Glin taken.
Result of Forbes’s campaign.
Opinions of Hugh Peters.
The officers knew that a strong town could not be taken with the means at their disposal, but the sailors were ‘readier to fall on nakedly than forsake the work, and the soldiers no way backward.’ The guns were taken on board, and Forbes departed to the Shannon. Askeaton, which had made so gallant a stand in the last Desmond war, surrendered without a blow. Sir Edward Denny continued to press for the relief of his castle at Tralee, but Forbes wasted two or three days in harrying the poor islands of Arran, and when at last he arrived off Ballingarry in Kerry it was only to hear that Tralee had fallen, the garrison having been reduced to eating hides. The expedition then returned to the Shannon, and captured a great piece of ordnance called ‘roaring Meg’ with which the Irish had taken most of the castles thereabouts. The gun was found in one boat and the carriage in another, so that this was an easy task. It was then proposed to destroy Sir Daniel O’Brien’s house at Clare Castle on the ground that he was no friend to the Parliament. Yet he acted in strict unison with the loyal and Protestant Earl of Thomond. Even the latter was doubted, ‘and in truth,’ says Peters, ‘his case is nice, the chief of the country being his kindred and himself without power saving fifty horses in his stable.’ He was, however, unwilling to see his country laid waste, and declined to join in the work. The Limerick shore was devastated instead. The Knight of Glin sent a letter of recommendation from Clanricarde, and offered to give cattle for the use of the squadron. Glin Castle was nevertheless battered and stormed, the defenders being short of bullets. ‘Most matters,’ says Peters, ‘fell as at the last siege forty years since,’ but in shorter time and with the loss of only four men. ‘The plate and silver were gone for Limerick, which receives most of which is in Ireland.’ A garrison was put in, and guns mounted on the walls. This was done on September 26, and so the expedition ended, for the ships had only been hired till Michaelmas. Five vessels had been taken worth 20,000l., including one from Barbadoes with a cargo of tobacco, and corn to the same value had been destroyed. Many Irish towns had been burned, and many English relieved. Thousands of cattle had been taken or spoiled, and a diversion had been made on the west coast. This is Peters’s own summary, and it does not amount to much. It is more certain that Forbes did everything in his power to aggravate the bitterness of a war which was already sufficiently horrible. The pragmatic chaplain’s political remarks are interesting. He had been assured that a million of English had been murdered, and he hoped many more Irish slain. The cause of the war was Popery on the one side and profaneness on the other. The royalism of the Irish was a mere catchword. ‘An Irish rebel and an English cavalier in words and actions we found as unlike as an egg is to an egg,’ he adds rather ambiguously. Among the English there were many abuses both in ecclesiastical and civil government, many unfaithful ministers, and many scurrilous and ignorant congregations. Ireland, he prophetically concludes, will be reduced ‘when soldiers and commanders there shall rather attend the present work than the continuance of their trade.’[35]
The King praises Clanricarde,
and repudiates Forbes.
Galway fort besieged.
The fort surrendered.
Galway occupied by the Irish, Aug. 1648.
When Clanricarde returned from the conference at Trim he found things in a bad way at Galway. Little or no support was given him from Dublin, while agents of the confederates did all in their power, ‘both by spiritual and temporal practices,’ to seduce his men and to sap his great local influence. He was somewhat comforted by a letter from the King, who approved of his conduct, protested that Lord Forbes had no orders from him, and declared that he would support him rather than ‘those who pretend that they do really serve us by rebelling against us.’ Colonel John Bourke was acting as lieutenant-general for the confederates on Christmas Eve, and the question of closely besieging the fort was at once entertained. Willoughby had exasperated the townsmen by firing into their houses, and many were ready to retaliate, though the more prudent hesitated. His necessities forced him to drive cattle wherever he could, and he was not particular about the exact opinions of the owners. On one occasion fifty of his men were intercepted by a party from Galway, several being killed and others taken prisoners. From accounts given by the latter general Bourke was convinced that the fort might be starved out, and breastworks were erected on the points at the mouth of the river to prevent relief by sea. Chains were afterwards drawn across the channel. Of relief by land there was little chance, for Clanricarde’s castle of Claregalway had been betrayed to the Irish, and it was as much as he could do to provide for the safety of Loughrea and Portumna. Bourke had a garrison at Athenry, and some of his troops watched Roscommon so as to prevent Ranelagh from making any move. Preston had occupied Banagher, and Inchiquin, though he wrote civil letters, could find neither men nor money. Early in May Bourke besieged the fort in force, with about 1000 men, but he made no approaches, and trusted to famine. On or about June 10 Captain Brooke, who commanded a man-of-war in the bay, sent in a flotilla of boats to attempt the relief of the fort, but they were beaten back by boats from the town, assisted by the fire from the breastworks. Willoughby believed this to be his last chance, and as a choice of evils proposed to surrender his post into Clanricarde’s hands. This could not be done without the consent of the Irish, and the terms offered by Bourke were such as Clanricarde could not in honour entertain. He held the King’s commission, and yet he was required to take the confederate oath of association, and to do nothing without the consent of the corporation of Galway, and of several other persons, the betrayer of Claregalway being one. Negotiations upon this basis necessarily failed, and Willoughby capitulated on the 20th without making Clanricarde a party. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and were allowed to go on board ship. The post at Oranmore, which belonged to Clanricarde, was surrendered on the same terms without his consent. The day after the capitulation was signed a squadron sailed into the bay, which had it come sooner would have been able to relieve the fort. On August 6 Galway opened its gates to Bourke and granted him 300l., which enabled him to proceed to the siege of Castle Coote. The castles of Athlone and Roscommon in the Lord President’s hands, Loughrea, Portumna and Kildogan in Clanricarde’s, were the only other places in Connaught of which the Irish were not by this time masters.[36]