Monthly Archives: August 2016

The Protestants of Ulster had defended Derry and Enniskillen. They had saved Ireland for the British Crown. Yet all this passed for nothing. The English Church was Episcopalian and the ‘Protestant Ascendancy’ which now established itself in Ireland was thus … Continue reading →

The Byerley Turk (1678–1706) fought for King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne and is one of the most remarkable horses in history. I was presented with Jeremy James’ book on him by Eugene Keane,  when our Dalaradia organisation visited the Boyne, … Continue reading →

” There are three things which will never end….The Pride of France….The treachery of England…. And the War that is in Ireland” Jean Froissart (c 1337 – c1405) Waiting in the wings with his own army was a remarkable man … Continue reading →

Following the Battle of the Boyne, the military position in Ireland remained fluid. The Boyne has been described as one of the decisive battles of the western world, for it signalled to Europe defeat for the French and the Jacobites … Continue reading →

William III by Sir Godfrey Kneller As loyalty to James ebbed in England, so the civil power of Roman Catholics increased in Ireland. By the autumn of 1688 all the judges in Ireland were Roman Catholics as were almost all … Continue reading →

On 6 February 1685, Charles II of England died. There were suspicions among his physicians that his brother James had poisoned him to prevent him legitimising the claim of his natural son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth. This appeared evident … Continue reading →

Following the death of Cromwell there was a year of turmoil, brought to a close by the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Charles’s first act was to restore the Episcopalian Church in the Three Kingdoms, and in 1661 an … Continue reading →

Cromwell’s campaign against the Royalist forces began with the storming of Drogheda on 11 September 1649. The resultant massacre was directed primarily against the English Royalist garrison and the clergy. A normal market was held in the town the following … Continue reading →

However, although the plantation never proved to be the radical transformation the Crown might have originally intended, those Irish noblemen who were dispossessed had sufficient cause to harbour a deep-seated resentment. In 1641, with civil unrest in England between Parliamentarians … Continue reading →

Ulster as a whole was not anglicised as quickly as Leinster. According to the 1851 census, of the nine counties in Ireland which contained the least number of Gaelic speakers of any variety only one (County Down) was in Ulster … Continue reading →