1577 - 1580 AD
1577 AD
Elizabeth
1st the Welsh Tudor Queen of England founded
Trinity College
as an anti - Catholic
and
anti -
Gaelic University for her English
Episcopalian subjects on the site of the
Augustinian
monastery of
All Hallows in
Dublin
in Co. Dublin the north- east of Southern Leinster, which
had been originally constructed by
113.Dermott Mac Murrogh
na Gall = of the Foreigners when he was the
Cu Corb Ui Cheinnselaig
59th King
of Leinster in the 12th Century AD as it had later been confiscated and destroyed by her father,
Henry
VIII.
She also gave
the English Earl of
Essex,
The Cathedral at Ferns in Co. Wexford in the south - east of Southern Leinster was burnt down this year.
400 men from
Co. Laois and
Co. Offaly
in the north- west of Southern Leinster were
to be killed at the
Blood Hole at the
Rath of Mullamast
in
Co. Kildare, 2 mile
west of
Ballitore in
Central Southern Leinster.
Nicholas Walsh, became the
Church of England Bishop of
Ossory until 1586 AD, and introduced prayer books and catechisms in the
Irish language and was the first
to do so.
1578 AD Sheeda Mac Namara the son of Maccon Mac Namara the son of Sheeda Mac Namara the Heberian Dal gCais Ui Caisin East Clan Culien Tanaiste / heir apparent was slain on Slieve Eachto, while pursuing a party of kerns / foot soldiers from the English de Burgh's Clann Rickarde who were carrying off plunder from the region.
Sir Nicholas Malby,
acting on behalf of Elizabeth 1st
took over
the Heremonian Dal Cuinn
Ui Briuin Ai Sept's massive Roscommon Castle
previously belonging to the
Dal Cuinn
Ui Briuin Ai
Ui Conchobhair
O Connor Kings who had their kingdom and territory in
Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province,
that had been originally constructed there by an Anglo -
Norman Baron who had been the appointed English Justicar at an earlier time.
1579 AD
This year saw the beginning of the 2nd Desmond Rebellion,
with
Spain and
England at
War, and their was also to be another rebellion in
Ireland by the Gaelic
Irish Chiefs
themselves
who were by now under great pressure also in the
Munster Province,
against the English authorities there, and
also in further defence of
the ethnic and religious oppression being carried out by Elizabeth 1st against their
Irish Catholic faith.
Sir John Fitz Gerald,
the English Earl of Desmond's
brother, killed a group that included
Henry
Davell who was Elizabeth 1st's
English
Commissioner in the Munster Province, together with
Carter the
English Provost Marshall,
who had wanted
the
Irish to kill
any of
the Spanish sailors,
who were coming to assist the
Irish cause when they arrived in
Smerwick.
O Healy
the
Catholic
Bishop
there, and
Father
O Rourke were
murdered by the
English Military forces there at
Dingle
in Co. Kerry just
before Sir
James Fitz Maurice Fitzgerald was to arrive back into
Ireland with a force of
80 Spanish
fighting
men at
Smerwick / Ard na Caithne
(The
Height of the Arbutus) also in
Co. Kerry
in the south - west of
Munster.
On landing the Spanish immediately began to build the
Fort del Oro
(The Golden Fort) Dun an Oir
on a rocky spur in the harbour at
Smerwick Bay,
under the direction of both
Dr.
Nicholas Sanders the
Pope's Nuncio, and
James Fitz Gerald himself. They
had come to render assistance to the cause of
Gerald Fitz Gerald the
Catholic
Anglo - Irish
16th Earl of Desmond in
Southern Munster, who was involved in the
Desmond
Rebellion and to this end they declared a
Holy War against the
ongoing ethnic and religious oppression
being continued by Elizabeth 1st
in Ireland,
James Fitz Gerald had received
assistance from both King
Phillip 11 of
Spain, and
Pope
Gregory X111 who
had also offered him men to assist his just cause along with a
Papal Bull
/ Letter that declared
Elizabeth 1st / Persona Non Grata,
not only in
Ireland,
but also in England,
because of her continuing ethnic and
religious oppression there also. Despite these forward preparations, there was still no
outstanding leader
left among the Irish Septs in Ireland
to actually head a total Irish uprising, and
to top it all off,
James Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald, the son of Maurice Dubh Fitz Gerald was to be
killed in a battle, by the Anglo - Norman Burkes from the Clan William, that occurred near Cnoc Greine
in Co. Limerick while on his way to pray for deliverance at
the
Holy Cross monastery in
Co. Tipperary
in the north - east of
Munster, Meanwhile
the Irish defenders who were supporting
"The O
Connor
Kerry"
at this time at the
Carrigafoyle Castle,
which was situated on the left bank of the mouth of the
River Shannon, were
also driven back up to the very top
of the castle by the
besieging English Military forces, who then began hurling
them bodily off the parapets, and if any of them were able to survive this death, they were then
hung.
November:
Italian
support for the Irish cause also arrived, under
San Giuseppe, who had
700 men
with him to strengthen the fort at
Smerwick
/ Beal Ban on the headland in
Co. Kerry
in the south - west of the Munster
Province, but they too were forced to surrender to
Lord
Grey
/
de Wilton, Elizabeth 1st's
English Lord Deputy in
Ireland, and
Sir
Walter Raleigh
who
was the English Captain of the Guard at
Dingle, after the
English Admiral
Winter had already captured their ships. Lord Grey had previously attacked them
with 800 men and cannons, and
after 3
days of merciless bombardment the defenders there, including
the
Gaelic Ithian
Septs who had their kingdom and territory in
Southern Munster,
the
Spaniards, their English supporters and Irish
women and children
were to surrender, on
the condition that their lives would be spared. (Just like so many English leaders before him, he
reneged on his promise, and put to
death the
600 people who had surrendered there, who were
all
massacred, including local
Irish women.) (50
years later on,
Pierce Ferriter the
Anglo
- Irish
Confederate leader,
would win back Smerwick for the
Irish, in what was to be another
Irish Uprising against the
everlasting English ethnic and religious oppression.) The
terrible
butchery that was
carried out by Lord Grey on this occasion, was so
repugnant an act that he was
even
censored for his inhumane brutality,
especially for the killing also of 3 other innocents,
Father
Laurence O More,
Oliver Plunkett
/ Pluinceid, and
William Wollick an
English Catholic. Their only crime
was that they had refused
to acknowledge
Elizabeth
1st as their Supreme religious
head, and his
inhumane sickening means
of punishment on this occasion was
to break their arms and
legs with a hammer and then hang them up to die an agonizing death and after this he sent
Edward Denny off to report to
Elizabeth 1st
on the results of the terrible massacre and she rewarded him also with a
knighthood and the
territory of the
Desmond
Fitz Geralds
themselves. Edmund Spenser
who had accompanied Lord Grey / de Wilton to
Ireland as his secretary was
also given 3,000 acres of the Desmond's land and their
Kilcolman Castle in the north of Mallow and south
of the Ballyhoura Mountains, which included Doneraile and Doneraile Court (now a
public park) on the River Awbeg in
Co. Cork
in
Southern Munster
for 15 years. (Despite this
acquisition Edmund Spencer was to continue to live in
Dublin for
8 years in fear of the Irish
Families out there in Southern Munster, which was a
well grounded fear for eventually the
Irish
and the Fitz Geralds were to come down from the Ballyhoura Mountains to burn him out.
November:
Elizabeth 1st,
proclaimed
Gerald Fitz Gerald,
the sixteenth Earl of Desmond, a traitor when he
personally landed with his men at
Youghal in
Co. Cork in the south - east
of the
Munster Province, in what was then part of the Desmond
territory, and they destroyed the town there and
Thomas Butler the English
Royalist 10th Earl of
Ormonde who arrived a few weeks later hung the town's
Mayor,
Coppinger, in front of his own house, for not defending the town
against them.
Elizabeth 1st, gave the Mayor of Galway City jurisdiction over Galway Bay and the Aran Islands in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, because the 14 foreign tribes of Galway who had been planted there as usual had stayed loyal to the English cause.
The
English
White Castle
was constructed this year in
Athy
in
Co. Kildare
in Central Southern Leinster
against the
Irish Septs there, in the
region where the Athys
/
Ataoi, who were of
Anglo - Norman origins, and one of the 14 foreign tribes of Galway had
initially originated in Ireland in the
early 14th Century AD. (Preston's Gate is
still there to be seen.)
Another English castle
was also built at
Athgoe in
Dublin
in
Co. Dublin
this year in the north - east of
Southern
Leinster
in
the
English Pale
for the same purpose.
1580 AD Lord Grey / de Wilton, who was Elizabeth 1st's the Welsh Tudor English Queen's appointed English Lord Deputy in Ireland, besieged the Irish Septs up into Glenmalure / Maoiliura's Valley in the Co. Wicklow mountains in the the south - east of Southern Leinster, which was the kingdom and territory of the fierce Heremonian Ui Laoghaire UI Lughaidh Cu Corb Ui Dunlainge O Byrnes and O Tooles, and he was to be thoroughly defeated there by Fiach mac Hugh O Byrne.
John Fitz Gerald, the son of the
ill - fated
Gerald Fitz Gerald the sixteenth Earl of Desmond, plundered
the territory of Thomas Butler the
English Royalist tenth English Earl of Ormonde in Co. Kilkenny in the
south - west of Southern Leinster, and
Thomas
Butler
and
Pelham ruthlessly attacked
the Desmond territory in
Co. Kerry in
the south - west of the Munster
Province and burnt it to the ground with
3,000 acres of their
territory there initially confiscated by
Elizabeth 1st
who was to eventually all up confiscate
200,000
acres of their Desmond
Estates
altogether in
Munster.
She was then to put in English Episcopalian Church of England
planters,
while giving vast tracts of Irish land to her favourites, including
Sir
Walter Raleigh, (who was originally from Devon in England), who had
supported her cause in Ireland,
with
a future further grant of
42,000 acres
of the Desmond lands, where he is credited with eventually planting the first
potatoes in Ireland at Youghal
in the north - east of
Co. Cork
in Southern Munster.
(It was then against English Law to use
any Irish
tenants on any of the Irish land). 574,000 acres of
Irish land was to be
confiscated
in the
Munster Province,
and after this 2nd
Desmond
Rebellion,
he also introduced further English Church of England planters from Devon and
Somerset, but despite this the
Irish and Anglo
- Irish eventually
were to retrieve
most of the territories back as these
particular
plantations were also to be not very successful.
Strancally
Castle, situated 7 miles north of
Youghal, overlooking the
River Backwater
in Co. Cork in
the south - east of the Munster Province, was
among those
destroyed during the 2nd Desmond Rebellion, but the
ruins are still there to be seen today and
Thomas Butler the English
Royalist tenth Earl of
Ormonde also blew up the
Murdering Hole of the
Desmonds in the rock near the
Stancally Castle, while
out searching for
Gerald Fitz Gerald the ill
- fated sixteenth
Earl of Desmond.
"The Mac Carthy Mor," the Heberian Eoghanacht Chaisil Chieftain, from the Blarney Castle in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, introduced a new word into the English language when he kept postponing handing over this particular castle also in Co. Cork to Sir George Carew with continuing excuses, until Elizabeth 1st said she had endured enough of that "Blarney," and she also had Sir George Carew confiscate all of the Irish manuscripts in Ireland that he could find, of all their ancient Irish past and Irish heritage, to try and obliterate all of their Irish memory of their Celtic Gaelic Milesian origins, decreeing that "No Irishman was ever to know his grandfather."
During this
period
Donogh O Grady the Heberian Dal gCais Chieftain held Clooney Castle in Clooney - Quin in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province Dangan Castle and Danganbrach Castles also in Co. Clare were owned by John Mac Namara the Heberian Dal gCais Ui Caisin Chief of West Clan Culien Fionn while Knoppogue Castle there also was owned by Turlogh O Brien, and Quin Castle, Creganeowen Castle and Cullane Castle was owned by Cumeadha Mac Namara the son of John Mac Namara, Ballymarkahan Castle was also owned by John Mac Namara. The castle at Toonagh in Clooney - Quin in Co. Clare was owned by another member of the Mac Namara Sept and Castletown Castle in the village of Clooney itself was owned by Bryan O Brien. Corbally Castle there also belonged to Shane Mac Namara a son of Mahon Mac Namara.
Sean
Walsh / Mac Bhaiteir Breathnach
was born this year in
Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of
Southern Leinster, who was to become one
of the most important and powerful Anglo
- Irish poets of his age.