THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1919, Page 9

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

XXV.—HOW THIS BRIGHT DAY OF INDEPENDENCE WAS TURNED TO GLOOM. HOW THE SEASONS FOUGHT AGAINST IRELAND, AND FAMINE FOR ENGLAND. The Anglo-Irish power was almost extinct. It would probably never more have been heard of, and the newlyrevived nationality would have lasted long, and prospered, had there- not been behind that broken and ruined colony all the resources of a great and powerful nation. The English monarch summoned to a conference with himself in London several of the Anglo-Irish barons, and it was agreed by all that nothing but a compact union amongst themselves, strong reinforcements from England, and the equipment of an army of great magnitude for a. new campaign in Ireland, could avert the complete, and final extinction of the English power in that country. Preparations were accordingly made for placing in the field "such an army as had never before been assembled by the Anglo-Irish colony. King Edward of Ireland, on the other /hand, was fully conscious that the next campaign would be the supreme trial, and both parties, English and Irish, prepared to put forth their utmost strength." True to his promise. King Robert of Scotland arrived to the aid of his brother, bringing with him a small contingent. The royal brothers soon opened the campaign. Marching southwards at the head of 36,000 men, they crossed the Boyne at Slane, and soon were beneath the walls of Castleknock, a powerful Anglo-Norman fortress, barely three miles from the gate of Dublin. Castleknock was assaulted and taken, the governor, Hugh Tyrell, being made prisoner. The Irish and Scotch kings took up their quarters in the castle, and the Anglo-Normans of Dublin, gazing from the city walls, could see between them and the setting sun the royal standards of Ireland and Scotland floating proudly side by side! In this extremity the citizens of Dublin exhibited a spirit of indomitable courage and determination. To their action in this emergency — designated by some as the desperation of wild panic, but by others, in my opinion more justly, intrepidity and heroic public spiritthey saved the chief seat of Anglo-Norman authority and power, the loss of which at that moment would have altered the whole fate and fortunes of .the ensuing campaign. Led on by the mayor, they exhibited a frantic spirit of resistance, burning down the suburbs of their city, and freely devoting to demolition even their churches and priories outside the walls, lest these should afford shelter or advantage to a besieging army. The Irish army had no sieging materials, and could not just then pause for the tedious operations of reducing a walled and fortified city like Dublin, especially when such a spirit of vehement determination was evinced not merely by the garrison but by , the citizens themselves. In fact, the city could not be invested without the co-operation of a powerful fleet to cut off supplies by sea from England. The Irish army, therefore, was compelled to turn away from Dublin, and leave that formidable position intact in their rear. They marched southward as in the previous campaigns, this time reaching as far as Limerick. Again, as before, victory followed their banners. Their course was literally a succession of splendid achievements. The Normans never offered battle that they were not utterly defeated. ' " ! '**""'

The full strength of the English, however, had not yet been available, and a foe more deadly and more formidable than all the power of England was about to fall upon the Irish army. , : By one of those calamitous concurrences which are often To be noted in history, there fell;,upon Ireland in this year (1317) a famine of dreadful severity. c The props' had entirely; failed the . previous autumn, and now throughout the land the dread consequences were spreading desolation. The brothers Bruce each day found it

more and more difficult to provision the army, and soon * it became apparent that hunger and; : privation were j destroying and demoralising the national force. This evil in itself was bad enough, but. a worse followed upon it. As privation and hunger loosed the bonds of military discipline, the soldiers spread themselves over the country seeking food, and soon there sprung up between the Scottish contingent and the L lrish troops and inhabitants bitter ill feeling and contention. The Scots—who from the very outset appear to have discriminated nought in plundering castles and churches when the opportunity came fairly in their, waynow, throwing off all restraint, broke" into churches, and broke open and rifled shrines and tombs. The Irish, whose reverence for religion was always so intense and solemn, were horrified at these acts of sacrilege and desecration, and there gradually spread ..through the country a vague 'but all-powerful popular belief that the dreadful scourge of famine was.a "visitation of heaven" called down upon the country by the presence of the irreverent Scots! ; '. : / Meanwhile the English were mustering a tremendous force in the rear of the wasted Irish army. The Bruces, on learning the fact, quickly ordered a night retreat, and pushed northwards by forced marches. An Anglo-Irish army of 30,000 men, well appointed and provisioned, lay across their path; yet such was the terror inspired by vivid recollection of the recent victories of the Irish and the prestige of Bruce's name, that this vast force, as the historian tells us, hung around the camp of the half-starved and diminished Scotto-Irish army, without ever once daring to attack them in a pitched battle! On May 1, after a march full of unexampled suffering, the remnant of the Irish army safely reached Ulster.

(To be continued.)