By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
In Ireland, the 'Glorious Revolution' was neither glorious nor bloodless. It was inglorious, and extremely bloody. And like the Act of Supremacy when Henry VIII broke with Rome, it was totally seminal.
James had refused to abdicate even in favour of his daughter, and when William arrived he fled, first to France. Meanwhile in Ireland Tyrconnell had turned the Militia into an army, a Catholic army, even if it was hastily trained and poorly equipped. Even before William landed in England this army began to garrison all strong points in Ireland, which were thus held by Catholics for Catholic King James. Except for the fortified Derry and Kilcullen, and the town of Sligo.
Derry, where those walls to keep the Irish out had been built 75 years ago, was the only major town in Ireland to remain in Protestant hands with a Protestant garrison. Derry was destined to be the first to enter the conflict, when Tyrconnell called upon the Catholic Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim, to subdue the rebellious strongholds. Antrim was 73 years of age and a little old fashioned. He wasted a month trying to ensure that all his 1,200 Highlanders were over six feet tall, and finally arrived before Derry on December 7th 1688, so starting what was to become the longest siege in Irish history.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at The Jacobites, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, France declared war on England, Kinsale, 1689, Williamite, Dromore, Ulster, 'the Break of Dromore', Williamite War, Dublin, Derry, Bantry Bay, Patrick Sarsfield, King James, Justin MacCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, Enniskillen irregulars, Battle of Newtownbutler, Captain John Leake, Culmore Fort, Marshal Frederick Schomberg, Edict of Nantes, Ballyholme Bay, Bangor, Belfast Lough, Carrickfergus, Dundalk, Irish rapparees, The Battle of the Boyne, Louis XIV, the Pope, Oldcastle, River Boyne, Drogheda, Meinhardt, Tyrconnel, Sarsfield, General the Duc de Luzon, Roughgrange, Slane, Neil O'Neil, Blue Guards, Oldbridge ford, Jacobite cavalry, Williamite cavalry, the Siege of Limerick, Seamus a' chaca ('James the shit'), 'Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile',. 'O young Charles', it goes (in Irish), demoralised Jacobites, Jacobite French troops, Cork, Kinsale, Athlone, Aughrim, General Charles Chalmont, Marquis de St. Ruth, defensible Shannon, village of Aughrim, Godart van Ginkel, Baron van Reede, Galway, Limerick, Tyrconnell died, Treaty of Limerick, 1691, Lord Lucan, the Flight of the Wild Geese, Military and the Civil provisions, 'Irish Brigade', French Army, Louis XIV, League of Augsburg, War of the Grand Alliance.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'. It is available either as a paperback, an ebook, or a much smaller "pocket" sized paper back edition (4.2" x 6.8") for travellers.The printed books can be bought online here.
The E-book can be purchased directly from our site here.