This Week's Great Day.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LII, Issue 32, 21 April 1931, Page 3

This Week's Great Day.

O \JtfetoM Empire*

Mmoiabte Events in the of the

APRIL 20.—THE SIEGE OF LONDONDERRY

Two hundred and forty-two years ago, on the 20th April, 1689, the army of James 11. closed in around the city of Londonderry in the north of Ireland, and then commenced the actual siege of the principal stronghold of the Irish Protestants, which lasted until the following 30th July. As far back as the 7th December, 1688, when the Jacobite garrison had been withdrawn from the city, the Londonderry apprentices had practically placed the city in a state of siege by closing the gates and defying the adherents of James to enter. James landed in Ireland on the 12th March, 1689, and when he advanced with his troops northward only Londonderry and Enniskillen held out against him. Robert Lundy, the military governor of Londonderry, who declared that the city was absolutely untenable, fled from it when his advice to capitulate was spurned by the citizens, and George Walker, the militant rector of Donaghmore, was chosen as his successor. The city was badly provisioned, and famine soon added to the hardships and perils of the besieged citizens, who, inspired by Walker's great courage and resource, determined that j they would starve to death rather than surrender, and calmly awaited the arrival of a relief force from England. After a time James retired to Dublin, and left the conduct of the siege in the hands of his French general, Rosen, whose operations were marked by ruthless barbarity. His troopers scoured the surrounding country and drove the defenceless inhabitants under the walls of the besieged city, in the hope that the sight of several thousands of their fellowcountrymen perishing of starvation under their eyes would induce the gallant garrison to surrender, but the latter retorted by erecting a gallows in view of the besiegers, and threat-

(Copyrighted).

ening to hang thereon the prisoners they had taken, with the result that the villagers were finally permitted to return to their plundered homes. In the middle of June an English frigate with a couple Of transports in convoy arrived in Lough Foyle, within sight of Londonderry, having on board a supply of provisions and four regiments of troops, but for a period of six weeks this much needed relief was prevented from being landed by the vigilance of the enemy and the heavy boom which had been placed across the river. Finally, on the 30th July, when the garrison had been reduced to the last extremity, the ships were able to force their way through the obstacle, and the long siege was at an end. During the siege nearly half the garrison had perished, and their provisions had long since been consumed, so that the gallant defenders had been compelled to feed on cats and dogs, and even rats and mice, while they had prepared a kind of bread from a mixture of tallow and sawdust. Rosen despaired of ever capturing the city after it had received a new lease of life by its re-victualling and re-inforcement, and he promptly withdrew his army, which had sustained heavy losses in the daring sallies which had been directed by |Valker from time to time. The defence of Londonderry against overwhelming odds forms a memorable chapter in the annals of the civil war in Ireland, and the anniversary of its relief is still observed by the citizens. Walker, whose eloquent sermons in the cathedral at Londonderry did much to strengthen the resistance of the garrison, lost his life at the Battle of the Boyne on the 12th July, 1690, being shot dead while going to the assistance of the wounded General Schomberg during the fording of the j river.