Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
When
the Lords Justices Parson and Borlase sent out Coote to ravage Wicklow he was ordered
to spare none above a span high. And it is related by various historians that when his soldiers caught Irish babes upon their spears for sport, he said he " liked such frolics " The number of planters killed in the early
months of the uprising is the subject of debate. Early English Parliamentarian propaganda pamphlets claimed that over 200, 000 settlers had lost their lives. In fact, recent research has suggested that the number is far more modest, in the region of 4,000 or so killed, though many thousands were expelled from their homes. It is estimated that up to 12,000 Protestants may have lost their lives in total, the majority dying of cold or disease after being expelled from their homes in the depths of winter.
The general pattern around the country was that the attacks intensified the longer the rebellion went on. At first, there were beatings and robbing of local settlers, the house burnings and and expulsions and finally killings, most of them concentrated in Ulster. Historian Nicholas Canny suggests that the violence escalted after a failed rebel assault on Lisnagarvey in Novemebr 1641, after which the settlers killed several hundred captured insurgents. Canny writes " the bloody mindedness of the settlers in taking revenge when they gained the upper hand in battle seems to have made such a deep impression on the insurgents that, as one deponent put it " the slaughter of the English " could be dated from this encounter " In one incident after this battle, the planters in Portadown were taken captive and then killed on the bridge in the town.
In nearby Kilmore parish, English and Scottish men, women and children were burned to death in the cottage in which they were imprisoned. In County Armagh, recent research has shown that about 1,250 Protestants were killed in the early months of the rebellion, or about a quarter of the planter population there. In County Tyrone, modern research has identified three blackspots for the killing of settlers, with the worst being near Kinard ' where most of the British families planted were ultimately murdered. '
Modern historians have argued that the killings of 1641 had a powerful psychological impact on the Protestant settlers. Dr. Mary O' Dowd, for example states that ' To look at the long-term consequences of the Plantation, it is very difficult to that without also taking into consideration the long-term implications of the 1641 rebellion: because the massacres of 1641, in the winter of 1641, really were very traumatic for the Protestant settler community in Ulster, and they left long-term scars within that community. '
Many settlers massacred Catholics when they got the chance, particularly in 1642 - 43 when a Scottish Covenanter army landed in Ulster. William Lecky, the 19th century historian of the rebellion, concluded that, " It is hard to know on which side the balance of cruelty rests. "
Among the more prominent incidents was the killing of Irish prisoners at Kilwarlin Woods near Newry and the subsequent massacre of Catholic prisoners and civilians in the town itself. Irish prisoners were given
" bad quarter, being shot dead ", but two other eye witness accounts of the skirmish ( a letter by Roger Pike and the despatches of Major General Robert Monro, the Protestant Commander ) do not mention the killing of prisoners. James Turner records in his memoirs that the following day English soldiers entered Newry and captured its castle, after the capitualtion Catholic soldiers and local merchants were lined up on the banks of the river and ' butchered to death without any legal process. '
On Rathlin Island Covenanter Cambell soldiers of the Argll's Foot were encouraged by their commanding officer Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck to kill the local Catholic MacDonalds, near relatives of their arch Clan enemy in the Scottish Highlands Clan MacDonald, this they did with ruthless efficiency throwing scores of MacDonald women over the fearful Gobbins cliffs on the peninsula called Island Mage, to their deaths on the rocks below. The number of victims of this massacre has been put as low as 100 and as high as 3,000.
months of the uprising is the subject of debate. Early English Parliamentarian propaganda pamphlets claimed that over 200, 000 settlers had lost their lives. In fact, recent research has suggested that the number is far more modest, in the region of 4,000 or so killed, though many thousands were expelled from their homes. It is estimated that up to 12,000 Protestants may have lost their lives in total, the majority dying of cold or disease after being expelled from their homes in the depths of winter.
The general pattern around the country was that the attacks intensified the longer the rebellion went on. At first, there were beatings and robbing of local settlers, the house burnings and and expulsions and finally killings, most of them concentrated in Ulster. Historian Nicholas Canny suggests that the violence escalted after a failed rebel assault on Lisnagarvey in Novemebr 1641, after which the settlers killed several hundred captured insurgents. Canny writes " the bloody mindedness of the settlers in taking revenge when they gained the upper hand in battle seems to have made such a deep impression on the insurgents that, as one deponent put it " the slaughter of the English " could be dated from this encounter " In one incident after this battle, the planters in Portadown were taken captive and then killed on the bridge in the town.
In nearby Kilmore parish, English and Scottish men, women and children were burned to death in the cottage in which they were imprisoned. In County Armagh, recent research has shown that about 1,250 Protestants were killed in the early months of the rebellion, or about a quarter of the planter population there. In County Tyrone, modern research has identified three blackspots for the killing of settlers, with the worst being near Kinard ' where most of the British families planted were ultimately murdered. '
Modern historians have argued that the killings of 1641 had a powerful psychological impact on the Protestant settlers. Dr. Mary O' Dowd, for example states that ' To look at the long-term consequences of the Plantation, it is very difficult to that without also taking into consideration the long-term implications of the 1641 rebellion: because the massacres of 1641, in the winter of 1641, really were very traumatic for the Protestant settler community in Ulster, and they left long-term scars within that community. '
Many settlers massacred Catholics when they got the chance, particularly in 1642 - 43 when a Scottish Covenanter army landed in Ulster. William Lecky, the 19th century historian of the rebellion, concluded that, " It is hard to know on which side the balance of cruelty rests. "
Among the more prominent incidents was the killing of Irish prisoners at Kilwarlin Woods near Newry and the subsequent massacre of Catholic prisoners and civilians in the town itself. Irish prisoners were given
" bad quarter, being shot dead ", but two other eye witness accounts of the skirmish ( a letter by Roger Pike and the despatches of Major General Robert Monro, the Protestant Commander ) do not mention the killing of prisoners. James Turner records in his memoirs that the following day English soldiers entered Newry and captured its castle, after the capitualtion Catholic soldiers and local merchants were lined up on the banks of the river and ' butchered to death without any legal process. '
On Rathlin Island Covenanter Cambell soldiers of the Argll's Foot were encouraged by their commanding officer Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck to kill the local Catholic MacDonalds, near relatives of their arch Clan enemy in the Scottish Highlands Clan MacDonald, this they did with ruthless efficiency throwing scores of MacDonald women over the fearful Gobbins cliffs on the peninsula called Island Mage, to their deaths on the rocks below. The number of victims of this massacre has been put as low as 100 and as high as 3,000.
Brian Boy Magee
I am Brian Boy Magee - my father was Eoghan Ban -
I was wakened from happy dreams by the shouts of my startled clan;
And i saw through the leaping glare that marked where our homestead stood,
My mother swing by her hair - and my brothers lie in their blood.
In the creepy cold of the night the pitiless wolves came down -
Scotch troops from the Castle grim guarding Knockfergus Town;
And they hacked and lashed and hewed, with musket and rope and sword,
Till my murdered kin lay thick in pools by the Slaughter Ford.
I fought by my Father's side, and when we were fighting sore
We saw a line of their steel, with our shieking women before.
The red-coats drove them on to the verge of the Gobbins Grey,
Hurried them - God! the sight! as the sea foamed up for its prey.
Oh, tall were the Gobbins cliffs, and sharp were the rocks, my woe!
And tender the limbs that met such terrible death below;
Mother and babe and maid they clutched at the empty air,
With eyeballs widened in fright, that hour of despair.
I was wakened from happy dreams by the shouts of my startled clan;
And i saw through the leaping glare that marked where our homestead stood,
My mother swing by her hair - and my brothers lie in their blood.
In the creepy cold of the night the pitiless wolves came down -
Scotch troops from the Castle grim guarding Knockfergus Town;
And they hacked and lashed and hewed, with musket and rope and sword,
Till my murdered kin lay thick in pools by the Slaughter Ford.
I fought by my Father's side, and when we were fighting sore
We saw a line of their steel, with our shieking women before.
The red-coats drove them on to the verge of the Gobbins Grey,
Hurried them - God! the sight! as the sea foamed up for its prey.
Oh, tall were the Gobbins cliffs, and sharp were the rocks, my woe!
And tender the limbs that met such terrible death below;
Mother and babe and maid they clutched at the empty air,
With eyeballs widened in fright, that hour of despair.
( Sleep soft in your heaving bed, O little fair love of my heart!
The bitter oath i have sworn shall be of my life a part;
And for every piteous prayer you prayed on your way to die,
May i hear an enemy plead while i laugh and deny )
The bitter oath i have sworn shall be of my life a part;
And for every piteous prayer you prayed on your way to die,
May i hear an enemy plead while i laugh and deny )
In the dawn that was gold and red, ay, red as the blood - choked stream,
I crept to the perilous brink - great Christ! was the night a dream?
In all the Island of Gloom i only had life that day
Death covered the green hill-sides, and tossed in the Bay.
I have vowed by the pride of my sires - by my mother's wandering ghost -
By my kinsfolk's shattered bones hurled on the cruel coast -
By the sweet dead face of my love, and the wound in her gentle breast -
To follow that murderous band, a sleuth-hound that knows no rest.
I shall go to Phelim O' Neill with my sorrowful tale, and crave
A blue-bright blade of Spain, in the ranks of his soldiers brave,
And God grant me the strength to wield that shining avenger well -
Wen Gael shall sweep his foe through the yawning gates of Hell.
I an Brian Boy Magee! and my creed is a creed of hate;
Love, Peace, i have cast aside - but Vengeance, ' Vengeance ' i wait!
Till i pay back the four-fold debt for the horrors i witnessed there,
When my brothers moaned in their blood, and my mother swung by her hair.
I crept to the perilous brink - great Christ! was the night a dream?
In all the Island of Gloom i only had life that day
Death covered the green hill-sides, and tossed in the Bay.
I have vowed by the pride of my sires - by my mother's wandering ghost -
By my kinsfolk's shattered bones hurled on the cruel coast -
By the sweet dead face of my love, and the wound in her gentle breast -
To follow that murderous band, a sleuth-hound that knows no rest.
I shall go to Phelim O' Neill with my sorrowful tale, and crave
A blue-bright blade of Spain, in the ranks of his soldiers brave,
And God grant me the strength to wield that shining avenger well -
Wen Gael shall sweep his foe through the yawning gates of Hell.
I an Brian Boy Magee! and my creed is a creed of hate;
Love, Peace, i have cast aside - but Vengeance, ' Vengeance ' i wait!
Till i pay back the four-fold debt for the horrors i witnessed there,
When my brothers moaned in their blood, and my mother swung by her hair.
The widespread killing of civilians was brought inder control to some degree in 1642, when Owen Roe
O' Neill arrived in Ulster to command the Irish Catholic forces and hanged several rebels for attacks on civilians. Thereafter the war, though still brutal, was fought in line with the code of conduct that both
O' Neill and the Scottish commander Robert Munro had learned as professional soldiers in continental Europe.
O' Neill arrived in Ulster to command the Irish Catholic forces and hanged several rebels for attacks on civilians. Thereafter the war, though still brutal, was fought in line with the code of conduct that both
O' Neill and the Scottish commander Robert Munro had learned as professional soldiers in continental Europe.
