THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1920, Page 9

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

CHAPTER LlV.—(Continued For a time there was a danger that the whole scheme might be spoiled—shaken in public credulity—by tire injudicious zeal of some of the furnishers of “further particulars,” by whom the Thing was a little over-done. Some thought twenty thousand would suffice for the number of massacred Protestants; others would go for a hundred thousand; while the more bold and energetic still stood out for putting it at two or three hundred thousand, though there were not that number of Protestants in all Ireland at the time. As a consequence, there were some most awkward contradictions and inconsistencies but so great was the fury aroused in England, that happily these little dangers passed away smoothly, and King Charles himself joined in the shout against the horrid Popish rebellion ! The English soldiers in Ireland were exhorted to slay and spare not; additional regiments were quickly sent overthe men maddened by the massacre stories join in the work of “revenge.” And just as might be expected, then indeed massacre in earnest appeared upon the scene. The Irish had in the very first hour of their movement—in the very flush of humanely and generously proclaimed that they would seek righteous ends by righteous means; that they would fight their cause, if fight they must, by fair and honorable warfare. They had, with exceptions so rare as truly to “prove the rule,” exhibited marvellous forbearance and magnanimity. But now the English Puritan soldiery, infuriated to the fiercest pitch, were set upon them, and atrocities that sicken the heart to contemplate made the land reek from shore to shore. The Covenanters of Scotland also, who had just previously secured by rebellion all they demanded for themselves, were filled with a holy desire to bear a part in the pious work of stamping out the Irish Popish rebellion. King Charles, who was at the time in Edinburgh endeavoring to conciliate the Scottish parliament, was quite ready to gratify them; and accordingly a force of some two thousand Scots were despatched across the channel, landing at Antrim, where they were reinforced by a recruitment from the remnant of the “colonies” planted by James the First. It was this .force which inaugurated what may be called “massacres.” Before their arrival the Puritan commanders in the south had, it is true, left no atrocity untried; but, the Scots went at the work wholesale. They drove all the native population of one vast district (or rather all tho aged and infirm, the women and children; for the adult males were away serving in the confederate armies) into a promontory, almost an island, on" the coast, called Island Magee. Here, when the helpless crowd were hemmed in, the Scots foil upon them sword in hand, and drove them over the cliffs into the sea, or butchered-them to the last, irrespective of age or sex. “From this day forward until the accession of Owen Roe O’Neill to the command, the northern war assumed a ferocity of character foreign to the nature of O’Moore, O’Kelly, and Magennis.” Horrors and barbarities on each side made humanity shudder. The confederate leaders had proposed, hoped for, and on their parts had done everything to insure the conducting of the war according to the usages of , fair and honorable warfare. The government, on the other hand, so far from reciprocating this spirit, in all their proclamations breathed savage and merciless fury against the Irish; and every exhortation of their commanders (in strange contrast with the humane and honorable manifestoes of the confederates) called upon the soldiery to glut their swords and spare neither young nor old, child or woman. The conduct of the government armies soon widened the area of revolt. So far the native Irish alone, or almost exclusively, had participated in it, the Anglo-Irish Catholic Lords and Pale gentry holding aloof. But these latter could not fail to see that the Puritan faction, which now constituted the local government, were resolved not to spare Catholics whether of Celtic or Anglo-Irish race,

and were moreover bent on strengthening their own hands to .league with - the English parliamentarians against the king. Loyalty to the king, and considerations for their own safety, alike counselled them to take some decisive step. Everything rendered hesitation more perilous. Although they had in no way encouraged, or, so far, sympathised with, the northern rising, their possessions were ravaged by the Puritan armies. Fingal, Bantry, and Swordsdistricts in profound —were the scenes of bloody excesses on the part of the government soldiery. The Anglo-Irish Catholic nobility and gentry of these districts in vain remonstrated. They drew up a memorial to the throne, and forwarded it by one of their number, Sir John Read. He was instantly seized, imprisoned, and put to the rack in Dublin Castle; “one of the questions which he was pressed to answer being whether the king and queen were privy to the Irish rebellion.” In fine the English or Anglo-Irish Catholic families of the Pale for the first time in history began to feel that with the native Irish, between whom and them hitherto so wide a gulf had yawned, their side must be taken. After some negotiation between them and the Irish leaders, “on the invitation of Lord Gormanstown a meeting of Catholic noblemen and gentry was held on the hill of Crofty, in Meath. Among those who attended were the Earl of Fingal, Lords Gormanstown, Slane, Louth, Dunsany, Trimleston, and Netterville; Sir Patrick Barnwell, Sir Christopher Bellew, Patrick Barnwell of Kilbrew, Nicholas Darcy of Patten, James Bath, Gerald Aylmer, Cusack of Gormanstown, Malone of Lismullen, Segrave of Kileglan, etc. After being there a few hours a party of armed men on horseback, with a guard of musketeers, were seen ,to approach. The former were the insurgent leaders, Roger O’More, Philip O’Reilly, Mac Mahon, Captains Byrne and Fox, etc. The lords and gentry rode towards them, and Lord Gormanstown as spokesman demanded, ‘ for what reason they came armed into the Pale?’ O’More answered, ‘ that the ground of their coming thither and taking up arms, was for the freedom and liberty of their consciences, the maintenance of his Majesty’s prerogative, in which they understood he was abridged, and the making the subjects of this kingdom as free as those of England ’ ” “The leaders then embraced amid the acclamations of their followers, and the general conditions of their union having been unanimously agreed upon, a warrant was drawn out authorising the Sheriff of Meath to summon the gentry of the county to a final meeting at the Hill of Tara on the 24th December.” From this meeting sprang the Irish Confederation of 1642, formally and solemnly inaugurated three months subsequently at Kilkenny. (To be continued.)