The clergy thus won a disastrous triumph. Up to this the arms of the Confederates had been successful. In the previous June, Owen Roe O’Neill had won his famous victory over Monroe at Benburb. But now all went wrong. The Leinster army was defeated at Dungan Hill. The Munster army, under Lord Taaffe, was defeated at Kanturk on the 13th of November, 1647, and these reverses were followed in rapid succession by other defeats. Everywhere there was confusion and disunion. Owen Roe O’Neill sided with the Nuncio. The General and officers of the Leinster army at first took the other side, and only abandoned it when the General found that his men were not “excommunication proof.” The bishops were divided, and so were the convents and monasteries. No doubt, the laity, especially the common people, were bewildered. The Council revoked O’Neill’s patent for the command in Ulster. He threw the letters directed to him and to his officers into the fire, and he and his officers published a sharp declaration against the Council’s proceedings, to which they replied with equal asperity. The Assembly met in September, 1648, and accused the Nuncio. He embarked from Galway on the 23rd of February, 1649, and, needless to say, never returned.
Meantime, efforts had been made to conclude another peace. Ormond, after he had been obliged to surrender Dublin to the English Parliament, had left Ireland; but Clanricarde, who had, in conjunction with Colonel Jones, won the battle of Kanturk, began to distrust the Parliamentarians, and made overtures to the Confederates. Ormond returned to Ireland in October, 1648, and concluded a peace with the Confederates on the 17th of January, 1649.
But it was too late. Events had marched with fatal rapidity in England. On the 5th of May, 1646, the King had surrendered himself to the Scots, to be by them handed over to the English Parliament. His head fell on the scaffold on the 30th of January, 1649. Cromwell landed in Ireland on the 15th of August, to find that Ormond had been defeated by Colonel Jones in the battle of Rathmines. We know what followed. Those who have listened to, or have read, the brilliant lecture on Cromwell, delivered before this Society, by Sir William Butler, need not be reminded of the tragic occurrences of that dark time. But in any case they are beyond the scope of this paper. The “Rebellion” of 1641 ended with the treaty of 1649.
THE CONFEDERATION OF KILKENNY
By JAMES DONELAN, M.Ch., M.B.,
Chevalier of the Crown of Italy
The Confederation of Kilkenny
The period we are about to deal with is one of the most important, perhaps the most important of modern Irish history, as the events of that time influenced the destinies of Ireland more profoundly than anything that went before, and by their effects, continue to profoundly influence them even in our own times. It is also the most confused, not to say confusing, period of the history of Ireland or any other country that a student can attempt to deal with. Carlyle, rarely just to Ireland, in this instance describes it with both force and faithfulness, when due allowance is made for his prejudices. “The history of it,” he says, “does not form itself into a picture, but remains only as a huge blot, an indiscriminate blackness, which the human memory cannot willingly charge itself with! There are Parties on the back of Parties, at war with the world and with each other. There are Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom of religion under my Lord this and my Lord that. There are Old-Irish Catholics under Pope’s Nuncios under Abbas O’Teague of the excommunications and Owen Roe O’Neill demanding, not religious freedom only, but what we now call ‘Repeal of the Union,’ and unable to agree with the Catholics of the English Pale. Then there are Ormond Royalists of the Episcopalian and mixed creeds, strong for King without Covenant; Ulster and other Presbyterians, strong for King and Covenant; lastly, Michael Jones, and the Commonwealth of England, who want neither King nor Covenant. All these plunging and tumbling for the last eight years, have made of Ireland and its affairs, the black unutterable blot we speak of.” The object of this paper is to remove some of the blackness, and attempt to set forth clearly, if possible within the limits allowed, the relations and interactions of these various parties.