Ormonde has been blamed by many Irish writers for not supporting the Bishop of Clogher; but he had no army with him and no means of raising one. Inchiquin’s force had disappeared in the manner already described, and Castlehaven could do little with his small following. Meanwhile, the Shannon estuary was at the mercy of the Parliamentary fleet. Kilrush and Tarbert were burned and all country boats destroyed, so that Clare was cut off from the rest of Munster. The possession of Limerick was absolutely necessary to keep up the communications between Connaught and the other provinces, and Limerick was contumacious. To those who criticised him for keeping the few soldiers he had in scattered country quarters instead of concentrating them in important garrisons, the Lord Lieutenant sarcastically answered that the towns themselves were responsible, ‘wherein we cannot yet prevail, nor ever could, till by the enemies’ lying at one end of the town we were, not without articling and conditioning, permitted to put such men as we could then get in at the other end.’ He summoned a general assembly to meet at Loughrea on April 27, enclosing a copy of the young King’s letter, which permitted him to leave Ireland if he could not secure obedience. He had a vessel ready in Galway Bay, but the conciliatory attitude of the assembly, owing to the presence of a lay element, induced him to dismiss her and to stay on in Ireland a little longer. The Archbishop of Tuam and Sir Lucas Dillon went to Limerick with directions to settle matters between the town and Ormonde, who in consequence received a rather halting invitation from the mayor, John Creagh. He came within four miles of Limerick, and agreed to visit the city on condition that he should be received with the respect due to a Lord Lieutenant; that he should have military command within the walls, and that he should be attended by his own guard of fifty horse and one hundred foot, all Roman Catholics and old soldiers of the Confederacy. The mayor would have agreed, but Dominick Fanning and a friar named Wolfe possessed themselves of the keys, collected a number of young men, who had already distinguished themselves by plundering Ormonde’s papers on board a ship, and admitted Colonel Murtagh O’Brien with an Irish regiment consisting largely of recruits. Clanricarde, supported by the Commissioners of Trust, called upon the Bishop of Limerick to excommunicate Fanning and O’Brien; but, of course, this was not done. Ormonde offered to remain in Limerick during the coming siege and take his chance with the rest, provided he was allowed to put in a proper garrison and strengthen the works as he thought fit; but his efforts were all in vain, and Galway was equally determined not to admit Clanricarde.[183]
and Clanricarde out of Galway.
Progress of Ireton.
Tecroghan taken, June 25.
Castlehaven failed to relieve it.
While Ormonde persevered in his hopeless task, Ireton was gradually reducing the few strongholds which held out to the east of the Shannon after Cromwell’s departure. The first to fall was Tecroghan, in the south-west corner of Meath, which capitulated on June 25, only four days after the disaster at Scariffhollis. That strong castle belonged to Sir Luke Fitzgerald, whose daughter married the ill-fated Henry O’Neill, and had been Ormonde’s headquarters when Cromwell came to Drogheda. Reynolds besieged Tecroghan about the middle of May, the garrison being commanded by Sir Robert Talbot, a kinsman of Lady Fitzgerald, under Ormonde’s orders. This appointment displaced Major Luke Maguire, and the everlasting jealousy between the native Irish and the men of the Pale caused great dissension between the partisans of the late and present governor. In order to relieve the place, Clanricarde came to Tyrrell’s Pass with 2000 foot and 700 horse, under Castlehaven’s command. Several miles of bog had to be crossed, and a council of war was disinclined to move; but Castlehaven offered to march with the foot, leaving the cavalry to distract the enemies’ attention, if possible. The latter part of the advance was along a narrow causeway with deep ditches on either side, and the rearguard, under Captain Fox, was ordered to face about and protect the convoy. ‘He turned to his men,’ says Castlehaven, ‘and spake something in Irish that I did not know, and, marching two or three hundred paces in such a fashion that I could not tell whether he intended fighting or running away. At last he did run away, and all his party followed.’ The van marched on into Tecroghan, but without the provisions and ammunition; and Castlehaven with difficulty got back. Fox was tried by court-martial and shot. No further attempt could be made to relieve Tecroghan, which capitulated on honourable terms, the garrison marching out with the honours of war, and protection was given for the property of Lady Fitzgerald and some of her friends. By a special article, half the guns in the castle were to remain with Talbot, provided he took them within eight weeks. Carte says this was not done, and calls it a shameful breach of faith; but it is very likely that the pieces were not claimed within the specified time.[184]
Surrender of Carlow, July 24.
Ireton summoned Carlow on July 2, having already thrown a bridge over the Barrow. Major Bellew, who commanded a garrison of about 200 men, asked for three days’ truce, which were granted, to communicate with the Bishop of Dromore and with Preston at Waterford. Further negotiations then took place, and it seems evident that the news of Scariffhollis had greatly damped the ardour of the defenders. Ireton took the bulk of the army with him to Waterford, leaving Sir Hardress Waller to take Carlow, which capitulated as soon as a tower near the bridge had been battered and carried by assault. The terms were as good as those granted to Tecroghan, and Ireton, says Ludlow, ‘caused them punctually to be executed, as his constant manner was.’[185]
Surrender of Waterford, Aug. 10.
Ireton’s military justice.