1602 AD
1602
January 2nd:
The Battle of Kinsale against the
English ethic religious oppression in Ireland was to mean
the
end of the Irish Brehon Law, and therefore the
overall way and culture of
Gaelic
Ireland, but despite this
Daniel Mac Carthy,
the son of The Mac Carthy Mor
the
previous English appointed first Earl of Clan Carty,
along with the Gaelic Milesian
Irian
Chieftain
O
Connor
- Kerry,
(who would stick it out to the end),
the Anglo - Irish Earls of Fitz Gerald the
Knight of Glin and Fitz Gerald the
Knight of Kerry along with many others combined with
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan.
the
Heberian Eoghanacht Chaisil Chieftain, They intended to carry on
with their resistance against all the overwhelming odds to try and defend the
Munster Province against the ongoing
English onslaught, and
Donnell Cam O Sullivan was
also able to
enlist
William Burke and
Richard Tyrell from the
Connacht Province
with their galloglasses / mercenaries, at three pence a day and their keep. This
then gave Donnell Cam O Sullivan a force of 2,000
men,
as he tried to convince
Del Aguila
the
Spanish
commander,
who had an anti
- Irish
outlook, to hold the
fort at
Kinsale,
but he ignored his advice and attacked the
English forces head on
and would eventually have to sue for peace,
even down to making friends with
both
Lord Mountjoy and Sir George
Carew.
January 12th: Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan
was able to seize the
Carriganass Castle,
belonging to his cousin,
Sir
Owen
Oge O Sullivan,
and on hearing that the Spanish
had
already surrendered to Mountjoy, he decided to also retake his own castle of
Dunboy back from the English forces that
now occupied it, and with
1,000 of his men he went to
Dunboy and during the night
he made a hole in the wall, and was able to retake the castle, while losing only
3 of his men in the skirmish, and then wrote another letter to
Philip 111 the King of Spain justifying his actions
why he had to retake his
own castle.
Sir
George Carew, the
English appointed President in
the
Munster Province, was of the
belief that he was personally entitled to vast
confiscated Estates in
Co. Cork in
Southern Munster, that were previously granted by
Henry
11 the English Norman King to his ancestor,
Robert Fitz Stephen
nearly
4 Centuries
before, as many years before this his uncle,
Sir
Peter Carew also had originally stirred up the
Fitz Gerald
Desmond Rebellion in the first place, in
anticipation of trying to get his hands on
their supposed Carew mythical possessions in Ireland, but he had died in
1575 AD, before he could fully pull it off,
but Sir George Carew, at this time, was as
determined as his uncle had been, to get his hands on all of the confiscated Estates in
Munster also, and to this end decided to make
an example of
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan, as he now personally represented the main
Irish
resistance to any future plans in
Munster that he had in his
agenda to take over the territory there.
Due to the fragility of the situation that
the Irish people were now in, in Munster,
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan,
had previously petitioned the English commander,
Lord Mountjoy
for a pardon, but he had refused to consider it, so he then decided to leave
Richard Geoghegan from the
Heremonian Dal
Cuinn "southern"
Ui Niaill Sept who was in charge at
Dunboy
Castle
to defend it, along with other members from the
individual Irish Septs from that region. It was inaccessible by land,
but not by sea, so he kept back
3
of the Spanish gunners, who were still willing to fight for the
Irish cause, to man the cannons, and sent the rest back to
Spain, and an
18' high sod wall was then built to
absorb the cannon fire from the
English artillery and he sent his 5
year old son and Prince / Taniste / heir apparent, to the protection
of the Spanish Governor of Galacia also,
informing
Philip
111 of this, and his
intention to defend the castle, and criticised Del
Aguila for surrendering to the English in the first place, while requesting
Phillip 111 also to send a small ship
to Ireland for the rest of his
Family to be able to escape, if it became necessary.
March: Sir George Carew, the English appointed President in the Munster Province, had Donough O Brien the fourth English appointed Earl of Thomond, take 3,500 of his men and a 500 English Military force, and reconnoitre the Beare Peninsula in Co. Cork, where he had him also carry out Elizabeth 1st's" Scorched Earth" policy, burning all of the corn at Carbery, Beare and Bantry and also had him seize all of their cattle, and then march down to Bantry Abbey, and put 700 men on Whiddy Island, which was directly opposite to the O Sullivan's Dunboy Castle, and then returned to Cork City to report back to Sir George Carew.
March 23rd: Sir George Carew, then set out on his mission to personally take Dunboy Castle himself, but at Skibbereen and Bantry he came up against Irish resistance from the combined forces of the Heberian O Sullivan Sept, and the Gaelic Ithian O Driscoll Sept.
March 31st:
Sir George Carew and his English Military
forces
finally managed to reach
Bantry Bay, were he set up in one of the
captured castles of the
O Sullivan
Beare at
Dunnamark, and
renamed the castle after himself
calling it Carew Castle,
and this was where the "survivor"
Sir
Owen
Oge
O Sullivan came to
meet him, and went over to the English side also, in anticipation of
his just reward of becoming in the future The O Sullivan Beare, in his own right
and they waited for
Sir
Charles Wilmot the other English
commander and his English Military forces, who was
also at this time carrying out Elizabeth 1st's policy of "Slash and Burn" while devastating all of
Co. Kerry in the south - west
of
the
Munster Province.
May 11th: Elizabeth 1st was to send over further English Navel ships, that were carrying extra munitions to be used on the resisting Irish population, as did Sir Charles Wilmot her English commander in Ireland.
May 12th: further English
cannons were to arrive and more English ships.
May 31st: Sir George Carew took his English Military forces to the south of Bantry Bay, so as to be also directly opposite to Dursey Island at Beare in Co. Cork.
June
1st:
Donough O
Brien, the English
appointed
fourth Earl
of Thomond, now took his men over to
Bear Island,
followed by Sir
Charles Wilmot
and his English Military force, and
Sir
Richard Percy's
forces and then
Sir
George Carew's forces,
totalling 4,000
troops altogether, who were
now directly opposite to
Donnell
Cam O Sullivan's Dunboy Castle
and Captain
Richard Mac Geoghegan,
who had been left in charge at
the Dunboy Castle by
Donnell
Cam
O
Sullivan rowed over from the castle to talk to
Donough O Brien, the appointed
English fourth Earl of Thomond, who
told him that he should surrender up the castle to the English. In the meantime, a small
Spanish craft, the "Santiguillo," had arrived at
Ardea Castle
on the
River Kenmare, just across
the
Slieve Mish Mountains situated to the north, giving hope of further
Spanish reinforcements, and
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan had
gone across the
Caha Mountains to meet up with it.
Once there he was informed that further Spanish reinforcements would be arriving shortly,
and
because of this Bishop
Owen Mac Egan, the
Catholic
Bishop of Ross in the Munster Province, wrote to
Richard Mac Geoghegan, advising him that he believed that reinforcements were
on their way
from Spain, amounting to a great
army of 14,000
men, but unbeknown to them all, was the fact that
Philip 111 the King of Spain had decided
instead to cut his losses, and the reinforcements were never to
arrive.
Sir
George Carew, disliked
Bishop Owen Mac Egan
intensely, as he had been responsible for
Phillip
111 sending his
force to
Kinsale in the first
place after he had been appointed
by Pope
Clement
V111, who
had also made him responsible for the defence of the
Munster Province.
June
6th: Sir George Carew, landed two cannons and two regiments onto the
Dinish Islet,
which was situated between
Bear Island
and Dunboy Castle, intending to hammer the
sandy beach with shot, and he also sent another two English Military regiments with further reinforcements to the
eastern side, where they were able to establish a beach head, driving the
Irish
Septs who were there
back to
Dunboy Castle.
Richard Tyrell and his
mercenaries were able to escape the trap, and informed
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan,
who was then at the
Ardea Castle,
of the situation at Dunboy Castle, which was now totally surrounded
by English warships and English
Military forces.
Castle Dermod,
another of the the
O Sullivan's
castles, on the mainland of Co. Cork,
had also been previously secured by the
English
Military, and by now,
Sir
Owen Oge O Sullivan along
with his two brothers, who
had all gone over to the English side, due to their own personal ambitions to
gain further points, had set out to capture the
Heberian Eoghanacht Raithlind O Mahony's
castle also at Dunmanus in
the next bay.
June 12th:
The English Military forces, which
now also included the survivor,
Sir
Owen
Oge O Sullivan,
set out to take over
Dursey Island, and the castle of his uncle,
Dermot O
Sullivan, who was also the uncle of
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan, in which there were many refugees, along
with
40 fighting men under the
leadership of
Connor O Driscoll, the son of
Sir Fineen O Driscoll
of
Baltimore,
who only had three small Spanish cannons to protect them and unfortunately they were to be taken by surprise, and
everyone there in the castle was then massacred by the English, including all
of the women and children who they threw
over the cliffs onto the jagged rocks below and into the sea.
June 16th: Sir
George Carew set up his cannons, to begin the siege on Dunboy Castle, drawing them up to within 140 yards of the
walls, and then began firing, and soon a messenger came out from those who were still
alive in the
castle, offering to surrender, but with typical English brutality Sir George
Carew only had him taken
away and hung and by now
40 of the
surviving defenders,
who were naturally
in a panic, tried to escape the onslaught by diving into
the sea where they were all shot and
drowned by the English
Military forces who were now based on the ships surrounding them.
Despite this 77
people were also still managing to survive in the
castle cellars, and they also offered to surrender, but were once again refused
any chance of any humanity,
so
26 of them somehow managed to get
out of the castle and gave themselves up, while Sir
George
Carew kept up the cannon
barrage on the
others hoping to bury them alive. He then had Donough O Brien the
appointed English fourth Earl of Thomond,
hang another
58
of the survivors
in pairs, while Thomas Taylor an
Englishman and a mercenary, who had
taken over command, along with
15
others, were to be reprieved, but they too were to be eventually
executed also.
Thomas Taylor, was taken to
Cork City, where he was to be executed, and
Brother
Collins,
the lay Jesuit teacher, was
executed in
Youghal from
were he had originally came from, while
Morty
Og -
the Younger
O Sullivan's
body was
dragged behind an English
Navel ship
from Bantry Bay to
Cork
Harbour and
Sir George
Carew was heard to comment, "That
so obstinate and resolved defence had not been seen."
June 22nd:
The English
Military forces siege on
Dunboy Castle,
finally came to an end, with over
80 of the English
Military forces
also being killed during the fighting, and the
Dunboy Castle was then
blown to
pieces by the English using dynamite and the ruins are still there to be seen on the southern shore of the
Beare Peninsula
in the west of Co. Cork, at the narrow
entrance to
Beare Haven Harbour,
opposite
Bear Island and
beneath the shadow of the Caha
Mountains, which includes the one nown as
Hungry Hill.
June 30th: Sir George Carew, went on to
Cork City in
Co. Cork in
Southern Munster, leaving behind
6 English
Military garrisons in
Carbery
to finish cleaning the Irish Families out
of the area, and the
O Mahony castle at
Leamcon,
was also taken near
Carbery, but despite
this
Donnell
Cam O Sullivan's remaining
Irish forces carried on with their
guerrilla warfare in
Muskerry
retaking both the
Carrignacurra
and the
Dunareerke Castles
from the
Mac Carthys, the
Macroom Castle from
the
O Donoghues
of the Glens,
and the
Carrigaphooca Castle,
which was the
Mac Carthys main stronghold, and
many more of the
Irish
Septs in desperation from
the surrounding area also joined in with them.
Blount / Lord Mountjoy the English appointed Lord Deputy in Ireland, for Elizabeth 1st, then began to create divisions among the forces of the Irish Chiefs, by creating ill - feeling, using forged letters, and also forced the Irish Chiefs in Co. Wicklow in the south - east of Southern Leinster and Co. Monaghan in Southern Ulster to submit personally to him, and was to also attack the Ulster Province generally, leaving the regions totally devestated and desolate under Elizabeth 1st "Slash and Burn" policy and the populations in Co. Monaghan, the Munster Province, and Ulster were now also dying from hunger due to the desolation that the English had created previously during their on going "Scorched Earth"" policy.
June:
Blount / Lord Mountjoy, the
appointed English Lord Deputy
in Ireland
for Elizabeth 1st,
constructed
Charlemont Fort
on the River Blackwater in
Co. Armagh
in the south - east of the Ulster
Province, to
further control the
Irish forces
there of
126.Aodh Dubh
/ Black Hugh
O Niall,
and then
broke the
Heremonian
Dal Cuinn
Ui Niaill
Cenel nEogain
Tullahogue Coronation Stone
/ Leac na Ri
situated on a high hill near
Stewartstown in
Ulster,
to stop any further
Inaugurations of the
Ui Niaill
Chieftains. The Tullahogue Stone was in
the shape of a chair, and the Inauguration was the responsibility of the
O Canes as the secondary
Sept, and the
O Hagans,
who were the third
Sept of the
Heremonian
Dal Cuinn "northern"
Ui Niaill
Cenel nEogain, who during the Crowning
Ceremony, would
cast a shoe over the head of The
O Niall who had been elected from within 4 generations to lead the
Tuath / Family region under
The Brehon Law. The
Heremonian Dal Cuinn "northern"
Ui Niaill
O Nialls held their
Aonachs / Fairs,
sporting events, laws and trading there,
attended by their Aos Dana
/ Learned Class, which
included the judges,
Brehon lawyers, medical
men, craftsmen,
file / poets, seers
and visionaries, many of whom had
taken over their roles previously from the
Druids in much earlier times. (
July 18th: Father Archer / Airseir, who was of Anglo - Norman origins, whose original family had arrived in Ireland in the 13th Century AD, and settled in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster, also went to Spain to try and get further assistance from Philip 111, but was also not successful, as Phillip 111 was by now knee deep in the Dutch Wars.
September 10th:The "young"
Aodh Ruadh
/ Red Hugh
O
Donnell,
was also still waiting at Corunna
in Spain,
for
Phillip
111
to supply him with a fleet to try and free the
Ulster Province, and after
deciding that he could wait no
longer, he approached him personaly again, but received the same negative result.
Richard Boyle,
an English
Church of England
Ascendancy Episcopalian,
who was anti - Catholic
in his outlook, who had also arrived into
Ireland
previously, with
very limited financial support, was eventually to become the largest confiscated Estate holder in Ireland, and the
first appointed English Earl of
Cork as despite his personal outlook he
never let his anti - Catholic
sentiment
effect him in his commercial considerations and always told the
English officials,
that he had no
Irish tenants on his
confiscated Estates in the Munster Province, when in fact
they all were, and he even fostered out his many children to
the Mere Irish to rear, and Sir Walter Raleigh,
one of
Elizabeth1st's favourites, was to also sell him Lismore Castle in
Co. Tipperary in the north - east of
Munster and the Collegiate of Fitz Gerald, the Earl
of Desmond, at
Youghal
in eastern
Co. Cork in
Southern Munster, that had
also been taken over by
Sir
George Carew, was to come
into his hands eventually also.
12,000 English
Ascendancy
Episcopalian"
planters"
were to eventually be brought into the
Munster Province up to
1622 AD as the Irish Families there were
forcibly removed
from their territories.
Due
to the terrifying results of Lord Mountjoy's continuing "Slash and Burrn"
activities
Rory O
Donnell,
who was now the Heremonian Dal Cuinn "northern"
Ui Niaill Cenel Conaill's / The O Donnell
in their kingdom of Tir Conaill
(The Land of 91.Conaill Gulban)
Tyrconnell / Co. Donegal
in the north - west of the Ulster Province,
surrendered
himself up personally at
Athlone in
Co. Westmeath
in the north - east of
Northern Leinster
to the English Military commander there.
October: Richard Tyrell,
was defeated with his mercenaries in
Muskerry in the south - west of the Munster
Province,
by
Sir
Samuel Bagenal the English
Military commander,
and
December 31st:
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan
of
Beare
Haven and
Bantry,
decided that it would be best now to take the majority of his surviving
followers away from the
ongoing English savagery and head north from
Glengarriff,
to try and join up with
126.
Aodh Dubh / Black Hugh
O Niall, and
Aodh / Hugh Maguire at
Glenconkeine
near
Loch Neagh in
Co. Fermanagh
in the south - west of the Ulster Province, as it
was his intention to reach the fortress of
Brian
Oge
- the Younger
O Rourke in his kingdom of West
Breifne in
Co. Leitrim in Northern Connacht
with his
followers, that also included
13
horsemen and 400 of his
Irish warriors.
He set out from the woods at
Dereenafalla / Doire na Fola
(The Oak Wood of Blood) hoping eventually to join in with the
Heremonian Dal Cuinn "northern" Heremonian
Septs in
Ulster, who were
now under great pressure also in the north from the
English Military forces there, but to do this they would have to travel over
300 miles
while under constant attack. His
territory in the
Munster Province had
by now, not only been invaded, but had been totally devastated by
Sir
George Carew the
English appointed President in
Munster,
and his main castle at
Dunboy had also been totally
destroyed, and all the defenders there
massacred by
the English, and there was a reward of
300 pounds out for his capture.
Despite his best intentions, within
15 days of their
departure from Munster there was to be only
35
members of his original party at first, to arrive at his intended destination
in the north of the
Connacht Province, from out of the original
1,000 who were to set off initially with him, which would include his
"aged" uncle, the
70 year old,
Dermot O Sullivan
of Dursy Island, along with
The O Connor
- Kerry and
Thomas Burke.
It was to turn out to be a journey of absolute devastating terror, while attempting to cross
over the
River Shannon along the way, until they were to finally reach the
safety of
Co. Leitrim, where they would meet up with
Brian
Oge
- the Younger
O Rourke. (The English Military commanders were to put out an
order against all of them, and also against any of the other
Irish Septs,
who did not physically try to stop them along the way).
On the first day
of their journey, they were to reach
Augeris
in
Muskerry / Muscrai to the west of Cork, after
travelling 26 miles, where they
rested, and where he was to leave his wife, and his aunt the previous
Johanna Mac Sweeney the wife of his
"aged" uncle
Dermot O
Sullivan, at a spot
above
Glengarriff, near
Nead - an - Fhiolair
(The
Eagle's Nest)
with his young two year old son
Dermot O Sullivan, along with some others
members of the group, to continue on to
Spain for safety,
and later
on they would all be taken there by
Cornelius O Driscoll, about the same time
as the remaining survivors of the
O Sullivan group were to
eventually make it
up to
Co. Leitrim.
The Heremonian Dal Cuinn
Ui Briuin Ai
Mac Dermots, The O
Connor Roe,
and the
O Flahertys
in the Connacht Province, along with other
Irish Chiefs,
were
now also forced to submit to
Blount / Lord Mountjoy
the English appointed Deputy for
Elizabeth 1st
in Galway in Co. Galway
in Southern Connacht, but
Brian
Oge
- the Younger
O Rourke, 126.Aodh Dubh / Black Hugh
O Niall / The O Niaill,
the
Heremonian
Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch
Maguires, and
Richard Tyrell
were to still keep up the resistance in the west of
Connacht and Ulster..
Ossory in
Co. Kilkenny
in the south - west of Southern Leinster,
the previous kingdom of the Heremonian Cu Corb
Ui Connla Mac Giolla Patraics / Fitz Patricks from this
date was to have no Catholic Bishop until 1618
AD.