Galls (foreigners) or the Anglo-Norman race. I have seen that the natives of Ireland are maligned by every modern Englishman who speaks of the country. . There is no historian who has written upon Ireland since the English invasion, who does not strive to vilify and calumniate both Anglo-Irish colonists and the Gaelic natives. We have proofs of this in the accounts of the country given by Cambrensis, Spenser, Stanihurst, Hanmer, Camden, Barclay, Morison, Davies, Campion, and all the writers of the New Galls [English new in Ireland] who have treated of this country" But Keating's contempt for the dung-beetles, as he called the propagandists, was nothing to the growing exasperation and rage and despair of those who experienced what has been termed "systematic iniquity." The outcome was the insurrection of 1641.

In this insurrection, which extended into a war, there was a serious conflict of motives. In the world at large Rome strove to intensify and force Catholic claims and England commenced to be intolerant. This enlisted against England such divers groups as the Scottish Covenanters, the Anglo-Irish Catholic aristocracy, and the Irish common people. The Covenanters

were already in revolt in the Lowlands and soon put an army into Ireland. But the question at once arose, which England to fight, the Royalist England or the Parliamentarians. The Parliamentarians were "England" as much as the Royalists; they indeed believed that, underneath, Charles was not only an absolutist but a papist. Since the Thirty Years' War, really religious war, was raging on the Continent, it was natural that the religious passion should enter into every phase of this crisscross conflict.

Rory O'Moore (an O'Moore of Leix), Richard Plunkett, Sir Phelim O'Neill, a Maguire of Cavan, were all engaged in planning an insurrection. Spain was to help, and General Owen Roe O'Neill to come from Flanders. This plot was complicated by the fact that the Anglo-Irish gentry had their own general, Preston, a Royalist, who later took the field. The crown authorities in Ireland learned of the plot from a drunken babbler (drunkenness now appears in Irish chronicles), but before they could act the North was in upheaval with a rising of the "injured and dispossessed." Because the Scots were in arms against England about the prayer-book, Sir Phelim O'Neill's people picked no bone with the Scottish settlers. They concentrated against the English settlers, and started

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a clearance. At first there was little manslaughter, though ruthless expulsion and cattle-driving. But the Scottish settlers would not stand by. They joined with the troops from Dublin to stop the insurrection. What began as a clearance became a mêlée of disorder, violence, and vengeance. It alarmed and enraged the English in Ireland as nothing had before. It meant that confiscation might not work. A great number of English were killed by the Irish, in many cases under ferocious and cruel circumstances worthy of Raleigh, Gilbert, and Carew. The number used to be given as 300,000, but, under modern analysis, is believed to have been 4029. To make matters worse, Sir Phelim O'Neill, the leader of the insurrection, had cut a great seal of Scotland and tacked it on to a forged "commission" from Charles I, which was supposed to sanction a rising of the papists. The object of this dishonesty was to enlist the Anglo-Irish Catholics. O'Neill eventually was captured and executed. He admitted the forgery, and declined to accept a Puritan pardon on condition that he assert the commission to be authentic.

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Now Owen Roe O'Neill arrived in Ireland-"a good soldier," according to Morley, "a man of valor and

character, the patriotic champion of Catholic Ireland." He found, of course, that Gaelic Catholic Ireland needed coördination above everything; coördination with the Catholic Anglo-Irish and peace with the Royalist Anglo-Irish. For this purpose the Confederation of Kilkenny was called. It was virtually a supreme council of the allied Irish, which lasted most of the nine years.

In August, 1642, England split asunder. The Parliamentarians took the field against the Royalists. This gave Owen Roe O'Neill and Preston and Ormonde a common enemy in the Parliamentarians, but they were not ready yet to make common cause. The Old Irish were still "papist rebels" to the conservative Ormonde: his idea of a sound alliance with the papists was to whittle their aims. The terms of such compromises were bitterly contested at Kilkenny, where the allies met with much pomp. The papal nuncio Rinuccini stood out for the Old Irish and complete freedom. The Anglo-Irish landlords and the Anglo-Irish townsmen had too much race prejudice to care for their Old Irish rural confederates. The Parliamentarians, meanwhile, had managed under Parsons, Coote, and Lord Inchiquin to live up to the best traditions of savage warfare. Lord Inchiquin, known as Murrough

the Burner, was an O'Brien of the old stock, now more Protestant than the Protestants. "Nits will make lice," was the principle on which Cooté killed infants. The Scottish Covenanters, at first shocked by Charles's execution, at last joined Coote and company on the side of the Parliamentarians. They came down through Ulster. At Benburb (July, 1646), they were badly beaten by Owen Roe O'Neill. Murrough the Burner won in Munster, however, and massacred his own countrywomen at Cashel. Ormonde, beaten by the parliamentarians at Dublin, threw in the sponge. Later, after Owen Roe had tried direct methods, Ormonde manoeuvered the Old Irish out of the policies of the Confederation. In 1649, on the last day of January, Charles I was executed. In November, frustrated and worn out, Owen Roe O'Neill died at Cavan.

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This left the field in Ireland to Ormonde: he was already working for young Charles II and the ascendancy of his own class in Ireland. But Ormonde had a tough nut to crack in Oliver Cromwell.

This brutal fanatic arrived in Ireland August, 1649. He got to Drogheda in September. At Drogheda the Ormonde soldiers, in part English and in part men