1651 - 1655 AD

1651 AD January: The 4 Puritan Ascendancy Parliamentarian Commissioners from England appointed by Oliver Cromwell arrived into Ireland, and divided up the territory that they now controlled into 6 Precincts under English Military Governors, which later on would be further split into 12 Precincts and Kilkenny City in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster, previously under the control of James "Black Tom" Butler the Royalist 1st Duke of Ormonde, which was now also a Plague stricken region, was also taken by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan forces.

     Henry Ireton, the English Puritan Commander - in - Chief, captured O Briens Bridge in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province, which crossed over the River Shannon there, leading on to Montpelier in Co. Limerick, in the mid - north - west  of Munster, while Ludlow, another of Cromwell's son - in - laws and Puritan commanders, took the O Brien's 15th Century AD Carrigaholt Castle that had previously been constructed by the Heberian Dal gCais Ui Turlogh Ui mBriain Mac Mahons, who were now the Chiefs of Corcabascin, and the Puritan forces then held on to it for another year.  

October 27th: The City of Limerick, also in the mid - north - west of the Munster Province, surrendered to Henry Ireton, after what had been a very long siege, and he then turned his attention towards totally destroying the rest of  Co. Clare, across to the north - west of the River Shannon, which was geographically in the Connacht Province but declared to be also in Northern Munster and the Dysert O Dea Castle, that was situated between Corofin and Ennis there, belonging to the Heberian Dal gCais O Deas / Days was another castle that was badly damaged by Cromwell's Puritan forces.

November 1st: William Butler surrendered up Clare Castle in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province, and among the population there now the Heberian Dalcassian O Brians, who had stood faithful to their faith and Ireland, were to pay once again, as the 64 year old Donat / Donogh O Brien was shot dead and his body burnt, while James O Brien his nephew, had been murdered previously by James "Black Tom" Butler who had cut off his head and sent it to his brother, and Bernard O Brien was hung, as was Daniel O Brien whose head was also cut off at Nenagh.

    Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son - in - law and English Puritan Commander - in - Chief, had refused to accept the terms previously given by Sir Charles Coote to the City of Galway in Co. Galway in the Connacht Province and as Fate would have it he  contacted an acute fever and was to die, but before he did he was heard to exclaim, "That he could not understand how God could let this happen to him," and he was to be replaced  by Fleetwood, who was another son - in - law of Oliver Cromwell, who was moulded in the same vein, and was a very bitter persecutor of Catholics.

    The Franciscan monks were driven out of Tralee in Co. Kerry in the south - west of Munster again by Cromwell's Puritan forces.and the Abbeys there were all completely sacked. (The Moriarty Chalice there, was the creation of Charles O Sughrue / Cathal Ua Siochfhradha, whose Family territory was also in Co. Kerry, where he was to produce it for the Tralee Convent there, and where Thaddeus O Moriarty was their Prior.) 

    Burke, the Anglo - Irish Catholic Earl of Clann Rickarde, who was now acting for James "Black Tom" Butler, the Royalist 1st Duke of Ormonde's commander in Ireland and Charles the Prince of Wales lost his Oranmore Castle to the Ascendancy Puritan Parliament forces in Co. Galway in the south - west of the Connacht Province who were led by Sir Charles Coote.

      Rory Mac Namara, a son of Donnell Mac Namara and Mary Mac Mahon, who was a Franciscan friar, was taken and shot by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Parliamentary forces near Clare Castle, as was Daniel Clancy a Franciscan lay - brother from Tradraigh and Jeremiah Mac Inerney who had been another Franciscan lay - brother since 1640 AD during their rampage and massacres carried out in Co. Clare.      

    David O Broder / Broderick / Browder  / Daibhi Ua Bruadair, from Limerick in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of the Munster Province, was to persevere until 1694 AD, while under great duress, to record the descendents of the Irish Chroniclers, their Irish Families, the Irish Tuaths (Family regions) and the Irish poets. 

1652 AD The English Civil War had lasted 11 years, and England was now to be totally under the control of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan English Ascendancy Parliament for another 11 years, and they immediately passed an Act for the, "Settling of Ireland." with 20,000,000 acres in Ireland to be confiscated, and given to the; "Plantation of non - Catholic foreigners." Fleetwood, Ludlow and Jones, who were now Oliver Cromwell's Puritan commanders in Ireland, gave out an official directive that "Every Catholic priest was to be hanged until he was half dead, his head was to be cut off and his body was to be cut into quarters, his bowels were to be drawn and burned, and his head was to be fixed on a pole."

May: The City of Galway in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht also finally surrendered, and was the last to be captured by Sir Charles Coote acting for the Puritan Ascendancy Parliament now under the overall influence of Oliver Cromwell, as the "14 Foreign Tribes of Galway" there had always remained loyal to the English Monarchy, and the whole of Co. Galway was then brought under pressure to do the same and in the meantime the remaining members of the roving Irish Septs in the Leinster Province had also gave up their resistance, but Blind Donogh, Dermot Ryan, Hugh Mac Brian, Donogh O Hart and Redmond O Hanlon were to keep up their individual indiscriminate guerrilla type attacks against the English Puritan Parliamentary forces and their enforced confiscations and continuing non - Catholic plantations in Ireland.

June: Mac Carthy, the Heberian Eoghanacht Chaisil Lord of Muskerry, with his 5,000 men, retreated back to Ross Castle on the Peninsula / ros, where it had been separated there by a man - made channel in Co. Kerry in the south - west of the Munster Province, that had originally belonged to their kinsmen the Eoghanacht O Donoghues and he was to be the last to surrender to Ludlow the Puritan English Ascendancy Parliament commander who had an army of 4,000 men and 2,000 cavalry under his control, who also destroyed the Mac Carthy's Muckross Abbey at Killarney in Co. Kerry. O Carberys Town / Baile Ui Cairbre situated near Caherciveen, which was also a Mac Carthy stronghold, until it was to come under the control of the Heremonian Ui Conaire Muscraige O Connells later on, saw Bally Carbery Castle also destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan forces.  

      The Dal Cuinn Colla Uais Mac Donnell's Red Bay Castle was another destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan forces at Cushendal in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province.

     Thaddeus O Connor, from the Dal Cuinn Ui Briuin Ai, who had their territory in Co. Sligo in the north - west of the Connacht Province was also taken out and hung in Boyle in Co. Roscommon in the east of Connacht, but despite these ongoing tribulations occurring throughout all of Ireland, the Irish Confederacy Government forces were able to hold out in several areas in the Connacht Province, and the Ulster Province for a few more months. 

     Sir James Balfour for the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliament at this time was to refortify the Balfour Castle at Liskanea in Co. Fermanagh on Loch Erne in Ulster against the Irish Families there.

     Donogh O Hart from the Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch was also dispossessed of his territory in Co. Sligo in th the Connacht Province by Oliver Cromwell.

August: The English Puritan Ascendancy Parliament at Westminster in England passed their Act for the Settlement of Ireland, where Ireland was represented by Puritan soldiers, and 104 people in Ireland were specifically nominated who were not to receive a pardon, including Bishop Bramhall, James "Black Tom" Butler, Murrogh O Brien, Burke the Catholic Earl of Clann Rickarde, Lord Castlehaven, Phelim O Neill and Rory O More.

September: It was left to Fleetwood, Oliver Cromwell's son - in - law as the new Puritan commander - in - chief, and the 4 English Puritan Parliamentarian Commissioners to carry out the confiscations against the Irish and Anglo - Irish / Old English. October: Although "The Act for the Settlement of Ireland" was published ,Fleetwood and the 4 Puritan Parliamentay Commissioners  were awaiting further instructions from the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliament in England, before acting on these new massive confiscations.

    Sir Arthur Forbes built a castle on Loch Forbes at Newtown Forbes in Co. Longford in the north - west of Northern Leinster against the Irish Families there.

   Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Ironside forces destroyed the Dal Cuinn Ui Briuin AI O Connor's magnificent Roscommon Castle in Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province.

   The Portumna Castle originally constructed by the Burkes / de Burghos the Earls of Clann Rickarde in Co. Galway had continued to stand up to the many sieges carried out against it by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan forces. 

      The English Royalist - Puritan - Irish War came to an end in the Summer, and the population in Ireland was now totally under the control of Oliver Cromwell and the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliament, and the confiscations were begun with 11,000,000 acres seized to be given to the 1,000 Adventurers, and also the 35,000 Puritan soldiers, of which only a quarter of these would eventually settle in Ireland and all of the Irish Families and Anglo - Irish / Old English were from now on pushed over the River Shannon to the west into  "Hell or Connacht" / Connacht Province, including Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province, which was geographically a part of Southern Connacht any way, and where they were still able to hold onto 25% of Ireland. Among those to be transplanted there also were the other Dissenters, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Quakers (Society of Friends) and the Lowland Scottish Presbyterians.

1653 AD April 20: Oliver Cromwell who was now in absolute control in England, also dissolved the English Long Parliament by force.

July: Oliver Cromwell introduced his own English Barebones Parliament, to suite his own agendas, not theirs, who then made him the Lord Protector of the Puritan Ascendancy Parliament in England with unlimited power, and he began to draw up plans to send more and more non - Catholic "foreign" planters into Ireland and all Catholic Irish and Jacobite lands were confiscated regardless, and given over to Cromwell's soldiers and his supporters, and all the Catholic Irish were to be removed to the west across the River Shannon into "Hell or Connacht " where they were to be given lands they were entitled to in equal value. 10 of the Counties in the other 3 Provinces were to go towards the allotments under the Adventurers Act, and to the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliamentarian soldiers with half to go to the Adventurers and the other half of the Counties to the Puritan soldiers, while the other Counties, who were not included in these arrangements, were to go for debts, and also naturally to the Puritan Parliamentarian leaders.    

September: Oliver Cromwell's English Barebones Parliament passed the "Act of Satisfaction" to give Oliver Cromwell's plan to settle more non - Catholic  planters into Ireland statutory force, in which he also proposed to remove the Lowland Scottish Presbyterian planters in the east of the Ulster Province, as he wanted them out of Co. Antrim and Co. Down, to be relocated in to other areas in Ireland, as they were too close to Scotland for comfort and Benjamin Worsley, the English Surveyor General, listed all of the properties to be confiscated in Ireland, while William Petty the English Physician General proposed an alternative scheme called the "Down Survey," which was then accepted by the Puritan Ascendancy Bare Bones Parliament, which also gave parts of the Connacht Province to Puritan soldiers.

      As Ireland was now totally under English Ascendancy Puritan rule, by order of the Bare Bones Parliament, controlled completely now by Oliver Cromwell personally, 20,000 destitute Irish men, Irish women and Irish children, from 12 years of age and up were sold into slavery to the English Plantations in Virginia and the Carolinas (West Indies) and the slave dealers were then let loose in Ireland, and out of the 1,300 town lands in Co. Clare alone, only 40 of them were to be left inhabited, with most of these in the Barony of Bunratty in the south - east near the River Shannon.

      Father Thaddeus Moriarty the Prior of the Holy Cross Convent in Tralee in Co. Kerry in the south - west of the Munster Province was now also taken out and hung by Cromwell's Puritan commanders in Killarney, after he refused to be exiled from Ireland and he was a brother - in - law to Pierce Ferriter, the Anglo - Irish poet and music lover, who had kept up the good fight against Oliver Cromwell's Puritan indifference until he was to also be the last to surrender in Co. Kerry where Nelson, the English Brigadier, who was acting on behalf of Oliver Cromwell there had asked him to come to Ross Castle under an Amnesty, which was then broken and he was then taken and hung also on the Gallows Hill (The Hill of the Martyrs) in Co. Kerry. Oliver Cromwell's Puritan soldiers, under two of his Captains, Stace and Aspen, had already between them killed over 500 Irish Families in the Baronies of the Islands, Ibricken, Clondelaw and Moyarta in Co. Clare in the north - west of Munster. Edmund Mac Elligott / O Sullivan of Galey, Coolceragh in Co. Kerry was also transplanted with 4 of his household.  

      The "Irish Lands Act" for the Survey, Allocation and Transplantation of Irish lands, was passed by the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliament, and the Catholic faith was forbidden, along with their religious worship, and their social structure was seemingly gone, as these were now all crimes under English Law and St. Patrick's Staff and the Cross of 94.St. Columbcille was destroyed, together with all the Irish National relics, while all the learned men, who were known then as Tories, were hunted down and the Irish schools were scattered and Irish books were burned and all Irish industry was abolished. The remaining Inauguration Places of the Gaelic Irish Families were broken into pieces, the Irish Brehon Laws were torn up, together with the Irish Codes of Inheritance, and Irish Land Tenure was now also gone.  

     4,000 Irish soldiers left Ireland to go over to Spain, to continue the fight against the Ascendancy Puritans in England, to do their bit in the hope that it would eventually bring about Irish Freedom.

    The Mellifont Abbey in Co. Louth in the north - east of Northern Leinster was given to Sir Gerald Moore who turned it into a residence.

1654 AD Donogh O Kennedy, the son of the last Heberian Dal gCais Ui Bloid Ui Turlogh Chief of Lower Ormond in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province was still living there in the castle at this time, which is now also only a ruin, and the O Kennedys were to be found in the future in Co. Wexford in the south - east of Southern Leinster, from where they would produce Joseph, John F., Robert and Edward Kennedy in America.

     The Dal Cuinn Colla Da Crioch Mac Egan's castle at Kiltaroe (Redwood) overlooking the River Shannon, that had been constructed there in 1589 AD was now only a ruin also, and had been previously used as a school were the Irish scholar, Michael O Cleary (The Annuals of Ulster - of the 4 Masters) had been educated.  

    Patrick Hacket / Padraig Haiceid (1600 - 1645), the Anglo - Irish priest, who had been born near Cashel, and who was a Prior on the Rock of Cashel there, after being educated in Louvain in France, died this year.     

    Fleetwood, the Puritan English Commander - in - Chief and son - in - law of Oliver Cromwell, was now appointed the sole English Lord Deputy in Ireland replacing the 4 Puritan Commissioners.

May 1st: This was the deadline for the former confiscated land owners in Ireland to transplant themselves off of their lands in the other 3 Counties, and into "Hell or Connacht," which now also included Co. Clare, which is officially in the north - west of the Munster Province, but is in reality still geographically in the south of the Connacht Province. All of the Irish had to be gone from the east of Ireland or they would be liable to be put to death, if they were found there in the eastern side of the River Shannon, but this condition then had to be first extended to December, then even further into March 1655 for certain individuals. Among these was Donogh O Callaghan who was driven out of Co. Cork in Southern Munster and forced to settle into Kilkishen at Mountallon in Co. Clare, where his Family was to become Ascendancy Episcopalian Church of England / Ireland to hold onto their land there. (One of his descendants would later inherit the land of the foreign planted Dutchman there, Westropp and become known as O Callaghan - Westropp in Tulla).

     The Quakers (Society of Friends), who had previously settled in the Ballitore / Moone district in Co. Kildare in Central Southern Leinster now held there first communal meeting at Lurgan in Co. Armagh in the south - east of the Ulster Province.       

      "The 14 ForeignTribes of Galway," situated in the City of Galway in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, who were committed English Royalists, had supported the continuing English oppression in Ireland against the Irish Families, and held all the power there up until this time, and had never allowed any of the Irish Families into the City, and had even turned on the Anglo - Irish / Old English de Burgos / Burkes when they became "More Irish then the Irish"  and the walls and the 14 gates and 14 towers to keep the Irish Families out, that surrounded the City were still all standing at this time.   

1655 AD Oliver Cromwell's Ascendancy Puritan forces besieged the Franciscan Friary at Kilconnell in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, which had been originally founded by William Kelly in 1353 AD, but for once they had no success, but it too is now also just a ruin. Matthew Barnewall / Barneville, (originally de Bearnabhal), the English twlfth Lord Trimelston, whose Anglo - Norman family had been an important one in "The English Pale" in Dublin, is interred in the church near here, after being driven out from his original Estates also to the Connacht Province, during this period by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan forces.  

      Henry Cromwell, the son of Oliver Cromwell, arrived in Ireland as the Major General of the English Puritan Ascendancy Parliamentary Army, and straightaway put a stop to his brother - in - law, Fleetwood's "Anabaptist" intrigues as they believed in Adult Baptism only  and the re - Baptizing of Infants on reaching Adulthood but the Puritans knew better, and new cracks were already opening up among the various new non - Catholic splinter groups who were now in control in Ireland.

                    Home Page                                                                                       Return to Celtic Heritage                                                                   On to 1656 - 1660 AD