Sculpture on a Capital of the Church of the Monastery, Glendalough, Beranger, 1779.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE PLANTATIONS.

EFORE proceeding further with our regular narrative, it is necessary that we here turn back a little in point of time, in order to trace the history of the Plantations, and to describe what they were and how they were carried out. In the time of Queen Mary, an entire change was made in the mode of dealing with Irish territories whose chiefs had been subdued, Hitherto whenever the government deposed or banished a troublesome Irish chief, they contented themselves with putting in his place another, commonly English or Anglo-Irish, more likely to be submissive, while the general body of occupiers remained undisturbed. But now when a rebellious chief was reduced, the lands, not merely those in his own possession, but also those belonging to the whole of the people over whom he ruled, were confiscated, that is, seized by the crown, and given to English adventurers - undertakers as they were commonly called. These men got the lands on condition that they should bring over, and plant on them, a number of English or Scotch settlers; for whom it was of course necessary to clear off the native

population. What became of the doomed people no one cared. Some went away quietly and faced hardship and want. But others refused to give up their homes, and then there was fighting and bloodshed, as will be seen as we go along.

Our first example of this kind of colonisation occurred in Leix and Offaly, from which their two chiefs O'Moore and O'Conor had been banished in 1547, immediately after the death of King Henry. These two districts were, in the first instance, not exactly taken possession of by the erown, but given directly to an Englishman named Francis Bryan and to some others, who proceeded straightway to expel the native people and parcel out the lands to new tenants, chiefly English. But the poor people clung to their homes and struggled hard to retain them. The fighting went on during the whole of the reign of Edward VI. with great loss of life to both sides; and the settlement, exposed to the constant vengeful attacks of those who had been dispossessed, decayed year by year.

As this attempt at plantation did not succeed, the whole district was taken possession of by the crown in the reign of Queen Mary, and replanted. The natives still resisted; but they had now the full strength of the government forces to contend with; and a pitiless war of extermination went on for many years, till the original owners and peasantry were as a body almost completely banished or extirpated. But this settlement never succeeded and the natives gradually crept back till in course of time they in great measure absorbed the settlers, as happened in older times (p. 162).

After the death of Shane O'Neill, more than half of Ulster was confiscated; and the attempt to clear off the old natives and plant new settlers was commenced

without delay. In 1570 the peninsula of Ardes in Down was granted to the queen's secretary Sir Thomas Smith, who sent his son with a colony to take possession. But this attempt at plantation was a failure too; for the owners, the O'Neills of Clannaboy, not feeling inclined to part with their homes without a struggle, attacked and killed the young undertaker in 1573. The next undertaker was a more important man, Walter Devereux earl of Essex. In 1573 he undertook to plant the district now occupied by the county Antrim, together with the island of Rathlin. He waged savage war on the natives, killing them wherever he could find them, burning their corn and depopulating the country to the best of his ability by sword and starvation. He treacherously seized young O'Donnell of Tirconnell and Brian O'Neill chief of Clannaboy, and sent them prisoners to Dublin, having first caused two hundred of O'Neill's people to be killed at a banquet to which he had invited them. And he hunted down and massacred many hundreds of the Scots of Clannaboy and of Rathlin Island, all without distinction, men, women, and children, to gain possession of their lands. Yet after all this fearful work, he failed in the end and returned to Dublin, where he died.

On the suppression of the Geraldine rebellion, the vast estates of the earl of Desmond, and those of 140 of the leading gentlemen of Munster,

A.D. 1585 his adherents, were confiscated by a parliament held in Dublin. In the following year proclamation was made all through England inviting gentlemen to "undertake" the plantation of this great and rich territory. Estates were offered at two pence or three pence an acre, and no rent at all was to be paid for the first five years. Every

undertaker who took 12,000 acres was to settle eightysix English families as tenants on his property, but no Irish; and so in proportion for smaller estates down to 4000 acres.

Many of the great undertakers were absentees: English noblemen who never saw Ireland. Of those who came over to settle down on their estates, two are well known. Sir Walter Raleigh got 42,000 acres in Cork and Waterford, and resided in Youghal, where

Raleigh's House. From "Kilkenny Archæological Journal," 1856-7.

his house is still to be seen. Edmund Spenser the poet received 12,000 acres in Cork, and took up his residence in one of Desmond's strongholds, Kilcolman Castle, the ruin of which, near Buttevant, is still an object of interest to visitors.

In the most important particulars, however, this great scheme turned out a failure. The English farmers and artisans did not come over in sufficient numbers; and the undertakers received the native Irish

everywhere as tenants, in violation of the conditions. Some English came over indeed; but they were so harassed and frightened by the continual onslaughts of the dispossessed proprietors and tenants, that many of them returned to England. And lastly, more than half the confiscated estates remained in possession of the

original owners, as no others could be found to take them. So the only result of this plantation was to root out a large proportion of the old gentry, and to enrich a few undertakers.

There were many other Plantations during these times and subsequently, some of which will be described farther on; but all of them resembled, in their main features, those sketched here. From beginning to end. they were the cause of frightful bloodshed and misery to both natives and settlers; and they left to posterity a disastrous legacy of hatred and strife.