the same as " Devolution,"
proposed by Lord Dunraven that is, a modified form of
Home Rule.
Michael Davitt, the Fenian, Land Leaguer, and M.P.,
died in 1906, greatly lamented by his party. In 1908
Mr. Birrell passed the Irish Universities Bill. This
solved the problem of higher education in Ireland.
Two new Universities were established the National
in Dublin, with the Queen's Colleges of Cork and Galway,
and Belfast University. Various incomes of between
twelve and thirty-two thousand pounds were given
to the colleges, and the National University received
150,000 for buildings, and Belfast 60,000. There
were to be no religious tests in either University, but
the National University was to be governed in the main
by Catholics, and Belfast by Presbyterians.
This measure gratified the Catholics of Ireland in
no small degree, and was particularly well received by
the Catholic hierarchy.
Throughout this year and the preceding one, a number
IN SIGHT OF HOME RULE. 329
of persons were charged with " cattle-driving," the
newest form of agrarian disorder ; cattle of unpopular
parties being driven miles away from home in the dead
of night, sometimes by large, organised mobs of men,
and then abandoned. A serious conflict occurred
between the police and the people at Ennistymon,
County Clare ; and, in County Sligo, there was a des-
perate affray, in which one of the cattle-drivers was
shot dead and several of the police injured.
About this time, too, a new party began to make
itself heard, the Sinn Fein party. The words are Irish
for " ourselves. " The " Sinn Feiners " would have
the Irish Parliamentary Party abstain from going to
Westminster, and proposed the discouragement of the
use of articles of English manufacture and the boy-
cotting generally of everything English ; Irish history
alone should be studied, and the Irish language, sports,
etc., revived, and Irish goods exclusively supported.
They went farther ; they would taboo the Irish Parlia-
mentary Party for recognising English legislature.
In 1907, " they were a source of uneasiness and alarm
to the Irish Party." But milder views prevailed.
Previous to this, some years earlier, the " Gaelic
League " had been founded, in 1893 to be exact,
" for the purpose of reviving the Irish language, pro-
moting the study of Irish literature, and supporting
Irish industries," and awakened great enthusiasm and
support. Gaelic studies were promoted everywhere,
and a chair for the Irish language was suggested for the
new Catholic University.
Trouble now again broke out in the Irish Parliamen-
tary ranks. William O'Brien and Timothy Healy
330 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
differed with the others and more or less separated from
them, with a small following, and, in 1910, at Cork,
for which constituency O'Brien was a member, the
" All for Ireland " league was formed in partial oppo-
sition to the United Irish league.
Mr. Birrell removed some of the causes of the cattle-
driving and recent boycotting by introducing a Land
Act in 1909, by which provision for future purchases
could be raised by the issue of 3 per cent, stock. In
making advances, the treasury were to issue such stock,
vice cash ; the congested districts board was reconsti-
tuted, its income increased, and the area of its work
extended ; while compulsory powers of purchase were
given to estate commissioners, as well as to the congested
districts board. This allayed the agrarian disorders.
In the following year the new King, George V., was
proclaimed at Dublin Castle in the Privy Council
Chamber, and by the Ulster King of Arms at various
public places in the city, and later in Cork, Belfast
and other cities. The O'Brienite and Nationalist
factions came in collision in County Cork, and a serious
riot took place, when the police fired over the heads
of the crowd, accidentally shooting a man named Regan,
who afterwards died. A Mr. E. O'Sullivan, M.P.,
who had been elected for East Kerry, was unseated
by a decision of the courts declaring that his agents had
been guilty of intimidation and undue influence.
HOME RULE ON THE CARPET. 331
CHAPTER XXXVII.
HOME RULE ON THE CARPET.
The Liberal Government's Finance Bill and Budget
having been rejected by the House of Lords, the Prime
Minister, Mr. Asquith, went to the country on the
question of whether the Lords or the Commons should
rule ; he proposed limiting the veto of the Upper
Chamber. To carry out this proposal, he was trium-
phantly returned to power at the General Election,
and he then brought in his Veto Bill, which greatly
curtailed the veto, or power of the Lords to throw out
any measure repugnant to them. Their right to inter-
fere at all with a Money Bill had been previously ques-
tioned, and it was now decided that, if they rejected
a measure passed by the Commons, it was to be referred
hack to the Commons, and if these again passed it, it
was to go to the Sovereign for approval, and, on receiving
that, pass into law as if agreed to by the Second House.
The passing of the Veto Bill was received with
acclamation in Ireland, for the House of Lords had
always been the uncompromising foes of the popular
claims there. With his road thus cleared, Mr. Asquith
brought forward his long-looked-for Home Rule Bill, the
THIRD HOME RULE BILL. He introduced it in the
House, on behalf of the Government, on the nth of
332 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
April, 1912, and it was " received with satisfaction
throughout the United Kingdom," saving as regards
the Unionist section of the community. The Irish
National Convention, representing not only Nationalist
organisations, but also local government authorities
in Ireland, accepted the Bill with enthusiastic unani-
mity.
By this Bill, as Mr. Asquith said, " the supremacy,
absolute and sovereign, of the Imperial Parliament,
is maintained unimpaired and beyond the reach of
challenge or of question " ; and Mr. John Redmond,
the Irish Leader, declared, " We want peace with this
country (England). We deny that we are separatists,
and we say we are willing ... to accept a subor-
dinate Parliament created by Statute of this Imperial
Legislature as a final settlement of Ireland's claims."
The following was the original draft of the Bill, but
in one or two minor instances the clauses were slightly
altered during debate in the House :
The Irish Parliament is to consist of His Majesty the
King, and two Houses, namely, the Irish Senate and the
Irish House of Commons. The Commons shall consist
of 164 members returned by the constituencies in the
ordinary way. The Senate shall consist of 40 members.
They will at first be named by the Lord Lieutenant
as the mouthpiece of the King, who, of course, will be
guided by his Ministers in making the selections.
By lots it will then be decided which of the senators
shall retire in two years' time, in four, six and eight,
ten of them retiring thus every two years, when they
will be elected by the Irish people, of course. A man
may be elected to either the Senate or the Commons,
HOME RULE ON THE CARPET. 333
but he may not be a member of both Houses at the same
time. He may speak in either or both, but he can
only vote in that House to which he belongs. The
Senate may not veto Money Bills, and such may only
be started in the Commons. When the two Houses
differ, they are to meet jointly, when they will vote
together, and the vote of the majority of the two com-
bined Houses, thus met together, will decide the matter.
An Irish Cabinet or Government, of course, will be
necessary, and the leader of the majority in the two
Houses will form the Ministry, for appointment by the
Lord Lieutenant. The Executive Departments or
Offices will be very similar to those of the Imperial
Parliament, save, of course, there will be no Lord of the
Admiralty, or offices of that nature. At first the Royal
Irish Constabulary will be controlled by the Imperial
Parliament, but after six years the Irish Parliament
" will, without any further discussion, take over charge
of that force."
The Irish Parliament will have power to do every-
thing in reason that is coincident with the unity and
welfare of the great British empire. What it may not
do is " pass laws relating to the making of peace, or
war, or matters arising from a state of war, or dealing
with the Crown, the Navy, Army, foreign affairs,
lighthouses, coinage, etc., or alter the election laws or
any provision of the Home Rule Act itself. " Any law
made by the Irish Parliament in defiance of these res-
trictions is to be void."
A sum of 500,000 will be given by the Imperial Par-
liament to the Irish Government for three years, after
that the sum will be reduced by 50,000 annually for
334 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
six years, until it reaches 200,000, at which figure
it will remain until Ireland can pay her own way. Until
then all the taxes levied in Ireland are to be paid into
the Imperial Exchequer. The Irish Parliament will
have power to increase, or reduce or omit to levy any
Imperial tax, and may impose any tax, not substan-
tially the same as the Imperial tax. Imports may not
be taxed, different to those which the Imperial Parlia-
ment taxes. " No preference, privilege, or advantage
is to be given on account of religious belief, and no
disability or advantage is to be imposed because of it."
The Irish Parliament may not make any religious cere-
mony or belief a condition of the lawfulness of any
marriage. And so " there is no danger of the Catholic
Church being established by law in that country . . .
Thus .... the rights of Protestants and minori-
ties will be protected."
The position of Irish Civil Servants will be substan-
tially the same as before. A special Committee will be
set up to watch over their interests. It will consist of
three members, one appointed by the Treasury, one by
the Executive, and one (the chairman) by the Lord
Chief Justice of England. The Lord Lieutenant will
alone have the power of removing civil servants from
office.
Ireland will be represented in the Imperial Parliament
by 42 members, instead of her present 103. No Univer-
sity will elect one of these members, as they will consist
of 8 borough members and 34 county members. Belfast
will have 4 of the 8 borough members, Dublin 3, and
Cork i. Of the 34 County members, Ulster will be re-
presented by ii, Munster 9, Leinster 8, and Connaught6.
HOME RULE ON THE CARPET. 335
Such is the great scheme of Mr. Asquith's Home
Rule Bill. It passed the Third Reading in the Com-
mons with the grand majority of no, on January i6th,
1913, amid scenes of the greatest enthusiasm, cheers
being given for Mr. Asquith, Mr. Redmond, and the
late Mr. Parnell.
The House of Lords, as was expected, promptly
threw out the Bill, but the Veto Act has effectually
curtailed the autocratic power of the Upper House,
and in due course, unless something very unforeseen
happens, the Bill will become law and we shall see an
Irish Parliament sitting again in Dublin as in Grattan's
day.
Ireland will then be " A NATION ONCE AGAIN,"
and Thomas Davis's dream will have been realised.
With Ireland ruled by a Government of her own,
Irish capital will, no doubt, flow in from all quarters
of the globe to aid her sons at home to revive old indus-
tries and found new ones ; her art, literature, sculpture
and music will receive an impetus that has been long
wanting, and she will again enjoy " national health."
Emigration, as a natural consequence, must cease,
and immigration begin ; the population will increase,
no longer decrease, and may speedily rise to and perhaps
surpass that of the nine millions before 1848. As evi-
dence of this we may point to Belfast, which owes its
prosperity and large population at the present day
solely to the great encouragement that has been given
in every way to its industries : hitherto the rest of
Ireland has been starved in this respect.
Of course we must not expect any sudden or great
change in the condition of things ; Rome was not
336 THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY.
built in a day ; and what we prophesy will, to a great
extent, be a matter of time. But, with the dawn
of a better understanding between the English and
Irish peoples, the engenderment of a kindlier spirit,
much should undoubtedly be looked for. Britannia
and Erin will clasp hands over the dead ashes of old
animosities, and march forward side by side linked
in sisterly love at last to their joint destiny in the
history of the world.
THE END.
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