108 . .HISTORY OF LIMERICK. HISTORY OF L~~UEILICU. 109 it, the English were encamped when they stormed the fort. This fleet was the news reached Adare, Achin, the captain of the town,' assembled the induced to come to Ireland to assist the Geraldines, who, it was known soldiers of Kilmalloch, and set out at the head of a sanguinary body of troops, abroad, had been reduced to great extremities for their devotion to Ireland, and slew every man, woman and child he met outside Ballycalhane Castle, and their defence of the Catholic faith and of Catholic interests. The Earl (near Kildimo) which belonged to Purcell, who had assisted the crown from of Ormond mustered an army to oppose the expedition, and did not halt the commencement of the war between the English and the Geraldines to that until they arrived in Kerry ; after a good deal of parleying and diversation, time. On the following day David's people were hanged on the nearest trees ; the Italian Captains, Stephen San Josepho, Hercules Pisano, and the Duke and the heroic soldier himself was sent to Limerick, where he was immediately of Biscay, "came to the Lord Justice as if they would be at peace with put to death. Nicholas, the agent or treasurer of the Geraldines, was slain him;" but the people of the Lord Justice went over to the island, and by the soldiers at Adare in this year, and 'Furlough O'Brien, uncle of the Earl proceeded to kill and destroy the invaderg, so that even of the seven hundred of Thomond, who, after being a year in prison, was hanged in Galway, his Italians not, one escaped, but all were slaughtered as they cried out, miseri- execution being followed two days after by that of William, son of the Earl cordia, misericordia.' TEe Lord Justice also seized upon much gold, wealth, of Clanrickarde, whose sons had rebelled against the authority of the crown. and other things which the Italians had with them ; he destroyed the for- tifications on the island, in order that it should not be a supporting rock or a strong retreat for insurgents any longer ; and having effected all this in the month of November, he returned to Limerick, and thence to Fingal. CHAPTER XVIII. With respect to the Italian captains, there is but one opinion on the part of Camdenj2 Muratori, and OYDaly,and that is, that the principal man among FATE OF THE EARL OF DESJPOND. them, San Josepho, was either a downright imbecile, or an accomplished trait0r.j Donough and Mahon O'Brien continued to worry and lay waste IN this year2 the two sons of MacMaudce of Kcrry made their escape the country from Burren to Limerick ; and John, the son of the Earl of from the King's court in Limerick, the Council having resolved to put them Desmond, was, at this time, a roving plunderer ; bnt though in so miserable to death. They soon found themselves supported by hundreds of kerne, a plight, he commanded a body of one hundred followers, with whom he did and they spent the remainder of the year in acts of pillage and insurrection. execution in Upper Ormond and Eliogarty, retreating to the woods about In the wiilter of this year Dr. Saundcrs, the Pope's legate, died in a miserable Mountrath, where he was joined by the sons of MacGillapatrick, the son of hovel in the moods of Claenglass, worn out by cold, hunger, and fatigue. O'Carroll, and a great many others, who harassed the country in the neigh- The government had offered to pardon Dcsmond if he would give up this bourhood of the Slieve-Bloom mountains, being joined by all the men of eminent ecclesiastic to them, but this he steadily refused. His companion Offally and Leix who were able to bear arms.4 in misfortune, the Uishop of Killaloe, who attcnded him in his last moment, The blow struck at the power of the Desmonds, and the cause in which escaped to Spain and died in Lisbon, AD. 1617. It was to the fastnesses the Catholics of Ireland had their hearts, was felt so much, that 'disappoint- of Cacnglass, which is situate in the south of the county of Limerick, and ment and sorrow were universal. Sir George Bourchier was selected Governor to the adjacent woods of Kilmore, that John Desmond, who still protracted of Munster before the departure of Sir William Yelham, and was in the city this wretched struggle, was ic the habit of carrying his spoil. In this year of Limerick acting in his official capacity, during the events we have been IIugh Lacy, Bishop of Iimeriek, died in gaol. He had been deprived by describing. In 1581 the Earl of Desmond, notwithstanding his reverse, made Queen Elizabeth. many successful incursions. Upon one occasion, however, a bold and merciless In l582= died Teifie O'Brien [founder of the Ballycorick family) "a hero body of "the soldiers of Adare," having been divided into two parties, went in prowess." He havd been for' some time ~anist"of ~homona; but was forth, the one by water, the other by land, to traverse Kerry, and the lands expelled together with his brother by Donnell. He afterwards went to Spain lying along by the banks of ,the Maigue, to seek for fighting or booty. The md Prance, and thence to England, where he obtained his pardon and his two parties having been met together in the neighbourhood of Ballycal- entire share of the territory, except the tanistry alone. He was interred in ham, by young David, ancestor of all the families of the Purcells, the monastery of Ennis. Donogh 00'rien (son of Norrogh), who had according to Mac Firbis's pedigree, and his forces, charged them, so joined the rebellious De Burgh the year before, having repented, returned that he left them but a heap of bloody trucks and headless carcases. When back under protection ;' but the Queen's officers detected a flaw in the pro- tection, and hanged him in the gateway of Limerick ; he was buried in the monastery of Ennis. His castles and lands of Lemenagh, Dromoland, Bally- 1 Ware's Annals. 2 Life of Queen Elizabeth. connelly, and other places, descended to his son Connor and his heirs, 8 O'Daly, who is a competent authority, expresses his belief that he was a traitor. 4 The manner in which John lived on this mountain was worthy of a true guerrilla; he slept amongd. whom is the present Lord Inchiquin, who established his right to but upon couches of stone or earth ; he drank hut from the pure cold streams, and that with his that. title in virtue of his descent from this Donagh, the founder of the hands or shoes; .$is cooking apparatus were the long twigs of the forest, with which he used to dress the meat he'carried away from his enemies. Had John been able to join the Italians and family of Dromoland. There was no forfeiture, because Donagh fell a victim Spaniards, as he intended, and in which intention he was seconded by James Eustace, Viscount to martial law, which recognises no forfeiture~.~ Baltinglass, who had renounced the Protestant creed, and became a Catholic, by the Kavanaghs, Kiisellagles, Bymes, and Tooles, (Annuls of the Four Jfashs) he would have prevented the i Ware's Annals, and Annals of Four Masters. 1 Bnnals of the Four Masters. slaughter which cast a stigma on the Lord Justice and Ormond, and enabled the Italians and 3 Annals of the Four Masters. 4 Annals of the Four Masters. Spaniards to keep their ground firm in Smerewick, and march into the interior. 6 O'Donogbue's History of the O'Briens. Appendix. EIISTOkY OF LIMERICK. 111 110 , . AISTORl' OF LIMERICK. The annals of the Pour Masters are almost equally graphic in their l'he attachment of the Irish peasantry to the Geraldines was not less description of the ravages caused by these wars, when "it was commonly remarkable than that of the Scotch to the Stewarts. Notwithstanding the said that the lowing of a cow or the voice of the ploughman could scarcely great rewards offered for the capture of their leaders, no one was found so be heard from Duncaoin, (now Dunqueen, the most western part of Kerry) base as to betray them, and yet the gallant John of Desmond appears to to Cashel in Munster." have fallen a victim to the treachery of one of his followers, if we are to Further pe~secutionsand murders of Priests and religious were now per- believe O'Daly, Hooker and Cox. The story is thus told in the Annals of petrated. Andrew Stn'ch, a Priest, a native of Limerick, who studied in the Four Masters :--John set out accompanied by four horsemen to the woods Paris, laboured greatly in the mission of Ireland, at length was taken and of Eatherlack,' to hold a conference with Barry More, with whom he had en- confined in Dublin, where he died with the hardships.' tered into a plundering confederacy. He proceeded southwards across the river In 1582 Donough Hinrechan, Philip O'Fen, and Maurice O'Scallan, all Avonmore in the middle of a dark and misty night, and happened to be met Franciscms, were stabbed at the altar in the Convent of Lidactin, county face to face by Capbin Sicatzy [the Irish for Zouch], with his forces, though Kerry.3 neither of them was in search of the other.3 John was mortally wounded The Earl of Desmond who was excluded from the amnesty which was now on the spot, and had not advanced the space of a mile beyond that place granted to the insurgents, occasionally gave proofs of considerable energy.