The Protestants at Belturbet.
The Lords Justices mark time.
On October 29 the Lords Justices issued a second proclamation. The words ‘Irish Papists’ in the first had been misunderstood, and they now desired to confine it to the ‘old mere Irish in the province of Ulster’; and they straitly charged both Papists and Protestants on their allegiance to ‘forbear upbraiding matters of religion one against the other.’ They soon had authentic evidence of how the old mere Irish were behaving in one Ulster county. Dean Jones came to Dublin at the beginning of November with the Remonstrance of the O’Reillys, which Bedell had excused himself from carrying. ‘I must confess,’ says Jones, ‘the task was such as was in every respect improper for me to undergo ... but chiefly considering that thereby I might gain the opportunity of laying open to the Lords what I had observed ... which by letters could not so safely be delivered, I did therefore accept.’ The O’Reillys declared that the outbreak was caused by oppression and by the fear of worse oppression; that there was no intention to rebel against the King; and that the people had attacked the English settlers without their orders and against their will. To prevent greater disorders they had seized strong places for the King’s use, and they demanded liberty of conscience and security for their property. Jones saw clearly that the rising was general and that the native gentry had no wish to restrain it, and he could tell what had happened to the English inhabitants of Belturbet. Philip Mac Hugh O’Reilly and the rest had promised these people a safe passage, and had allowed them to carry away some of their property, which they were thus induced not to hide. In the town of Cavan they were attacked, the guard given by the O’Reillys joining in the treachery, and robbed of everything. ‘Some were killed, all stripped, some almost, others altogether naked, not respecting women and sucking infants, the Lady Butler faring herein as did others. Of these miserable creatures many perished by famine and cold, travelling naked through frost and snow, the rest recovering Dublin, where now many of them are among others, in the same distress for bread and clothes.’ After a week’s hesitation, the Lords Justices sent back an answer by Jones, whose wife and children remained as hostages. This he describes as ‘fair, but general and dilatory, suitable to the weak condition of affairs in Dublin, the safety whereof wholly depending upon the gain of time.’ The Government yielded no point of importance. They reminded the remonstrants that fortresses could not be legally seized without orders from the King, and that the rebels had falsely professed to have such orders. If, however, the inhabitants of the county Cavan would peaceably return to their own dwellings, restore every possible article to its plundered owner, and abstain from all hostile acts in future, then the Lords Justices would forward their petition to his Majesty and ‘humbly seek his royal pleasure therein.’ The O’Reillys were in the meantime preparing to attack Dublin in force.[278]
State of the Pale.
As regards the gentry of the Pale, Roman Catholics for the most part, the Lords Justices were in a difficult position. By mistrusting them they ran the risk of driving them into rebellion; by trusting them they increased their power for mischief, should they be already tainted. For the moment the first danger seemed the greater of the two, and commissions as governors of counties with plenary powers were accordingly issued to several of them, by which they were authorised to proceed by martial law against the rebels, ‘hanging them till they be dead as hath been accustomed in time of open rebellion,’ destroying or sparing their houses and territories according to their discretion. They were also empowered to grant protections.
Lord Gormanston.
Sir N. Barnewall.
Sir T. Nugent.
Sir C. Bellew.
The Earl of Kildare.