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Ulster being subdued, Coote
marches South - The Siege of Limerick - Hugh Duv O'Neill surrenders - Is
twice sentenced to Death, but is acquitted - Death of Ireton - O'Neill
sent to the Tower - Is released and sails for Spain - Coote repairs to
Galway - Clanrickard summons O'Reilly from Ulster - Clanrickard
surrenders - Various Submissions - Fleetwood lands - Ludlow superseded -
The Last Stand of Ulster - Castleoughter surrenders - O'Reilly of Ulster
submits - Sir Phelim O'Neill captured near Charlemont - He is tried in
Dublin and hanged - The Rebellion and War in Ireland proclaimed to be at
an End.
The Parliament had as yet
no footing on the Clare side of the Shannon, and as the English army, to
some extent rehabilitated, and having recruited during the winter, was
ready for an early campaign, Ireton determined on the reduction of
Limerick, and began his operations although provisions and clothes were
scarce. To invest the city on all sides it was necessary to march into
Connaught and to capture Athlone. As Leinster and Ulster were now
considered safe, Sir Charles Coote, with the forces under his command in
Ulster, was directed to cross the Erne near its mouth, and to turn the
line of the Shannon. With 2000 horse and nearly the same number of foot
Coote marched against Sligo; but when the whole attention of the Irish
of Connaught was occupied with the threatened danger to Sligo, he
suddenly drew off his army, and forcing his passage through the Curlieu
mountains, " by strange and unexpected ways undiscovered", presented
himself before Athlone. Clanrickard, in the midst of faction and
discontent, saw the importance of this place, and made an attempt to
relieve it, but too late, for it surrendered on i8th June, before he
could collect his forces, and Coote marched towards Galway.
Ireton appeared before
Limerick on the 3rd of June on the Clare side of the Shannon, and
proceeded to lay siege to the city. Limerick, owing to the strange
infatuation of Hugh Duv O'Neill, who had been for some time its
Governor, persisted to the last in its foolhardy opposition to the
wishes of Ormonde and Clanrickard to garrison it. When the Lord Deputy,
aware that all the hopes of his party depended on the preservation of
Limerick, offered to enter it with an army and share the fate of the
citizens, his proposal was rejected by the surly old Spanish soldier,
who was confident in his ability to defend the city single-handed. His
authority, however, was, when the sufferings of the inhabitants became
more acute during the siege, rendered nugatory by the corporation and
magistrates, and at length negotiations were commenced for a
capitulation. Finally, on the 27th of October, Colonel Fennell and
others were sent to seize St. John's Gate and the adjoining tower.
O'Neill remonstrated, but Fennell said he had orders from the mayor and
chief citizens, and, having the keys, he admitted 200 of Ireton's men,
and the articles of capitulation were signed.
It being no part of our
province to dwell on this siege, it may here be dismissed, save in so
far as it concerns Hugh Duv O'Neill. He was one of the last of that
great Ulster clan who had played an important part in Irish history, and
he proved himself worthy of the name he bore. He rode out of the
plague-stricken city alone and delivered up his sword to Ireton himself,
ignoring, as he mounted his horse, the attitude of Fennell, who
threatened him with a pistol. Ireton treated him personally with
courtesy, but he had, by his defence of Clonmel and his prolongation of
the siege of Limerick, provoked the Lord-Lieutenant too much to expect
mercy. He was tried, and defended himself with ability and acumen. He
was sentenced to death, but as he had always shown himself to be a brave
soldier and an honourable foe, many of the officers, including Ludlow,
expostulated; whereupon Ireton, "who was now entirely freed from his
former manner of adhering to his own opinion", consented to a second
trial, when the life of the gallant O'Neill was saved by a single vote.
He was acquitted and sent to the Tower, where he was well treated.
Ireton died of the Plague at Limerick on the 26th of November, and, by a
strange coincidence, his remains, which had been embalmed, were placed
on board the same vessel as that which bore O'Neill to England. The
Spanish Ambassador, having represented that O'Neill was a subject of the
King of Spain, Hugh Duv was discharged from the Tower on the ist of
April, 1652, and ended his days in Spain as commander of Irish soldiers
recruited for the Spanish service. A short time before he died he wrote,
after the Restoration, to Charles II, drawing His Majesty's attention to
the fact that the death of John O'Neill, his cousin, made him Earl of
Tyrone, and begging the King to acknowledge his claim to the title.
This, of course, Charles could not do, and the title was not revived
until twenty years later. Cromwell is said to have specially recommended
Hugh Duv O'Neill as a good soldier to King Philip IV.
Sir Charles Coote had in
the meantime obtained some successes over the Irish, and he now marched
into County Clare to join Ireton, who, having appointed Sir Hardress
Waller governor of Limerick, left that city on the 4th of November to
proceed against Gal way. Here Ireton contracted the Plague, of which he
died, as already stated, at Limerick. Galway, which was on the point of
capitulating, on learning of the death of Ireton gained fresh courage,
and applied for assistance to Clanrickard, who immediately repaired to
it. Ludlow, who had been appointed to the chief command by the
Commissioners of Parliament in Dublin, was joined by Coote, and
proceeded early in February, 1652, against Galway, which on the I2th of
May surrendered almost at the first summons. Clanrickard had summoned
forces from Ulster to his aid, but the summons was for the most part
disregarded.
Clanrickard now burned
his boats by sending away Castlehaven in his only frigate, thus leaving
himself no means of escape. He summoned Lord Westmeath and O'Farrell
from Leinster, Muskerry from Munster, and O'Reilly from Ulster, to join
him in Sligo or Leitrim, and "unite in one clear score for God, our King
and country". The King had given Clanrickard permission to leave Ireland
when he thought fit to do so, but at the same time added significantly
that "the keeping up of the war there in any kind, either offensive or
defensive, is of the highest importance to us and our service that can
be performed ; as the contrary would be of the greatest prejudice to all
our designs". Venables, receiving "one clear call" from Coote, came up
from Down to join him. They took Sligo and retook Ballyshannon and
Donegal, which had been taken by Clanrickard, who struggled to the last;
and by the end of June, finding himself surrounded by the enemy in the
island of Carrick, he accepted a pass from the Parliament with leave to
transport himself and 3000 of his followers for foreign service. Thus
was the last vestige of royal authority withdrawn from Ireland. The few
detached garrisons which the Irish still held were reduced in
succession, and the isolated leaders who continued under arms made terms
for themselves and their followers. Colonel John Fitzpatrick was the
first to lay down his arms in this way; Colonel Edmund O'Dwyer and
Turlogh O'Neill followed, and the Earl of Westmeath and Lord Enniskillen
acted in a similar manner. One of the last to submit was Colonel Richard
Grace, with whom 1250 men laid down their arms. Lord Muskerry
surrendered the strong castle of Ross, near Killarney, to Ludlow on the
22nd of June, when 960 able men marched out of the castle.
Early in August Ludlow
marched into Ulster and garrisoned Carrickmacross. Near Dundalk, he
tells us, he discovered a cave in which a number of the Irish had taken
refuge. They refused to surrender, and an attempt was made to smoke them
out; but when the soldiers entered, deeming them to be dead, their
leader was shot by one of the refugees. Careful inspection of the
surrounding district proved that the cave was ventilated by a hole at a
distance. The hole being stopped up by Ludlow's orders, "another smother
was made'*, and the fumigation was continued for a time; after which,
"the passage being cleared, the soldiers entered, and, having put about
fifteen to the sword, brought four or five out alive, with the priest's
robes, a crucifix, chalice, and other furniture of that kind. Those
within pre- served themselves by laying their heads close to water that
ran through the rock. We found two rooms in the place, one of which was
large enough to turn a pike." To prevent the cave being again used as a
domicile, Ludlow had the entrance filled with rocks. Posts were
established at Agher and Castle Blayney, Lisnaskea was fortified, and
Belturbet, in which a few Irish still held out, was taken.
Fleetwood, who had been
appointed Commander-in-Chief in Ireland on July the 10th, landed at
Waterford early in September, being joined in the civil administration
by four commissioners Ludlow, Miles Corbet, John Jones, and John Weaver,
the member for Stamford, Ludlow stating that he was glad to be
superseded, his administration having been "recompensed only with envy
and hatred".
The last stand made in
Ulster by the Irish was in the island of Lough Oughter. The Castle of
Cloughoughter, in which Bedell had died in the first year of the war,
and in which Owen Roe O'Neill expired eight years later, surrendered on
April the ayth, 1653, the articles being signed by Sir Theophilus Jones
and by Philip O'Reilly on behalf of himself and the other Ulster chiefs
still remaining under arms.
The Parliamentary
Commissioners began their administration by erecting a High Court of
Justice in Dublin under Chief-Justice Lowther, who issued commissions to
find and examine witnesses in the country. The object was to try those
who were accused of having taken part in the massacres of 1641. So many,
however, of the perpetrators of the outrages had either perished in the
course of the war or had fled the country, that it was found impossible
to bring them to justice, and in consequence, in all Ireland, not more
than a couple of hundred were found guilty. The investigations caused by
this tribunal resulted in the capture of Sir Phelim O'Neill, who,
instead of leaving Ireland as arranged after the surrender of Charlemont,
had concealed himself in Tyrone. Early in 1653, in order to communicate
with Lady O'Neill, who continued to reside at Charlemont, he established
himself on an island in Roghan Lough, near Coalisland. Here he
maintained himself in an old house, having with him Tirlogh Groom O'Quin
and some twenty soldiers.
Lady O'Neill, a daughter
of the first Marquis of Huntly, in sending supplies to Sir Phelim,
employed a messenger from Charlemont, and thus attracted the attention
of Lord Caulfeild, whose predecessor, it will be remembered, was
murdered by Sir Phelim's foster-brother in 1642. Naturally desirous to
bring O'Neill to justice, Caulfeild took steps to secure him, and,
having surrounded the little lake with soldiers, he had boats launched
upon it, the crews of which speedily captured Sir Phelim and his
bodyguard and conveyed them to Carrickfergus. Here O'Neill was received
by Venables, who treated him with courtesy while in his hands, sending
him and his companions to be tried in Dublin.
On arrival at Dublin it
was found unnecessary to detain any of Sir Phelim's followers save
Turlogh O'Quin, and they were accordingly set at liberty. On February
the 28th O'Neill was tried for high treason and murder. He was not
accused of actual murder, but of being an accessary before the fact or
of having given orders to the actual assassins. It had been said that he
acted under a commission from Charles I, and that he had shown the
commission to his followers.
Sir Phelim confessed to
having made use of such a commission, but he asserted that it was forged
by himself, and that he had never received any commission or order from
the late King. He said that when he seized the fort of Charlemont he
found in the muniment room there a patent with a broad seal attached to
it, that he had caused the seal to be detached and affixed to a
pretended commission which had been written to his dictation in the
King's name, and he produced in court the person who had been employed
to stitch on the cord of the seal.
The judges were still
dissatisfied, and repeated attempts were made to induce O'Neill to
confess further, in which hope a promise was made to him that he should
be restored to liberty and to his estates if he produced sufficient
proof that he had received such a commission from the late King; but he
denied ever having received a royal commission. Michael Harrison, who
saved his own life by acting for a time as secretary to Sir Phelim,
confessed in open court that he attached the Great Seal to a sham
commission. The same witness swore that in December, 1641, he heard
O'Neill say, "with great ostentation, that he would never leave off the
work he had begun until mass should be sung or said in every church in
Ireland, and that a Protestant should not live in Ireland, be he of what
nation he would ".
Sir Phelim O'Neill was
condemned to death, and maintained on the scaffold the truth of his
assertion regarding the bogus nature of the commission. In his last
moments, when
SIR PHELIM O'NEILL
From a print in the British Museut
appealed to privately to
confess the facts, he stood forward, and, raising his voice, said: "I
thank the Lord-Lieutenant for his intended mercy; but I declare, good
people, before God and His holy angels, and all you that hear me, I
never had any commission from the King for levying or prosecuting this
war".
O'Neill was the only one
who suffered in Ulster. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered, one quarter
being impaled at Lisburn, which he had burned; another at Dundalk, which
he had taken; a third at Drogheda, which he had besieged in vain ; and
the fourth, with his head, at Dublin, which he had plotted to surprise.
O'Quin was executed later, and his head set upon the west gate of
Carrickfergus.
On the 26th of September,
1653, it was publicly declared, in a proclamation by Fleetwood and his
brother Commissioners, that the rebellion in Ireland was subdued and the
war in Ireland ended. |
