God’s Executioner - Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland by Micheal O Siochru

Author:Micheal O Siochru
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

6 Royalist Collapse

Death’s darts hold this great heart, unbeatable in battle, laid to rest in the earth.

EPITAPH FOR OWEN ROE O’NEILL (1649)

* * *

Cromwell’s departure from Ireland at the end of May 1650 made little immediate impact on the war. The royalist/confederate coalition remained on the defensive throughout the country, except in Ulster, where the Catholic forces seized the initiative. In mid-March, at Belturbet in County Cavan, after months of delay due to the ongoing conflict and bad weather, the aged Bishop Sweeney of Kilmore chaired a provincial assembly of clergy, gentry and army officers. The Ulster forces, many of them returning from Munster, had spent the winter quartered in the Longford/Cavan area, and now as the summer campaigning season approached they needed to elect a new leader to replace their inspirational general, Owen Roe O’Neill. His experienced officer corps provided numerous potential candidates, and a handful had already acquitted themselves well in battle against Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarians. Lieutenant General Richard Farrell, for example, sent south by the Ulster general in October, played a key role in the defence of Waterford, while Major General Hugh Dubh O’Neill, generally recognised as the most capable soldier in the army, would shortly distinguish himself during the siege of Clonmel. Other contenders included Owen Roe’s only son Henry, along with two of the original conspirators from 1641, Philip MacHugh O’Reilly and Sir Phelim O’Neill. While all these officers enjoyed large personal followings, none commanded widespread support across the province, and delegates at Belturbet feared an outbreak of factional or familial strife in the event of a disputed election. The assembly wanted somebody with sufficient authority, both politically and militarily, to unite the Irish of Ulster in the difficult times ahead. Daniel O’Neill, a nephew of Owen Roe, appeared to possess the requisite qualities, but his Protestant faith and close relationship to the lord lieutenant counted against him. The marquis of Antrim, a Catholic nobleman of national standing, had organised a number of successful military ventures during the 1640s, including Alasdair MacColla’s expedition to Scotland in 1644. A self-serving schemer, the marquis had spent the previous two years nurturing contacts with the English parliamentarians, and could not be trusted. In the absence of an acceptable alternative, the assembly turned to Heber MacMahon, bishop of Clogher, and elected him unanimously, ‘to cut of[f ] all motives of both jealousy and emulation?

A leading figure in the confederate association, Bishop MacMahon represented Ulster on the Supreme Council throughout the 1640s and had enjoyed good relations both with Owen Roe O’Neill and the papal nuncio, Rinuccini. A consummate politician, he had no military experience whatsoever. According to one contemporary commentator, the bishop ‘was no more a soldier fit to be a general than one of Rome’s cardinals’, while the anonymous author of the ‘Aphorismical Discovery’ described him as a ‘brave prelate, but alas, ignorant general’.1 Although undoubtedly ambitious, the bishop probably accepted the post more out of a sense of duty, to keep the army united, rather than for any reasons of self-advancement.

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