executioner. * The Bishop of Emly died with great courage, but General Purcell was fo weak, he was held up at the place of execution by two foldiers. Fennell, notwithstanding his fervices, was tried for feveral crimes, and ordered to execution. The Bishop of Limerick, O'Dwyer, efcaped among the troops, in the drefs of a foldier, and died at Bruffells. The brave governor O'Neil, who had fo provoked Ireton, by his defence of the city, and his former gallant behaviour at Clonmell, was tried by the gloomy republican, for a conduct that fhould have recommended him to the esteem of a foldier. O'Neil pleaded that he had taken no part in the original confpiracy, that he had been invited into Ireland by his countrymen, and ever acted as a fair and honourable enemy. But Ireton was inexorable, and the court martial 66 I The Hibernia Dominicana, by Dr. Bourke, titular Bishop of Offory, page 568, has the following remarkable account of the Bishop of Emly. Terence Albert O'Brien was a friar of the Dominican convent in Limerick, a doctor of divinity, elected provincial of that order in 1643, and appointed Bishop of Emly in 1644. He was fo active in perfuading the Irish to hold out againtt Cromwell's forces, that Ireton, during the fiege of Limerick, offered him forty thoufand pounds, to defift from his exhortations, and quit the city, with a passport to any other kingdom. He refused this offer heroically, in confequence of which he was exempted from pardon, tried and condemned to be hanged and beheaded. He bore the sentence with refignation, and behaved to his laft moments with manly fortitude. He addreffed Ireton with a prophetic fpirit, accufing him of the highest injuftice, threatening him with life for life, and fummoning him to the tribunal of God in a few days. Ireton caught the plague in eight days, and died foon after, raging and.raving of this unfortunate prelate, whofe unjust condemnation he imagined hurried on his death. The Bishop of Emly was executed on the eve of all faints day, and his head was fixed on a spike, at the top of a tower, near the centre of the city." tial condemned the general to death. Some of the officers more generous than the reft, expoftulated with Ireton, and happily fubdued his obftinacy; he agreed to take the opinion of the court martial a fecond time, and by a single vote O'Neil's life was faved. * Ireton having caught the infection in Limerick, died there the twenty fixth of November, and was interred the fixth of February 1652, in Henry the feventh's chapel at Westminster, but was afterwards taken up, and buried at Tyburn. He was fucceeded in command by Lieutenant General Ludlow. t Ireton was a man who knew the bottom of all Cromwell's counfels and purpofes; of the fame or greater pride and fiercenefs of nature. He was dark and reserved, abfolute in his authority, never diverted from any refolution he had taken, and was often thought to prevail over Cromwell himself. AFTER the furrender of Limerick, Galway and other towns being eafily reduced by the parliament army, the country was wafted and depopulated by a series of public commotions. Forfeited lands were affigned to fatisfy the arrears due to the English army, but this was confined to thofe who ferved fince Cromwell's arrival in 1649. Oliver having now ufurped the Government of England, he fent his fon Henry into Ireland, but he foon retired from thence, and from that moment the royalifts conceived fanguine hopes of the king's reftoration; most of the Englith and old Irith being devoted to his intereft. Sir Charles Coote furprifed Athlone, and fome other officers, whom he Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. 1. p. 375. he and Lord Broghill joined in the confederacy, fecured Limerick, Drogheda, Youghal, Clonmell and Carlow. I DURING the reign of Charles II. Limerick feems to have enjoyed a profound peace. On the acceffion of King James, in 1684, he advanced his brother in law, the Earl of Clarendon to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In his public inftructions, the king expreffed a defire to introduce roman catholics into corporations, and to inveft them with judicial offices, in confequence of which Sir William King, governor of Limerick was difplaced, and Colonel Hamilton, a roman catholic, fucceeded him, and took poffeffion of the city for King James. THE Earl of Tyrconnell, who was strongly attached to the king, got a commiffion to regulate the army; he difmiffed many of the old officers, and gave orders that none but roman catholics fhould be admitted. Lord Clarendon remonftrated against a conduct, which must inflame the animofities already excited in the kingdom, but in fact, Tyrconnell's power was fuperior to his own; he therefore refigned the government, and Tyrconnell, who was a fit inftrument to execute the king's measures, was appointed Lord Lieutenant. † IN March, 1686, twelve roman catholic merchants were made free of the council of Limerick, Henry Turner the recorder, becoming a roman catholic prevailed on the Lord Lieutenant, that George Roche, the proteftant mayor, fhould be depofed, and Robert Hannan appointed in his room. Mr. Roche kept the I 2 fword Leland, vol. 3. P. 405. + Clarendon's Letters, vol. 2. fword of ftate until the year following, but Sir Stephen Rice, one of the barons of the exchequer compelled him to admit Hannan. * In the next year 1687, on St. Francis's day, the Francifcans, countenanced by the governor, poffeffed themselves of their church in the abbey, which they had formerly rented from Mr. Pery's familyt. KING James failed from Breft the feventh of March 1688, and landed at Kinfale the twelfth’ of faid month; he had in his train one hundred French officers, and about one thousand two hundred of his own fubjects. On his landing he created Tyrconnell a duke, and foon after made his public entry into Dublin. He eftablished a mint in Dublin and Limerick, but his coin was not of the pureft metal, old cannon, bells and houfhold utenfils were brought to the mint, and from every pound weight, worth four pence, pieces were coined to the amount of five pounds nominal value. This money was made current in all payments by proclamation; his army was paid with it; old debts of one thousand pounds were difcharged with pieces of this metal, of the intrinsic value of thirty fhillings. § СНАР. White's M. S. Ibid. CHA P. V. From the landing of KING WILLIAM in Ireland, to the Capitulation of Limerick. WHILE HILE James was in Dublin, repealing the acts of fettlement, and rendering himself obnoxious to a great part of his fubjects, William, who had been proclaimed King in England, determined to drive James out of Ireland, and to take the field against him. He landed at Carrickfergus on the fourteenth of June 1690, with thirty fix thousand men, but, diftrufting English foldiers to fight against one who had been lately their King, he took care that more than half his army fhould confift of foreigners. He had ten thousand Danes, feven thousand Dutch and two thoufand French proteftants. † After King William had defeated the Irish at the river Boyne, and nearly determined the conteft for the crown, James pofted to Dublin, where he affembled the magiftrates, he told them that in England his army had deferted him, in Ireland they had fled in the hour of danger, nor could be perfuaded to rally, that he and they must therefore thift for themfelves. The Irish officers were provoked at any reflection on their national character, they retorted on James, and even upbraided him with cowardice; he retired precipitately to Water + Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol 1. p. 474. ford, |