1603 AD - 2
January 7th: During the night the remaining followers of Donnell Cam O Sullivan the Heberian Eghanacht Chaisil Chief attempted the first crossing of the River Shannon with 30 of his people crammed into the original large boat, who were to lead the remaining horses behind them, while the small boat also constructed by the Gaelic Milesian Irian O Malley's containing only 10 people overturned and all on board were drowned, but despite this terrifying result at their first attempt at crossing, by daybreak, they were to have most of their fighting men across to the western side of the River Shannon, into the Connacht Province. Thomas Burke and 40 of their other fighting men had remained behind on the eastern side in the Munster Province, with their pikes and muskets at the ready if they should have to protect the women and the other civilians and just as well as the Mac Egans from the Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch Ui Maine Sept then attacked those who were still left behind on the Munster side of the River Shannon, and the women among them with no other alternative, terrified and frightened, fled into the River for safety and they too were drowned. Eventually Thomas Burke and his men were able to drive the Mac Egans off, killing 15 of them, including Donogh Mac Egan, the son of Cairbre mac Egan and Thomas Burke then launched his boat, which was overloaded, and it too sank near the bank with some of the occupants able to make it back to the shore, while others amog them who could actually swim, made it across the river, and the rest of them just fled in terror in constant fear of losing their lives. Thomas Bourke then relaunched his boat, but the O Maddens also from the Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch Ui Maine Sept also whose territory was only a few mile away, bordering on the Burkes, were waiting on the western side in Connacht to attack them also and Donnell Cam O Sullivan and his surviving followers then had to fight their way across the Earl's Plains / Machaire an Iarla, to reach the safety of the woods at Killimor, which was 8 mile further on and on arriving there they came upon a small village from which the residents had fled, and where they were able to find further sustenance.
January 8th: Donnell Cam O Sullivan had 80 of his fighting men out in front of the group and another 200 more at the rear, with the surviving women and civilians contained in the middle, and they proceeded on towards Aughrim in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, having by now lost 120 of the 1,000 people who had joined in originally since they had left Glengarriff. (Nearby here was the Meelick Weir where Co. Galway, Co. Offaly and Co. Tipperary join together in the centre of the River Shannon). They then passed on through Brackloon, (which was still in the territory of the O Maddens) to Clonfert where St. Brendan had originally set up, with over 3,000 students attending his monastery there, but it too had previously been taken over during the confiscation of the Catholic Church Institutions by Henry V111, and been reconstructed into a Church of England Episcopalian Cathedral. They now moved on towards Killimor Bridge and Aughrim, passing by Lismanny House, (which is now also a ruin), and also the Clontuskert Abbey.
January 9th:On this day,
Donnell Cam
O Sullivan and his
remaining
followers
now had only
280
of their fighting men left to protect them
and they decided to set up
January 10th:
A large
English Military force led by
Captain
Henry Malby
was
already waiting to attack them at
Aughrim
/
Each Druim (The Ridge
of the Horse),
and the
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan's
force
of
80
men who were now out in front, seeing them waiting ahead, panicked and retreated back to the main group, and
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan told them that they would now all have to fight for their lives,
and he then led them off into the safety of the nearby woods, where they were
hoping to gain further cover from the English forces who were about attack them
and as they fled, the
English Military forces bore
down on them, killing a further
14
immediately with their gunfire. During the conflict
11
of the English
forces
were also killed by
Donnell Cam
O Sullivan's
rearguard who
had managed to fight their way forward to the front but unfortunately
Richard Burke
was also to be among those killed.
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan,
Donogh O
Hingerdell,
Maurice O Sullivan
and
Hugh O Flynn knew they would
have to do something drastic if they were gong to survive this particular onslaught, and
as a combined force
they decided to go after the leaders of the English forces
and were able to kill their main man,
Henry Malby and with their leaders gone and
100 of their
English Military forces also killed by now, the
remaining English Militia retreated back to their
fort in
Aughrim.
Donnell Cam
O Sullivan
and his surviving followers kept on going
into the night towards the village of
Ahascrag, and from there they crossed the
Killian River, then
went onto Ballingar,
which was 16 mile
further on in the territory of the
O Kellys
who were the main Sept from the
Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch
Ui Maine
who had
by now also gone over to the English side while to survive, who had their
Castle Kelly
there now under the command of Mac William Burke
/ de Burgho the English appointed Earl of Clann Rickarde in the
Connacht Province.
This lead them onto Co. Roscommon, (The Wood of St. Comman) who had originally brought the Catholic Faith to this region) and where Slieve O Flynn could be seen across the other side of the great bog while ahead also lie Trien as they struggled though the heavy snow and incessant rain that continued to come tumbling down in bucketfuls, until finally they reached the safety of Slieve O Flynn itself, where the Irish Septs there were able to warn them that the English Military forces under Mac Davitt / Davie / Davy who were a Burke / de Burgo family branch were lying in wait ahead, as they had continued to follow on after them from Glinsk, were they had tried to obtain provisions from his castle there. Because of this knowledge Donnell Cam O Sullivan decided to pretend that they were going to settle down there for the night, and to this end they lit their camp fires, while in reality they actually continued to push on through the woods, on through the brambles and the heavy snow, as they were by now well and truly in fear of losing the lives of those entrusted to them who were somehow still surviving. They headed towards Ballinlough in Co. Roscommon, which was also still in the Mac Egan Dal Cuinn Ui Maine territory, and where Loch O Flynn was the beginning of the River Suck and were there was 80,000 acres of bog.
Loch Glinn also
lay
ahead,
along with
Fairymount, where there was another
English
Military force also set up in Boyle Abbey
to the east
of them under
Sir
Oliver Lambert
who was now
the
English appointed President
in
Connacht and
Ballymote Abbey
that was
situated to the west of them in
Co. Sligo
in the north - west of
the
Connacht Province,
had
by now also been recaptured by the English
Military forces. (It had been
13
years, since the
Dal Cuinn
Ui Briuin Ai
Clann Mac Donagh
had sold it originally to the
"The O Donnell"
from
the
Cenel
Conaill
Sept for
400 pounds and
300
sows, and it had been from there tha
Aedh Ruadh
/ Red Hugh
Roe
O Donnell had set out to go
down to
the
Battle of
Kinsale).
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan and his
remaining followers
now decided that tey would continue to push on from there towards their main objective, which was
Brian O Rourkes
kingdom of
West Breifne
in
Co. Leitrim
in Northern Connacht,
and they crossed over the
Curlieu Mountains and came to rest near
French Park, which was
previously the territory taken over by the Anglo - Norman
de Freynes.
(Later on
in the 20th Century AD Douglas Hyde
the
non - Catholic elected
1st President of Ireland,
who had also previously founded the
Gaelic League,
would be buried under a
Celtic cross in the
Episcopalian Church of England / Ireland here.)
Donnell Cam
O Sullivan
was by now down to only
60
fighting men and they once
again came under attack by the
Mac Davitt
/ Burkes,
but they
were still able to drive them off and continued to move on towards
Ballaghaderreen
/
Bealach an Doirin
(The Road of the Little Oak Grove)
situated on the
River Lung
in
Co. Roscommon,
that
flows into
Loch Gara. where a
town would
be developed there in the future,
by
Charles Strickland
who would then be
the English
agent living at
Loch Glynn,
for the Absentee
- Land Lord
the
English Viscount
Dillon),
(During the Great Famine
era there were to be
65 pubs there).
(He would also
build
Charlestown
/
Baile Chathail
in
Co. Mayo
in the mid - west of
Connacht
to try and outdo the
Scottish
Knoxs
who were by then to
also own the town there of
Bellaghy).
What was left of Donnell Cam O Sullivan's followers now moved on into the safety of the forests at Coolavin were they were able to rest once again, as this territory was now held by the Mac Dermots from the Dal Cuinn Ui Briuin Ai who previously had their territory in the Curlieu Mountains from where they had also been driven out of by the English Military forces in 1601 AD after submitting to Mountjoy and had eventually settled here. (Outside of Coolavin is the Holy Well of St. Attracta who had her church in Boyle, who had been visited there by St. Patrick when he used to pass through there going to Croagh Patrick,) Ahead was also Monasteraden (St Auden's ancient monastery is submerged there beneath the present graveyard, where it is enclosed in a fort / rath.) Once again the Irish Septs who were now situated nearby brought them food, and also warned them that the English commander, Sir Oliver Lambert, with further English Military forces, was also waiting for them and blocking the road while ahead of them also was the Moygara Castle with the Keshcorran Mountain behind it in the territory of the Heberian Cianachta O Garas who were the Kings of Moygara and Coolavin, situated in their territory near the Mac Dermots, while Boyle was another 10 miles further on, as the remaining O Sullivan followers crossed over the remaining Curlieu (Rough Mountains) to Ballinfad, where the Bricklieve Range was also off to their left.
Although the surviving members of
Donnell Cam O Sullivan group was now expecting the worst, all
of a sudden out of the dark appeared a stranger,
who was dressed in a white robe and walking barefoot in the snow who also had a
white wreath on his head, and in his hands was a long
wand and he told them that he had come to guide them to the
territory of the
O Rourkes
from
the
Dal
Cuinn
Ui Briuin Breifne
kingdom of
West Breifne,
which was
still another 15
mile further
on, and as they were now totally worn out, really desperate and lost, they accepted his offer and rewarded him with a
Spanish gold coin, which he accepted gracefully. He
then continued to lead them
on over the
Mountains to a small settlement, were they were able to purchase some food, but
by now their original number of 1,000 had been reduced to less then
50 and all of their original 14
horses were now gone, so 4
of the men agreed to carry,
"The
O Connor
Kerry"
on their shoulders, as he could not walk any further, until eventually
they were to come across an old stray horse to put him on. At dawn their mysterious white clad
guide pointed out
Brian
Oge - the Younger
O Rourke's
castle
in the distance, and bade
them farewell, and they thanked him and proceeded on to
Loch Arrow, with the
Bricklieve Mountains nowwell behind
them in the distance.
(Here there were
many Megalithic Graves at the
Bronze Age cemetery
of
Carrowkeel,
where the
Cairns
are on a plateau of the hills). (Of the
200 Passage Graves known throughout
Ireland,
there are
13 together at
Carrowkeel, which are
now
also submerged beneath the bog lands there, and also on
Kesh
there are
17
caves full of Stalactites,
including the
School Cave and the
Robber's Hole, and near the main cave was were the
Celtic Lughnasa Festival
was held
at the beginning of the harvest time on the last
Sunday in
July). (The remains of
20 different types of animals
would be discovered in these particular caves also, including Reindeer, Wolves, Bears and Arctic Lemmings,
but the only living thing ever to be found in there was a great ferocious spider.)
Ballinafad
/
Beal an Atha Fada
(The Mouth of the Long Ford) in
Co. Sligo was at the foot of the
Curlieu Mountains, on the edge
of
Loch Arrow
with
Castle Baldwin
at the turn off on the way into the town, and near the lagoon in
Ballinafad
there are the ruins also of an ancient monastery, while
further along the road around
Loch Arrow
is a large
Bronze Age Cairn
at
Heapstown). (This was also the country of
Balor of the Evil Eye,
the Fomorian Chief, and also of the
Mac Donaghs
who were a Sept of the
Dal
Cuinn
Ui Briuin Ai
Mac Dermots
who were to be interred in
Ballindoon Friary
along the water's edge, and of
Inishmore Island also
with it's monastery ruins there.)
Donnell
Cam
O Sullivan
and
his fellow survivors now passed on through
Loch Arrow
and
Loch Key that are
separated by
only a small parcel of land about a mile wide.
(In Loch Key there is a ruined castle on
Castle Island, while
there also on
Trinity Island
is where
Sir
Conyers Clifford's
headless body was previously buried after his
clash with
Aedh Ruadh
/ Red Hugh
Roe
O Donnell, and
this was also where the
Annals of Boyle
were to be compiled).
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