The Council soon had reason to know that the insurrection was general. Lord Blaney came to Dublin at twelve o’clock on the night of October 23rd, with news of the seizure of his house at Castleblayney, and of a house of the Earl of Essex at Carrickmacross. At three o’clock on the morning of the 24th they learned that the store of arms and ammunition at Newry had been seized. In a postscript to the letter of October 25th they write: “As we were making up these our letters the Sheriff of the county of Monaghan and Dr. Teate having fled, came to us and informed us of much more spoil committed by the rebels in the counties of Monaghan and Cavan, and that the sheriff of the county of Cavan joins with the rebels, being a Papist and a prime man of the Irish.” On the 5th of November they write that the rebels had seized the houses and estates of almost all the English in Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone, Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, and a great part of Down, and were beginning to threaten the English plantations in the King’s County and Queen’s County, that Dundalk had surrendered to them without a blow, and that they were marching on Drogheda. On the 13th of November they announce that the Byrnes and others had risen in Wicklow; on the 22nd that some other parts of Leinster had joined; on the 25th that the whole county of Louth, both gentry and others, had joined; that some of the Wicklow rebels had come to within four miles of the city of Dublin, and that the cattle and houses of all the English in both Wicklow and Wexford were in the hands of the insurgents; on the 30th that several other counties had risen, and on the 14th of December that the defection then appeared to be universal throughout the whole four provinces.
The burden of these letters, which are steeped in the gall of bitterness towards the Irish Papist and his religious teachers is principally, in the first place, a wholesale charge of acts of barbarity against the rebels, and in the second place, frantic appeals for help in men and money and material of war.
Now with regard to those charges it is to be observed first, that much weight is not to be attached to accusations made in general terms; and, second, that charges of this kind were very useful as excuses for barbarities committed by the Government troops, and as stimulants to the English Parliament and people to send over the required supplies, and therefore very likely to be greatly exaggerated; and third, that the writers of these letters may have more readily given credence to reports of such excesses having been perpetrated, because, if their first letter is to be believed, Owen Connolly had told them that it was part of the design “that all the Protestants and English throughout the whole kingdom that would not join with them should be cut off, and so those Papists should then become possessed of the Government and kingdom at the same moment.”
It is of importance, therefore, to see what were the actual objects which the organizers of the rebellion had in view. Presumably they would include two, namely, religious liberty, and the restoration of the confiscated lands. Now, we have documents which will throw great light on this question. One is the oath which, as mentioned in the letter of the Council to Leicester, of November 25th, 1641, was administered to all who joined the rebels; another is the written statement made by Lord Maguire and delivered by him, about 1642, to Sir John Conyers, the Lieutenant of the Tower. The oath was to maintain and defend the public and free exercise of the Catholic religion, to bear faith and allegiance to King Charles, his heirs and successors, and to support them against anyone who should attempt anything against their persons or estates, or endeavour to suppress their prerogatives, or do any act contrary to regal government, as also the power and privileges of Parliament, the lawful rights and privileges of the subjects. This oath, it will be observed, asserts:—
1. Religious liberty.
2. Loyalty to the Crown.
3. The power and privileges of Parliament.
4. Rights and privileges of the subject.
Speaking of Lord Maguire’s statement, Carte, Book iii., § II., says, “It carries with it an intrinsic evidence sufficient to merit belief, and hath accordingly been universally allowed to be a just and faithful account of that affair.” We may therefore, I think, rest satisfied that this statement contains an authentic account of the objects that the conspirators had in view, and the method by which they proposed to accomplish them. So far as it relates to the matter in hand it is to this effect:—Roger O’More approached Lord Maguire, and after representing in general the many grievances of the natives, especially the old Irish, who upon several plantations were turned out of their ancestors’ estates, and the favourable opportunity which the insurrection of the Scots and the disturbances in England afforded the gentry of Ireland to free the nation from like grievances in future, to get good conditions for themselves, and to regain the whole, or at least good part of their ancestors’ possessions, obtained from Maguire an oath of secrecy, and then disclosed to him the project for an insurrection, urging it as the only method of recovering his lordship’s vast estates and the power of his ancestors, and as being absolutely necessary for maintaining the Catholic religion which undoubtedly, he said, the Parliament of England resolved to suppress. Here, then, we have plainly stated the objects the conspirators had in view, namely, the restoration of the lands which had been ‘planted,’ and the preservation of the Catholic religion, which was threatened with extinction. It will be observed that in the design thus disclosed there is no mention of erecting Ireland into an independent kingdom, the establishment of Catholic ascendancy, or the extermination of persons of the English race or of the Protestant faith. So far from the last-mentioned being one of the objects in view, “there was,” says Maguire, “a fear of the Scots conceived, that they would presumably oppose themselves, and that would make the matter more difficult; to avoid which danger it was resolved not to meddle with them or anything belonging to them, and to demean ourselves toward them as if they were of us, which we thought would pacify them; and if the Scots would not accept that offer, we were in good hope to cause a stir in Scotland that might divert them from us.”
Lord Maguire and the northern gentry generally consented to join in the plot on the strength of these representations, and at a meeting of the leaders, including Sir Phelim O’Neill, and Lord Maguire, held on the 5th of October, 1641, at Loughrosse, county Armagh, final arrangements were made for a general rising to take place on the 23rd, “all forts and arms should be seized, all the gentry made prisoners for their own better security against any adverse fortune or disappointment, and that none should be killed, especially of the gentry; but when of necessity they should be forced thereto by opposition, a rule to be observed likewise by those appointed for seizing the Castle of Dublin.”