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was again apprehended and confined, until by letters from London, the government was assured of his being enlarged there. Upon his return to his own country he retired from the noise of the world, and built, for himself, near the side of a lonesome wood, a little cabin made up of wattles, wherein he spent the remainder of his days in divine meditations, in consoling his distressed flock, in administering the sacraments, and in all other works of piety and charity; at length, consumed with labour and overcome by many hardships, he died, in the odour of sanctity, in the year 1579, and was buried in a convent of Franciscans in Muskerry, called the Cellecrea.1 Nor were these dreadful crimes perpetrated on such men only as Doctor Hely, and his companion, Father O'Rourke, and the Bishop of Ross; the terrors of the time are indescribable. On the 11th of February, a commission of martial law was sent to Sir Warham Saint Ledger, then the Lord Justice, who remained three weeks at Waterford, whence he went to Clonmel, where Ormond met him, and thence to Limerick. His baggage was carried a great part of the way on men's shoulders for want of carriage horses, or because of the badness of the way, or both; and at Limerick, the chancellor of the diocese was found guilty of high treason, for corresponding with Desmond, but he made a shift to get a pardon, while the Bishop of Limerick, who was also shrewdly suspected, was merely confined to his house. On the 10th of March, Ormond and the Lord Justice met at Rathkeale; next day they passed over the bridge of Adare, and returned at night and invaded Connelloe, and having done what mischief he could there, proceeded to Carrigfoyle, which he took, and hanged Captain Julio, an Italian engineer, who commanded the garrison; and on the 3rd of April, 1580, laid siege to the castle of Askeaton, one of the most magnificent castles in the country, which the garrison deserted, and which the Lord Justice partially destroyed by gunpowder, leaving the towers untouched, as they remain to this day. Askeaton and Ballyheige castles, in Kerry, which were taken at the same time, were the last castles of the great Desmond. Having left four companies at Askeaton, the Lord Justice returned to Limerick on the 5th of April; Ormond proceeded to Kilkenny, Malby to Connaught, and the others to Dublin. But the Lord Justice did not rest in Limerick. He proceeded ("by sea" ?) to Adare, and sent Captain Case by land, where, we are told, they both returned "after the slaughter of many traytors, with a prey of twelve hundred cows and as many sheep." On the 15th of May he received a commission from Elizabeth to be Lord Justice, and another to make Sir William Burke Baron of Castleconnell, with a yearly pension of a hundred marks during life. On the 13th of this month Pope Gregory the Thirteenth granted to all Irishmen who would fight against the Queen, the same plenary pardon and remission of all their sins, as to those that were engaged in the Holy War against the Turks."

1 Rothe's Analecta.

Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, p. 363.

3 Cox, Hibernia Anglicana.

4 Ibid.

The Four Masters give a more particular and accurate account of this expedition, in which they mention the townlands through which the Lord Justice passed, and show that "the traytours" they killed, were not only men fit for action, but "they killed blind and feeble men, women, boys and girls, sick persons, idiots, and old people." They add, that a great number were killed by the plundered parties, who followed them to the camp.-Annals of the Four Masters.

Sullivan's Catholic History, p. 101, and Peter Walshe's Remonstrance.

CHAPTER XVII.

ENGLISH PROGRESS. PERSECUTIONS CONTINUED.-ARRIVAL OF THE

SPANIARDS.

On the 8th of July, the Lord Deputy continuing in Limerick, the Catholic Lords of Munster were summoned before him; they were charged with correspondence with the rebels; they submitted, with the exception of Lord Barry; but repenting of the terms, they withdrew their submission, and were confined to their chambers in consequence, until they had bound themselves to maintain two thousand men during the war. It was at this time that the queen's fleet reached the coast of Ireland, and made no delay until they cast anchor in the Shannon, opposite Carraigh-an-Phuill.'

About Whitsuntide following, the Lord Justice proceeded back to Askeaton, where he spent a considerable part of the summer, and never ceased, day and night from persecuting and extirpating the Geraldines. Having perpetrated several revolting atrocities, he passed by a transverse course to Cork, and back to Askeaton and Limerick. He had in his custody, the Chiefs of Munster (the Geraldines only excepted) as hostages on this occasion, namely, Barrymore, the wife andson of MacCarthy More, the two sons of MacMaurice of Kerry, O'Sullivan Bear, MacDonough M'Carthy, Chief of Duhallow, and the son of MacCarthy Reigh. While the Lord Justice, Sir William Pelham, was at Limerick, Arthur, Lord Gray, Baron of Wilton and Knight of the Garter, arrived in Dublin; and the Lord Justice surrendered the sword to him, having left Limerick for Dublin for that purpose, and sailed for England.

The reign of terror proceeded unchecked and rampant; in the church of the parish of Mahunagh, county of Limerick, dedicated to St. Nicholas, 24 poor old people were put to death on the 6th of August, 1581. Gelasius O'Quillenan, a Bernardine abbot of Boyle, and Eugene Crane were martyred. Daniel O'Nieilan, a Franciscan, was martyred at Youghal by John Norris, mavor. Laurence O'Moore, a priest, Oliver Plunkett, a gentleman, and William Walsh, a soldier, were shot to death by a party in hatred of their religion, 11th November.

An Italian or Spanish fleet of the "Pope's people" landed in Kerry in the September of this year; their arrival caused the greatest excitement in Limerick, so much so, that had they appeared at the gates of the city, they would have been thrown open to them, such was the idea of their strength and importance among the citizens, who viewed the expedition with contending feelings of hope and dread. They landed at Fort-del-or, which is situated on an island connected with the South shore of Smerewick Harbour, and which James of Desmond fortified the year before. O'Sullivan, in his Catholic History, gives a description of the island, near which is a green round hill called Cnoc-na-geaan, i.e. hill of the heads, whereon, tradition has

The Four Masters and Ware state that it was the occupants of the Castle of Askeaton who endeavoured to blow it up; and the Four Masters add that, not being able to destroy it, they opened wide its gates, and the next day it became the property of the Queen. This was the first time that ordnance was used in the district, and the terrible roar of " those unknown guns, the like of which had never been heard before," had a dreadful effect on the occupants of the Castle. 2 Annals of the Four Masters. 3 Ibid. White's MSS., and Analecta.

5 Arthur MSS.

it, the English were encamped when they stormed the fort. This fleet was induced to come to Ireland to assist the Geraldines, who, it was known abroad, had been reduced to great extremities for their devotion to Ireland, and their defence of the Catholic faith and of Catholic interests. The Earl of Ormond mustered an army to oppose the expedition, and did not halt until they arrived in Kerry; after a good deal of parleying and diversation, the Italian Captains, Stephen San Josepho, Hercules Pisano, and the Duke of Biscay, "came to the Lord Justice as if they would be at peace with him;" but the people of the Lord Justice went over to the island, and proceeded to kill and destroy the invaders, so that even of the seven hundred Italians not one escaped, but all were slaughtered as they cried out, misericordia, misericordia. The Lord Justice also seized upon much gold, wealth, and other things which the Italians had with them; he destroyed the fortifications on the island, in order that it should not be a supporting rock or a strong retreat for insurgents any longer; and having effected all this in the month of November, he returned to Limerick, and thence to Fingal.

2

With respect to the Italian captains, there is but one opinion on the part of Camden, Muratori, and O'Daly, and that is, that the principal man among them, San Josepho, was either a downright imbecile, or an accomplished traitor.3 Donough and Mahon O'Brien continued to worry and lay waste the country from Burren to Limerick; and John, the son of the Earl of Desmond, was, at this time, a roving plunderer; but though in so miserable a plight, he commanded a body of one hundred followers, with whom he did execution in Upper Ormond and Eliogarty, retreating to the woods about Mountrath, where he was joined by the sons of MacGillapatrick, the son of O'Carroll, and a great many others, who harassed the country in the neighbourhood of the Slieve-Bloom mountains, being joined by all the men of Offally and Leix who were able to bear arms.1

The blow struck at the power of the Desmonds, and the cause in which the Catholics of Ireland had their hearts, was felt so much, that disappointment and sorrow were universal. Sir George Bourchier was selected Governor of Munster before the departure of Sir William Pelham, and was in the city of Limerick acting in his official capacity, during the events we have been describing. In 1581 the Earl of Desmond, notwithstanding his reverse, made many successful incursions. Upon one occasion, however, a bold and merciless body of "the soldiers of Adare," having been divided into two parties, went forth, the one by water, the other by land, to traverse Kerry, and the lands lying along by the banks of the Maigue, to seek for fighting or booty. The two parties having been met together in the neighbourhood of Ballycalhane, by young David, ancestor of all the families of the Purcells, according to Mac Firbis's pedigree, and his forces, charged them, so that he left them but a heap of bloody trucks and headless carcases.

When

I Ware's Annals.

2 Life of Queen Elizabeth.

3 O'Daly, who is a competent authority, expresses his belief that he was a traitor. The manner in which John lived on this mountain was worthy of a true guerrilla; he slept but upon couches of stone or earth; he drank but from the pure cold streams, and that with his hands or shoes; his cooking apparatus were the long twigs of the forest, with which he used to dress the meat he carried away from his enemies. Had John been able to join the Italians and Spaniards, as he intended, and in which intention he was seconded by James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass, who had renounced the Protestant creed, and became a Catholic, by the Kavanaghs, Kinsellagles, Byrnes, and Tooles, (Annals of the Four Masters) he would have prevented the slaughter which cast a stigma on the Lord Justice and Ormond, and enabled the Italians and Spaniards to keep their ground firm in Smerewick, and march into the interior.

the news reached Adare, Achin, the captain of the town,' assembled the soldiers of Kilmalloch, and set out at the head of a sanguinary body of troops, and slew every man, woman and child he met outside Ballycalhane Castle, (near Kildimo) which belonged to Purcell, who had assisted the crown from the commencement of the war between the English and the Geraldines to that time. On the following day David's people were hanged on the nearest trees; and the heroic soldier himself was sent to Limerick, where he was immediately put to death. Nicholas, the agent or treasurer of the Geraldines, was slain by the soldiers at Adare in this year, and Turlough O'Brien, uncle of the Earl of Thomond, who, after being a year in prison, was hanged in Galway, his execution being followed two days after by that of William, son of the Earl of Clanrickarde, whose sons had rebelled against the authority of the crown.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FATE OF THE EARL OF DESMOND.

In this year the two sons of MacMaurice of Kerry made their escape from the King's court in Limerick, the Council having resolved to put them to death. They soon found themselves supported by hundreds of kerne, and they spent the remainder of the year in acts of pillage and insurrection. In the winter of this year Dr. Saunders, the Pope's legate, died in a miserable hovel in the woods of Claenglass, worn out by cold, hunger, and fatigue. The government had offered to pardon Desmond if he would give up this eminent ecclesiastic to them, but this he steadily refused. His companion in misfortune, the Bishop of Killaloe, who attended him in his last moment, escaped to Spain and died in Lisbon, A.D. 1617. It was to the fastnesses of Caenglass, which is situate in the south of the county of Limerick, and to the adjacent woods of Kilmore, that John Desmond, who still protracted this wretched struggle, was in the habit of carrying his spoil. In this year Hugh Lacy, Bishop of Limerick, died in gaol. He had been deprived by Queen Elizabeth.

In 15823 died Teige O'Brien (founder of the Ballycorick family) "a hero in prowess." He had been for some time Tanist of Thomond, but was expelled together with his brother by Donnell. He afterwards went to Spain and France, and thence to England, where he obtained his pardon and his entire share of the territory, except the tanistry alone. He was interred in the monastery of Ennis. Donogh O'Brien (son of Morrogh), who had joined the rebellious De Burgh the year before, having repented, returned back under protection; but the Queen's officers detected a flaw in the protection, and hanged him in the gateway of Limerick; he was buried in the monastery of Ennis. His castles and lands of Lemenagh, Dromoland, Ballyconnelly, and other places, descended to his son Connor and his heirs, amongst whom is the present Lord Inchiquin, who established his right to that title in virtue of his descent from this Donagh, the founder of the family of Dromoland. There was no forfeiture, because Donagh fell a victim to martial law, which recognises no forfeitures."

Ware's Annals, and Annals of Four Masters.
Annals of the Four Masters.

O'Donoghue's History of the O'Briens. Appendix.

2 Annals of the Four Masters. 4, Annals of the Four Masters.

The attachment of the Irish peasantry to the Geraldines was not less remarkable than that of the Scotch to the Stewarts. Notwithstanding the great rewards offered for the capture of their leaders, no one was found so base as to betray them, and yet the gallant John of Desmond appears to have fallen a victim to the treachery of one of his followers, if we are to believe O'Daly, Hooker and Cox. The story is thus told in the Annals of the Four Masters :-John set out accompanied by four horsemen to the woods of Eatherlack, to hold a conference with Barry More, with whom he had entered into a plundering confederacy. He proceeded southwards across the river Avonmore in the middle of a dark and misty night, and happened to be met face to face by Captain Sicutzy [the Irish for Zouch], with his forces, though neither of them was in search of the other. John was mortally wounded on the spot, and had not advanced the space of a mile beyond that place when he died. He was carried crosswise on his own steed from thence to Cork, and when brought to that town he was cut in quarters, and his head was sent to Dublin as a token of victory. According to O'Daly, a wretch of the name of Thomas Fleming, who had been his servant, was the person who killed him. He adds that his head was spiked in front of the Castle of Dublin, and his body was hung in chains at one of the gates of the city of Cork, where it remained for three years, until on a tempestuous night it was blown into the sea. His kinsman James was hanged soon after, together with his two sons, but Lord Barry made his peace with the government.

The savage rigor of Lord Grey had already offended even his own government. We have seen how after the surrender of Smerewick, with a savage barbarity only equalled by Cromwell in after years, he had put every man of them to the sword, with the exception of the governor and a few officers. In consequence of this extreme severity, this Lord Grey, of whom it was said that he left her majesty little to reign over but carcases and ashes," had been recalled, and Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Henry Wallop were appointed Lord Justices. By these Lord Justices first efforts were made to bring back Desmond to his allegiance, but without effect. To what a frightful state Munster was now reduced, may be seen in the pages of the annals of Hollinshed, of Fynes Morison, Cox, and particularly of Spencer, from whose remarkable description we make the following extract :-"notwithstanding that the same (Munster) was a most rich and plentyful country, full of corne and cattle, yet ere one year and a halfe they (the Irish) were brought to such wretchednesse as that any stony heart would have rued the same; out of every corner of the woods and glynnes they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legges could not bear them, they looked like the anatomies of death; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them, yea and one another soone after, inasmuch as the very carcases they spared not to scrape out of the graves; and if they found. a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue there withal, that in short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentyfull country suddainely left voyde of man and beast."5

The Glen of Aherlow, four miles south of Tipperary.

2 A statement which is denied by the above-named writers.

Ware states that the body was hanged by the heels on a gibbet by the north gate of Cork, and his head sent to Dublin to be placed on a pole upon the castle.

4 Cox, Hib. Ang.

Spencer's State of Ireland, p. 166.

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