Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
The
Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'etat by Irish Catholic gentry, but
developed into inter communal violence between the real owners of the land, the native Irish and English and Scottish Protestant settlers, starting a conflict known as the ' Irish Confederate Wars. '
The Irish were not content to starve and die upon the moors, while they watched the usurper wax fat upon their father's fertile plains. As their suffering and starvation were prolonged and increased, their wrath against the foreign robber daily grew greater also; and ere a generation had elapsed, it burst forth in a fierce red flood that swept the terrorised Undertakers before it - and just narrowly missed sweeping them from Ulster forever. The Rising of 1641 was the natural outcome of the great wrong of the generation before.
The rising was sparked by Catholic fears of an impending invasion of Ireland by anti-Catholic forces of the English Long Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters. In turn, the rebels' suspected association with the with the King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles I, exacerbated the situation leading up to, and unltimately resulting in, the start of the English Civil War. The Irish rebellion broke out in October 1641 and was followed by several months of violent chaos in Ireland before the Irish Catholic upper classes and clergy formed the Catholic Confederation in the summer of 1642. The Confederation became a de facto government of most of Ireland, free from the control of the English State and loosely aligned ith the Royalist side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The subsequent war continued in Ireland until the 1650s, when Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army decisively defeated the Irish Catholics and Royalists and re-conquered the country.
The roots of the 1641 rebellion lie in the failure of the English State in Ireland to assimilate the native Irish elite in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest and plantation of the country. The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the " Old ( or Gaelic ) Irish ", and the Old English, or descendants of Medieval Noeman Settlers. These groups were historically antagonistic, with English settled areas such as the Pale around Dublin, south Wexford, and other walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans. However by the 17th century, the cultural divide between these groups, especially at elite social levels, was declining. Many Old English Lords not only spoke the Irish Language, but extensively patronised Irish poetry and music, and were described as ' Hiberniores Hibernis ipis ' ( more Irish that the Irish themselves ) Intermarriage was also common. Moreover, the the wake of the Elizabethan conquest, the native population became defined by their shared religion. Roman catholicism, in distinction to the new Church of England and Church of Scotland of settlers, and the officially Protestant ( Church of Ireland ) English administration in Ireland. During the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan Wars or re-conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641, the political position of the wealthier landed Irish Catholics were increasingly threatened by the English Government of Ireland.
The Irish were not content to starve and die upon the moors, while they watched the usurper wax fat upon their father's fertile plains. As their suffering and starvation were prolonged and increased, their wrath against the foreign robber daily grew greater also; and ere a generation had elapsed, it burst forth in a fierce red flood that swept the terrorised Undertakers before it - and just narrowly missed sweeping them from Ulster forever. The Rising of 1641 was the natural outcome of the great wrong of the generation before.
The rising was sparked by Catholic fears of an impending invasion of Ireland by anti-Catholic forces of the English Long Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters. In turn, the rebels' suspected association with the with the King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles I, exacerbated the situation leading up to, and unltimately resulting in, the start of the English Civil War. The Irish rebellion broke out in October 1641 and was followed by several months of violent chaos in Ireland before the Irish Catholic upper classes and clergy formed the Catholic Confederation in the summer of 1642. The Confederation became a de facto government of most of Ireland, free from the control of the English State and loosely aligned ith the Royalist side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The subsequent war continued in Ireland until the 1650s, when Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army decisively defeated the Irish Catholics and Royalists and re-conquered the country.
The roots of the 1641 rebellion lie in the failure of the English State in Ireland to assimilate the native Irish elite in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest and plantation of the country. The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the " Old ( or Gaelic ) Irish ", and the Old English, or descendants of Medieval Noeman Settlers. These groups were historically antagonistic, with English settled areas such as the Pale around Dublin, south Wexford, and other walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans. However by the 17th century, the cultural divide between these groups, especially at elite social levels, was declining. Many Old English Lords not only spoke the Irish Language, but extensively patronised Irish poetry and music, and were described as ' Hiberniores Hibernis ipis ' ( more Irish that the Irish themselves ) Intermarriage was also common. Moreover, the the wake of the Elizabethan conquest, the native population became defined by their shared religion. Roman catholicism, in distinction to the new Church of England and Church of Scotland of settlers, and the officially Protestant ( Church of Ireland ) English administration in Ireland. During the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan Wars or re-conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641, the political position of the wealthier landed Irish Catholics were increasingly threatened by the English Government of Ireland.
( a summary )
The 16th and 17th Century English conquest of Ireland was marked by large scale " Plantations " notably in Ulster and Munster. These were mass dispossessions of Irish landowners, and the granting of their land to colonists from England and Scotland. The terms of the Plantation, particularly in Ulster, were very harsh on the native Irish population, who were forbidden from owning or renting land in planted areas and also from working there on land owned by settlers. The main reason for this was the dispossession of formerly powerful Irish clan leaders, such as the O' Neills and the O' Donnells, who fled the country in the Flight of the Earls in 1607. Other Catholic Lords. such as the Magennis Clan in County Down, sold much of their land to new settlers by the 1630s. The only sizeable plantation of confiscated land after 1630 was a part of the O' Byrne lands in County Wicklow. Many of the exiles ( notably Owen Roe O' Neill ) found service as mercenaries in the Catholic armies of Spain and France. They formed a small emigre Irish community, militantly hostile to the English run and Protestant state in Ireland, but restrained by the generally good relations between England and Spain and France after 1604. In Ireland itself. One of the princpal causes of the rebellion was the resentment caused by the Plantations.
Most of the Irish Catholic upper classes were not ideologically opposed to the sovereignty of the Charles I over Ireland, but wanted to be full subjects of the triple monarchy ( England, Scotland and Ireland ) and maintain their pre-eminent position in Irish society. This was prevented by two factors, firstly their religious dissidence, and secondly the threat posed to them by the extension of the Plantations. The failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 curtailed the rights of wealthy Irish Catholics, and unfairly so as they had not been involved. Protestantism was the only approved form of worship of the Three Kingdoms. Non-attendance at Protestant church services was punishable bt " recusant fines " and the public practice of unapproved faiths by arrest. catholics could not hold senior offices of state, or serve above a certain rank in the army. The Irish privy council was dominated by the Protestant Ascendancy. The constituencies of the Irish House of Commons were re-arranged so as to give Protestants a majority in it by the session of 1613. Moreover, the Irish Parliament was subordinate to the English Parliament by a 15th century ordinance known as Poyning's Law. The Protestant Ascendency ( and therefore settler ) dominated administration took opportunities to confiscate more land from longstanding landowners by questioning their land titles.
It was as if a large rope was gradually being tightened around the neck of the native Irish population. In response, Irish Catholics sought what were called ' The Graces ' and appealed directly to the King, first James I and then Charles I, for full rights as subjects and toleration of their religion. On several occasions, the Monarchs appeared to have reached an agreement with them, granting their demands in return for raising taxes. However, Irish Catholics were disappointed when, on paying the increased levies after 1630, Charles postponed the implementation of their demands. What was more, by the late 1630s, Thomas Wentworth, Charles' representative in Ireland, launched a new round of Plantations, though these had not been effected by 1641. On the pretext of checking of land titles to raise revenue, Wentworth confiscated and was going to plant lands in Roscommon and Sligo and was planning further plantations in Galway and Kilkenny directed mainly at the " Old English " families. In the judgement of historian Padraig Leniham
' It is likely that he ( Wentworth ) would have eventually encountered armed resistance from Catholic Landowners ' if he had pursued these policies further. However the actual rebellion followed the destabliisation of English and Scottish politics and the weakened position of the King in 1640.
It was as if a large rope was gradually being tightened around the neck of the native Irish population. In response, Irish Catholics sought what were called ' The Graces ' and appealed directly to the King, first James I and then Charles I, for full rights as subjects and toleration of their religion. On several occasions, the Monarchs appeared to have reached an agreement with them, granting their demands in return for raising taxes. However, Irish Catholics were disappointed when, on paying the increased levies after 1630, Charles postponed the implementation of their demands. What was more, by the late 1630s, Thomas Wentworth, Charles' representative in Ireland, launched a new round of Plantations, though these had not been effected by 1641. On the pretext of checking of land titles to raise revenue, Wentworth confiscated and was going to plant lands in Roscommon and Sligo and was planning further plantations in Galway and Kilkenny directed mainly at the " Old English " families. In the judgement of historian Padraig Leniham
' It is likely that he ( Wentworth ) would have eventually encountered armed resistance from Catholic Landowners ' if he had pursued these policies further. However the actual rebellion followed the destabliisation of English and Scottish politics and the weakened position of the King in 1640.
In 1638 to 1640 many Scots rose in a revolt known as the ' Bishops' Wars against Charles I's attempt to impose Church of England prayers there, believing them to be too close to Catholicism. The King's attempts to put down the rebellion failed when the English Long Parliament, which had similar religious concerns to the Scots, refused to vote in 1641 for new taxes to pay for raising an army. Charles therefore started negotiations with Irish Catholic gentry to recruit an Irish army to put down the rebellion in Scotland, in return for the concession of Irish catholics' longstanding requests to practise their religion openly. To the Scots and the English Parliaments, this appeared to confirm that Charles was a tyrant, who wanted to impose Catholicism on his kingdoms, and to govern again without reference to his Parliamentarians as he had done in 1628 - 1640. During the early part of 1641, some Scots and Parliamentarians even proposed invading Ireland and subduing organised Catholicism there, to ensure that no royalist Irish Catholic army would land in England. Frightened by this, and wanting to seize the opportunity, a small group of Irish Catholic landowners conceived a plan to take Dublin Castle and to control other important towns around the country in a quick coup in the name of the King, both to forestall a possible invasion and to force him to concede the Catholics demands. More importantly, Charles had failed to beat the Scots, his ministers were under pressure from the " Short and Long " London Parliaments in 1640-41, and this apparent weakness made it much more likely that a rebellion would be successful.
