The Desmonds at Limerick.
The Lord Deputy rested ten days at Limerick, during which time was performed the rite of ‘bishoping’ Desmond’s youngest child, the old Earl being present himself. This was a first or second baptism, for the little Fitzgerald was not old enough to be confirmed, and the Lord Deputy stood sponsor and gave his god-child his own name, and presented him at the same time with a gold chain. The career of James Sussex Fitzgerald thus auspiciously begun was destined to end in a traitor’s death on the scaffold.
The O’Briens.
Sir Donnell O’Brien failed to appear, and was thrice proclaimed traitor at Limerick. Sussex then issued forth into Thomond. Clare Castle and Ennis made no resistance, but a few cannon shot had to be fired at Bunratty before it surrendered. The Earl of Thomond, having been placed in possession of his country, was sworn upon the sacraments and on the relics of the Church with bell, book, and candle, to forsake the name of O’Brien, and to be true to the King and Queen. All the freeholders of the district swore in the same solemn way to obey him as their captain.
O’Shaughnessy.
On his journey westward from Limerick, Sussex spent a night with O’Shaughnessy at Gort, where he ‘dined so worshipfully as divers wondered at it, for the like was not seen in an Irishman’s house.’ At Galway he was received with the same civic, military, and religious ceremonies as at Limerick, and, after staying four or five days, returned by Athenry and Meelick into Offaly, and thence to Dublin.[420]
Expedition against the Hebridean Scots. It ends in failure.
Sidney’s apprehensions were partially realised, for James MacDonnell landed before Sussex with 600 islemen and two guns. But Carrickfergus had been reinforced, and the greater part of the Scots returned to their own country. Colla MacDonnell, one of the chief’s five brothers and the resident guardian of his clan’s Irish interests, died soon afterwards, and, his brother Angus having refused to take his place, Sorley Boy, the youngest and ablest of the family, filled the vacant post. It was decided to attack the Redshanks in their own islands, and a fleet assembled at Lambay from which great things were evidently expected. Sussex urged despatch; but the delays of the supply service were inveterate, and nothing was done for nearly three weeks. The Lord Deputy landed first in Cantire, and began operations by burning James MacDonnell’s ‘chief house called Sandell, a fair pile and a strong.’
The fleet is in danger,
He boasted that in three days he burned everything from sea to sea in a district twenty miles long, and this without meeting any opposition worth notice. Isla was the great object of the expedition; but the wind was unfavourable, and the incendiary’s work could be carried on elsewhere. Arran was accordingly devastated, the army dividing into two, so as to make the damage more complete. Isla being still inaccessible, the same fate was intended for Bute, but just as the boats were about to be manned a sudden gale sprung up, ‘and that being then the weather shore the wind wheeled suddenly and made it the lee shore, whereby we being very near the shore were forced to ride it out for life and death in such a place as if any tackle had slipped or broken the ship whose tackle had so slipped or broken must needs have perished.’ The cable of a Dublin transport parted, and she foundered with a loss of twenty-eight men. Most of the small vessels got into harbour, ‘but the masters of H.M.’s ships I think thought scorn thereof.’ The fine gentlemen who commanded men-of-war in those days were unwilling to take advice from the old seamen who acted as their sailing masters or pilots. With loss of boats, running rigging, and anchors, the fleet escaped, and the captains, whose courage was ‘somewhat cooled,’ were content after this to be controlled by their professional associates.