ULSTER BEFORE THE PLANTATION By the end of the 16th century, Hugh In the process he constructed a powerful O’Neill, 2nd of Tyrone, had confederacy in , which would emerged as the greatest single threat provide an enormous political and to English rule in Ireland. He took financial threatto the Tudor dynasty. advantage of royal favour, exploited After stunning successes against the crown assaults on vulnerable Gaelic cream of Elizabeth’s forces, the arrival of neighbours and forged strategic political the Spanish in , forced O’Neill and marital alliances with the to march from in the depths O’Donnells, , O’Cahans, of winter. O’Reillys and .

Map of Ulster © National Archives UK. 1 He was defeated in battle by Lord amongst European Catholic rulers and Deputy Mountjoy in 1601 and returned the greater Catholic populace. Indeed to where he waited for Henry IV of France, who had led the additional Spanish support. Under French Protestants [Huguenots] in attack from all sides by land and water, France’s religious wars, placed him he accepted the Queen’s terms and among the top three European military signed the in March commanders. O’Neill’s numerous 1603, three days after her death. The victories were remembered by Nine Years’ War cost nearly aristocrats and artisans as he made his £2,000,000, eight times more than any way to after ‘The Flight of the previous war waged during her reign. ’. O’Neill gained enormous prestige

Queen Elizabeth I, © Maritime Museum UK

2 THE ‘FLIGHT’ OF THE EARLS, 1607

Although pardoned and received at rumours of the Earl’s links with Spain court by King James VI and I (of and an ominous royal summons to , England and Ireland) in 1603, ultimately led to his flight. O’Neill nevertheless felt besieged by English settlers and crown officials. They were unhappy with his lenient treatment, coveted his lordship and manipulated his son-in-law Sir Donal Ballagh O’Cahan to undermine his position in Ulster.

The political and legal intrigues of Lord Deputy Sir Arthur Chichester and Painting of by Seoirse ODochartaigh Attorney-General Sir ,

Map Showing Journey to Rome © County Museum 3 O’Neill left Ulster on 4th September , Eoghan Rua Mac An 1607 along with O’Donnell, 1st Earl Bhaird, Aindrias Mac Craith, Fearflatha of , Cuchonnacht , Ó Gnímh, Eochaidh Ó hEodhasa and Lord of , their wives, families English writers such as James Clarence and followers, in one of the most iconic Mangan, William Butler Yeats, Seán Ó and significant events in Irish history. Faoláin, Thomas Kilroy and Friel. Today this is referred to as “The Flight of the Earls. It is difficult to overstate the historical importance of this departure. In effect, it sealed the political and military end of an independent Gaelic Ulster and laid the ground for the subsequent Plantation and Ireland’s full incorporation into the new Stuart monarchy. ‘The Flight’ has captured the imagination of generations of Irish Oroborus Theatre Company 2007, Making History writers in Irish including Óg

Coat of Arms, Guildhall © Derry City Council O’Donnell, Stained Glass Window © Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Services Heritage and Museum Services

4 THE NATIVE POPULATION

The , 16th Century (Image Courtsey of Board of National Library of Ireland) In 1603 Irish Catholics owned 90% of the Irish Catholics became ‘half-subjects’ (to land but by 1641, mainly as a result of use King James’ own words). The the , this figure had government attempted to promote fallen to 59%. Some historians have military migration amongst those who argued that the Plantation replaced one had served O’Neill and his allies and élite, the Gaelic nobility, with another, around 6,000 were sent to the service of the new English and Scottish lords and Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. landlords. However, this process did not Thousands more joined the ranks of the happen without inflicting suffering on Irish regiments in Spain and Spanish the native population. Although land Flanders. Those who remained on the was allocated to ‘deserving’ Irish, those land often failed to adapt to changing who had assisted in the war against and often unfavourable circumstances. O’Neill and his allies, few of them This resulted in a legacy of bitterness prospered in the new economic and that would explode in the rebellion of legal system. 1641 leaving thousands dead.

5 THE GAELIC LITERATI The political collapse of Gaelic Ulster evidence to illustrate the extent and saw a decline in the fortunes of the influence of the aos dána [learned professional learned classes such as classes]. Nevertheless, surviving material poets, scribes, brehons (lawyers), vastly outstrips contemporary Scotland genealogists (historians) and writers in or Wales and is invaluable in shedding the decades after the ‘Flight of the Earls’. light on contemporary Irish society. The wholesale destruction of manuscripts, and the carelessness of future generations has left little

Examples of Gaelic Manuscript Text

6 THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF AN IRISH ‘NATIONAL’ IDENTITY In spite of the incessant wars and political Central to this effort was the enormous turmoil of the 16th and 17th centuries, undertaking of the compilation of Ireland witnessed a remarkable vitality ‘Annála Ríoghachta Éireann’ [Annals of in poetic and literary activity in the the Kingdom of Ireland], assembled by . The Franciscan Order, the ‘The Four Masters’ at the Fransiscan operating from Irish Catholic colleges Friary in Donegal Town, with the on the continent and utilising members support of the Franciscans and the of the traditional learned families such as patronage of Fearghal Ó Gadhra, a the Uí Chléirigh, Uí Mhaoilchonaire nobleman. The Tipperary-born cleric and Uí Dhuibhgheannáin, powered a Seathrún Céitinn [], two-pronged effort to stem the tide of author of ‘Fóras Feasa ar Éirinn’ Protestantism and preserve Ireland’s [Foundation of knowledge on Ireland], literary heritage. A stream of religious targeted Anglo-Norman and English book and pamphlets from these writers such as Giraldus Cambrensis, continental colleges targeted the clergy Edmund Spenser, Richard Stanihurst, as opposed to the largely illiterate laity. Edmund Campion, Richard Hamner, They reflected the continental training Fynes Moryson who had cast aspersions of their authors and drew heavily on on Ireland’s literary and cultural contemporary Counter-Reformation heritage. works in Spanish, French, Latin and Italian.

John Derricke’s Images of Ireland 1581 7 Flight of the Earls Painting, by Seán Ó Brogáin’s

The first decades of the seventeenth century also witnessed an increase in historical works, saints’ lives, diaries and social commentary. These included Ó Cianáin’s ‘Imeacht’ na nIarlaí [The ‘Flight’ of the Earls], Lughaigh Ó Cléirigh’s Beatha Aodha Rua Uí Dhomhnaill [Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell], an heroic biography of the Earl of Tír Chonaill. Other Irish scholars such as Luke Wadding, David Rothe, Richard Creagh, Cornelius O’Deveney, Richard Stanihurst, Richard O’Farrell, O’Connell, who wrote in Latin for a continental audience, enabled a small, under-populated island to box far above its weight in early modern European literary circles.

Luke Wadding

8 SIR CATHAIR’S REBELLION Sir Cathair O’ Doherty’s rebellion, and the involvement and implication of the O’Donnells, O’Cahans and O’Hanlons massively increased the scale and scope of the Ulster Plantation. Formerly, ‘The Queen’s O’Doherty’, Cathair Rua, the young chief of , had emerged as an ally of Sir Henry Docwra, Derry’s second founder, during the course of the Nine Year’s War. His co-operation assisted Docwra’s access to the Foyle and Swilly basins and he received a knighthood for his loyal service to the crown. However, he soon fell foul of Lord Deputy Chichester, who accused him of involvement with the fugitive Earls. Verbal and physical abuse at the hands of Sir George Paulet, the new Governor of Derry, drove the O’ Doherty into rebellion. He captured Fort, burned Derry, seized a number of prisoners (including Bishop George Montgomery of Raphoe, and his O’Doherty Sword © Interm Museum, Derry wife Sarah) and attacked Burt Castle. Although the rebellion spread across the Swilly into the lands of the Gallaghers and MacSwineys, the crown rapidly responded with an assault on Culmore Fort and Burt Castle, which hastened the collapse of the rebellion. O’ Doherty was ambushed and killed at Doon Rock, the inauguration site of the O’Donnells, at . His quarters were sent to Derry and his impaled head soon emblazoned Dublin’s Newgate Jail.

9 ‘Derry’, c.1601, by Griffin Crockett ©

10 A LABORATORY FOR EMPIRE PLANS FOR THE PLANTATION The union of the English, Irish and Scottish crowns in the person of James both facilitated and heralded a monumental shift in ‘English’ crown policy. Since the Scottish Wars of Independence of the late 13th - early 14th centuries, in which William Wallace and Robert the Bruce had fought to secure the independence of the Scottish Crown, successive English kings and queens had tried to keep the Scots, both settlers and mercenaries (Gall Óglaigh/Galloglass), out of Ulster. Elizabeth’s defeat of O’Neill and his confederates, their subsequent ‘Flight’ and the ensuing rebellion of Sir Cathair O’Doherty paved the way for the Crown’s seizure of nearly 3.8 million acres of land for a comprehensive plantation project.

King James 1 © National Maritime Museum, UK

11 It also enabled King James to address a English borders through a wholesale series of key political, religious, strategic, transplantation of Scottish Planters to socio-economic and financial policies. Ireland. Furthermore, the foundation of An influx of English and Scottish settlers new counties, shires, towns and villages would hamper any attempts by hostile in the Plantation would provide a Catholic powers to use Ireland as a back much-needed financial boost to the door to invade the king’s Protestant treasury. realms. Similarly, the King could address the social-economic, political and religious disturbances on the Scottish-

Ulster c.1603, © The National Archivies (PRO) UK. MPFI-35

12 ‘UNDERTAKERS’ AND ‘SERVITORS’

Hugh Montgomery © Ulster Scots Agency Sir James Hamilton © Ulster Scots Agency

Elizabeth I’s Plantation passed to the crown, thus facilitating a in 1591 and the successful ‘private’ plantation that far outstripped previous Plantation scheme initiated by Hugh ventures in Ireland. It could be Montgomery, and Sir James Hamilton, in compared in size and scope with the South (in modern Counties contemporary English, Portuguese and Antrim and Down) in 1606, provided Spanish initiatives in the Americas. templates for the Plantation of Ulster. The remaining six Ulster counties of Armagh, Cavan, /Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone had

13 An Irish committee of the English Undertakers received 40% of the allocated Privy Council undertook extensive lands, parcelled out in units of 2,000, cartographical/mapping surveys and 1,500 and 1,000 acres, on condition that stock-takes, before publishing detailed they removed the natives, encouraged conditions and instructions for the English and Scottish settlers, founded Plantation. Lands were divided amongst: small towns and villages and erected castles or ‘bawns’ (fortified dwellings). ‘Servitors’ (government officials and The ‘servitors’ received approximately soldiers who had commanded and 15% of the allocated lands and the native served the crown during the Nine Years Irish retained 20% of the forfeited War), properties. Generous grants to the , Trinity College Dublin ‘Undertakers’ (English and Scottish and the newly founded ‘free schools’ or venture capitalists and men of property ‘royal schools’ at Raphoe, Cavan, who undertook to plant their newly- Armagh, Dungannon, Newry and acquired lands with English and Scottish (approx 20%) furthered the settlers) and those ‘Deserving Irish’ king’s plans to advance the Protestant who had supported the crown or Reformation and ‘civilize’ the ‘rude changed sides in the 1590s. partes’ of his realm.

14 The Land and Forte of Derry, c.1601 ©The National Library THE LONDONDERRY PLANTATION The Crown assigned In return The Honourable the Irish ‘O’Cahan’s Country’, Society, the company set up to oversee re-named Coleraine or the Plantation, received over half a Londonderry, to the million acres. This was divided into lots twelve livery companies of between 10,000 and 40,000 acres (trade guilds) of the City of London, in among the livery companies and their return for the necessary capital to subsidiaries, around what would sustain the Plantation. For an original become the major urban settlements in figure of £20,000, which would treble by the newly fortified country; the end of King James’s reign, the livery (Mercers), 21,600 Acres, companies undertook to construct two Eglington (Grocers), 15,900 Acres, new towns of 200 and 100 hundred (Drapers), 38,800 Acres, houses (Derry/Londonderry and Coleraine) Ballykelly (Fishmongers), 24,100 Acres, and plant their new possessions with Newbuildings (Goldsmiths), 11,050 London’s surplus population. Sir Daniel Acres, (Skinners), Molyneux, the Ulster King at Arm’s, 49,000 Acres, bestowal of a new crest to the new (Merchant Tailors), 18,700 Acres, citadel of Londonderry favoured the Ballycastle (Haberdashers), seated skeleton (an allusion to Walter 23,100 Acres, (Salters), De Burgh’s incarceration and death by 23,250 Acres,Agivey (Ironmongers), starvation in 1332). He deemed the 19,450 Acres, (Vintners); skeleton an appropriate metaphor for 32,600 Acres, Killowen-- ‘The Derrie’ being ‘raysed from the dead (Clothworkers), by the worthy undertakinge of the noble 13,450 Acres. cittie of London’.

15 Skinners Buildings, Dungevin. Thomas Raven c.1611 © PRONI Other grants included 29,900 acres for the Society and 116,400 for the Church of Ireland and the Bishopric of Derry. Sir Thomas Phillips, a veteran of the French and Irish wars, custodian of Coleraine Friary, Military Superintendent of Coleraine and one of the original sponsors of the London venture, held on to 19,400 acres. He also received licences to distill ‘aqua vitae’ – the forerunner of the Bushmills and Coleraine distilleries. Finally, the new towns of Londonderry and Coleraine received 7,000 acres each, while the natives retained 52,050 acres across the new county. These possessions contained a vast array of valuable natural resources; the rich fisheries comprised inland and coastal herring, eel and salmon fisheries of the Bann, Foyle and Lough Neagh (to its mouth), the forests included the vast and valuable woods of Richard Bartlett - Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, c.1601 Glenconkeyne and Killetra. They would © National Library of Ireland provide the pipe-staves and wooden walls of the emerging British navy.

16 DERRY’S WALLS “Derry’s Walls” are perhaps the most Sir Henry Docwra, Elizabeth’s famous, visible and enduring physical commander at Derry, remarked that the legacy of the Plantation. Even before the location provided a natural fortress reign of Elizabeth I, English officials bounded by the river and with steep recognised the strategic location of the embankments on three sides, lying ‘in site and established garrisons there in the form of a bow bent, whereof the bog 1566 and in 1600. is the string and the river the bow.’

Londonderry c.1618-1619, Nicholas Pynnar, © Trinity College, Dublin.

17 Guildhall Derry, © Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Services 18 Docwra’s fortifications amounted to establishment of a colony at Derry little more than an earthen rampart and described as “the late ruinated city of two forts, a hospital and some houses. Derry, which may be made by land The 1604 charter highlighted Derry’s almost impregnable.” ‘Four wise, grave obvious advantages ‘by reason of the and discreet citizens’, from the London natural seat and situation thereof, a Guilds and the Common Council of place very convenient and fit to be made the City of London arrived to report both a town of war and a town of on the feasibility of the proposal. merchandize’. Within two years Although they were reluctant to become of Docwra’s departure, Sir Cahair involved in what was widely viewed O’Doherty stormed and burnt the town as a hazardous investment, the King during his ill-fated rebellion of 1608. prevailed on the merchants, by persuasion In the following year a proposal to the and even outright threats, to take charge King by the Earl of Salisbury, Lord of the new city. High Treasurer, recommended the

“The Plat of the Cittie of Londonderrie” Thomas Raven c.1622. © PRONI

19 DONEGAL The county of Donegal (an amalgamation deserted the Irish confederates and of the O’Donnell and O’Doherty occupied the strategic fortifications of lordships of Tír Chonaill [Tir Connell] and . Similarly, Sir and Inis Eoghain [Inishowen]) had been Henry Docwra, Sir Ralph Bingley, created in 1585 during the Lord Sir Henry Ffolliott and Sir Basil Brooke Deputyship of Sir John Perrott. and a host of locally-based English However, the crown could not put its commanders occupied a whole plans for political, socio-economic, series of O’Donnell, O’Doherty and legislative and religious reforms for the MacSweeney installations. This prevented new county into practice until the defeat Rory from exerting traditional O’Donnell of the Earls in 1603. Although King authority in Connaught and South James elevated Rory O’Donnell, brother Ulster. Many of these veteran combatants of the deceased Red Hugh, last Prince of also benefited from generous grants Tír Conaill, to the Earldom of Tir of monastic and ecclesiastical land, Connell, he had no intention of allowing fisheries and customs posts. This the Earl to enjoy the traditional rights worsened the already straitened and privileges of his position. Sir Henry economic circumstances of an Docwra had already detached Sir impoverished Earl who struggled to Cathair O’Doherty, the young lord of both re-establish and assert his authority Inis Eoghain, from the Irish alliance in against Garbh and his 1600. Sir Niall Garbh O’Donnell, Rory’s MacSweeney and O’Boyle vassals. rival for the O’Donnell lordship, had also

Sir. Richard Hansard Dapal Anne his wife in Clonleigh Parish Church, Lifford. 20 Sir Arthur Chichester’s assumption of the Lord Deputyship in 1605 and his readiness to referee between O’Donnell and his rivals accelerated the process of political, military and legislative re-organisation within the lordship. Sir Richard Hansard’s receipt of the fort and its surrounding lands in Lifford and the elevation of Bishop George Montgomery to the joint sees of , Derry and Raphoe further undermined his position. Similarly, the failure of Rory’s petition for the Abbey and lands of Assaroe and his loss of lucrative taxes, rents, fisheries and Chichester fishing rights provided economic motives for his eventual flight.

“The Derry c.1601”, A general map of the area and the Land between the Foyle and .

21 THE PLANTATION IN DONEGAL

Donegal Castle

Rory’s flight, Niall Garbh’s political These grants did not include the and military unreliability after the ecclesiastical and monastic lands, O’Doherty rebellion and a host of fortresses and strategically-important political, socio-economic and religious locations which had already been considerations, prompted wholesale bestowed on English veterans and Plantation. The veteran Sir Geoffrey favoured Protestants. Sir Henry Ffolliott Fenton urged the king to pull down had already received Ballyshannon and forever these two proud houses of the lands attached to Assaroe, Sir Basil O’Neill and O’Donnell. King James 1 Brooke took possession of Donegal divided the county amongst English and Castle, O’Donnell’s primary residence, Scottish servitors and undertakers and in addition to its lands and fisheries. deserving Irish. Scottish settlement Captain Paul Gore received substantial centred on the baronies of Portlough holdings at Magherabeg and St. John’s and Boylagh, the English acquired Point. Archbishop Miler McGrath, the Lifford while the Irish got most of the notorious Archbishop of Cashel, marginal lands of Doe, and received the lands of Termonmagrath Kilmacrennan. and St Patrick’s Purgatory. He later moved to Donegal where he erected a building at Templecrone, which still stands.

22 Trinity College Dublin received a large establishment of fisheries, mills, cloth land grant in the Barony of Tirhugh. mills and water-mills would provide an King James also allotted two hundred important precedent for the future acres for the foundation of the industrial development of the county. Royal School in Raphoe, which still Manor houses, bawns, English-style caters to the educational needs of the houses, bridges and highways provided community. Finally, Sir Arthur Chichester, major visual, architectural and structural one of the major beneficiaries of the changes to the landscape. Furthermore, whole Plantation settlement, received Donegal became integrated into the most of the Barony of Inishowen. All of military, political, legislative and legal these grants were dependent on the framework of King James’ centralised establishment of towns as centres of Irish kingdom. The religious Reformation security, trade commerce, education proved less successful, In spite of and ‘English civility. the influx of English and Scottish clergy, institutional weakness, In spite of the Plantation, Donegal hampered any attempts to effect remained a predominatly mixed wholesale religious conversion within agricutural economy. However the the county.

Thomas Raven c1611, Grocers-buildings © PRONI

23 THE AMERICAN CONTEXT

The onset of the Ulster Plantation also and commercial ventures. The decision coincided with the establishment of a to transfer funds from the Virginian small English colony on the Jamestown project to Ulster spelled disaster for the River, in North America, a precarious fledgling American colony. Many of toe-hold for the emergence of a British those early American planters had North American Empire to rival France cut their teeth in Ulster or learned harsh or Spain. Indeed, The Honourable Irish lessons from the collapse of the Munster Society resembled the East India or Plantation. Tudor and early Jacobean Virginia joint-stock companies that colonial literature, cartography, drawings, would oversee British colonial ventures prints and illustrations were full of in Asia and North America. London comparisons between ‘wild Irishman’ capital also bankrolled these imperial and ‘Brutish indians’.

Map of Americas, Image Courtesy of Ulster American Folk Park 24 Jamestown Image Courtesy of Ulster American Folk Park

25 CONSEQUENCES AND LEGACY The pivotal importance of the Ulster implications for the collapse of the Stuart Plantation to the shared histories monarchy in the 1640s. It also provided of Ireland, Britain and the British a successful template for would be difficult to overstate. conquest, plantation and imperialism in It effectively secured the English the Americas, the Caribbean and the and British conquest of Ireland and Indian sub-continent. Finally, the dramatically transformed Ireland’s Plantation’s historical, political, cultural, physical, demographic, socio-economic, environmental and visual effects have political, military, religious and cultural impacted on the two sister cities landscapes. (London and Derry) and neighbouring islands, and continue to do so until the In effect, the Ulster Plantation became present day. The servitors, soldiers and England’s, Britain’s and the City of settlers who flooded into Ulster, would London’s first successful attempt at make an indelible mark on the politics, plantation. Furthermore, the City of economics and material culture of London’s vigorous attempts to protect Ulster, Ireland, Britain and the ‘British’ that investment would have enormous world.

Derry – City Walls; “Roaring Meg” and Walker’s Monument

26 Raphoe - Diamond

Derry – Ferryquay Gate © The National Library

27 Learn more:

Books Curl, J.S., The Londonderry Plantation (Chichester, 1986). Gillespie, R., Seventeenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2006). Lacy, B., Siege City, The Story of Derry and Londonderry, (, 1990). Lyons, M.A. and O’Connor, T., Strangers to citizens. The Irish in Europe (Dublin, 2008). McCavitt, J., The Flight of the Earls (Dublin, 2002). McGettigan, D., Red Hugh O’Donnell and the Nine Years War (Dublin, 2005) McGurk, J., Sir Henry Docwra, 1564-1631: Derry’s second founder (Dublin, 2006). Mullin, T.H., Ulster’s Historic City: Derry/Londonderry, (Coleraine, 1986). Nolan, W., Ronayne, L. and Dunleavy, M. (ed), Donegal: History and Society (Dublin, 1995). Robinson, P., The Plantation of Ulster (Dublin, 1984). Scott, B.G., Brown, R.R., Leacock, A.G., Salter, A.J., The Great Guns Like Thunder (Guildhall Press, Derry, 2008). Silke, J.J., Kinsale (Dublin, 2000) Simms, J.G., The Siege of Derry, (Dublin, 1966).

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