1641 [microform] : reply to the falsification of history by James Anthony Froude, entitled The English in Ireland

Each story keeps the passage it was read from. Open one to read the passage as the book has it, and, where the companion has written its own telling, that too.

1. Mass drowning of Protestants at Portadown Bridge on the Bann

   near Portadown · town · Armagh · 1641–1642

   Depositions claim that on or about 20 December, rebels drowned one hundred and eighty Protestants at Portadown bridge on the river Bann, with further drownings continuing weekly until, according to Dean Maxwell, over a thousand had been drowned there.

   Read the passage

   and it was ikis e^ate which was guilty of the murd^. B^ these swimasiug corpses did not speak, in which respect they fall shcHrt of ihe spectres of the Baon. It was said, and :? repeated several times in depositions, that, ^' al>out the 20th of December," (for they seldom give us dates at all, and then in a very loose way,) "the rebels" drowned one hundred and ^ghty Protestants in the Bann, at Portadown bridge ; that this was followed by other moyades at the same place, week after week, until, as Dean Maxwell computes, there were over a thousand Protestants drowned there. The widow, Catherine Cooke, not only swears to this, but adds in her aflBdavit this ghastly fact —

   ^' And that, about nine days afterwards^ she saw a vision or spirit, in the shape of a man^ as she apprehended, that appeared in that river, in the place of the drowning, bolt upright, breasthigh, with han^s lifted up, and stood in that posture there, until the latter end of Lent next follovnng; about which time, some of the English army marching in those parts, whereof her husband was one {as he and they confidently told this deponent)^ saw that E^irit or vision standing upright, and in the postiu*^ aforementioned ; but, after that time, the said spirit or vision vanished, and appeared no more, that she knoweth."

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 15

2. Massacre and drowning at Belturbet, with sworn eye-witness account

   Belturbet · town · Cavan · 1641–1642

   Arthur Culm of Cloughwater deposed that thirty women, children and seven men were flung into the river at Belturbet, with escapees clubbed by rebels in boats; two women were also hanged at Turbert the same day, and the sheriff Maelmorra O'Reilly was implicated.

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   ** Arthur Culm, of €loughwater» in the county of Cavan, esqttire, deposeth. That he toas credibly informed^ by some that were present there, that there were thirty women and young children and seven men flung into the river of Beltm-bert j and when some of them offiered to swim for their lives, tJiey were, by the rebels, followed in boats, and knocked on the head with poles ; the same day they hanged two women at Turbert ; and tl^ deponent doth terily believe that Mnlmore O'Biely, l^e then sheriff, had a hand in the commanding the murder of those said persons, for that he sato him toriie two notes, which he sent to Turbert by Brien O'Rely, upon whose coming these mta^rs were committed ; and those persons who were present also affirmed that the bodies of those thirty persons drowned did ncft ^appear upvn the water till about six weeks after, past ; at f%e ■said CBely came to the town, all the bodies came floating up to the very bridge ; those persons were all formerly stayed in the town by his protection, when the rest of their neighbours in the town went away."

   Thei'e are many other very miraculous facts sWom to, which are quite accessible to the Historian ; also many cffh&t and sHH more savage cruelties, which he does his readers positive wr<Mig in suppressing. I shall present ^11 anoth^ spidlegium culled from the " eternal witness of blood ; " and afterwards 4e:3tplain why these depositiotis were called for, how ihe^ were obtsiined, and how they were paid for. All which the learned Htttorian knew very well, but preferred to suppress for the iiOBour of Protestant humati nature.

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 14

3. Massacre of Poor Irish Families at Island Magee

   near Island Magee · parish · Antrim · 1641

   Thirty families of poor, unoffending Irish were assailed in their beds and massacred with calm and deliberate cruelty at Island Magee. The event provoked Sir Phelim O'Neill to retaliate against Protestants.

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   district called Island Magee, where a number of the poorer Irish resided, unoffending and untainted with the rebellion. If we may believe one of the leaders of this party, thirty families were assailed by them in their beds, and massacr^ with calm and deliberate cruelty. * As if,' proceeds the Historian, 'the incident were not sufficiently hideous. Popish writers ha.ve represented it with shocking aggravations."

   An angry man was Sir Phelim O'Neill when he heard of the drowning at Island Magee ; but his duty to his own people called for stern retaliation ; and that some acts of this nature were done, cannot and need not be denied. Sir Phelim was not naturdly disposed to cruelty, and had anxiously sought to keep his men — ^wild as they were with their wrongs and sufferings — within the limits prescribed at the beginning. Yet he had to ^ve way to some extent ; and it must be true that some Protestants were flung into the Bann river at Portadown, just as Catholics had been flung over the Gobbins cliffs.

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 31

4. Battle of Benburb: Three Thousand Slain

   Benburb · townland · Tyrone · 1646

   At Benburb, Owen Roe O'Neill defeated General Munroe's covenanting army; three thousand Scottish and English men fell on that day, a major slaughter along the Blackwater.

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   Qious flight. The General lost his hat and wig ; but eastward still he urged his horse, through the marshes of the Montiaghs, by the southern shore of Lough Neagh, across the Bana about the place where the ghosts were still shrieking ; and, before morning, the Protestant burghers of Lisburn were disturbed by the gallop of horses ready to founder. They looked out of window ; it was only General Monroe and sta^ making their entry ; but the frightened shopkeepers ahnost thought that they heard at the town's end the thundering hoofs of Owen Roe's riders. Three thousand Scottish and English mea fell on that day of Benburb, and the Irish nation felt that they had got a leader able to cope with the Lord-General Cromwell.

   As this affair of Benburb is creditable to Irish soldiership^ therefore Froude never alludes to it. The miserable Historian is always anxiously on the watch to find some pretext for goading our people with a taunt ; and it is really wonderful tO' observe how low down, and how far out of his way, he will go to contrive a cutting and stinging gibe. For example, by way of enforcing his favourite theory, that Irishmen require to be used with severity, and that the more you scourge them the more they love you, he quotes, what he calls a Hibernian, .proverb, in Latin, to the effect that if you soothe and flatter an Irishman he will stab you, but if you kick him he will be your affectionate servant. Froude knows perfectly well that this is a French proverb, which the proud seigneurs applied to their serfs, and that it had no reference to Ireland at all — " Oignez vilain ; il vouspoindra ; poignez vilain ; il vous oindra."

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 31

5. The floating corpses miracle at Belturbet bridge

   Belturbet · town · Cavan · 1641–1642

   Drowned bodies at Belturbet reportedly lay underwater for six weeks before rising and floating upstream to the bridge exactly when Maelmorra O'Reilly entered the village, seemingly to accuse him of their murder.

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   In the last chapter I mentioned the miracle of the floating corpses on the river at Belturbet, that, after lying drowned six weeks, came up and swam against the stream up to the very bridge, at the moment when Maelmorra O'Keilly entered the village by that bridge. They came up to confront and accuse him of their murder — as a certain person was " credibly informed : " for, in fact, O'Reilly had still an estate in Cavan ;

   ::.L^£t]Se^iL!'Mia, <£iyi^^£t»^)k3S^ii

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 15

6. Ghostly upright figure seen in the Bann at the drowning site

   near Portadown · town · Armagh · 1641–1643

   Widow Catherine Cooke swore that about nine days after the drownings she saw a spirit in the shape of a man standing upright, breast-high in the river at the place of drowning, remaining until Lent, and later witnessed by soldiers including her husband.

   Read the passage

   ^' And that, about nine days afterwards^ she saw a vision or spirit, in the shape of a man^ as she apprehended, that appeared in that river, in the place of the drowning, bolt upright, breasthigh, with han^s lifted up, and stood in that posture there, until the latter end of Lent next follovnng; about which time, some of the English army marching in those parts, whereof her husband was one {as he and they confidently told this deponent)^ saw that E^irit or vision standing upright, and in the postiu*^ aforementioned ; but, after that time, the said spirit or vision vanished, and appeared no more, that she knoweth."

   This was not sworn until the 24th of February, 1&43» whea there was a most urgent demand, and good price, for the most frightful oaths. Other witnesses had a still moi'e inventive imagination ; and Elizabeth Price, of Armagh, swears that, on a certain day —

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 15

7. Protestants burned alive in a house near Laugale, Armagh

   near Armagh · town · Armagh · 1641–1642

   Christian Stanhaw deposed on hearsay that rebels forced a large number of Protestant men, women and children into a house which they set on fire, cutting down with scythes any who tried to escape the flames and casting them back into the fire.

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   " Christian Stanhaw, the relict of Heniy Stanhaw, late of the county of Armagh, esquire, deposeth. That a woman that formerly lived near Laugale, absolutely informed this deponent that the rebels enforced a great number of Protestants, men, women, and children into a house, which they set on fire purposely to burn them, as they did; and still as any of them offered to come out to shun the fire, the wicked rebels, with scythes, which they had in their hands, cut them to pieces, and cast them into the fire, and burned them with the rest. Jurat. July 23, 1642."

   Poor Mrs Jane Stewart, residing in the town of Sligo, had, on a certain day, the good luck to be confined to her bed by sickness ; and a piece of rare good fortune it was for Jane, seeing she was thus saved from the fate decreed to all the Protestants of that quiet town, and presei*ved alive to contribute her chapter to the " eternal witness of blood." She deposeth and saith —

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 19

8. Daniel Connery's Daughters Transported from Clare

   near Clare · population centre · Clare · 1657

   Daniel Connery, a gentleman of Clare County, was sentenced to banishment for harbouring a priest in 1657; his wife died in poverty and three of his beautiful daughters were transported to Barbadoes into miserable slavery.

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   Many such operations took place in various parts of the country ; until this Bristol firm alone had shipped above 6400 young strong people within the desirable ages. Many a girl of gentle birth and delicate nurture must have been seized by those slave-dealers and hurried to the private prisons. Daniel Connery, a gentleman of Clare County, was sentenced to" banishment for harbouring a priest in 1657. " This gentleman had a wife and twelve children ; his wife fell sick, and died in poverty. Three of his daughters, most beautiful gu'Is, were transported to the "West Indies, to an island called the Barbadoes ; and there, if they are alive, they are in miserable slavery." (Morisons Threnodia: cited by Prendergast). On the whole, taking priests and laymen together, men and women, girls and boys, and allowing some years for the operation, I think we may allow Father Burke's estimate to be a fair and probable one.

   - -'Hf'-iMtMiiintii-i-iriimrAim rt-iln'- fi^

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 33

9. Massacre of Protestant heads displayed on Kilkenny market cross

   Kilkenny · city · Kilkenny · 1641–1643

   William Lucas of Kilkenny deposed on hearsay that rebels brought seven Protestant heads, including that of a minister named Bingham, mutilated and mocked the heads, set them upon the market-cross on market day, then threw them into a hole in St James's Green.

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   " William Lucas, (3f the city of Kilkenny, deposeth, That although he lived in the town till about five or six weeks past, in which time, he is assured, divers murders and cruel acts were committed, yet he durst not go abroad to see any of them ; but he doth confidently believe that the rebels having brought seven Protestants' heads, whereof one was the head of Mr Bingham, a minister, they did then and there, as triumphs of their victories, set them upon the market-cross on a market day; and that the rebels slashed, stabbed, and mangled those heads ; put a gag, or carrot, in the said Mr Bingham's mouth, slit up his cheeks to his ears, laying a leaf of a Bible before him, and bid him preach, for his month was wide enough ; and, after they had solaced themselves, threw those heads into a hde in St James's Green. Jurat August 16, 1643."

   ■^

   Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 19

10. Massacre of Protestants in Sligo gaol

    Sligo · town · Sligo · 1641–1642

    Jane Stewart of Sligo deposed that Protestant men, women and children of the town were summoned and placed in the gaol, stripped naked around midnight, and most were cruelly murdered with swords, axes and skeins by named butchers and others.

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    " All the men, women, and children of the British that then could be found within the same town (saving this deponent, who was so sick that she could not stir) were summoned to go into the gaol, as many as could be met with, all were carried and put into the gaol, where, about twelve o'clock in the night, they were stripped stark naked, and after most of them were cnielly and barbarously murdered with swords, axes, and skeins, and particularly by two butchers, named James Buts and Robert Buts, of Sligo, who murdered many of them ; wherein also were actors, Charles O'Connor, the friar, and Hugh O'Connor aforenamed, brother to the said Teigue O'Connor, Kedagh O'Hart, labourer, Richard Walsh, and Thomas Walsh, the one the jailer the other a butcher, and divers others whom she cannot name, and ssdth that above thirty of the British which were so put into the gaol, were then and there murdered ; besides Robert Gumble, then Pro-

    /

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 19

    As the companion tells it

    Sligo holds a dark chapter from 1641. Jane Stewart of the town gave her account of what happened here. She said that all the men, women and children of the British that could be found in the town were summoned and carried into the gaol. She herself was spared only because she was too sick to stir. About midnight the prisoners were stripped stark naked, and most of them were murdered with swords, axes and skeins. Two butchers of Sligo, named James Buts and Robert Buts, killed many of them. Others named as taking part were Charles O'Connor, a friar, Hugh O'Connor, Kedagh O'Hart a labourer, Richard Walsh, and Thomas Walsh, who was the jailer. Jane Stewart said that above 30 of the British were murdered in that gaol that night, besides Robert Gumble.

11. Munroe's Rout and the Shrieking Ghosts at the Bann

    near River Bann · river · Derry · 1646

    After his defeat at Benburb, General Munroe fled eastward across the Bann near the place where the ghosts of the earlier drownings were still said to be shrieking, before reaching Lisburn in disarray.

    Read the passage

    Qious flight. The General lost his hat and wig ; but eastward still he urged his horse, through the marshes of the Montiaghs, by the southern shore of Lough Neagh, across the Bana about the place where the ghosts were still shrieking ; and, before morning, the Protestant burghers of Lisburn were disturbed by the gallop of horses ready to founder. They looked out of window ; it was only General Monroe and sta^ making their entry ; but the frightened shopkeepers ahnost thought that they heard at the town's end the thundering hoofs of Owen Roe's riders. Three thousand Scottish and English mea fell on that day of Benburb, and the Irish nation felt that they had got a leader able to cope with the Lord-General Cromwell.

    As this affair of Benburb is creditable to Irish soldiership^ therefore Froude never alludes to it. The miserable Historian is always anxiously on the watch to find some pretext for goading our people with a taunt ; and it is really wonderful tO' observe how low down, and how far out of his way, he will go to contrive a cutting and stinging gibe. For example, by way of enforcing his favourite theory, that Irishmen require to be used with severity, and that the more you scourge them the more they love you, he quotes, what he calls a Hibernian, .proverb, in Latin, to the effect that if you soothe and flatter an Irishman he will stab you, but if you kick him he will be your affectionate servant. Froude knows perfectly well that this is a French proverb, which the proud seigneurs applied to their serfs, and that it had no reference to Ireland at all — " Oignez vilain ; il vouspoindra ; poignez vilain ; il vous oindra."

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 31

12. Protestants Drowned in the Bann at Portadown

    near Portadown · town · Armagh · 1641

    In retaliation for the Island Magee massacre, some Protestants were flung into the Bann river at Portadown, just as Catholics had been flung over the Gobbins cliffs.

    Read the passage

    An angry man was Sir Phelim O'Neill when he heard of the drowning at Island Magee ; but his duty to his own people called for stern retaliation ; and that some acts of this nature were done, cannot and need not be denied. Sir Phelim was not naturdly disposed to cruelty, and had anxiously sought to keep his men — ^wild as they were with their wrongs and sufferings — within the limits prescribed at the beginning. Yet he had to ^ve way to some extent ; and it must be true that some Protestants were flung into the Bann river at Portadown, just as Catholics had been flung over the Gobbins cliffs.

    I am bound to maintain, after all the examination I have been able to give to the ghastly story, that the Irish insurrection of 1641 was notable amongst insurrections for its mildness and humanity ; and that, if the Irish were not the most gentle, patient, and good-natured people in the whole world, their island would long since have been a smoking wilderness of cinders soaked in blood.

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 31

13. Screaming female spectre crying 'Revenge!' at the bridge

    near Portadown · town · Armagh · 1641–1643

    Elizabeth Price of Armagh swore that at twilight near the bridge a spirit in the shape of a woman appeared upright in the water, repeatedly crying 'Revenge!', frightening her and others away.

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    " She went unto the bridge aforesaid, about tmlighi in th^. evening; then and there, upon a sudden, appeared unto ^m a vision or spirity assuming the shape of a woman, vKtist-kigh, wpright in the water, often repeating the word. Revenge t . Revenge t Bevenge! whereat this deponent, and the rest, being put into an amazement and affright, walked from the place."

    There are five or six other deponents who swear to these shrieking appaiitions ; but it is time to come to Dean Maxwell, afterwards bishop, that consecrated, anointed and mitred perjurer, whose long aflSdavit is relied upon with the greatest confidence by Borlase and Temple, and is, therefore, dted by Froude, as a main part of his authorities, but without giving

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 15

14. Father Paul Cashin Imprisoned Dying at Philipstown

    Philipstown · townland · Kildare · 1655–1657

    The elderly and frail Father Paul Cashin was apprehended at Maryborough and sent on toward Carrickfergus for transportation, falling desperately sick and nearly perishing from want and hardship in a dungeon at Philipstown.

    Read the passage

    send them with suflScient guards from garrison to garrison to Carrickfergus, to be there put on board such ships as should sail with the first opportunity for the Barbadoes." Poor old Father Paul Cashin, a very ancient and frail man, being apprehended at Maryborough, and sent on to Philipstown on the way to CarricMergus, there fell desperately sick, and was in danger of perishing in a dungeon from want and hardship. After months, the Commissioners ordered him an allowance of sixpence a day ; and when he should be well enough to move, this allowance was to be continued to him during his journey to Carrickfergus " in order to his transportation to the Barbadoes." It would not be much sugar Father Paul would make after being set down there and bidden to take up the shovel and the hoe ; but the authorities thought that under a Barbadoes planter he would at least be kept from " mischief " — ^that is from Mass and Confession. The difficulty suggested by Froude in the paragraph above cited, how and in what ships were these 80,000 sent to Barbadoes? is not so very serious a difficulty. The operation extended over several years, and shipping was not so very scarce then, either in England or in Ireland. Besides, Doctor Sir William Petty and other adventurers were piling up all the shipyards in the kingdom with the best of Irish timber. Still there was some shortcoming in the tonnage available for this service, and it cost too much, so that, on the 27th of February, 1657, the Government referred it to the Lord-Lieutenant to consider where the priests, then crammed into the prisons of Dublin, might be most safely disposed of. And so they were carried across the island, placed in boats, and flung out upon the bare islands of Arran, in the Atlantic, and Innisbofin, off the coast . of Connemara, there to consider themselves, upon an allowance ' of sixpence per day. It was when private enterprise came in - aid of the Government that no want or shipping was experienced. The merchants of Bristol contracted with the Commissioners, not for cargoes of priests, but for young men and marriageable girls, who would be more useful, these merchants thought, upon their West India plantations. Ostensibly these were to be all persons having no visible means of support, but practically, it was a slave-hunt. Says Prendergast : — "Messrs Sellick and Leader, Mr Robert Yeomans, Mr

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 32

15. Massacre of Protestants in the streets of Sligo

    Sligo · town · Sligo · 1641–1642

    Deponents testified that British Protestants including William Shiels and John Shiels were murdered in the streets of Sligo. Witnesses reported that those who came to bury the dead stood ankle-deep in blood and brains, and the bodies were cast into a pit dug in the minister's garden.

    Read the passage

    vost of the said town of Sligo, Edward Nusham, and Edward Mercer, who were wounded and left for dead amongst the rest, and Joe Stewart, this deponent's son, which four being the next day found alive, yet all besmeared with blood, were spared to live. All which particulars the deponent was credibly told by those that escaped, and by her Irish servants and others of the town, and further saith, that on the said sixth day of January, there were murdered in the streets of the town of Sligo these British Protestants following, namely, William Shiels and John Shiels, his son, &c., and that they of the Irish that came to bury them stood up to the mid-leg in the blood and brains of those that were so murdered, who were carried out, and cast into a pit digged for that purpose in the garden of Mr Ricrofts, minister of Sligo."

    Poor Jane Stewart, lying on her sick-bed, did not see anything of it herself, but I think she had bad dreams.

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 20

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Sligo, this is a town that saw terrible killing in January 1641. Deponents testified that British Protestants were murdered in the streets here, among them William Shiels and his son John Shiels. Edward Nusham and Edward Mercer were wounded and left for dead, but found alive the next day, all besmeared with blood. Witnesses said that those who came to bury the dead stood up to the mid-leg in the blood and brains of the murdered, and the bodies were cast into a pit dug for that purpose in the garden of Mr Ricrofts, minister of Sligo. One deponent, Jane Stewart, was lying on her sick-bed and saw nothing of it herself.

16. Infant left to die on dead mother's breast near Kilbeggan

    Kilbeggan · town · Westmeath · 1641–1642

    Thomas Fleetwood, curate of Kilbeggan, deposed to hearing that rebels stabbed a woman named Jane Addis and left her infant, not a quarter old, at her corpse, mockingly bidding it suck its dead mother's breast before leaving it to perish.

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    ^V >^Tboinas Fleetwood, late curate of Kilbeggan, in the *»uiity erf Westmeath, deposeth, That he hath heard from the miwiths of the rebels themselves of great cruelties acted hy them. And, for one instance, that they stabbed the moth«-, one Jane JLddis by name, and left her little suckling child, not a quarter <dd, by the corpse, and then they put the breast of its dead mother into its mouth, and bid it '' such, English bastard,' and «o left it there to perish."

    " lachard Bourk, bachelor in divinity, of the county of Fermanagh, deposeth. That he heard^ and verily believeth, the hvaning and killing of one hundred, at least, in the Castle of TuUah ; «nd that the same was done after fair quarter promised. Jurat. July 12, 1643."

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 13

    As the companion tells it

    Coming through Kilbeggan here in Westmeath. In the rising of 1641, Thomas Fleetwood, the curate of this town, gave testimony about what the rebels did. He said he heard it from their own mouths. They stabbed a woman named Jane Addis, and left her infant child, not three months old, beside her corpse. They put the dead mother's breast into the child's mouth and said to it, "suck, English bastard," then left it there to perish.

17. Slave-Hunt Shipping from Kinsale to New England

    Kinsale · town · Cork · 1653

    Under contract with Bristol merchants, Lord Broghill was empowered to search for and arrest hundreds of men and women in County Cork for transportation, with ships appointed to repair to Kinsale before departing for New England.

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    Joseph Lawrence, and others, all of Bristol, were active agents. As one instance out of many : — Captain John Vernon was employed by the Commissioners for Ireland into England, and contracted in their behalf with Mr David Sellick and Mr Leader, under his hand, bearing date the 14th of September, 1653, to supply them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish nation above twelve years, and under the age of forty-five ; also three hundred men above twelve years of age, and under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork,. Youghal, and Kinsale, Waterford and Wexford, to transport them into New England. Messrs Sellick and Leader appointed their shipping to repair to Kinsale; but Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill (afterwards Earl of Orrery), whose name, like that of Sir C. Coote, seems ever the prelude of woe to the Irish, suggested that the required number of men and women might be had from among the wanderers and persons who had no means to get their livelihood in the county of Cork alone. Accordingly, on the 23rd of October, 1653, he was empowered to search for them and arrest them, and to deliver them to Messrs Sellick and Leader, who were to be at the charge of conducting them to the water side, and maintaining them from the time they received them ; and no person, being once apprehended, was to be released, but by special order in writing under the hand of Lord Broghill."

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 33

    As the companion tells it

    You're coming through Kinsale now, a town on the Cork coast. In 1653, this was a gathering point for a trade in people. Captain John Vernon was employed by the Commissioners for Ireland into England, and contracted on the 14th of September, 1653, with Mr David Sellick and Mr Leader to supply 250 women of the Irish nation, above 12 and under 45, and 300 men above 12 and under 50. They were to be found within 20 miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford, and Wexford, and transported into New England. Sellick and Leader appointed their shipping to repair to Kinsale. Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, afterwards Earl of Orrery, suggested the required number might be had from among the wanderers and persons who had no means to get their livelihood in the county of Cork alone. On the 23rd of October, 1653, he was empowered to search for them and arrest them, and to deliver them to Sellick and Leader, who were to be at the charge of conducting them to the water side and maintaining them from the time they received them. No person, being once apprehended, was to be released, but by special order in writing under the hand of Lord Broghill.

18. Burial pit in the minister's garden at Sligo

    Sligo · town · Sligo · 1641–1642

    The murdered Protestants of Sligo were carried out and cast into a pit dug for that purpose in the garden of Mr Ricrofts, minister of Sligo. Those who buried them reportedly stood up to their mid-legs in blood and brains.

    Read the passage

    vost of the said town of Sligo, Edward Nusham, and Edward Mercer, who were wounded and left for dead amongst the rest, and Joe Stewart, this deponent's son, which four being the next day found alive, yet all besmeared with blood, were spared to live. All which particulars the deponent was credibly told by those that escaped, and by her Irish servants and others of the town, and further saith, that on the said sixth day of January, there were murdered in the streets of the town of Sligo these British Protestants following, namely, William Shiels and John Shiels, his son, &c., and that they of the Irish that came to bury them stood up to the mid-leg in the blood and brains of those that were so murdered, who were carried out, and cast into a pit digged for that purpose in the garden of Mr Ricrofts, minister of Sligo."

    Poor Jane Stewart, lying on her sick-bed, did not see anything of it herself, but I think she had bad dreams.

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 20

    As the companion tells it

    As you pass through Sligo, you are near a garden where one of the darkest episodes of 1641 played out. On the sixth day of January that year, British Protestants were murdered in the streets of the town. Among the dead were William Shiels and his son John Shiels. The bodies were carried out and thrown into a pit dug for that purpose in the garden of Mr Ricrofts, the minister of Sligo. The Irish who came to bury the dead reportedly stood up to their mid-leg in the blood and brains of the murdered. Some had been wounded and left for dead, among them Edward Nusham and Edward Mercer, but were found alive the next day, covered in blood, and spared. Jane Stewart, lying sick in bed, saw none of it herself, though she was credibly told of it by those who escaped and by her Irish servants.

19. Priests Marooned on the Aran Islands and Inishbofin

    near Inishbofin · parish · Galway · 1657

    When shipping to Barbadoes fell short, priests crammed into Dublin's prisons were instead carried across the island and flung out upon the bare islands of Arran and Innisbofin off the Connemara coast, left to survive on sixpence a day.

    Read the passage

    send them with suflScient guards from garrison to garrison to Carrickfergus, to be there put on board such ships as should sail with the first opportunity for the Barbadoes." Poor old Father Paul Cashin, a very ancient and frail man, being apprehended at Maryborough, and sent on to Philipstown on the way to CarricMergus, there fell desperately sick, and was in danger of perishing in a dungeon from want and hardship. After months, the Commissioners ordered him an allowance of sixpence a day ; and when he should be well enough to move, this allowance was to be continued to him during his journey to Carrickfergus " in order to his transportation to the Barbadoes." It would not be much sugar Father Paul would make after being set down there and bidden to take up the shovel and the hoe ; but the authorities thought that under a Barbadoes planter he would at least be kept from " mischief " — ^that is from Mass and Confession. The difficulty suggested by Froude in the paragraph above cited, how and in what ships were these 80,000 sent to Barbadoes? is not so very serious a difficulty. The operation extended over several years, and shipping was not so very scarce then, either in England or in Ireland. Besides, Doctor Sir William Petty and other adventurers were piling up all the shipyards in the kingdom with the best of Irish timber. Still there was some shortcoming in the tonnage available for this service, and it cost too much, so that, on the 27th of February, 1657, the Government referred it to the Lord-Lieutenant to consider where the priests, then crammed into the prisons of Dublin, might be most safely disposed of. And so they were carried across the island, placed in boats, and flung out upon the bare islands of Arran, in the Atlantic, and Innisbofin, off the coast . of Connemara, there to consider themselves, upon an allowance ' of sixpence per day. It was when private enterprise came in - aid of the Government that no want or shipping was experienced. The merchants of Bristol contracted with the Commissioners, not for cargoes of priests, but for young men and marriageable girls, who would be more useful, these merchants thought, upon their West India plantations. Ostensibly these were to be all persons having no visible means of support, but practically, it was a slave-hunt. Says Prendergast : — "Messrs Sellick and Leader, Mr Robert Yeomans, Mr

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 32

20. Gruesome torture-murder of proctor at Clones

    Clones · town · Monaghan · 1641–1642

    James Geare deposed that rebels at Clones murdered James Netterville, proctor to the minister there, who had his belly ripped up and entrails removed, yet did not bleed until lifted and carried away, astonishing the eyewitness.

    Read the passage

    " James Geare, of the county of Monaghan, deposeth, That the rebels at Clownes murdered one James Netterville, proctor to the minister there, who, although he was diversely wounded, his belly ripped up, and his entrails taken out, and laid above a yard from him, yet he bled not at all until they lifted him up, and carried him away, at which this deponent being an eye-witness, much wondered ; and thus barbarously they used him, after they had drawn him to go to Mass with them."

    Another saw an " Irish rebel " make three passes with his drawn sword point-blank into the body of a woman, she with hands clasped defying him to hurt her unless God permitted him, and accordingly the sword never grazed her skin, and the wicked rebel walked off much discomfited, and all the on-lookers mightily marvelled. Yet another swearer tells how the " rebels " took a Scotchman (they seldom have «»y names^

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 20

21. Twelve thousand slaughtered fleeing near Dromore

    near Dromore · town · Down · 1641–1642

    According to rebels' own account related to Dean Maxwell, in the Glenwood area towards Dromore upwards of twelve thousand people were slaughtered while fleeing toward county Down.

    Read the passage

    " That A« heard Sir Phelim Uktmse report, that he killed nx hnndred English at Garvagh, in the county of Derry ; aad that be had left neither man, woman, nor child alive in the barony of Muuterlony, in the county of Tyrone, and betwixt Armagh and the Newry, in the several plantations and landt^ of Sir Archibald Atcheson, John Hamilton, Esq., the Lord Gaulfield, and the Lord Mountnonis ; and saith also, that thero^ were above two thousand of the British miwdered fear ti)» most part in their own houses, tchereof he was iaforated hy «r Scotsman^ who was in those parts with Sir Phelim, and saw their houses filled with their (tead bodies. In the Glenwtwd^ towards Droniore, there were slaughtered, as the rebels toli Mr deponent, upwards of twelve thaasand in all, who were all killed ia. their flight to the county of Down, The numbers of th» people drowned at the bridge of Portadown are diverselyexported, accm'ding as men staid among the rebels. Thi» deponent, who staid as long as any, and had better inidSgemof^ thaa jsaost of the English amongst them, and best reason to know the truth, saith, There were {by their otai report") onohiUKlred and ninety drowned with Mr Fullerton ; at another time they threw one hnndred and foiiy over the said bridge >

    y^^^^^f^^W-

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 16

22. Controversy over the death toll at Island Magee

    near Island Magee · parish · Antrim · 1641–1642

    Accounts differ widely on the scale of the Island Magee massacre, with Irish authorities alleging three thousand killed, Dr Leland citing thirty families, and Froude claiming only thirty persons based on Dr Reid's account.

    Read the passage

    Whether it befel in November, 1641, or ia the ensuing Jaooary ; whether three thousand people were th^e murdered, as Irish authorities allege, or only ♦' thirty families," as Dr Leland declares, or thirty persons, as Mr Froude tells us upon his own authorily ; on all these points there is a controversy, and, no doubt, will continue to be. Froude, following Leland, places the inddent in January, that it may appear to be an act of retaliation for other outrages which, he says, the Irish had been guilty of on their side. Now, Dr Leland is no authority at all, because he was not yet born a hundr^ years after. But our Histori^i quite complacently cites the authority of a Dr Reid, author of a History of the Irish Presbyterians, and who cannot allow that his Scotch clients tumbled over the cliff more than "thirty persons," counting only the heads of Leland's thirty families. "Every detail of that business," says Froude, " has been preserved, and can ^ traced to the minutest fibre of it : " and in a note, " The particulars are given exactly by Dr Reid." Now, I know this decent dergyman, a country minister dwelling in the village of Rathmelton, Donegal county, — ^if he still lives. If he were to narrate to me a fact which he saw with his own eyes, I should believe him • but who will accept him as authority for what happened about a hundred and fifty years before he was bom ? If he said he had dreamed it, or that " the spirits " told him, I should suspect his reverence of being crazy ; if he cited anything from the folios of the swearers, I should more than suspect his good faith. And is it not too audacious in Froude to pretend to stop the mouth of all authority and all ti'adition, with his Doctor of Donegal ?

    There is no compiler of Irish history more perfectly trustworthy than Dr John Curry ; and he has devoted a considerable space to an investigation of the affair of Island Magee. I cannot hope to improve upon his remarks, nor effectively to condense them. He says : —

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 30

23. Petty's vast Kerry estates viewed from Mangerton

    Mangerton · townland · Kerry · 1652–1687

    It was said that from the hill of Mangerton (Maugerto), overlooking the Devil's Punch Bowl and the Lake of Killarney, Sir William Petty could look round and see no ground that did not belong to himself, reflecting the scale of confiscated Irish lands he acquired.

    Read the passage

    conld lend the King money, and perhaps he did. At any rate, that menace of Parliamentary *' inquiry " went off with the Eoundheads, and in 1662 Petty was made one of a Court of Commissioners for Irish Estates, and Surveyor-General of Ireland. He was also knighted, and on his arrival in Ireland, was returned to the Irish Parliament for Enniscorthy. Still he did not escape entirely scot-free. The ' Court of Innocents/ which sat in the Irish capital, found that he had got much ground that belonged to 'innocent Papists,' and so he disgorged some of his acquisitions — * great part,' he says himself. But he still retained an enormous property. From one hill in Kerry it was said he could look round and see no ground that did not belong to himself. That was the hill of Maugerto, now spelled Mangerton — the rude old peak of the •Devil's Punch Bowl, on which, perhaps, some of my readers have stood and looked down on the Lake of Killarney.

    " Sir William Petty goes on to explain the swift rise of his fortunes. He says he lived within his income, set up iron works and pilchard fishing, opened lead mines and old timber. But of course he did not tell everything, nor mention half the advantages which his position brought to his hands. His fortunes grew from the ruins of a thousand old Irish families ejected from the county of Kerry, and time has only quadrupled the value of the territory he ^on for his descendants."

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 24

24. Priests Captured and Shipped from Carrickfergus to Barbadoes

    Carrickfergus · townland · Antrim · 1655–1657

    Priests arrested throughout Ireland were marched under guard from garrison to garrison to Carrickfergus, to be put aboard ships bound for Barbadoes as part of the Cromwellian transportation policy.

    Read the passage

    I think, however, that Father Burke's estimate is not far from correct; though, to be sure, 80,000 is a large round number. But it is well known that the deportation both of priests and of laymen, of young men and maidens, was on a very large scale. In consequence of the great increase of priests towards the close of the year 1665, a general arrest by the justices of the peace was ordered ; it was the sporting season for priests, and even wolves were left comparatively at peace for a time. " On the 3rd of May," says Prendergast, "the governors of the respective precincts were ordered tf>

    A->;-

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 32

25. Felling of the forests of Dunkerron and Iveragh

    Iveragh · barony · Kerry · 1652–1660

    For years the vales of Dunkerron and Iveragh rang with the continual fall of giant oaks, felled for profit by Sir William Petty and others who supplied timber markets in Spain, France, and English dockyards.

    Read the passage

    It is in the county of Kerry chiefly that the Parliamentary Commissioners specify the cruel havoc made in Irish woods ; and it was in the county of Kerry that Dr Sir William Petty had his principal estates. For j-ears the vales of Dunkerron and Iveragh rung with the continual fall of giant oaks. There was a good market; Spain and France were searching the world for pipe-staves ; in English dockyards there was steady demand for shipknees ; and Sir William knew exactly where there was the best market for everything. In Ireland itself,

    • ili■i^Sri^nlf?i1^l^tl1lft1rll^iitor"Ar'^^^'*V^;Wl^l^M!M^^^^^^ >' :j^':i:iiijuaKS^ei-iA.i>^^-c^ta^itd:s^ii^

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 26

    As the companion tells it

    As you travel through the barony of Iveragh in Kerry, you are passing through country that once held vast forests. From 1652 to 1660, the vales of Dunkerron and Iveragh rang with the continual fall of giant oaks. Sir William Petty, who held his principal estates here in Kerry, felled the woods for profit. Spain and France were searching the world for pipe-staves, and English dockyards had steady demand for ship-knees, and Sir William knew exactly where there was the best market for everything.

26. Destruction of Kerry's woods for profit under confiscated estates

    Kerry · county · Kerry · 1652–1660

    Parliamentary Commissioners reported dreadful havoc committed on the woods of the proscribed in Kerry, with large trees cut down and sold for sixpence each by those who received confiscated lands, a destruction that continued for years.

    Read the passage

    of all things, might come upon them any day, thought they could do no better than realise the value, at least, of the woods while they had them. To get a crop of wheat a man must plough and sow, and wait for the season ; but he can cut down and sell a tree at any time, or a hundred thousand trees. The reason why I say " Froude knows " all this, is that the whole process is very clearly set forth in the " Report of the Commissioners appointed by the ParUament of England to take cognizance of the properties that were confiscated upon the Irish who were concerned in the Rebellion of 1688, &c." Froude knows this Report, because it is not abstruse nor recondite ; and if it were abstruse or recondite he would then know it still better ; for he admits that he knows everything. The Commissioners, in section 77 of their Report, say, that " dreadful havoc had been committed upon the woods of the proscribed ;" and they further say, "Those upon whom the confiscated lands have been bestowed, or their agents, have been so greedy to seize upon the most trifling profits that large ti-ees have been cut down and sold for sixpence each." They say also, "this destruction is still carried on in many parts of the country." And so it continued to be earned on,, not by the Irish, but by holders of forfeited estates, until Dean Swift, some years later, lamented that in the once well-wooded island there was not left timber enough for housebuilding or for shipbuilding, and that the land had a naked and dreary appearance for want of trees. Now, it was bad enough in these rascals to pare our forests to the stump ; but this British historical being, coming forward at the present day to complain to the civilized world that we, the Irish, pared our forests to the stump, might be thought to add insult to injury ; and if he means so, it is his mission.

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 26

    As the companion tells it

    As the road carries you through Kerry, this is a county whose woods were once stripped to the stump, not by the Irish but by the men given the land after confiscation. Between 1652 and 1660, the Parliamentary Commissioners appointed by the Parliament of England took cognizance of properties confiscated from the Irish concerned in the rebellion. In section 77 of their Report, the Commissioners said that "dreadful havoc had been committed upon the woods of the proscribed." They said further that those upon whom the confiscated lands had been bestowed, or their agents, had been so greedy to seize upon the most trifling profits that large trees were cut down and sold for sixpence each. The Commissioners also said this destruction was still carried on in many parts of the country. And so it continued, not by the Irish but by the holders of forfeited estates. The logic was simple. To get a crop of wheat a man must plough and sow and wait for the season, but he can cut down and sell a tree at any time, or a hundred thousand trees. Those who held the confiscated lands thought they could do no better than realise the value of the woods while they had them, knowing that trouble might come upon them any day. Some years later, Dean Swift lamented that in the once well-wooded island there was not left timber enough for housebuilding or for shipbuilding, and that the land had a naked and dreary appearance for want of trees. The author of the passage, writing against the historian James Anthony Froude, says it was bad enough for these holders to pare the forests to the stump. But for a British historian to come forward and complain that the Irish pared their own forests to the stump, he says, might be thought to add insult to injury.

27. Mass hanging of English at Goran and Wells

    Goresbridge · town · Kilkenny · 1641–1642

    Dame Butler deposed she was informed that James Butler of Finyhinch had hanged and put to death all the English who were at Goran and Wells and thereabouts.

    Read the passage

    " And this deponent saith, That Sir Edward BuUer did credibly inform her that James Butler of Finyhinch had hanged and put to death all the English that were at Goran and WelUf and all thereabouts ! ! !

    " Jane Jones, servant to the deponent, did see the English formerly specified going to their execution, and, as she conceived, they were about the njimber of thirty-five ; and voas told by Elizabeth Home that there were forty gone to execution* Jurat. Sept. 7, 1642. Anne BUTLEB.'*

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 13

28. Island Magee: a fertile refuge peninsula near Carrickfergus

    near Island Magee · parish · Antrim · 1641

    Island Magee, a six-mile peninsula off the Antrim coast near Carrickfergus Bay, was a fertile and thickly peopled district that in November 1641 sheltered many additional refugees fleeing the troubles of the time before the massacre occurred.

    Read the passage

    Irish writers, as well as the constant tradition of the country, have represented the slaughter of the peaceful, unarmed people of Island Magee by the Scotch gaiTison of Carrickfergus as the first unprovoked act of butchery. Island Magee is a peninsula, six miles long,' by one and a half in breadth, attached to the coast of Antrim, and running northward parallel to that coast, from the entrance to Carrickfergus Bay. It is a very fertile district, and has always been thickly peopled. In November, 1641, it held not oiJy its own permanent inhabitants, but also some hundreds more who had betaken themselves to that remote place, to live for a time with their kindred, and avoid the troubles of the time.

    The peninsula rises gradually from west to east, and its eastern side sinks down perpendicularly to the sea in a wall of cliff, four hundred feet high. On one fatal night, when the people were all in their beds, a force of Munroe's soldiers, from the garrison of Carrickfergus, issued forth in silence, and traversed the whole peninsula, gathering the people as they went, and goading them forward, unarmed men and half-nsiied women,

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 29

29. Father Paul Cashin's Arrest at Maryborough

    Maryborough · townland · Laois · 1655–1657

    The aged priest Father Paul Cashin was apprehended at Maryborough before being sent onward toward Carrickfergus for eventual transportation to Barbadoes under Cromwellian penal policy.

    Read the passage

    send them with suflScient guards from garrison to garrison to Carrickfergus, to be there put on board such ships as should sail with the first opportunity for the Barbadoes." Poor old Father Paul Cashin, a very ancient and frail man, being apprehended at Maryborough, and sent on to Philipstown on the way to CarricMergus, there fell desperately sick, and was in danger of perishing in a dungeon from want and hardship. After months, the Commissioners ordered him an allowance of sixpence a day ; and when he should be well enough to move, this allowance was to be continued to him during his journey to Carrickfergus " in order to his transportation to the Barbadoes." It would not be much sugar Father Paul would make after being set down there and bidden to take up the shovel and the hoe ; but the authorities thought that under a Barbadoes planter he would at least be kept from " mischief " — ^that is from Mass and Confession. The difficulty suggested by Froude in the paragraph above cited, how and in what ships were these 80,000 sent to Barbadoes? is not so very serious a difficulty. The operation extended over several years, and shipping was not so very scarce then, either in England or in Ireland. Besides, Doctor Sir William Petty and other adventurers were piling up all the shipyards in the kingdom with the best of Irish timber. Still there was some shortcoming in the tonnage available for this service, and it cost too much, so that, on the 27th of February, 1657, the Government referred it to the Lord-Lieutenant to consider where the priests, then crammed into the prisons of Dublin, might be most safely disposed of. And so they were carried across the island, placed in boats, and flung out upon the bare islands of Arran, in the Atlantic, and Innisbofin, off the coast . of Connemara, there to consider themselves, upon an allowance ' of sixpence per day. It was when private enterprise came in - aid of the Government that no want or shipping was experienced. The merchants of Bristol contracted with the Commissioners, not for cargoes of priests, but for young men and marriageable girls, who would be more useful, these merchants thought, upon their West India plantations. Ostensibly these were to be all persons having no visible means of support, but practically, it was a slave-hunt. Says Prendergast : — "Messrs Sellick and Leader, Mr Robert Yeomans, Mr

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 32

30. Pillar of fire and silent animals observed near Armagh

    near Armagh · town · Armagh · 1641

    Dean Maxwell swore that during the first three nights of the rebellion no cock crowed nor dog barked even as rebels approached Protestant houses, and that a pillar of light shone for an hour near his house in county Armagh, bright enough to read by.

    Read the passage

    ^■''_ 25, it toas generally observed that no cock crew, or any dog wag ieard to bark, no not when the rebels came in great mtdtitudes unto

    ;; the Protestants' houses by night to rob and murder them ; and about

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 17

31. Bishop Dopping's Sermon Against Treaties with Papists at Christ Church

    Christ Church Cathedral · ecclesiastical site · Dublin · 1691

    Dr Dopping, Bishop of Meath, preached before the Court at Christ Church Cathedral on the sinfulness of observing any compacts or treaties with Papists, shortly after the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace.

    Read the passage

    members for that constituency. Naas, in Meath, returned Charles White and Walter, Lord Dongan, a near relative of that Thomas Dongan (properly O'Donegan), who had been obliged, a year before, to resign his ofi&ce as Governor of New York; and he was the best Governor New York ever had. There were but six or seven Protestants in the House of Commons; but in the House of Peers we find besides the temporal Lords four Protestant Bishops, Meath, Ossory, Limerick, and Cork. Mr Froude counts amongst them the Bishop " of Munster ;" (I quote Scribner's edition) ; but there never was any Bishop of Munster ; and the Historian must mean Dr Dopping, Bishop of Meath, who is his especial favourite amongst all the Irish episcopacj'', being in fact the very Bishop who shortly afterwards, on the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace, preached before the Court in Christ Church Cathedral, on the sinfulness of observing any compacts or treaties with Papists. The greater number of the Protestant Peers absented themselves, as they were generally devoted adherents to the usurper, the Prince of Orange. Substantially, however, there was a good and respectable representation of the Irish nation at that day.

    This is a matter perplexing and even disgusting to the Impostor Historian ; so he passes it over very lightly. Yet the acts of that assembly deserve to be held in remembrance a little. One of its earliest enactments was " an Act for securing Liberty of Conscience, and repealing such acts or clauses in any Act of Parliament which are inconsistent with the same.'* I need not here dwell upon the other measures passed by that excellent Parliament — an Act declaring the ParUament of England incapable of binding Ireland ; an Act repealing the unjust Navigation Laws ; an Act for attainder of rebels — that is, of persons who had borne arms against their Sovereign King James ; an Act for removing all incapacities and disabilities of the natives of this kingdom, &c. For the present, it is enough to attend to the Act for Liberty of Conscience, and to see how the English Historian deals.with that : —

    Internet Archive 3766992, Chapter 36

    As the companion tells it

    Christ Church Cathedral is right here. In 1691, shortly after the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace, Dr Dopping, Bishop of Meath, preached before the Court in this cathedral. His sermon was on the sinfulness of observing any compacts or treaties with Papists. Dopping was one of four Protestant bishops who sat in the House of Peers at the time, alongside the bishops of Ossory, Limerick, and Cork. The historian Froude counted among them a Bishop of Munster, but there never was any Bishop of Munster. He must have meant Dopping, who was Froude's especial favourite among all the Irish episcopacy. The greater number of Protestant peers absented themselves from that assembly, as they were generally devoted adherents to the Prince of Orange. In the House of Commons there were but six or seven Protestants. Yet there was a good and respectable representation of the Irish nation at that day. One of the earliest enactments of that Parliament was an Act for securing Liberty of Conscience, repealing such acts or clauses in any Act of Parliament as were inconsistent with the same. Other measures were passed: an Act declaring the Parliament of England incapable of binding Ireland; an Act repealing the unjust Navigation Laws; an Act for attainder of rebels, that is, of persons who had borne arms against their Sovereign King James; and an Act for removing all incapacities and disabilities of the natives of this kingdom.