Irish Rebellion of 1641
Encyclopedia
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

by Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...

 gentry, who tried to seize control of the English
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

 administration in Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...

 to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule. However, the coup failed and the rebellion developed into an ethnic conflict between native Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 Catholics on one side, and English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Protestant
Protestantism in Ireland
Protestantism in Ireland- 20th Century decline and other developments:In 1991, the population of the Republic of Ireland was approximately 3% Protestant, but the figure was over 10% in 1891, indicating a fall of 70% in the relative Protestant population over the past century.The effect of...

 settlers on the other. This began a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....

.

The rising was sparked by Catholic fears of an impending invasion of Ireland by anti-Catholic forces of the English Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 and the Scottish Covenanters, who were defying the authority of the King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

. In turn, the rebels' suspected association with the King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, helped to spark the outbreak of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. The English and Scottish Parliaments refused to raise an army to put down the rebellion unless it was under their command rather than the King's.

The Irish rebellion broke out in October 1641
1641 in Ireland
-Events:*October - Irish Rebellion of 1641 starts.*Hugh Og MacMahon and Conor Maguire were to seize Dublin Castle, but are arrested due to an informer....

 and was followed by several months of violent chaos before the Irish Catholic upper classes and clergy formed the Catholic Confederation
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

 in the summer of 1642
1642 in Ireland
-Events:* March 19 - The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship and close the town gates in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.* March 26 - Siege of Drogheda broken by English reinforcements....

. The Confederation became a de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

 government of most of Ireland, free from the control of the English administration and loosely aligned with the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...

. The subsequent war
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....

 continued in Ireland until the 1650s, when Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

's New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...

 decisively defeated the Irish Catholics and Royalists, and re-conquered
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...

 the country.

Causes

The roots of the 1641 rebellion lie in the failure of the English State in Ireland to assimilate the native Irish elite in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest and plantation of the country. The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the "Old (or Gaelic
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

) Irish", and the Old English
Old English (Ireland)
The Old English were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71. Many of the Old English became assimilated into Irish society over the centuries...

, or descendants of medieval Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 settlers. These groups were historically antagonistic, with English settled areas such as the Pale
The Pale
The Pale or the English Pale , was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk...

 around Dublin, south Wexford
Wexford
Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. It is situated near the southeastern corner of Ireland, close to Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to Dublin via the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and the national rail network...

, and other walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans.

However, by the seventeenth century, the cultural divide between these groups, especially at elite social levels, was declining. Many English lords not only spoke the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, but extensively patronised Irish poetry
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...

 and music, and were described as Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis
More Irish than the Irish themselves
"More Irish than the Irish themselves" is a phrase used in Irish historiography to describe a phenomenon of cultural assimilation in late medieval Norman Ireland....

 (more Irish than the Irish themselves). Intermarriage was also common. Moreover, in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest, the native population became defined by their shared religion, Roman Catholicism, in distinction to the new Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 and Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

 of settlers, and the officially Protestant (Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

) English administration in Ireland. During the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan wars of re-conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of rebellion in 1641, the political position of the wealthier landed Irish Catholics were increasingly threatened by the English government of Ireland.

Plantations

The 16th and early 17th century English conquest of Ireland was marked by large scale "Plantations
Plantations of Ireland
Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands....

", notably in Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 and Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

. These were mass dispossessions of Irish landowners who had rebelled against the crown, and sometimes their workers, and the granting of their land to colonists from England and Scotland. The terms of the Plantation, particularly in Ulster, were very harsh on the native population, who were forbidden from owning or renting land in planted areas and also from working there on land owned by settlers. The main effect of this was the dispossession of formerly powerful Irish clan leaders, such as the O'Neill
O'Neill dynasty
The O'Neill dynasty is a group of families that have held prominent positions and titles throughout European history. The O'Neills take their name from Niall Glúndub, an early 10th century High King of Ireland from the Cenél nEógain...

s and the O'Donnell
O'Donnell
O'Donnell , which is derived from the forename Domhnaill were an ancient and powerful Irish family, kings, princes, and lords of Tír Chonaill in early times, and the chief allies and sometimes...

s, who fled the country in the Flight of the Earls
Flight of the Earls
The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September 1607, when Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eóghain, Rory Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe.-Background to the exile:...

 in 1607
1607 in Ireland
-Events:* 14 September - Flight of the Earls: Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell flee to Spain to avoid capture by the English crown.*Lifford comes into the possession of Sir Richard Hansard during the Plantation of Ulster....

. Other Catholic lords, such as the Magennis
Magennis
Magennis is an Irish surname, derived from or the Sons of Angus, sometimes also spelt as Maginnis. The most famous branch controlled west County Down, particularly the Iveagh baronies, and occasionally Dundrum Castle to the east. The Magennis, Lords of Iveagh, are descendants of the Uí Echach Cobo...

 clan in County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, sold much of their land to new settlers by the 1630s.

Many of the exiles (notably Owen Roe O'Neill
Owen Roe O'Neill
Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill , anglicised as Owen Roe O'Neill , was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster.- In Spanish service :...

) found service as mercenaries in the Catholic armies of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. They formed a small émigré Irish community, militantly hostile to the English-run and Protestant state in Ireland, but restrained by the generally good relations between England and Spain and France after 1604. In Ireland itself, though the resentment caused by the plantations was one of the principal causes for the outbreak and spread of the rebellion. In 1641 60% of land still belonged to Catholics.

Religion

Most of the Irish Catholic upper classes were not ideologically opposed to the sovereignty of Charles I over Ireland, but wanted to be full subjects of the triple monarchy (England, Scotland, and Ireland) and maintain their pre-eminent position in Irish society. This was prevented by two factors, firstly their religious dissidence, and secondly the threat posed to them by the extension of the Plantations. The failed Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...

 of 1605 curtailed the rights of wealthy Irish Catholics, and unfairly so as they had not been involved.

Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 was the only approved form of worship of the Three Kingdoms. Non-attendance at Protestant church services was punishable by "recusant fines" and the public practice of unapproved faiths by arrest. Catholics could not hold senior offices of state, or serve above a certain rank in the army. The Irish privy council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 was dominated by English Protestants. The constituencies of the Irish House of Commons
Parliament of Ireland
The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed in Dublin from 1297 until 1800. In its early mediaeval period during the Lordship of Ireland it consisted of either two or three chambers: the House of Commons, elected by a very restricted suffrage, the House of Lords in which the lords...

 were increased, giving Protestants a majority of 108-102 in it from the session of 1613. The Irish House of Lords
Irish House of Lords
The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from mediaeval times until 1800. It was abolished along with the Irish House of Commons by the Act of Union.-Function:...

 still had a considerable Catholic majority that enabled it to block most, but not all, unwelcome draft legislation.

Moreover, the Irish Parliament's legislation had to be approved by the English Parliament under a 15th century ordinance known as Poynings' Law. The Protestant (and therefore settler) dominated administration took opportunities to confiscate more land from longstanding landowners.

In response, the Irish Catholic upper classes sought what were called The Graces
The Graces (Ireland)
The Graces were a proposed series of reforms sought by Roman Catholics in Ireland in 1628-1634.-Background:From 1570 to 1625 most people in the Kingdom of Ireland had remained Roman Catholic despite legislation that was increasingly excluding them from the political and official worlds...

, and appealed directly to the King, first James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 and then Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, for full rights as subjects and toleration of their religion. On several occasions, the Monarchs appeared to have reached an agreement with them, granting their demands in return for raising taxes. However, Irish Catholics were disappointed when, on paying the increased levies after 1630, Charles postponed the implementation of their demands. What was more, by the late 1630s, Thomas Wentworth
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...

, Charles’ representative in Ireland, launched a new round of plantations, though these had not been implemented by 1641.

On the pretext of checking of land titles to raise revenue, Wentworth confiscated and was going to plant lands in Roscommon and Sligo and was planning further plantations in Galway and Kilkenny directed mainly at the "Old English (Ireland)
Old English (Ireland)
The Old English were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71. Many of the Old English became assimilated into Irish society over the centuries...

" families. In the judgement of historian Padraig Lenihan, 'It is likely that he [Wentworth] would have eventually encountered armed resistance from Catholic landowners' if he had pursued these policies further. However the actual rebellion followed the destabilisation of English and Scottish politics and the weakened position of the king in 1640.

Conspiracy

In 1638 to 1640 Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 rose in a revolt known as the Bishops' Wars
Bishops' Wars
The Bishops' Wars , were conflicts, both political and military, which occurred in 1639 and 1640 centred around the nature of the governance of the Church of Scotland, and the rights and powers of the Crown...

 against Charles I's attempt to impose Church of England prayers there, believing them to be too close to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

. The King's attempts to put down the rebellion failed when the English Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

, which had similar religious concerns to the Scots, refused to vote for new taxes to pay for raising an army. Charles therefore started negotiations with Irish Catholic gentry to recruit an Irish army to put down the rebellion in Scotland, in return for the concession of Irish Catholics' longstanding requests for religion toleration and land security. To the Scots and the English Parliaments, this appeared to confirm that Charles was a tyrant, who wanted to impose Catholicism on his kingdoms, and to govern again without reference to his Parliaments as he had done in 1628–1640. During the early part of 1641, some Scots and Parliamentarians
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...

 even proposed invading Ireland and subduing organized Catholicism there, to ensure that no royalist Irish Catholic army would land in England or Scotland.

Frightened by this, and wanting to seize the opportunity, a small group of Irish Catholic landowners conceived a plan to take Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...

 and to control other important towns around the country in a quick coup in the name of the King, both to forestall a possible invasion and to force him to concede the Catholics' demands. Also, Charles' failure to defeat the Scots and the pressure he and his ministers were under from the "Short" and "Long" English parliaments in 1640–41, made him appear weak and made it appear it much more likely that a rebellion would be successful.

Economics

Unfavorable economic conditions also contributed to the outbreak of the rebellion. This decline may have been a consequence of the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...

 event of the mid 17th Century. The Irish economy had hit a recession and the harvest of 1641 was poor. Interest rates in the 1630s had been as high as 30% per annum. The leaders of the rebellion like Phelim O'Neill and Rory O'Moore
Rory (Roger) O'Moore
Rory O'Moore or Roger O'Moore , was an Irish noble and principal organizer of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.-Life:He belonged to an ancient Irish noble family claiming descent from the mythical Conall Cernach...

 were heavily in debt and risked losing their lands to creditors. What was more, the Irish peasantry were hard hit by the bad harvest and were faced with rising rents. This aggravated their desire to remove the settlers and contributed to the widespread attacks on them at the start of the rebellion.

Rebellion

The planners of the rebellion were a small group of Irish landowners, mainly Gaelic Irish and from the heavily planted province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

. Hugh Óg MacMahon and Conor Maguire
Connor Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen
Connor Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen was an Irish nobleman from Ulster who took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He was executed for high treason.-Life:...

 were to seize Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...

, while Phelim O’Neill
Felim O'Neill of Kinard
Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard , also called Phelim MacShane O'Neill or Féilim Ó Néill , was an Irish nobleman who led the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster which began on 22 October 1641. He was a member of the Irish Catholic Confederation during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, where he fought under...

 and Rory O’Moore
Rory (Roger) O'Moore
Rory O'Moore or Roger O'Moore , was an Irish noble and principal organizer of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.-Life:He belonged to an ancient Irish noble family claiming descent from the mythical Conall Cernach...

 were to take Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 and other northern towns. The plan, to be executed on 23 October 1641, (Roman Catholic Feast of St.Ignatius of Loyola) was to use surprise rather than military force to take their objectives and to then issue their demands, in expectation of support from the rest of the country. However, the plan for a fairly bloodless seizure of power was foiled when the authorities in Dublin heard of the plot from an informer (a Protestant convert named Owen O’Connolly) and arrested Maguire and MacMahon.

O'Neill meanwhile successfully took several forts in the north of the country, claiming to be acting in the King's name. Fairly quickly, events spiraled out of the control of the men who had instigated them. The English authorities in Dublin over-reacted to the rebellion, which they characterized as 'a most disloyal and detestable conspiracy intended by some evil affected Irish Papists' which they claimed was aimed at 'a general massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...

 of all English and Protestant inhabitants'. Their response was to send troops under commanders Charles Coote and William St Leger
William St Leger
-Life:He was a grandson of Anthony St Leger. He took part in the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, together with more than ninety of their family and followers, the chief of the Gaelic and Catholic resistance in Ireland, fled...

 (themselves Protestant settlers) to rebel held areas in counties Wicklow and Cork respectively. Their expeditions were characterised by what modern historian Padraig Lenihan has called, 'excessive and indiscriminate brutality' against the general Catholic population there and helped to provoke the general Catholic population into joining the rebellion.

Meanwhile, in Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

, the breakdown of state authority prompted widespread attacks by the native Irish population on the English Protestant settlers. Initially, Scottish settlers were not attacked by the rebels but as the rebellion went on, they too became targets. Phelim O’Neill
Felim O'Neill of Kinard
Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard , also called Phelim MacShane O'Neill or Féilim Ó Néill , was an Irish nobleman who led the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster which began on 22 October 1641. He was a member of the Irish Catholic Confederation during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, where he fought under...

 and the other insurgent leaders initially tried to stop the attacks on the settlers, but were unable to control the local peasantry. A contemporary—though hostile—Catholic source tells us that O'Neill "strove to contain the raskall multitude from those frequent savage actions of stripping and killing which were after perpetrated and gave their enterprise an odious character as well in the opinion of their countrymen as of strangers" but that "the floodgate of rapine, once being laid open, the meaner sort of people was not to be contained".

Communal uprisings spread to the rest of the country. Munster was the last region to witness such disturbances; the rebellion in Munster was in fact largely a product of the severe martial law William St Leger imposed upon the province. Many Irish Catholic lords who had lost lands or feared dispossession joined the rebellion and participated in the attacks on the settlers. However, at this stage, the attacks usually involved the beating and robbing rather than the killing of Protestants. Historian Nicholas Canny writes, 'most insurgents seemed anxious for a resolution of their immediate economic difficulties by seizing the property of any of the settlers. These popular attacks did not usually result in loss of life, nor was it the purpose of the insurgents to kill their victims. However they were always gruesome affairs because they involved face to face confrontations between people who had long known each other. A typical offensive involved a group of Irish descending upon a Protestant family and demanding, at knife point, that they surrender their moveable goods. Killings usually only occurred where Protestants resisted'.

The motivations for the popular rebellion were complex. Among them were a desire to reverse the plantations; rebels in Ulster were reported as saying, 'the land was theirs and lost by their fathers. Another motivating factor was a sharp antagonism towards the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and culture which had been imposed on the country. For example, rebels in county Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...

 forbade the use of the English language and decreed that the original Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 place names should replace English ones. A third factor was religious antagonism. The rebels consciously identified themselves as Catholics and justified the rising as a defensive measure against the Protestant threat to 'extirpate the Catholic religion'. Rebels in county Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...

 stated, "we rise for our religion. They hang our priests in England". Historian Brian MacCuarta writes, "Longstanding animosities against the [Protestant] clergy were based on the imposition of the state church since its inception thirty years previously. Ulster Irish ferocity against everything Protestant were fuelled by the wealth of the church in Ulster, exceptional in contemporary Ireland". There were also cases of purely religious violence, where native Irish Protestants were attacked and Catholic settlers joined the rebellion.

Ulster Massacres

The number of planters killed in the early months of the uprising is the subject of debate. Early English Parliamentarian pamphlets claimed that over 200,000 settlers had lost their lives. In fact, recent research has suggested that the number is far more modest, in the region of 4,000 or so killed, though many thousands were expelled from their homes. It is estimated that up to 12,000 Protestants may have lost their lives in total, the majority dying of cold or disease after being expelled from their homes in the depths of winter.

The general pattern around the country was that the attacks intensified the longer the rebellion went on. At first, there were beatings and robbing of local settlers, then house burnings and expulsions and finally killings, most of them concentrated in Ulster. Historian Nicholas Canny suggests that the violence escalated after a failed rebel assault on Lisnagarvey in November 1641, after which the settlers killed several hundred captured insurgents. Canny writes, 'the bloody mindedness of the settlers in taking revenge when they gained the upper hand in battle seems to have made such a deep impression on the insurgents that, as one deponent put it, "the slaughter of the English" could be dated from this encounter' In one incident after this battle, the planters in Portadown
Portadown
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...

 were taken captive and then killed on the bridge in the town (see the Portadown Massacre
Portadown Massacre
The Portadown Massacre took place in November 1641 at what is now Portadown, County Armagh. Up to 100 mostly English Protestants were killed in the River Bann by a group of armed Irishmen...

). In nearby Kilmore
Kilmore, County Armagh
Kilmore or Killmore is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies 2.5 miles north of Richhill and within the Armagh City and District Council area. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 111 people....

 parish, English and Scottish men, women and children were burned to death in the cottage in which they were imprisoned., In County Armagh
County Armagh
-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...

, recent research has shown that about 1,250 Protestants were killed in the early months of the rebellion, or about a quarter of the planter population there. In County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

, modern research has identified three blackspots for the killing of settlers, with the worst being near Kinard
Kinard
Kinard may refer to*Kinard, Florida*Kinards, South Carolina*Terry Kinard, American football player*Frank Kinard, American football player*Chris Kinard, American badminton player*J. Spencer Kinard, American journalist and singer...

, 'where most of the British families planted... were ultimately murdered'. The Shrule massacre
Shrule
Shrule is a village in County Mayo, Ireland. The boundary between Mayo and County Galway lies on the edge of the village. The Black River divides Shrule between Galway and Mayo....

 in early 1642 involved the deaths of dozens of Protestants travelling under safe conduct, where all the local officials and escort were Catholics.

Modern historians have argued that the killings of 1641 had a powerful psychological impact on the Protestant settlers. Dr. Mary O'Dowd, 'To look at the long-term consequences of the Plantation, it's very difficult to do that without also taking into consideration the long-term implications of the 1641 rebellion: because the massacres of 1641, in the winter of 1641, really were very traumatic for the Protestant settler community in Ulster, and they left long-term scars within that community.

Contemporary Protestant accounts depict the outbreak of the rebellion as a complete surprise, one stated that it was, 'conceived among us and yet we never felt it kick in the womb, nor struggle in the birth'. However after the rebellion, many Protestants in Ireland took the attitude that the native Irish could not be trusted to remain quiescent again. The Protestant narrative of the rebellion as a preconceived plot to massacre them was constructed in the Depositions, a collection of accounts by victims assembled between 1642 and 1655 and now housed in Trinity College Dublin and articulated in a book published by John Temple
John Temple
John Temple may refer to:*John Temple , MP for Ripon *Sir John Temple Master of the Rolls in Ireland*Sir John Temple , Attorney General of Ireland...

 in 1642, entitled The Irish Rebellion.

Many settlers massacred Catholics when they got the chance, particularly in 1642–43 when a Scottish Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...

 army landed in Ulster. William Lecky, the 19th century historian of the rebellion, concluded that, "it is far from clear on which side the balance of cruelty rests".

Among the more prominent incidents was the killing of Irish prisoners at Kilwarlin woods near Newry
Newry
Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...

 and the subsequent massacre of Catholic prisoners and civilians in the town itself. Trevor Royle quotes James Turner who in his memoirs reported that after skirmish in Kilwarlin woods, Irish prisoners were given "bad quarter
No quarter
A victor gives no quarter when the victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life in return for the surrender at discretion of a vanquished opponent....

, being shot dead", but two other eye witness accounts of the skirmish, (a letter by Roger Pike and the dispatches of Major-General Robert Monro, the Protestant commander), do not mention the killing of prisoners. Turner records in his memoirs that the following day English soldiers entered Newry and captured its castle, after the capitulation Catholic soldiers and local merchants were lined up on the banks of the river and "butchered to death ... without any legal process".

On Rathlin Island
Rathlin Island
Rathlin Island is an island off the coast of County Antrim, and is the northernmost point of Northern Ireland. Rathlin is the only inhabited offshore island in Northern Ireland, with a rising population of now just over 100 people, and is the most northerly inhabited island off the Irish coast...

 Covenanter Campbell
Clan Campbell
Clan Campbell is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically one of the largest, most powerful and most successful of the Highland clans, their lands were in Argyll and the chief of the clan became the Earl and later Duke of Argyll.-Origins:...

 soldiers of the Argyll's Foot were encouraged by their commanding officer Sir Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck
Sir Duncan Campbell, 2nd Baronet
Sir Duncan Campbell was the second son of Sir Dougald and Mary Campbell, and succeeded him. He served in Parliament for Argyllshire from 1628 to 1643.On 2 February, he led Argyll’s troops at Inverlochy where he was taken prisoner and murdered....

 to kill the local Catholic MacDonalds, near relatives of their arch Clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

 enemy in the Scottish Highlands Clan MacDonald, this they did with ruthless efficiency throwing scores of MacDonald women over cliffs to their deaths on rocks below. The number of victims of this massacre has been put as low as 100 and as high as 3,000.

The widespread killing of civilians was brought under control to some degree in 1642
1642 in Ireland
-Events:* March 19 - The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship and close the town gates in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.* March 26 - Siege of Drogheda broken by English reinforcements....

, when Owen Roe O'Neill
Owen Roe O'Neill
Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill , anglicised as Owen Roe O'Neill , was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster.- In Spanish service :...

 arrived in Ulster to command the Irish Catholic forces and hanged several rebels for attacks on civilians. Thereafter, the war, though still brutal, was fought in line with the code of conduct that both O'Neill and the Scottish commander Robert Monro had learned as professional soldiers in continental Europe.

In the long term, the killings committed by both sides in 1641 intensified the sectarian animosity that originated in the plantations. The effects of this can still be seen, particularly in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, today. The bitterness created by the plantations and the massacres of 1641 proved extremely long lasting. Ulster Protestants commemorated the anniversary of the rebellion on every 23 October for over two hundred years after the event. According to Pádraig Lenihan, 'This anniversary helped affirm communal solidarity and emphasize the need for unrelenting vigilance; [they perceived that] the masses of Irish Catholics surrounding them were and always would be, unregenerate and cruel enemies' Images of the massacres involving Protestant deaths in 1641 are still represented on the banners of the Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...

. If the upper estimate of 12,000 deaths is accurate, this would represent less than 10% of the British settler population in Ireland, though in Ulster the ratio of deaths to the settler population would have been somewhat higher, namely around 30%.

Civil war and Confederation

See also: Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

 and Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....



From 1641 to early 1642, the fighting in Ireland was characterized by small bands, raised by local lords or among local people, attacking civilians of opposing ethnic and religious groups. At first, many of the Irish Catholic upper classes were reluctant to join the rebellion, especially the "Old English
Old English (Ireland)
The Old English were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71. Many of the Old English became assimilated into Irish society over the centuries...

" community. However, within six months almost all of them had joined the rebellion. There were three main reasons for this.
  • First, local lords and landowners raised armed units of their dependents to control the violence that was engulfing the country, fearing that after the settlers were gone, the Irish peasantry would turn on them as well.
  • Secondly, the English Parliament and the Irish administration, and King Charles, made it clear that Irish Catholics who did not demonstrate their loyalty would be held responsible for the rebellion and killings of settlers, and would confiscate their lands under the Adventurers Act
    Adventurers Act
    The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland".-The main Act:...

    .
  • Thirdly, it looked initially as if the rebels would be successful after they defeated a government force at Julianstown
    Battle of Julianstown
    The Battle of Julianstown was fought during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, at Julianstown near Drogheda in eastern Ireland, in November 1641.- Battle :...

    . This perception was soon shattered when the rebels failed to take
    Siege of Drogheda
    The siege of Drogheda at the outset of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The town of Drogheda in eastern Ireland was held by a combined English Royalist and Irish Catholic garrison when it was besieged and stormed by English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell...

     nearby Drogheda
    Drogheda
    Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

    , but by then the Pale lords had already committed themselves to rebellion.


By early 1642, there were four main concentrations of rebel forces; in Ulster under Phelim O'Neill, in the Pale around Dublin led by Viscount Gormanstown, in the south east, led by the Butler family - in particular Lord Mountgarret and in the south west, led by Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry
Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry
Donagh [Donough] MacCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry was an Irish noble. He married Ellen Butler , who was the sister of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde). The Earl served as a Munster general during the Irish Confederate Wars...

. In areas where British settlers were concentrated, around Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

, Dublin, Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus , known locally and colloquially as "Carrick", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th century king...

 and Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, they raised their own militia in self-defense and managed to hold off the rebel forces.

Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 was initially hostile to the rebels and sent over a large army to Dublin to subdue them. The Scottish parliament also sent an army to Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 to defend their compatriots there. However, a quick defeat of the rebels in Ireland was prevented by the outbreak of Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 in England. Among other issues, the English Parliament did not trust Charles with command of the army raised to send to Ireland, fearing that it would afterwards be used against them. Because of the Civil War in England, English troops were withdrawn from Ireland and a military stalemate ensued.

This gave the Irish Catholics breathing space to create the Catholic Confederation
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

, which would run the Irish war effort. This was instigated by the Catholic clergy and by landed magnates such as Viscount Gormanstown and Lord Mountgarret. By the summer of 1642, the rebellion proper was over and was superseded by a conventional war between the Irish, who controlled two thirds of the country, and the British-controlled enclaves in Ulster, Dublin and around Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

 in Munster. The following period is known as Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

. The Confederation sided with the Royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 in return for the promise of self-government and full rights for Catholics after the war. They were finally defeated
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...

 by regiments of the English Parliament's New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...

 from 1649
1649 in Ireland
-Events:* January 30** King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded in London.** Prince Charles Stuart declares himself King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland...

 through to 1653 and land ownership in Ireland passed largely to Protestant settlers.

See also

  • Early Modern Ireland 1536–1691
    Early Modern Ireland 1536–1691
    Ireland during the period 1536–1691 saw the first full conquest of the island by England and its colonization with Protestant settlers from Britain. This established two central themes in future Irish history - subordination of the country to London based governments and sectarian animosity between...

  • List of Irish rebellions
  • Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
    Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
    The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...


Further reading

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