Who Should Control Ireland?
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A burning question in the sixteenth century, 150099, was: Who should control Ireland - the Irish chiefs
or the Tudor monarchs?
Henry VIII, King of Ireland
Henry VIII was in no doubt about the answer. He
was Lord of Ireland as well as King of England. The
Lordship had been enjoyed by English kings since the
twelfth century. However, it meant very little in
practice.
English rule was obeyed only in a very small part of
Ireland - around Dublin. This area was called ‘The
Pale’. The rest of the country was controlled by the
native or Gaelic Irish or by ‘Old English’ or ‘AngloIrish’. The latter had gone to Ireland in Norman
times but many had married into Irish families and
adopted Irish ways and laws.
Possible activities on the period – pdf
Images of Tudor Ireland – slideshow
Tudor conquest of Ireland: note for teachers
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English law
Gaelic Irish (Brehon) law
Land was granted by the
king to the lord.
It passed on to the eldest
son - the law of
primogeniture.
The chieftain did not own the
land.
It belonged to the clan or
family - the law of tanistry.
Lord could inherit land and
title.
Chieftains were elected from
the leading families.
Criminal courts existed with
judges who could order
imprisonment or execution.
Judges acted as arbitrators
and could order offenders to
pay compensation but they
could not order imprisonment
or execution.
Land and property was most
held by men.
Women could hold property.
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A ‘civil’ woman from the
Pale and a Gaelic
Irishman, c.1575.
The picture was intended
to show the deep division
that was thought to exist
in Irish society.
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Henry wanted to change this. He wanted to control the whole country; to make the Irish
people obedient to their rule.
To show that he was serious, Henry stopped being Lord of Ireland. In 1541 he became
King of Ireland.
This is one of the Irish coins issued
by Henry VIII as King of Ireland.
In the centre are a crown and a harp.
Can you guess what they stand for?
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Tudor policy
Henry’s successors, especially Mary and Elizabeth I continued the policy of trying to
control Ireland by
• introducing English laws, customs, language and methods of agriculture (crop
rather than cattle farming) to Ireland;
• spreading the Protestant religion to Ireland; and
• ‘planting’ or settling English and Scottish people on land taken from the Irish.
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The main reason for wanting to control Ireland was
security. After the Reformation, Protestant England was
often at odds with Catholic Europe. Ireland might be used
as a base from which to attack England.
The attempt to control Ireland became increasingly
determined, especially under Elizabeth (right). One of her
officials, Sir George Carew, said:
‘We must change Irish government, clothing, customs,
manner of holding land, language and habits of life to
make them obedient.’
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Different ways of living
Left
The O’Hagan hill-fort, Tullaghoe, Ulster
Below:
Hugh de Lacy’s castle, Trim, County Meath
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The Tudors in Ireland
Right
The Lord Deputy
leaving Dublin Castle
Below
English soldiers
on the march
Contemporary engravings by John Derrick
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Irish responses
Most Irish people opposed these changes, especially Irish chiefs
who wanted to rule their own territory. Some, like Grace O’Malley
(alias Granuaile, the Pirate Queen) tried to be clever.
She pretended to co-operate with the Tudors, yet continued in
her old ways. She remained a Roman Catholic, plundered ships,
raided her neighbours and met Elizabeth I. She died in poverty in
1603.
This is how one historical novel describes Grace’s attitude to the
English invader in an imaginary letter to her son, Toby, in 1575:
Are you well, my son? Are the priests teaching you as I have
instructed them? Learn your letters, study Latin, and memorise
the names of the major seaports. Your older brothers by Donal
O’Flaherty are merely simply warriors, all strength and shouting.
I want more than that for you. Against an enemy as powerful
as the English it is necessary to fight with one’s brains.
Fortunately you and I both inherited good brains.
Granuaile. The Pirate Queen by Llywelyn, M., O’Brien Press, 0-86278-5780-2, p. 59
Others resisted violently. They raided the new settlements,
burning houses and taking cattle.
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Grace O’Malley meeting
Elizabeth I
Eighteenth-century
engraving
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English view of the Irish
One of these raids was described by an Englishman, John Derrick. He worked in Ireland at
that time for the English government. He thought that the Irish were backward and barbaric,
ready to be ‘civilised’.
Can you find the first
three letters of the
alphabet in the
picture?
Why do you think the
artist has put them
there?
They spoil and burn and bear away as fit occasion serve,
And think the greater ill they do, the greater praise deserve.
They pass not the poor man’s cry nor yet respect his tears,
But rather joy to see the fire to flash about his ears ...
And thus bereaving him of house, of cattle and of store,
They do return to the wood from whence they came before.
‘Cattle Raid’, Image of Ireland by John Derrick, 1581
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Does the picture tell
you anything about
John Derrick’s view of
Irish people?
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Irish view of the English
The Irish thought themselves superior to the English. Gaelic poets described the ‘Saxons’
and the ‘Scotch’ as ‘an arrogant, impure crowd, of foreigners’ blood’. They were very critical
of Irish people who adopted the ways of such foreigners:
You [Son 1] follow foreign ways
and shave your thick-curled head:
O slender fist, my choice!
you are no good son of Donnchadh.
He [Son 2, Eogan Bán] loved no foreign ways,
our ladies’ darling, Eogan Bán,
nor bent his will to the stranger,
but took to the wilds instead.
This very famous poem has been translated from Irish. It is called ‘Two Sons’ and was
written in the late sixteenth century.
As you will have guessed, the poet criticises one Irishman for choosing to follow Tudor
ways, while his brother, Eogan Bán, has taken to the hills in revolt.
Another Gaelic poem (also translated): ‘The Butter’
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Irish leaders
Two chiefs from Ulster, in the north of Ireland, led those
Irish chiefs who wanted to keep their independence. Hugh
O’Neill of Tyrone was described by one Englishman as
‘Educated, more disciplined and naturally valiant, he
is worthily reputed the best man of war of his nation.
Most of his followers are well-trained soldiers, using
our weapons; and he is the greatest man of territory
and revenue within that kingdom, and is absolute
commander of the north of Ireland.’
Hugh O’Donnell of Donegal, ‘Red Hugh’, had been
kidnapped and held hostage in Dublin Castle for four years,
sometimes in chains. In 1591, when he was nineteen,
friends smuggled a rope and some files into the prison.
Hugh cut through his chains, got out through a window and
let himself down with a rope. On his return home to
Donegal, he joined O’Neill to plot his revenge.
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Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone
Sixteenth-century engraving
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This is how one historical novel imagines a discussion between Red Hugh and his captor, Lord
Fitzwilliam:
‘ ... It is Her Majesty’s greatest wish that you should be taught and civilised.’
‘Civilised! And ... and is it her belief that to speak English is to be civilised?’
‘Of course, that is a start. With the language and customs and the manners. Once you
understand our ways you will see how much better they are. We will teach you to build
proper houses and towns and – ‘I am going to scream, thought Hugh. It is like beating
your head against a brick wall. We do not want your towns,’ he said patiently, ‘nor your
houses nor your customs nor your language. We ...’ He took a deep breath. ‘WE - ARE NOT - ENGLISH.’
Red Hugh. The Kidnap of Hugh O’Donnell by Lisson, D., O’Brien Press, 0-86278-604-5, p. 84
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The Nine Years War
The two Hughs took to the field against Elizabeth in a savage war which lasted for nine
years from 1594 until 1603. The outcome was often in doubt, for the Irish expected help
from Spain, which was at war with England.
O’Neill approaching the English commander before battle
The Irish inflicted devastating defeats on the English. The most humiliating was the Yellow
Ford in 1598, when the English commander was killed. Enraged, Elizabeth sent the ruthless
Lord Mountjoy to Ireland as viceroy in 1600 to deal with her Irish problem. He did just that.
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The battle of Kinsale
A Spanish force arrived at Kinsale, County Cork, in October 1601. The Irish leaders
marched from Dungannon in the north to join them. The march was made in the heart of
winter, the worst time of the year for such a long march.
Mountjoy’s forces were better prepared and defeated the Irish and the Spaniards at the
Battle of Kinsale in December 1601.
The Irish retreated to the north. In the following year the English strengthened their forts
around O’Neill’s territory in Tyrone. Mountjoy ordered crops and cattle to be destroyed. He
intended to starve the Irish into submission.
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Power of the chieftains broken
In 1603 O’Neill and the other Irish chieftains did submit and signed the Treaty of Mellifont.
They promised to be subject to the English monarch and to adopt English customs and
language. O’Neill was given the title of Earl of Tyrone and O’Donnell became Earl of
Tyrconnell. Ireland remained Catholic but the power of the chieftains had been broken.
O’Neill’s submission to Mountjoy at Mellifont in March 1603, a seventeenth-century print
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The Flight of the Earls
The two Hughs, O’Neill and O’Donnell, were unhappy with the restrictions on their power.
Restless and fearful for their safety, they and over 100 Irish chiefs fled from Ulster to the
continent in 1607.
The flight enabled the English to consolidate their hold on Ireland by settling even more
people in Ireland, particularly in Ulster, the area which had most strongly resisted English rule.
The Flight of the Earls
A nineteenth-century picture (left) and a modern painting by Tom Ryan (right)
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The plantation of Ulster
The biggest plantation of Ireland took place in Ulster, in 1609, when James I was king.
The government gave to English and Scottish people land in places such as Donegal,
Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan and Armagh was given to English and Scottish
people. Many had fought in Ulster and saw how prosperous a land it could be and they were
prepared to take a chance to live there.
This plantation helped to solve one problem - establishing English control of Ireland. Did it
also store up trouble for the future?
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Different ways
Ulster houses in the seventeenth century – Irish (top), planter’s (bottom)
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O’Donnell, Hugh (Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill) (1572-1602), called ‘Red Hugh’, lord of
Tirconnell from 1592. Son of Hugh O’Donnell and Finola MacDonnell, he saw his first military
action at the age of 12. In 1587 Perrot (the Lord Deputy), fearing the implications of Red
Hugh’s betrothal to a daughter of Hugh O’Neill, had him captured by sending a ship to
Rathmullen, on board which he was lured to drink. He languished for four years in Dublin
Castle until he escaped, at the second attempt, with the connivance of O’Neill. Upon his
return in 1592 his mother arranged the deposition of her senile husband in his favour.
During the Nine Years War the betrayal of Sligo Castle into O’Donnell’s hands allowed him to
exercise overlordship in north Connacht and to mount further raids into Clanricard and
Thomond. Only in 1600, with the establishment of Docwra’s garrison at Derry, did his
authority begin to wane. When Spanish forces landed at Kinsale in 1601, O’Donnell marched
his army to Munster, evading George Carew, who blocked his passage at Cashel, by a brilliant
flanking manoeuvre across the Slievefelim Mountains. After the Irish defeat at Kinsale, Hugh
went to Spain to seek further help but died at Simancas. Allegations that he was poisoned
are probably unfounded.
Red Hugh was immortalized soon afterwards in Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh’s Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí
Dhomhnaill (Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell). This biography, which portrays Red Hugh at the
centre of events, has distorted historical interpretation. O’Donnell was certainly more
impulsive than O’Neill, but he generally played second fiddle to the older man.
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O’Malley, Grace (c.1503-c.1603), alias Granuaile, legendary pirate-queen of Connacht, celebrated in
popular tradition as a nationalist heroine and now a feminist icon. She married first Donal O’Flaherty, and
later Richard ‘Iron Dick’ Bourke, but was a power-broker in her own right owing to the unique naval power
of the O’Malleys.
One English official wrote in 1559: There are three very good galleys with Tibbot ne Longe, son of Grany
O'Malley, his brother and O'Malley that will carry 300 men apiece. These, if employed by Her Majesty,
would do much good in the north, and the O'Malleys are much feared everywhere by sea. There are no
galleys in Ireland but these.’
More than the ‘pirate queen’ of Irish legend, Granuaile was a courageous woman who stood up for her
rights during the turbulent Tudor conquest of Ireland. When young, it is said she cut off her hair and wore
male clothes to go to sea. More than a woman, Granuaile was a Gaelic chieftain. She commanded a fleet
of war and merchant ships, trading with France, Spain, England and Portugal, dominating the waters off
Western Ireland, and resisting and then treating with the invading Tudors. By land Granuaile stormed and
defended castles, engaged in the then favourite Irish practice of cattle-rustling, gave birth to four children
and generally showed she was the equal if not the better of any man. According to one horrified Tudor
official, she ‘hath impudently passed the part of womanhood and been a great spoiler and chief
commander and director of thieves and murderers at sea’.
Despite clashes with the crown, which imprisoned her in 1577-79, she urged her husbands and sons to
seek accommodation with the encroaching state. While in London in 1593 with other Connacht notables
complaining of Bingham’s government, she petitioned the queen for a grant of lands - under Gaelic law she
was not entitled, as a widow, to any part of her husband’s estate.
Her petition was successful, but Granuaile died ten years later outwitted and impoverished by Tudor
officials who never forgave her earlier ‘betrayals’.
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O’Neill, Hugh (c.1550-1616), and earl of Tyrone and last inaugurated O’Neill. Hugh was
raised in the Pale after the assassination of his father Matthew in 1558. The crown reestablished him in Ulster ten years later as a bulwark against the pretensions of Turlough
O’Neill. When it tried to curb his growing power after 1587, Hugh resorted to bribing officials
and opened up contacts with Spain. Fitzwilliam’s partition of Monaghan proved the decisive
break. O’Neill tried to entangle the main beneficiary of government reform, Sir Henry
Bagenal, in a marriage alliance by eloping with his sister Mabel. In 1592 Red Hugh O’Donnell,
his son-in-law, assisted him in the encirclement of Turlough and the achievement of
supremacy in Ulster.
At the start of the Nine Years War O’Neill managed an outward show of loyalty while using
proxies to oppose militarily the implementation of further reform. Victory at the Yellow Ford
in 1598 enabled the extension of his authority through the midlands and into Munster. A
major stumbling block was the Old English, to whom O’Neill appealed unsuccessfully on the
grounds of common nationality and religion. O’Neill and O’Donnell were defeated at Kinsale
and he himself surrendered at Mellifont in 1603. The subsequent Flight of the Earls was a
gamble by O’Neill which went badly wrong. He died in Rome in 1616. That Hugh O’Neill
enjoys such an enigmatic reputation is largely the result of 19th-century misinterpretation.
Uncritical use of O Cléirigh’s life of O’Donnell, and the mistaken idea that O’Neill was brought
up in England, fashioned a vacillating figure caught between two cultures. In fact O’Neill was
an adept politician and gifted soldier who made the most of limited resources in a period of
rapid change.
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Two Sons
Laoiseach Mac an Bháird, late 16th century
In the work of this Monaghan poet is the first occurrence of the great theme of the coming of the final ‘stranger’ to Ireland.
In this poem criticism is aimed at one of two brothers who has apparently chosen Tudor ways, while the other has taken to
the hills in revolt - an indication of the shape of much future history.
You follow foreign ways
and shave your thick-curled head:
O slender fist, my choice!
you are no good son of Donnchadh.
He hates the jewelled spur on his boot
at the narrow of his foot,
or stockings in the foreign style,
nor allows their locks upon him.
If you were, you would not yield
your hair to a foreign fashion
- the fairest feature in Fódla’s land and your head done up in a crown.
A blunt rapier wouldn’t kill a fly
holds no charm for Donnchadh’s son,
nor a bodkin weighing at his rump
as he climbs to the gathering place.
Little you think of your yellow hair,
but that other detests their locks
and going cropped in the foreign way.
Your manners are little like.
Little his wish for a gold cloak
or a high Holland collar;
a golden bangle would only annoy
or a satin scarf to the heel.
He loved no foreign ways,
our ladies’ darling, Eogan Bán,
nor bent his will to the stranger,
but took to the wilds instead.
He has no thought for a feather bed
but would rather lie on rushes,
more at ease - Donnchadh’s good son in a rough-wattled hut than a tower top.
Eogan Bán thinks little of your views.
He would give his britches gladly
and accept a rag for a cloak
and ask no coat nor hose.
Throng of horse in the mouth of a gap,
foot-soldiers’ fight, the hard fray,
are some of Donnchadh’s son’s delights,
and looking for fight with the foreigner.
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You are not like Eogan Ban.
They laugh as you step to the
mounting block.
A pity you cannot see your fault,
as you follow foreign ways.
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The Butter
Tadgh Dall Ó Huigínn, late 16th century
A sixteenth-century health warning
I myself got good butter from a woman
The good butter if it be good
I don’t think it came from a cow
Whatever its origin, it destroyed me.
A wrapping cloth (was placed) around the sour grease
Like a shroud taken from a corpse
It was disgusting to the eye
To look at the rag from the amount of its foulness.
There was a beard sprouting from it,
Bad health to the fellow’s beard
A juice from it as venomous as poison
It was tallow with a sour draught taste.
There was a strong stench from that fellow
That choked and stupified us
We imagined it to be multicoloured
Covered by a branching crest of fungus.
It was speckled, it was grey
It was not from a milch goat
It was no gift of butter
When we had to look at it every day.
It had never seen the salt
The salt never saw it except at a distance
Its memory does not leave us in health
White butter bluer than coal.
Its long lock was like a horse’s mane
Alas, no knives were found to crop it
He who partook of it has long been sick
The good butter that was in our hut.
There was grease in it, and not only that
But every other bit was of wax
Little butter did I eat after it
The fleshy butter I received.
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Granuaile. The Pirate Queen
by Llywelyn, Morgan
O’Brien Press, 0-86278-578-2
Grace O’Malley, alias Granuaile, pirate & politician, c. 1530-1603, is one of Ireland’s most
infamous figures. She was, however, more than the 'pirate queen' of Irish legend. She was a
courageous woman who stood up for her rights during the turbulent Tudor conquest of
Ireland.
This inventive, if uncritical, historical novel is an excellent source for storytelling. The
narrative is interweaved with imaginary letters between Grace and her son, Tibert, which
capture a lesser-known side of the Pirate Queen.
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Red Hugh. The Kidnap of Hugh O’Donnell
by Lisson, Deborah
O’Brien Press, 0-86278-604-5
The extraordinary true story of Red Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602) - kidnap, gaol, dungeons
and escape. Ireland in 1587 was a tough place. The old Irish clans struggled desperately to
hold on to their lands. With the Spanish Armada threatening her in the background, the
English queen, Elizabeth I, set out to subdue them.
A few weeks before his fifteenth birthday, Red Hugh was captured and taken to Dublin
Castle - held as hostage to ensure the good behaviour of his father, chief of the powerful
O’Donnell clan of Donegal. After several years, one freezing winter’s night the chance of
escape seemed to come at last, but there were great risks ...
In the Irish curriculum, the novel is used to debate aspects of personal development and
education for citizenship.
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Citizenship in Red Hugh
Myself
Growing & changing
Myself
Making decisions
Myself & others
Relating to others
Feeling and emotions
discussing and practising
how to express feeling in
appropriate manners
Recognising that
opportunities to exercise
choice can increase as
responsibilities are
accepted and the trust of
others is earned
Examining the various
ways in which language
can be used to isolate
and discriminate against
people
Discuss effectiveness of
the Earl of Tyrone’s
dissembling (p. 52) and
Red Hugh's rages or
tempers ( pp 32, 100)
Discuss Red Hugh’s
reluctant and gradual
acceptance of
responsibility (pp 169,
208, 210), and
his realisation that
‘bravery without brains’ is
a 'dangerous virtue' (p
203)
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Discuss the insulting
expressions used by the
Irish captives, e.g.,
‘black as an
Englishman's guts’ (p.
104),
‘as tight as the truth in a
Saxon's mouth’ (p. 101)
Fitzwilliam’s arrogant
belief that ‘to speak
English is to be civilised’
(p. 84)
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Tudor conquest of Ireland – note for teachers
The Oxford Companion to Irish History edited by S.J. Connolly, OUP, 1998, 0-19866-240-8, 553-4
Tudor conquest, a term denoting the extension of English lordship, previously effective only in the Pale, to full English sovereignty
throughout Ireland. This was the result of a reform policy which invariably ended being applied by force. Sir John Davies’s Discovery of
the True Causes (1610), trumpeting the subsequent establishment of the common law, did not hesitate to use the term ‘conquest’. The
process, generally seen as getting under way in 1534 and lasting until 1603, involved conflicts of increasing scale: the Kildare rebellion,
the war of the Geraldine League, the revolt of Shane O’Neill, the Desmond and Baltinglass revolts, and the Nine Years War.
An important reason for the Tudor conquest was the existence of a frontier and the related problems of defence and grand strategy.
The original objective in 1534 was merely the reform of the Pale under the closer direction of Whitehall. This departure coincided with
England’s break with Rome, which left her diplomatically isolated and strategically vulnerable. An English lord deputy with a standing
army and little local support was always apt to take the military option. Such actions in Ireland created strategic threats where none
had hitherto existed. The military activities of Lord Deputy Grey in the 1530s resulted in the establishment of the Geraldine League with
its appeals to the Scottish king. The creation of the kingdom of Ireland (1541) necessarily entailed consideration of administrative
centralization across the whole island. When the related integrative policy of surrender and regrant faltered, the placement of garrisons
in Leix and Offaly caused the O’Mores and O’Connors to appeal to France. The line of the Pale was breached, the frontier was now
moving, and the process continuous.
The crown became anxious to assert control for fear that foreign powers would exploit the situation. It is not unreasonable to suggest
that the New English, as captains, constables, seneschals, and provincial presidents, deliberately provoked conflicts so as to reap
rewards in the lands and offices which subsequently became available. The commissions of martial law to local commanders introduced
by Sussex in 1556 escalated the level of violence involved. A new English colonialism justified by old chauvinist ideas and new religious
prejudices was generated, with land-hungry younger sons acquiring confiscated Irish estates as a means of providing an income and
gentry status.
The role of lords deputy as architects of the conquest is a subject of debate. The most aggressive policies belong to Sussex, Sidney,
Grey, and Perrot, but ironically those of the corrupt, reactive, and underfinanced Fitzwilliam caused the most bother. Canny asserts that
Sidney produced a blueprint of plantations and provincial presidencies for the establishment of Tudor rule. Brady insists that the
government’s intention was always the establishment of the common law by reform not conquest, and concentrates on Sidney’s
alternative policy of composition. Crawford emphasizes the role of the privy council. This executive body had an obvious interest in
making English sovereignty effective. At local level the object was shire government with sheriffs, justices of the peace, jailhouses, and
visiting assizes. Most of Ireland was shired on paper by the mid-1580s, but it was physical control of the country after 1603 that
enabled the system to operate.
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Military matters bulk large in any account of the Tudor conquest. The army grew to a peak of 16,000 during the Nine Years War.
Expeditions into the interior against errant Gaelic lords were pointless. The only effective strategy was the establishment of garrisons
followed by spoliation of the people, their crops, and their livestock, bringing starvation and eventual submission. These tactics were
very expensive to maintain and were employed only in the Desmond and Nine Years wars (1). Massacres took place at Rathlin, Belfast,
Mullaghmast (2), and Smerwick. Hostages were frequently taken to guarantee ceasefires during wartime and to secure compliance
during peacetime. Irish revenues never sustained the cost of the standing army, which had always to be subsidized from England. The
Irish lords also increased and modernized their forces. They employed large numbers of redshanks (light infantry usually hired for the
summer months from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland during the summer) and then utilized the supply system these developed to
increase local infantry recruits. Firearms aided Irish guerrilla tactics, and assisted in victories such as Glenmalure (3) and the Yellow
Ford (4), but the infrastructure needed for siege warfare was lacking.
Explanatory notes
1.
Nine Years War (Apr. 1593-Mar. 1603), also known as Tyrone’s rebellion, after the state’s main antagonist in the conflict, Hugh
O’Neill, 2nd earl of Tyrone. It arose from Fitzwilliam’s partition of Monaghan, which broke up the MacMahon lordship and threatened
other Ulster lordships with a similar fate. The state’s other main antagonist, Red Hugh O’Donnell, was O’Neill’s son-in-law. Their
alliance transcended traditional rivalry in Ulster and came to include many other Gaelic lords in an oath-bound confederacy which initially
took the form of a secret conspiracy.
Map of Nine Years War
The first action of the war was an exercise in manipulation and deceit by O’Neill. After the ejection of a sheriff from Fermanagh, O’Neill
fought on the side of the government while simultaneously directing his brother Cormac, and other relatives whom he allegedly could
not control, against the state. This was a delaying tactic, because the northern lords were hoping for aid from Spain, where they had
sent agents as early as 1592. O’Neill disclosed his true role in February 1595 when he ordered the destruction of the garrison on the
river Blackwater. The state finally proclaimed him a traitor in June 1595.
Irish tactics during the war were primarily defensive. The buannacht system (billeting of mercenary soldiers on civilians) used to
accommodate redshanks was reoriented to put local troops into the field. These were well trained and leavened with English and
Spanish veterans. Up to a third of the confederates fought with firearms, supplied by Scottish and Old English merchants, which
enhanced their traditional guerrilla-style tactics. A major lack was artillery, which made the taking of forts and towns, other than by
ruse or betrayal, impossible. The English army, surprised by the discipline of their opponents, suffered from a divided command,
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between Lord Deputy Russell and Lord General Norris in 1596-7, and between Black Tom Butler of Ormond and Henry Bagenal in 1598.
Their offensive tactics usually amounted to no more than a single expedition to establish or relieve outlying garrisons. The resulting Irish
victories were in fact large ambushes - the Ford of the biscuits (1594), Clontibret (1595), the Yellow Ford (1598). These successes,
together with the fall of Sligo and Cavan, allowed the war to spread to Connacht and Leinster in 1595 and to Munster in 1598.
For the Irish, politics was an extension of war. O’Neill used ceasefires and long-drawn-out negotiations as a delaying tactic in which the
hard-pressed and factionalised state acquiesced. A compromise, which would have left O’Neill supreme in Ulster, was negotiated in 1596
but aborted by the timely arrival of Spanish agents. Further negotiations, prolonged in the case of Ormond in 1598, and short and secret
in the case of Essex in 1599, worked to O’Neill’s advantage. After the debacle of Essex’s lieutenancy, O’Neill and his confederates
controlled the greater part of Ireland. Unable to take the towns by force, O’Neill now tried to win over the Old English Catholics. In
November 1599 he issued a proclamation requesting the Old English to join his fight for faith and fatherland. A final negotiating position
with the crown, which would have provided for an autonomous Catholic Ireland run jointly by its great lords and the Old English, was
drawn up. Cecil, the English secretary of state, marked these 22 demands with the word ‘Utopia’.
O’Neill’s adoption of the concept of fatherland frightened the crown more than it encouraged the Old English. Mountjoy was rapidly
dispatched to Dublin and Docwra established at Lough Foyle behind confederate lines. The strategy was now the establishment of small
garrisons, closely placed and mutually supporting, to wear down the economy that supported the irregular warfare of the Irish. The
long-heralded Spanish expedition finally landed at Kinsale, only to withdraw ignominiously after O’Neill and O’Donnell abandoned their
defensive tactics and risked all in a pitched battle. The garrisons in Ulster brought famine in their wake. One by one O’Neill’s allies sued
for peace and he went into hiding. In September 1602 Mountjoy destroyed the symbol of his authority at Tullaghoge. However, the
garrison policy was proving very expensive and could be sustained only by the debasement of the Irish currency. The state was
therefore glad when O’Neill submitted at Mellifont in March 16035. The war had cost the English exchequer nearly £2 million - eight
times as much as any previous Irish war and as much as Elizabeth’s continental wars. But it had given England complete control of
Ireland for the first time since the Anglo-Norman invasion. (pp 338-9)
2.
Mullaghmast, massacre of (Nov.-Dec. 1577), the slaughter of Moris O’More and at least 40 others after they had been summoned to
the fort of Mullaghmast, Co. Kildare, by the soldier-colonists Francis Cosby and Robert Hartpole to do military service. This bloody
episode in the troubled relations between the Laois-Offaly planters and the displaced O’Mores and O’Connors occurred at a time when
Lord Deputy Sidney was trying to quell the revolt of Rory Óg O’More.
(p. 372)
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3.
Glenmalure, battle of (25 Aug. 1580). The newly arrived Lord Deputy Grey decided on an immediate prosecution of the rebel forces of
Viscount Baltinglass and Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne, which had withdrawn into Glenmalure in the Wicklow Mountains. Grey sent half his
army under George Moore to flush them out. Soldiers fresh from England in bright coats and officers in armour made easy targets,
especially for the hundred ‘shot’ (soldiers with firearms) at O’Byrne’s disposal. At least 30 Englishmen were killed, including Moore
himself.
(p. 222)
4.
Yellow Ford, battle of (14 Aug. 1598), the greatest single defeat suffered by English forces in 16th-century Ireland. The queen’s army
under Henry Bagenal, taking supplies to the beleaguered Blackwater Fort, was ambushed in difficult terrain north of Armagh by Hugh
O’Neill. Bagenal and 800 of his men were killed and the Blackwater and Armagh garrisons had to be abandoned. O’Neill gained
unimpeded access to the midlands enabling in turn the overthrow of the Munster plantation.
(p. 601)
5.
Mellifont, treaty of (30-1 Mar. 1603), ending the Nine Years War. Moryson’s account has Hugh O’Neill making an unconditional
surrender to Mountjoy, unaware of the death of Queen Elizabeth. However, it has been shown that, while the queen’s death was indeed
kept secret, O’Neill’s submission was the result of hard bargaining at Tullaghoge and later Mellifont. O’Neill avoided confiscation, gaining
a pardon and a new patent for his lands. He abandoned the O’Neill title but crucially retained control of O’Cahan, his principal uirrí (subkingship). His position was consolidated at a subsequent meeting with the English privy council.
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Atlas of Irish History by Seán Duffy
Gill & Macmillan, 07173-093-2, p. 61
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