Webpage Fox-12 Page 16 TO INDEX
The gloom of popery had overshadowed Ireland from its first establishment there until the reign of Henry VIII when the rays of the Gospel began to dispel the darkness, and afford that light which until then had been unknown in that island. The abject ignorance in which the people were held, with the absurd and superstitious notions they entertained, were sufficiently evident to many.
And the artifices of their priests were so conspicuous, that
several persons of distinction, who had hitherto been strenuous papists, would
willingly have endeavored to shake off the yoke, and embrace the Protestant
religion; but the natural ferocity of the people, and their strong attachment to
the ridiculous doctrines which they had been taught, made the attempt dangerous.
It was, however, at length undertaken, though attended with the most horrid and
disastrous consequences.
The introduction of the Protestant religion into
Ireland may be principally attributed to George Browne, an Englishman, who was
consecrated archbishop of Dublin on the nineteenth of March, 1535. He had
formerly been an Augustine friar, and was promoted to the pulpit on account of
his merit.
After having enjoyed his dignity about five years,
he, at the time that Henry VIII was suppressing the religious houses in England,
caused all the relics and images to be removed out of the two cathedrals in
Dublin, and the other churches in his diocese; in the place of which he caused
to be put up the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments.
A short time after this he received a letter from Thomas Cromwell, lord-privy seal, informing him that Henry VIII having thrown off the papal supremacy in England, was determined to do the like in Ireland; and that he thereupon had appointed him (archbishop browne) one of the commissioners for seeing this order put in execution.
The archbishop answered that he had employed his utmost endeavors at the hazard of his life, to cause the Irish nobility and gentry to acknowledge Henry as their supreme head, in matters both spiritual and temporal; but had met with a most violent opposition, especially from George, archbishop of Armagh; that this prelate had, in a speech to his clergy, laid a curse on all those who should own his highness' supremacy: adding, that their isle, called in the Chronicles- the Holy Island, belonged to none but the bishop of rome, and that the king's progenitors had received it from the pope.
He observed likewise, that the
archbishop and
clergy of Armagh had each dispatched a courier to Rome; and that it would be
necessary for a parliament to be called in Ireland, to pass an act of supremacy,
the people not regarding the king's commission without the sanction of the
legislative assembly. He concluded with observing, that the
popes had kept the
people in the most profound ignorance; that the clergy were exceedingly
illiterate; that the common people were more zealous in their blindness than the
saints and martyrs had been in the defense of truth at the beginning of the
Gospel; and that it was to be feared that Shan O'Neal, a chieftain of great
power in the northern part of the island, was decidedly opposed to the king's
commission.
In pursuance of this advice, the following year a
parliament was summoned to meet at Dublin, by order of Leonard Grey, at that
time lord-lieutenant. At this assembly
archbishop browne made a speech, in which
he set forth that the
bishops of rome used, anciently, to acknowledge emperors,
kings, and princes, to be supreme in their own dominions; and, therefore, that
he himself would vote King Henry VIII as supreme in all matters, both
ecclesiastical and temporal. He concluded with saying that whosoever should
refuse to vote for this act, was not a true subject of the king. This speech
greatly startled the other bishops and lords; but at length, after violent
debates, the king's supremacy was allowed.
Two years after this, the archbishop wrote a second letter to Lord Cromwell, complaining of the clergy, and hinting at the machinations which the pope was then carrying on against the advocates of the Gospel. This letter is dated from Dublin, in April, 1538; and among other matters, the archbishop says, "A bird may be taught to speak with as much sense as many of the clergy do in this country.
These, though not scholars, yet
are crafty to cozen the common people and to dissuade them from following
his highness orders. The country folk here much hate your lordship, and
despitefully call you, in their Irish tongue, the Blacksmith's Son. As a friend,
I desire your lordship to look well to your noble person. rome hath a great
kindness for the duke of Norfolk, and great favors for this nation, purposely to
oppose his highness."
A short time after this, the
pope sent over to
Ireland (directed to the
archbishop of Armagh and his clergy) a bull of
excommunication against all who had, or should own the king's supremacy within
the Irish nation; denouncing a curse on all of them, and theirs, who should not,
within forty days, acknowledge to their confessors, that they had done amiss in
so doing.
archbishop browne gave notice of this in a letter dated, Dublin, May, 1538. Part of the form of confession, or vow, sent over to these Irish papists, ran as follows: "I do further declare him or here, father or mother, brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or wife, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, kinsman or kinswoman, master or mistress, and all others, nearest or dearest relations, friend or acquaintance whatsoever, accursed, that either do or shall hold, for the time to come, any ecclesiastical or civil power above the authority of the mother church; or that do or shall obey, for the time to come, any of her, the mother of churches' oppose enemies, or contrary to the same, of which I have here sworn unto: so God, the blessed virgin, Peter, Paul, and the Holy Evangelists, help me," etc. is an exact agreement with the doctrines promulgated by the Councils of Lateran and Constance, which expressly declare that no favor should be shown to heretics, nor faith kept with them; that they ought to be excommunicated and condemned, and their estates confiscated, and that princes are obliged, by a solemn oath, to root them out of their respective dominions.
(Insert--- Quote: "A bird may be taught to speak with as much sense as many of the clergy do in this country." unquote, Note all the above a single sentence, so I say, If rome ever learned to write hell would freeze over.)
How abominable a church must that be, which thus
dares to trample upon all authority! How besotted the people who regard the
injunctions of such a church!
In the
archbishop's last-mentioned letter, dated
May, 1538, he says: "His highness' viceroy of this nation is of little or
no power with the old natives. Now both English and Irish begin to oppose your
lordship's orders, and to lay aside their national quarrels, which I fear will
(if anything will) cause a foreigner to invade this nation."
Not long after this,
archbishop browne seized one
thady
o'brian, a franciscan friar, who had in his possession a paper sent from
rome, dated May, 1538, and directed to O'Neal. In this letter were the following
words: "his holiness, paul, now pope, and the council of the fathers, have
lately found, in rome, a prophecy of one Lacerianus, an Irish bishop of Cashel,
in which he says that the
mother church of rome
falls, when, in Ireland, the
catholic faith is overcome. Therefore, for the glory of the
mother church, the honor of St. Peter, and your own security, suppress heresy, and
his holiness' enemies."
This
thady o'brian, after further examination and
search made, was pilloried, and kept close prisoner until the king's orders
arrived in what manner he should be further disposed of. But order coming over
from England that he was to be hanged, he laid violent hands on himself in the
castle of Dublin. His body was afterwards carried to Gallows-green, where, after
being hanged up for some time, it was interred.
After the accession of Edward VI to the throne of England, an order was directed to Sir Anthony Leger, the lord-deputy of Ireland, commanding that the liturgy in English be forthwith set up in Ireland, there to be observed within the several bishoprics, cathedrals, and parish churches; and it was first read in Christ-church, Dublin, on Easter day, 1551, before the said Sir Anthony, archbishop browne, and others. Part of the royal order for this purpose was as follows:
"Whereas, our gracious father, King Henry VIII
taking into consideration the bondage and heavy yoke that his true and faithful
subjects sustained, under the jurisdiction of the
bishop of rome; how several
fabulous stories and lying wonders misled our subjects; dispensing with the sins
of our nations, by their indulgences and pardons, for gain; purposely to cherish
all evil vices, as robberies, rebellions, thefts, whoredoms, blasphemy,
idolatry, etc., our gracious father hereupon dissolved all priories,
monasteries, abbeys, and other pretended religious houses; as being but
nurseries for vice or luxury, more than for sacred learning," etc.
On the day after the
common prayer was first used
in Christ church, Dublin, the following wicked scheme was projected by the
papists:
In the church was left a marble image of Christ, holding a reed in his hand, with a crown of thorns on his head. Whilst the English service (the common prayer) was being read before the lord-lieutenant, the archbishop of Dublin, the privy-council, the lord-mayor, and a great congregation, blood was seen to run through the crevices of the crown of thorns, and trickle down the face of the image. On this, some of the contrivers of the imposture cried aloud,
"See how our Savior's image sweats blood! But it
must necessarily do this, since heresy is come into the church."
Immediately many of the lower order of people, indeed the vulgar of all ranks,
were terrified at the sight of so miraculous and undeniable an evidence of the
divine displeasure; they hastened from the church, convinced that the doctrines
of Protestantism emanated from an infernal source, and that salvation was only
to be found in the bosom of their own infallible church.
This incident, however ludicrous it may appear to
the enlightened reader, had great influence over the minds of the ignorant
Irish, and answered the ends of the impudent impostors who contrived it, so far
as to check the progress of the reformed religion in Ireland very materially;
many persons could not resist the conviction that there were many errors and
corruptions in the
romish church, but they were awed into silence by this
pretended manifestation of divine wrath, which was magnified beyond measure by
the bigoted and interested priesthood.
We have very few particulars as to the state of
religion in Ireland during the remaining portion of the reign of Edward VI and
the greater part of that of Mary. Towards the conclusion of the barbarous sway
of that relentless bigot, she attempted to extend her inhuman persecutions to
this island; but her diabolical intentions were happily frustrated in the
following providential manner, the particulars of which are related by
historians of good authority.
mary had appointed dr. pole (an agent of the bloodthirsty bonner) one of the commissioners for carrying her barbarous intentions into effect. He having arrived at Chester with his commission, the mayor of that city, being a papist, waited upon him; when the doctor taking out of his cloak bag a leathern case, said to him, "Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland."
The good woman of the house being a
Protestant, and having a brother in Dublin, named John Edmunds, was greatly
troubled at what she heard. But watching her opportunity, whilst the mayor was
taking his leave, and the doctor politely accompanying him downstairs, she
opened the box, took out the commission, and in its stead laid a sheet of paper,
with a pack of cards, and the knave of clubs at top. The doctor, not suspecting
the trick that had been played him, put up the box, and arrived with it in
Dublin, in September, 1558.
Anxious to accomplish the intentions of his
"pious" mistress, he immediately waited upon Lord Fitz-Walter, at that
time viceroy, and presented the box to him; which being opened, nothing was
found in it but a pack of cards. This startling all the persons present, his
lordship said, "We must procure another commission; and in the meantime let
us shuffle the cards."
dr.
pole, however, would have directly returned to
England to get another commission; but waiting for a favorable wind, news
arrived that
queen mary was dead, and by this means the Protestants escaped a
most cruel persecution. The above relation as we before observed, is confirmed
by historians of the greatest credit, who add, that Queen Elizabeth settled a
pension of forty pounds per annum upon the above mentioned Elizabeth Edmunds,
for having thus saved the lives of her Protestant subjects.
During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, Ireland was almost constantly agitated by rebellions and insurrections, which, although not always taking their rise from the difference of religious opinions, between the English and Irish, were aggravated and rendered more bitter and irreconcilable from that cause. The popish priests artfully exaggerated the faults of the English government, and continually urged to their ignorant and prejudiced hearers the lawfulness of killing the Protestants, assuring them that all catholics who were slain in the prosecution of so pious an enterprise, would be immediately received into everlasting felicity.
The naturally ungovernable dispositions of the Irish, acted upon by these designing men, drove them into continual acts of barbarous and unjustifiable violence; and it must be confessed that the unsettled and arbitrary nature of the authority exercised by the English governors, was but little calculated to gain their affections. The Spaniards, too, by landing forces in the south, and giving every encouragement to the discontented natives to join their standard, kept the island in a continual state of turbulence and warfare.
In 1601, they disembarked a body of
four thousand men at Kinsale, and commenced what they called "the Holy War
for the preservation of the faith in Ireland;" they were assisted by great
numbers of the Irish, but were at length totally defeated by the deputy, Lord
Mountjoy, and his officers.
This closed the transactions of Elizabeth's reign
with respect to Ireland; an interval of apparent tranquility followed, but the
popish priesthood, ever restless and designing, sought to undermine by secret
machinations that government and that faith which they durst no longer openly
attack. The pacific reign of James afforded them the opportunity of increasing
their strength and maturing their schemes, and under his successor, Charles I,
their numbers were greatly increased by titular Romish archbishops, bishops,
deans, vicars-general, abbots, priests, and friars; for which reason, in 1629,
the public exercise of the popish rites and ceremonies was forbidden.
But notwithstanding this, soon afterwards, the
romish clergy erected a new
popish university in the city of Dublin. They also
proceeded to build monasteries and nunneries in various parts of the kingdom; in
which places these very
romish clergy, and the chiefs of the Irish, held
frequent meetings; and from thence, used to pass to and fro, to France, Spain,
Flanders, Lorraine, and Rome; where the detestable plot of 1641 was hatching by
the family of the O'Neals and their followers.
A short time before the horrid conspiracy broke
out, which we are now going to relate, the
papists in Ireland had presented a
remonstrance to the lords-justice of that kingdom, demanding the free exercise
of their religion, and a repeal of all laws to the contrary; to which both
houses of parliament in England solemnly answered that they would never grant
any toleration to the
popish religion in that kingdom.
This further irritated the
papists to put in
execution the diabolical plot concerted for the destruction of the Protestants;
and it failed not of the success wished for by its malicious and rancorous
projectors.
The design of this horrid conspiracy was that a
general insurrection should take place at the same time throughout the kingdom,
and that all the Protestants, without exception, should be murdered. The day
fixed for this horrid massacre, was the twenty-third of October, 1641, the feast
of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits; and the chief conspirators in the
principal parts of the kingdom made the necessary preparations for the intended
conflict.
In order that this detested scheme might the more
infallibly succeed, the most distinguished artifices were practiced by the
papists; and their behavior in their visits to the Protestants, at this time,
was with more seeming kindness than they had hitherto shown, which was done the
more completely to effect the inhuman and treacherous designs then meditating
against them.
The execution of this savage conspiracy was delayed
until the approach of winter, that sending troops from England might be attended
with greater difficulty.
cardinal richelieu, the French minister, had promised
the conspirators a considerable supply of men and money; and many Irish officers
had given the strongest assurances that they would heartily concur with their
catholic brethren, as soon as the insurrection took place.
The day preceding that appointed for carrying this
horrid design into execution was now arrived, when, happily, for the metropolis
of the kingdom, the conspiracy was discovered by one Owen O' Connelly, an
Irishman, for which most signal service the English Parliament voted him 500
pounds and a pension of 200 pounds during his life.
So very seasonably was this plot discovered, even
but a few hours before the city and castle of Dublin were to have been
surprised, that the lords-justice had but just time to put themselves, and the
city, in a proper posture of defense. Lord M' Guire, who was the principal leader
here, with his accomplices, was seized the same evening in the city; and in
their lodgings were found swords, hatchets, pole-axes, hammers, and such other
instruments of death as had been prepared for the destruction and extirpation of
the Protestants in that part of the kingdom.
Thus was the metro happily preserved; but the bloody part of the intended tragedy was past prevention. The conspirators were in arms all over the kingdom early in the morning of the day appointed, and every Protestant who fell in their way was immediately murdered. No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. The wife weeping for her butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was pierced with them, and perished by the same stroke.
The old, the young, the vigorous, and the infirm, underwent the same fate, and were blended in one common ruin. In vain did flight save from the first assault, destruction was everywhere let loose, and met the hunted victims at every turn. In vain was recourse to relations, to companions, to friends; all connections were dissolved; and death was dealt by that hand from which protection was implored and expected.
Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English, living in profound peace, and, as they thought, full security, were massacred by their nearest neighbors, with whom they had long maintained a continued intercourse of kindness and good offices. Nay, even death was the slightest punishment inflicted by these monsters in human form; all the tortures which wanton cruelty could invent, all the lingering pains of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate revenge excited without injury, and cruelly derived from no just cause whatever.
Depraved
nature, even perverted religion, though encouraged by the utmost license, cannot
reach to a greater pitch of ferocity than appeared in these merciless
barbarians. Even the weaker sex themselves, naturally tender to their own
sufferings, and compassionate to those of others, have emulated their robust
companions in the practice of every cruelty. The very children, taught by
example and encouraged by the exhortation of their parents, dealt their feeble
blows on the dead carcasses of the defenseless children of the English.
Nor was the avarice of the Irish sufficient to
produce the least restraint on their cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the
cattle they had seized, and by repine had made their own, were, because they
bore the name of English, wantonly slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds,
turned loose into the woods, there to perish by slow and lingering torments.
The commodious habitations of the planters were
laid in ashes, or leveled with the ground. And where the wretched owners had
shut themselves up in the houses, and were preparing for defense, they perished
in the flames together with their wives and children.
Such is the general description of this
unparalleled massacre; but it now remains, from the nature of our work, that we
proceed to particulars.
The bigoted and merciless
papists had no sooner
begun to imbrue their hands in blood than they repeated the horrid tragedy day
after day, and the Protestants in all parts of the kingdom fell victims to their
fury by deaths of the most unheard-of cruelty.
The ignorant Irish were more strongly instigated to
execute the infernal business by the Jesuits, priests, and friars, who, when the
day for the execution of the plot was agreed on, recommended in their prayers,
diligence in the great design, which they said would greatly tend to the
prosperity of the kingdom, and to the advancement of the
catholic cause. They
everywhere declared to the common people, that the Protestants were heretics,
and ought not to be suffered to live any longer among them; adding that it was
no more sin to kill an Englishman than to kill a dog; and that the relieving or
protecting them was a crime of the most unpardonable nature.
The
papists having besieged the town and castle of
Longford, and the inhabitants of the latter, who were Protestants, surrendering
on condition of being allowed quarter, the besiegers, the instant the
townspeople appeared, attacked them in a most unmerciful manner, their priest,
as a signal for the rest to fall on, first ripping open the belly of the English
Protestant minister; after which his followers murdered all the rest, some of
whom they hanged, others were stabbed or shot, and great numbers knocked on the
head with axes provided for the purpose.
The garrison at Sligo was treated in like manner by O' Connor Slygah; who, upon the Protestants quitting their holds, promised them quarter, and to convey them safe over the Curlew mountains, to Roscommon. But he first imprisoned them in a most loathsome jail, allowing them only grains for their food. Afterward, when some papists were merry over their cups, who were come to congratulate their wicked brethren for their victory over these unhappy creatures, those Protestants who survived were brought forth by the white-firars, and were either killed, or precipitated over the bridge into a swift river, where they were soon destroyed.
It is added, that this wicked company of
white-friars went, some time after, in solemn procession, with holy water in
their hands, to sprinkle the river; on pretence of cleansing and purifying it
from the stains and pollution of the blood and dead bodies of the heretics, as
they called the unfortunate Protestants who were inhumanly slaughtered at this
very time.
At
Kilmore, Dr. Bedell, bishop of that see, had
charitably settled and supported a great number of distressed Protestants, who
had fled from their habitations to escape the diabolical cruelties committed by
the
papists. But they did not long enjoy the consolation of living together; the
good prelate was forcibly dragged from his episcopal residence, which was
immediately occupied by
dr. swiney, the
popish titular bishop of Kilmore, who
said Mass in the church the Sunday following, and then seized on all the goods
and effects belonging to the persecuted bishop.
Soon after this, the papists forced Dr. Bedell, his two sons, and the rest of his family, with some of the chief of the Protestants whom he had protected, into a ruinous castle, called Lochwater, situated in a lake near the sea. Here he remained with his companions some weeks, all of them daily expecting to be put to death. The greatest part of them were stripped naked, by which means, as the season was cold, (it being in the month of December) and the building in which they were confined open at the top, they suffered the most severe hardships.
They continued in this situation until the seventh of January, when they were all released. The bishop was courteously received into the house of Dennis O' Sheridan, one of his clergy, whom he had made a convert to the Church of England; but he did not long survive this kindness. During his residence here, he spent the whole of his time in religious exercises, the better to fit and prepare himself and his sorrowful companions for their great change, as nothing but certain death was perpetually before their eyes.
He was at this time in the seventy-first year of his age, and being
afflicted with a violent ague caught in his late cold and desolate habitation on
the lake, it soon threw him into a fever of the most dangerous nature. Finding
his dissolution at hand, he received it with joy, like one of the primitive
martyrs just hastening to his crown of glory. After having addressed his little
flock, and exhorted them to patience, in the most pathetic manner, as they saw
their own last day approaching, after having solemnly blessed his people, his
family, and his children, he finished the course of his ministry and life
together, on the seventh day of February 1642.
His friends and relations applied to the intruding bishop for leave to bury him, which was with difficulty obtained; he, at first telling them that the churchyard was holy ground, and should be no longer defiled with heretics: however, leave was at last granted, and though the church funeral service was not used at the solemnity, (for fear of the Irish papists) yet some of the better sort, who had the highest veneration for him while living, attended his remains to the grave.
At this interment they discharged a
volley of shot, crying out, "May the last of the English rest in peace." Adding, that as he was
one of the best so he should be the last English bishop found among them. His
learning was very extensive; and he would have given the world a greater proof
of it, had he printed all he wrote. Scarce any of his writings were saved; the
papists having destroyed most of his papers and his library. He had gathered a
vast heap of critical expositions of Scripture, all which with a great trunk
full of his manuscripts, fell into the hands of the Irish. Happily his great
Hebrew manuscript was preserved, and is now in the library of Emanuel College,
Oxford.
In the barony of
Terawley, the
papists, at the
instigation of the friars, compelled above forty English Protestants, some of
whom were women and children, to the hard fate of either falling by the sword,
or of drowning in the sea. These choosing the latter, were accordingly forced,
by the naked weapons of their inexorable persecutors, into the deep, where, with
their children in their arms, they first waded up to their chins, and afterwards
sunk down and perished together.
In the castle of Lisgool upwards of
one hundred and
fifty men, women, and children, were all burnt together; and at the castle of
Moneah not less than
one hundred were all
put to the sword. Great numbers were
also murdered at the castle of Tullah, which was delivered up to M' Guire on
condition of having fair quarter; but no sooner had that base villain got
possession of the place than he ordered his followers to murder the people,
which was immediately done with the greatest cruelty.
Many others were put to deaths of the most horrid nature, and such as could have been invented only by demons instead of men. Some of them were laid with the center of their backs on the axle-tree of a carriage, with their legs resting on the ground on one side, and their arms and head on the other. In this position, one of the savages scourged the wretched object on the thighs, legs, etc., while another set on furious dogs, who tore to pieces the arms and upper parts of the body; and in this dreadful manner were they deprived of their existence.
Great numbers were fastened to horses' tails, and
the beasts being set on full gallop by their riders, the wretched victims were
dragged along until they expired. Others were hung on lofty gibbets, and a fire
being kindled under them, they finished their lives, partly by hanging, and
partly by suffocation.
Nor did the more tender sex escape the least
particle of cruelty that could be projected by their merciless and furious
persecutors. Many women, of all ages, were put to deaths of the most cruel
nature. Some, in particular, were fastened with their backs to strong posts, and
being stripped to their waists, the inhuman monsters cut off their right breasts
with shears, which, of course, put them to the most excruciating torments; and
in this position they were left, until, from the loss of blood, they expired.
Such was the savage ferocity of these barbarians,
that even unborn infants were dragged from the womb to become victims to their
rage. Many unhappy mothers were hung naked in the branches of trees, and their
bodies being cut open, the innocent offspring were taken from them, and thrown
to dogs and swine. And to increase the horrid scene, they would oblige the
husband to be a spectator before suffering himself.
At the town of Issenskeath they hanged above a hundred Scottish Protestants, showing them no more mercy than they did to the English. M' Guire, going to the castle of that town, desired to speak with the governor, when being admitted, he immediately burnt the records of the county, which were kept there. He then demanded 1000 pounds of the governor, which, having received, he immediately compelled him to hear Mass. and to swear that he would continue to do so.
And to complete his horrid barbarities, he ordered the
wife and children of the governor to be hanged before his face; besides
massacring at least one hundred of the inhabitants. Upwards of one thousand men,
women, and children, were driven, in different companies, to Portadown bridge,
which was broken in the middle, and there compelled to throw themselves into the
water, and such as attempted to reach the shore were knocked on the head.
In the same part of the country, at least
four
thousand persons were drowned in different places. The inhuman
papists, after
first stripping them, drove them like beasts to the spot fixed on for their
destruction; and if any, through fatigue, or natural infirmities, were slack in
their pace, they pricked them with their swords and pikes; and to strike terror
on the multitude, they murdered some by the way. Many of these poor wretches,
when thrown into the water, endeavored to save themselves by swimming to the
shore but their merciless persecutors prevented their endeavors taking effect,
by shooting them in the water.
In one place
one hundred and forty English, after
being driven for many miles stark naked, and in the most severe weather, were
all murdered on the same spot, some being hanged, others burnt, some shot, and
many of them buried alive; and so cruel were their tormentors that they would
not suffer them to pray before they robbed them of their miserable existence.
Other companies they took under pretence of safe
conduct, who, from that consideration, proceeded cheerfully on their journey;
but when the treacherous
papists had got them to a convenient spot, they
butchered them all in the most cruel manner.
One hundred and fifteen men, women, and
children,
were conducted, by order of
sir phelim o' neal, to Portadown bridge, where they
were all forced into the river, and drowned. One woman, named Campbell, finding
no probability of escaping, suddenly clasped one of the chief of the
papists in
her arms, and held him so fast that they were both drowned together.
In Killyman they massacred
forty-eight families,
among whom twenty-two were burnt together in one house. The rest were either
hanged, shot, or drowned.
In
Kilmore, the inhabitants, which consisted of
about
two hundred families, all fell victims to their rage. Some of them sat in
the stocks until they confessed where their money was; after which they put them
to death. The whole county was one common scene of butchery, and
many thousands
perished, in a short time, by sword, famine, fire, water, and others the most
cruel deaths, that rage and malice could invent.
These bloody villains showed so much favor to some
as to dispatch them immediately; but they would by no means suffer them to pray.
Others they imprisoned in filthy dungeons, putting heavy bolts on their legs,
and keeping them there until they were starved to death.
At Casel they put all the Protestants into a
loathsome dungeon, where they kept them together, for several weeks, in the
greatest misery. At length they were released, when some of them were
barbarously mangled, and left on the highways to perish at leisure; others were
hanged, and some were buried in the ground upright, with their heads above the
earth, and the
papists, to increase their misery, treating them with derision
during their sufferings. In the county of Antrim they murdered
nine hundred and
fifty-four Protestants in one morning; and afterwards about
twelve hundred more
in that county.
At a town called
Lisnegary, they forced
twenty-four
Protestants into a house, and then setting fire to it, burned them together,
counterfeiting their outcries in derision to the others.
Among other acts of cruelty they took two children
belonging to an Englishwoman, and dashed out their brains before her face; after
which they threw the mother into a river, and she was drowned. They served many
other children in the like manner, to the great affliction of their parents, and
the disgrace of human nature.
In Kilkenny
all the Protestants, without exception,
were put to death; and some of them in so cruel a manner, as, perhaps, was never
before thought of.
They beat an Englishwoman with such savage
barbarity, that she had scarce a whole bone left; after which they threw her
into a ditch; but not satisfied with this, they took her child, a girl about six
years of age, and after ripping up its belly, threw it to its mother, there to
languish until it perished. They forced one man to go to
mass, after which they
ripped open his body, and in that manner left him. They sawed another asunder,
cut the throat of his wife, and after having dashed out the brains of their
child, an infant, threw it to the swine, who greedily devoured it.
After committing these, and several other horrid
cruelties, they took the heads of
seven Protestants, and among them that of a
pious minister, all of which they fixed up at the market cross. They put a gag
into the minister's mouth, then slit his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf
of a Bible before it, bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough. They did
several other things by way of derision, and expressed the greatest satisfaction
at having thus murdered and exposed the unhappy Protestants.
It is impossible to conceive the pleasure these monsters took in exercising their cruelty, and to increase the misery of those who fell into their hands, when they butchered them they would say, "Your soul to the devil." One of these miscreants would come into a house with his hands imbued in blood, and boast that it was English blood, and that his sword had pricked the white skins of the Protestants, even to the hilt.
When any
one of them had killed a Protestant, others would come and receive a
gratification in cutting and mangling the body; after which they left it exposed
to be devoured by dogs; and when they had slain a number of them they would
boast, that the devil was beholden to them for sending so many souls to hell.
But it is no wonder they should thus treat the innocent Christians, when they
hesitated not to commit blasphemy against God and His most holy Word.
In one place they burnt two Protestant Bibles, and
then said they had burnt hell-fire. In the church at Powers court they burnt the
pulpit, pews, chests, and Bibles belonging to it. They took other Bibles, and
after wetting them with dirty water, dashed them in the faces of the
Protestants, saying, "We know you love a good lesson; here is an excellent
one for you; come to-morrow, and you shall have as good a sermon as this."
Some of the Protestants they dragged by the hair of
their heads into the church, where they stripped and whipped them in the most
cruel manner, telling them, at the same time, that if they came tomorrow, they
should hear the like sermon.
In Munster they put to death several ministers in
the most shocking manner. One, in particular, they stripped stark naked, and
driving him before them, pricked him with swords and darts until he fell down,
and expired.
In some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut
off the hands of the Protestants, and in that manner turned them into the
fields, there to wander out their miserable existence. They obliged many young
men to force their aged parents to a river, where they were drowned; wives to
assist in hanging their husbands; and mothers to cut the throats of their
children.
In one place they compelled a young man to kill his
father, and then immediately hanged him. In another they forced a woman to kill
her husband, then obliged the son to kill her, and afterward shot him through
the head.
At a place called
Glaslow, a
popish priest, with
some others, prevailed on
forty Protestants to be reconciled to the
church of rome. They had no sooner done this than they told them they were in good faith,
and that they would prevent their falling from it, and turning heretics, by
sending them out of the world, which they did by immediately cutting their
throats.
In the county of Tipperary upwards of thirty
Protestants, men, women, and children, fell into the hands of the
papists, who,
after stripping them naked, murdered them with stones, pole-axes, swords, and
other weapons.
In the county of Mayo about
sixty Protestants,
fifteen of whom were ministers, were, upon covenant, to be safely conducted to
Galway, by one Edmund Burke and his soldiers; but that inhuman monster by the
way drew his sword, as an intimation of his design to the rest, who immediately
followed his example, and murdered the whole, some of whom they stabbed, others
were run through the body with pikes, and several were drowned.
In Queen's County
great numbers of Protestants were
put to the most shocking deaths. Fifty or sixty were placed together in one
house, which being set on fire, they all perished in the flames. Many were
stripped naked, and being fastened to horses by ropes placed round their
middles, were dragged through bogs until they expired. Some were hung by the
feet to tenterhooks driven into poles; and in that wretched posture left until
they perished. Others were fastened to the trunk of a tree, with a branch at
top. Over this branch hung one arm, which principally supported the weight of
the body; and one of the legs was turned up, and fastened to the trunk, while
the other hung straight. In this dreadful and uneasy posture did they remain as
long as life would permit, pleasing spectacles to their
bloodthirsty persecutors.
At Clownes seventeen men were buried alive; and an Englishman, his wife, five children, and a servant maid, were all hanged together, and afterward thrown into a ditch. They hung many by the arms to branches of trees, with a weight to their feet; and others by the middle, in which posture they left them until they expired. Several were hanged on windmills, and before they were half dead, the barbarians cut them in pieces with their swords.
Others, both men, women, and children, they cut and hacked in
various parts of their bodies, and left them wallowing in their blood to perish
where they fell. One poor woman they hanged on a gibbet, with her child, an
infant about a twelve-month old, the latter of whom was hanged by the neck with
the hair of its mother's head, and in that manner finished its short but
miserable existence.
In the county of Tyrone no less than
three hundred
Protestants were drowned in one day; and many others were hanged, burned, and
otherwise put to death. Dr. Maxwell, rector of Tyrone, lived at this time near
Armagh, and suffered greatly from these merciless savages. This person, in his
examination, taken upon oath before the king's commissioners, declared that the
irish papists owned to him, that they, at several times, had destroyed, in one
place,
12,000 Protestants, whom they inhumanly slaughtered at Glynwood, in their
flight from the county of Armagh.
As the river Bann was not fordable, and the bridge
broken down, the Irish forced thither at different times, a great number of
unarmed, defenseless Protestants, and with pikes and swords violently thrust
about
one thousand into the river, where they miserably perished.
Nor did the cathedral of Armagh escape the fury of
those barbarians, it being maliciously set on fire by their leaders, and burnt
to the ground. And to extirpate, if possible, the very race of those unhappy
Protestants, who lived in or near Armagh, the Irish first burnt all their
houses, and then gathered together many hundreds of those innocent people, young
and old, on pretence of allowing them a guard and safe conduct to Colerain, when
they treacherously fell on them by the way, and inhumanly murdered them.
The like horrid barbarities with those we have
particularized, were practiced on the wretched Protestants in almost all parts
of the kingdom; and, when an estimate was afterward made of the number who were
sacrificed to gratify diabolical souls of the
papists, it amounted to
one
hundred and fifty thousand. But it now remains that we proceed to the
particulars that followed.
These desperate wretches, flushed and grown insolent with success, (though by methods attended with such excessive barbarities as perhaps not to be equaled) soon got possession of the castle of Newry, where the king's stores and ammunition were lodged; and, with as little difficulty, made themselves masters of Dundalk. They afterward took the town of Ardee, where they murdered all the Protestants, and then proceeded to Drogheda.
The garrison of Drogheda was in no condition to sustain a siege, notwithstanding
which, as often as the Irish renewed their attacks they were vigorously repulsed
by a very unequal number of the king's forces, and a few faithful Protestant
citizens under Sir Henry Tichborne, the governor, assisted by the Lord Viscount
Moore. The siege of Drogheda began on the thirtieth of November, 1641, and held
until the fourth of March, 1642, when Sir Phelim O'Neal, and the Irish
miscreants under him were forced to retire.
In the meantime ten thousand troops were sent from
Scotland to the remaining Protestants in Ireland, which being properly divided
in the most capital parts of the kingdom, happily eclipsed the power of the
Irish savages; and the Protestants for a time lived in tranquility.
In the reign of King James II they were again interrupted, for in a parliament held at Dublin in the year 1689, great numbers of the Protestant nobility, clergy, and gentry of Ireland, were attainted of high treason. The government of the kingdom was, at that time, invested in the earl of tyrconnel, a bigoted papist, and an inveterate enemy to the Protestants.
By his orders they were again persecuted in various parts of the kingdom. The
revenues of the city of Dublin were seized, and most of the churches converted
into prisons. And had it not been for the resolution and uncommon bravery of the
garrisons in the city of Londonderry, and the town of Inniskillin, there had not
one place remained for refuge to the distressed Protestants in the whole
kingdom; but all must have been given up to King James, and to the furious
popish party that governed him.
The remarkable siege of Londonderry was opened on
the eighteenth of April, 1689, by twenty thousand
papists, the flower of the
Irish army. The city was not properly circumstanced to sustain a siege, the
defenders consisting of a body of raw undisciplined Protestants, who had fled
thither for shelter, and half a regiment of Lord Mountjoy's disciplined
soldiers, with the principal part of the inhabitants, making it all only seven
thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men.
The besieged hoped, at first, that their stores of
corn and other necessaries, would be sufficient; but by the continuance of the
siege their wants increased; and these became at last so heavy that for a
considerable time before the siege was raised a pint of coarse barley, a small
quantity of greens, a few spoonfuls of starch, with a very moderate proportion
of horse flesh, were reckoned a week's provision for a soldier. And they were,
at length, reduced to such extremities that they ate dogs, cats, and mice.
Their miseries increasing with the siege, many,
through mere hunger and want, pined and languished away, or fell dead in the
streets. And it is remarkable, that when their long-expected succors arrived
from England, they were upon the point of being reduced to this alternative,
either to preserve their existence by eating each other, or attempting to fight
their way through the Irish, which must have infallibly produced their
destruction.
These succors were most happily brought by the ship
Mountjoy of Derry, and the Phoenix of Colerain, at which time they had only nine
lean horses left with a pint of meal to each man. By hunger, and the fatigues of
war, their seven thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men were reduced
to four thousand three hundred, one fourth part of whom were rendered
unserviceable.
As the calamities of the besieged were great, so
likewise were the terrors and sufferings of their Protestant friends and
relations; all of whom (even women and children) were forcibly driven from the
country thirty miles round, and inhumanly reduced to the sad necessity of
continuing some days and nights without food or covering, before the walls of
the town; and were thus exposed to the continual fire both of the Irish army
from without and the shot of their friends from within.
But the succors from England happily arriving put
an end to their affliction; and the siege was raised on the thirty-first of
July, having been continued upwards of three months.
The day before the siege of Londonderry was raised
the Inniskillers engaged a body of six thousand Irish
roman catholics, at
Newton, Butler, or Crown-Castle, of whom near
five thousand were slain. This,
with the defeat at Londonderry, dispirited the
papists, and they gave up all
further attempts to persecute the Protestants.
The year following, viz. 1690, the Irish took up
arms in favor of the abdicated prince, King James II but they were totally
defeated by his successor King William the Third. That monarch, before he left
the country, reduced them to a state of subjection, in which they have ever
since continued.
But notwithstanding all this, the Protestant interest at present stands upon a much stronger basis than it did a century ago. The Irish, who formerly led an unsettled and roving life, in the woods, bogs, and mountains, and lived on the depredation of their neighbors, they who, in the morning seized the prey, and at night divided the spoil, have, for many years past, become quiet and civilized.
They taste the sweets of English society, and
the advantages of civil government. They trade in our cities, and are employed
in our manufactories. They are received also into English families; and treated
with great humanity by the Protestants.