Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
The
Nine Years War ( Irish: Cogadh na Naoi mBliano ) in Ireland took place from 1594 to 1603 and is
also known as Tyrone's Rebellion. It was fought between the forces of the Gaelic Chieftains Hugh O' Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, Hugh Roe O' Donnell and their allies, against the Elizabethan English Government of Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the country, but primarily in the Northern Province of Ulster.
It ultimately led to the exile and flight of the Irish Earls and to the ' plantation ' of Ulster by the English. The war against O' Neill and his allies was the largest conflict fought by England in the Elizabethan era. At one point
1600-1601 more than 18,000 soldiers were fighting in the army of the crown. The conflict should not be confused with the Nine Years War of the 1690s, part of which was also fought in Ireland.
The war was not only one of independence but a religious war as well. Men looked to Spain, the great Catholic country; would she help? Messengers crossed and re-crossed the seas. On one side was the entire power of England, aided by her Irish auxiliaries. That fact, the Irish auxiliaries, had kept the English forces from being driven out of Ireland. Another, the Irish during the centuries had not realised ( maintaining as so many of them did their own independence ) that the invasion, and the subsequent colonies, were calculated and unswerving attempts to shatter the whole fabric of Irish civilisation, and supplant it by an alien one. In the 16th century the mass of the people had not fully realised it yet. They were but beginning to do so.
And those auxiliaries - Irishmen ranked with Henry's or Elizabeth's troops, winning victories over their countrymen, let the fact explain itself. Clan politics which had so often guided the actions of the Chiefs. The policy of centralisation, attempted by one or two of the Irish Kings, had never developed. " Despotism tends to centralisation, freedom of the people to decentralise, " says Eoin MacNeill. And he says, " among the Celts as among the Greeks of antiquity and the Italians of the Middle Ages, the instinct of local freedom usually prevailed over the policy of centralisation, and what we may call neighbour hoods, in which the people knew all about each other, so to speak, formed themselves into states for the regulation of their own affairs.
The instinct of local freedom had gathered round the Norman houses in Ireland during the centuries. Thus Irish soldiers, always true to their leaders, marched with the Earl of Ormond, or the Earl of Kildare, or other Norman lord who paid allegiance to England; or followed the " queen's " O' Reilly, or " queen's " MacMahon, or other chief as affection, or love of warfare, or the pay of the mercenary, induced them. But local freedom was only the skin of the nation. The heart was true to nationality. The bards voiced its beat. They wrote not only in praise of their own tuath and chief, of Offaly, or Thormond, or Tir-Owen, or other portions of Ireland, but of Ireland as a whole, as a national unit.
O' Neill cast off the title of Earl and was proclaimed The O' Neill. Ulster was already organised; a Northern Confederacy was formed. His weapon was ready. Those companies whom he had trained were keen steel fit for use.
Seven miles from his castle a fortress was held by the English. It stood by the Abhainn Mor. The great river, Ulster called it; the Black water, the English. Men said they gave it that name, not because of its turgid waters but because they had so often met disaster and defeat on its banks. O' Neill's men stormed the fortres, drove out the English garrison, levelled the fort and burnt the bridge. The queen's forces held Monaghan. O' Neill marched there
and gave battle to Norris, the English general, who was advancing to its relief. O' Neill defeated him. Hugh Maguire, the finest horseman in Ireland twice rode down with his cavalry on the English musketeers, and twice broke them. Monaghan fell; the English commander was allowed to go free.
It ultimately led to the exile and flight of the Irish Earls and to the ' plantation ' of Ulster by the English. The war against O' Neill and his allies was the largest conflict fought by England in the Elizabethan era. At one point
1600-1601 more than 18,000 soldiers were fighting in the army of the crown. The conflict should not be confused with the Nine Years War of the 1690s, part of which was also fought in Ireland.
The war was not only one of independence but a religious war as well. Men looked to Spain, the great Catholic country; would she help? Messengers crossed and re-crossed the seas. On one side was the entire power of England, aided by her Irish auxiliaries. That fact, the Irish auxiliaries, had kept the English forces from being driven out of Ireland. Another, the Irish during the centuries had not realised ( maintaining as so many of them did their own independence ) that the invasion, and the subsequent colonies, were calculated and unswerving attempts to shatter the whole fabric of Irish civilisation, and supplant it by an alien one. In the 16th century the mass of the people had not fully realised it yet. They were but beginning to do so.
And those auxiliaries - Irishmen ranked with Henry's or Elizabeth's troops, winning victories over their countrymen, let the fact explain itself. Clan politics which had so often guided the actions of the Chiefs. The policy of centralisation, attempted by one or two of the Irish Kings, had never developed. " Despotism tends to centralisation, freedom of the people to decentralise, " says Eoin MacNeill. And he says, " among the Celts as among the Greeks of antiquity and the Italians of the Middle Ages, the instinct of local freedom usually prevailed over the policy of centralisation, and what we may call neighbour hoods, in which the people knew all about each other, so to speak, formed themselves into states for the regulation of their own affairs.
The instinct of local freedom had gathered round the Norman houses in Ireland during the centuries. Thus Irish soldiers, always true to their leaders, marched with the Earl of Ormond, or the Earl of Kildare, or other Norman lord who paid allegiance to England; or followed the " queen's " O' Reilly, or " queen's " MacMahon, or other chief as affection, or love of warfare, or the pay of the mercenary, induced them. But local freedom was only the skin of the nation. The heart was true to nationality. The bards voiced its beat. They wrote not only in praise of their own tuath and chief, of Offaly, or Thormond, or Tir-Owen, or other portions of Ireland, but of Ireland as a whole, as a national unit.
O' Neill cast off the title of Earl and was proclaimed The O' Neill. Ulster was already organised; a Northern Confederacy was formed. His weapon was ready. Those companies whom he had trained were keen steel fit for use.
Seven miles from his castle a fortress was held by the English. It stood by the Abhainn Mor. The great river, Ulster called it; the Black water, the English. Men said they gave it that name, not because of its turgid waters but because they had so often met disaster and defeat on its banks. O' Neill's men stormed the fortres, drove out the English garrison, levelled the fort and burnt the bridge. The queen's forces held Monaghan. O' Neill marched there
and gave battle to Norris, the English general, who was advancing to its relief. O' Neill defeated him. Hugh Maguire, the finest horseman in Ireland twice rode down with his cavalry on the English musketeers, and twice broke them. Monaghan fell; the English commander was allowed to go free.
The Great Hugh O' Neill
England proclaimed O' Neill an enemy and a traitor. Armies were sent against him. He evaded or defeated the armies. He showed generalship of a high order. The English recalled their best soldiers from the Spanish War in Belgium, and flung them into Ireland. They sent their skilful commanders against him, Norris and Russell and Bagenal. Generals and soldiers failed to break his power. Then Elizabeth opened negotiations, offering fair and honourable terms. O' Neill knew all to well what the English were like, and how much he could trust them with their offers of negotiations and terms. A message came from Spain: Fight on! Spanish soldiers are coming. O' Neill broke off the negotiations and the war was renewed. Sligo had fallen, taken by Red Hugh; Bingham's army was in retreat followed by O' Donnell who " harried it with missiles " Norris and his veterans marched out of Athlone to meet and crush Red Hugh.
Here are moving pictures snatched out of the Nine Years' War. A river in Mayo, a village; on the south bank an army of 10,000 horse and foot; men in scarlet or buff, tunics with puffed sleeves, and iron breast-plates and backs; forests of weapons; bright pennants, and the banner of St. George. A great and well ordered army.
Here are moving pictures snatched out of the Nine Years' War. A river in Mayo, a village; on the south bank an army of 10,000 horse and foot; men in scarlet or buff, tunics with puffed sleeves, and iron breast-plates and backs; forests of weapons; bright pennants, and the banner of St. George. A great and well ordered army.
The general in shining steel, wide ruff, and plumed helmet; officers in shining steel and feathered caps. The general is Sir John Norris.
Norris had earned a great name for himself in France and Belgium. He had now come out of those countries to clear Ulster and Connacht of the rebels, his laurels now a little draggled by his late encounters with O' Neill. On the other banks are the Irish horse and foot, about 5,000 men. Red Hugh is there and the army is his. Everywhere he has led it to victory. His calvary are aremed with head-pieces, shirts of mail, a sword, a skian, a spear. Very skilful horsemen, who ride upon the saddles without stirrups, and who carry the lances not under the arm when riding to the charge, but by the middle, above the arm when riding to the charge. And his infantry - those picked and selected men of mighty bodies, " the greatest force of the battle " - they are the gall-oglach ( gallowglasses )
" great scorners of death, " men choosing to die rather than yield, " so that when it came to handy blows they are quickly slain or win the field. " And his light infantry, the ' ceitherne ' ( Kernes ) with targets of wood, barbed darts and muskets. The Robe river flows between both armies. Along its banks there is fighting for a day and a night.
A pause; Norris's drums beat a parley; the boy and the veteran meet. There is a truce all day; every day; but fierce fighting at night, attacks on each other's camps; captures of out-posts and scouts; fierce hand to hand encounters. And each day till sun-down the truce lasts; and Red Hugh and his chiefs and his friend, " the ever valiant Maguire " the gay young Lord of Fermanagh who is heart and soul in the war, discuss terms of peace with Norris. Did ever boy commander and experienced general meet thus as equal peers in war before? A month passes and the terms come to nothing. A messenger gallops into the Irish camp; he brings news; a Spanish ship is in Rathmullan Bay. Spain has promised help. Norris raises his camp and retires, his rear and wing are harassed by the swift-following Kernes. But he sends no help to his men. He hopes to entrap and cut down his pursuers, but Red Hugh has seen the trap and the danger which lays ahead. Norris baulked of his plan, continues his retreat in wrath, uttering terrible imprecations against fate which had condemned him " to lose in Ireland, the smallest speck of the wide world, that fame which his valour and military skill had earned for him in France and Belgium. "
" great scorners of death, " men choosing to die rather than yield, " so that when it came to handy blows they are quickly slain or win the field. " And his light infantry, the ' ceitherne ' ( Kernes ) with targets of wood, barbed darts and muskets. The Robe river flows between both armies. Along its banks there is fighting for a day and a night.
A pause; Norris's drums beat a parley; the boy and the veteran meet. There is a truce all day; every day; but fierce fighting at night, attacks on each other's camps; captures of out-posts and scouts; fierce hand to hand encounters. And each day till sun-down the truce lasts; and Red Hugh and his chiefs and his friend, " the ever valiant Maguire " the gay young Lord of Fermanagh who is heart and soul in the war, discuss terms of peace with Norris. Did ever boy commander and experienced general meet thus as equal peers in war before? A month passes and the terms come to nothing. A messenger gallops into the Irish camp; he brings news; a Spanish ship is in Rathmullan Bay. Spain has promised help. Norris raises his camp and retires, his rear and wing are harassed by the swift-following Kernes. But he sends no help to his men. He hopes to entrap and cut down his pursuers, but Red Hugh has seen the trap and the danger which lays ahead. Norris baulked of his plan, continues his retreat in wrath, uttering terrible imprecations against fate which had condemned him " to lose in Ireland, the smallest speck of the wide world, that fame which his valour and military skill had earned for him in France and Belgium. "
