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O'Dogherty surprises Derry - Owen
O'Dogherty kills Paulet - Phelim Reagh MacDevitt burns the Bishop's
Books - He sets fire to Derry - The Royal Forces in Ulster - Sir Richard
Wingfield takes O'Dogherty's Castle - O'Dogherty slain under the Rock of
Doon - Chichester's Methods - Phelim caught, tried by Jury, and hanged -
Ffolliott, Governor of Bally shannon, takes Tory Island - Nial Garv
arrested and sent to the Tower, where he dies.
Through the mild April night
O'Dogherty, thirsting for revenge for the insults heaped upon him by
Paulet, marched with his heart on fire, having with him scarcely 100
men, and some of these unarmed. Derry was reached at two o'clock in the
morning of Tuesday, the 19th of April (1608). Dividing his forces,
O'Dogherty attacked the storehouses in the lower forts with the view of
obtaining arms for such of his followers as needed them, while he left
Phelim Reagh MacDevitt, his foster-brother, to deal with the Governor's
house. Paulet rushed for the house of Ensign Corbet, who fought with and
wounded Phelim. While thus engaged, Corbet was struck down from behind,
the man who did the deed being instantly killed by Corbet's wife, she
herself becoming the victim of one of Reagh's men. Gordon, a lieutenant,
jumped out of bed, in which in those days it was customary to sleep in a
state of nudity, and, grasping at the weapons nearest him, a rapier and
a dagger, rushed out naked, shouting to the sleeping garrison to awake
and defend themselves. He was killed, but not until two of the Irish
fell by his hand. Paulet fell by the hand of that mere Irishman, Owen
O'Dogherty. Lieutenant Baker, having succeeded in rallying the now fully
roused garrison, made a bold effort with his little force to retake the
stores, but, being insufficiently supported, succeeded in getting into
Sheriff Babington's house, which he held till noon, when a cannon
arrived from Culmore, and O'Dogherty's small force was largely
augmented.
In the face of such odds, and seeing
that he had neither arms nor provisions, the gallant lieutenant deemed
it wiser to come to terms, which were, considering the circumstances,
honourable. The women, with the exception of Lady Paulet and Mrs.
Montgomery, the Bishop's wife, were allowed to depart with all their
belongings. Each member of the garrison was also given liberty to leave,
taking with him his sword and clothes. Phelim Reagh, having no love for
literature, made a holocaust of "2000 heretical books" which formed the
Bishop's library: a work of supererogation surely, for few could read,
and books are hard to burn. When the dead were counted, it was found
that each side had lost about ten men, Corbet's wife being the only
woman killed.
Derry was abandoned, because so small
a force would be caught like rats in a trap should the English arrive;
and Phelim Reagh, being determined that the enemy should find as little
as possible when they did arrive, set fire to the town and to two ships
laden with corn, and reserving the best guns for his own forces, he saw
that the remainder were sunk in Lough Foyle. This being done, he
returned to Culmore.
By the end of April the Viceroy sent
to Ulster all the forces he could spare. The officers were Sir Richard
Wingfield, Marshal of the Army since 1600, and Sir Oliver Lambert, the
Kitchener of that day. There was also with the forces the
Vice-Treasurer, Sir Thomas Ridge way.
On arriving at Derry on 2Oth of May
they found less damage done than they had expected. The town, so far as
its woodwork was concerned, was in ashes; the wooden roof of the
Cathedral, however, was found intact, Ridgeway's theory as to its
miraculous preservation amid the general conflagration being that
possibly the rebels hesitated to burn a building dedicated to St.
Columba, "the patron of that place, and whose name they use as their
word of privity and distinction in all their wicked and treacherous
attempts", in other terms as passwords.
The work of rebuilding of Deny was
forthwith commenced, the town being revictualled with cows and sheep
driven in from Innishowen, and the inhabitants, who had fled or departed
with the permission of Phelim Reagh, now returned and assisted the
soldiers to make the town again habitable. Having now a base of action,
Innishowen was invaded and Buncrana was burned, "as well from anger as
for example's sake", and all live stock was confiscated, including 2000
cows, nearly 3000 sheep, and 300 to 400 horses. There was no resistance,
for O'Dogherty had gone west.
Rightly deeming that while he lived
there would be danger, the English commanders determined to hunt
O'Dogherty, who fled before them. Coming to the conclusion that a stern
chase is a long chase, Wingfield resolved to return to the scene of
brave Hart's discomfiture, the Castle of Burt on Swilly. Here the
garrison, who were without a commander, were in a quandary as to whether
they should surrender or not. The problem was solved by one Dowling, of
Drogheda, who, having lived near the Pale, presumably had a larger
portion of the elements of civilization than had the wild men of
Innishowen. Dowling declared in favour of an honourable capitulation,
his terms including provision for Lady O'Dogherty and some means of
livelihood for the garrison.
But the English officers were in no
mood to parley, and their only reply to Dowling's proposal was to get
the cannons ready. A monk now came forward and said if the English fired
they would put Mrs. Montgomery in any breach made in their walls. There
proved, however, to be no necessity to place the Bishop's wife in this
dangerous position, for on the second shot the castle was surrendered.
Mrs. Montgomery, Ridgeway tells us in his journal, was "returned to her
owner", presumably the Bishop, as was also a son of Captain Brookes to
his father. Lady O'Dogherty, her only daughter, and Sir Cahir's sister
were, with Sir Nial Garv and his two brothers, put on board His
Majesty's ship Tramontana, and Ridgeway, evidently a student of human
nature, accompanied the party, thinking, as he quaintly tells us, that
as the ladies had nothing to do they must needs talk. He was agreeably
surprised at Lady O'Dogherty's volubility and with her utterances, for
she spent her time in using very strong expressions "against Nial Garv
for drawing her husband into rebellion".
June was fast fading into July when
O'Dogherty, unable to feed his men, who numbered close upon a hundred,
made a desperate dash into Tyrone, where, however, he checked the zeal
of his followers, limiting himself to absolute needs, and withdrew
without doing any damage, driving before him only the number of cattle
actually required to victual his camp. He made no attempt to regain Burt
Castle, and wandered somewhat aimlessly about Armagh and Donegal. A
little later, while thus wandering near Kilmacrenan,he came unexpectedly
upon Wingfield, who was preparing to attack Doe Castle. Neglecting a
warning not to fight, which he had received from Nial Garv, O'Dogherty
attacked the English forces, and strange irony of fate was killed under
the Rock of Doon by Irish soldiers who coveted his land. A new City Gate
had been erected in Dublin, and to Dublin was sent O'Dogherty's head to
be placed on the gate as an additional ornament, in contemplating which
Chichester might have remarked with the Pope's Legate in Browning's A
Soul's Tragedy. "I have known Four-and-twenty Leaders of Revolts".
Chichester was in Drogheda when the news reached him, and he immediately
issued a proclamation addressed to the people of Ulster, warning them on
pain of death neither to harbour nor protect any of O'Dogherty 's
followers. With the view of paying the living out of the pockets of the
dead, all who delivered up any of the traitors, although they might be
traitors themselves, were promised free pardons and the goods of the
person so given up. Thus a premium was set on treachery, and no man's
life was safe. The sole exception to this remarkable clemency on the
part of the Government was Phelim Reagh, to whom no hope of pardon was
held out.
Such is the depravity of human nature,
Chichester's brilliant idea of setting Ulsterman against Ulsterman had
no sooner been made public than it took effect. An important capture was
made by the MacShane O'Neills, who brought into the fort at Mountjoy no
less a personage than Shane Carragh, a brother of O'Cahan.
Instead of executing Shane Carragh by
martial law, Chichester determined to prolong the agony and have his
prisoner tried by jury. By so doing, he desired to impress upon the
Irish the heinousness of the man's offence. Accordingly, tried at
Dungannon by an Irish jury Shane Carragh was, and on being found guilty
was hanged. The Irish, it is believed, were much impressed by the
solemnity of the trial.
Chichester having hanged, amongst
others, some fifty members of the O'Hanlon sept, and having heard, with
much satisfaction, the monk who had played a prominent part at Castle
Burt renounce in public the Pope and all his works, thereby purchasing
life and liberty, now marched through Glenconkein, the scene of Shane
O'Neill's last days. Here, says Sir John Davies, "the wild inhabitants
wondered as much to see the King's Deputy as the ghosts in Virgil
wondered to see Æneas alive in hell".
The Lord Deputy, having reached
Coleraine, was gratified by the news that an illegitimate brother of Sir
Cahir had been captured. This was a valuable prize, for he was beloved
of the people of Innishowen, who wished him to be The O'Dogherty; but
such hopes were now destined to be nipped in the bud. Another important
capture was that of Owen O'Dogherty, by whose hand Sir George Paulet had
been slain. But the prize of prizes was the half-dead Phelim Reagh
MacDevitt, who, having been hunted into a wood, was there discovered
after long and careful search, and, having resisted in a desperate
attempt to save himself, was overcome by numbers, after being wounded
almost to the death. Phelim was "lifted up tenderly and tended with
care", for his life was precious and he must be preserved for the
hangman. He was supposed to be the author of the whole rising, but on
partial recovery he accused Sir Nial Garv (the non-fighter) in
acrimonious terms, and was then hanged with twenty others. September
found the Lord Deputy at Dublin Castle, his work in Ulster accomplished.
Sir Henry Ffolliott, the Governor of
Ballyshannon, proved that in dealing with Irish rebels he also had
brilliant ideas. Learning that Shane MacManus, Oge O'Donnell, was with
some 240 men still holding out on Tory Island, Ffolliott determined to
displace him, and, proceeding to do so, he reached on his way Glenvagh,
an island fortress held by a former forester of Tirconnell, named
O'Gallagher, who, says Ffolliott, "killed two or three of his best
associates after he yielded up the island, for which", added the
Governor of Ballyshannon, "we took him into protection".
MacManus, hearing of the approach of
Ffolliott, fled with the bulk of his followers by boat into Connaught,
leaving, however, eleven men in the castle on Tory Island to the tender
mercies of the Governor of Ballyshannon. Here Ffolliott found the poor
wretches. The constable of the castle begged to be permitted to see the
English commander, and when he did so in the presence of Sir Mulmore
MacSwiney, Ffolliott promised him his life on condition that he
surrendered the castle with seven men dead in it. One of this miserable
garrison, composed of wild men of the lowest type, was a MacSwiney, and
he too made a like bargain, "each of them", says Ffolliott in his
account of the matter, "being well assured and resolved to cut the
other's throat". Thus by this disgraceful bargain, and in accordance
with the wild licence and strange code of ethics of the time, Sir
Mulmore MacSwiney looked on while his countrymen butchered each other to
make their conqueror's holiday. The result was that the constable, in
endeavouring to kill a subordinate, was stabbed to the heart by the man
he attacked, who in his turn was killed by another. "And so", wrote
Ffolliott, well pleased with his day's work, "there were but five that
escaped, three of them churls and the other two boys. . . . Shane
M'Manus is deprived of his mother and two children and his boat, which I
think he regards more than them all."
Sir Nial Garv O'Donnell, against whom
Lady O'Dogherty and Phelim Reagh had spoken with such extraordinary
vehemence, continued to profess his loyalty. It became known later that
it was on his advice Sir Cahir had acted, and that the part he was to
have played in the rebellion was to seize Ballyshannon and Donegal while
O'Dogherty was taking Culmore and Derry. Means of intercommunication
were slow in those fighting times. No doubt O'Dogherty thought he had
Sir Nial Garv's co-operation, while as a matter of fact Sir Nial
remained inactive, waiting, as the modern phrase has it, to see which
way the cat jumped; prepared to act for O'Dogherty or not, as it proved
politic and conduced to his own welfare. His wife, who read his
character clearly, left him to join in the flight of the Earls; and that
she was right in her bad opinion of him is proved by the fact that
whilst calmly surveying O'Dogherty's struggles he did not help him,
though he sent sixteen of his own men to help to surprise Derry and
urged Sir Cahir to spare no one.
But Nial Garv was restless, and, being
discovered to be in communication with the rebels, he was arrested at
Glenveagh, the little island stronghold already referred to, and sent to
Dublin. Here he was kept until 1609, the delay being caused in getting a
Donegal jury to be sworn in King's Bench. The jury, composed of
Irishmen, refused to find a verdict of treason against Nial Garv, on the
grounds that he had never taken up arms against the King. This decision
they adhered to, although they were shut up without food from Friday
until Monday, and they were discharged "in commiseration of their
faintings, and for reasons concerning His Majesty's service", Sir John
Davies alleging that "the priests excommunicate the jurors who condemn a
traitor", an early instance of the priest interfering with the course of
the law. "The Irish", asserted Sir John, "will never condemn a principal
traitor: therefore we have need of an English colony, that we may have
honest trials. They dare not condemn an Irish lord of a country for fear
of revenge, because we have not power enough in the country to defend
honest jurors. We must stay there till the English and Scottish colonies
be planted, and then make a jury of them."
Under these circumstances it was
deemed advisable to ship Sir Nial to London, and seven years later he
died in the Tower.
Ulster suffered long from the effects
of O'Dogherty's rebellion, if rebellion it can be called. The Four
Masters record that ''from this rising and from the departure of the
Earls their principalities, their territories, their estates, their
lands, their forts, their fruitful harbours, and their fishful bays were
taken from the Irish of the Province of Ulster, and were given in their
presence to foreign tribes, and they were expelled and banished into
other countries, where most of them died". |
