THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 15 May 1919, Page 7

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

XXlV.— ( Continued .) Meanwhile the Scoto-Irish army marched southward, defeating every attempt of the local English garrisons to obstruct its victorious progress. The lord justice, coming from Dublin 'with all the forces he could bring from the south, and Richard de Burgo, Anglo-Norman titular Earl of Ulster, hurrying from Athlone with a powerful contingent raised in the west, came up with the national army at Ardee, too late, however, to save that town, which the Irish had just captured and destroyed. This Earl Richard is known in Anglo-Irish history as “the Red Earl.” He was the most prominent character, and in every sense the greatestthe ablest and most powerful and influential—man of that century amongst the Anglo-Nor-man rulers or nobles. As a matter of fact, his influence and power over-topped and overshadowed that of the lord justice; and, singular to relate, the king’s letters and writs, coming to Ireland, were invariably, as a matter of form, addressed to him in the first instance, that is, his name came first, and that of the lord justice for the time being next. He was, in truth, king of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. He raised armies, levied war, made treaties, conferred titles, and bestowed lands, without the least reference to the formal royal deputythe lord justice in Dublinwhom he looked down upon with disdain. Accordingly, when these two magnates met on this occasion, the Red Earl contemptuously desired the lord justice to get him back to his castle of Dublin as quickly as he pleased, for that he himself, Earl Richard, as befitted his titled rank of Earl of Ulster, would take in hands the work of clearing the province of the Scottish-Irish army, and would guarantee to deliver Edward Bruce, living or dead, into the justice’s hands ere many days. Notwithstanding this haughty speech, the lord justice and his forces remained, and the combined army now confronted Bruce, outnumbering him hopelessly ; whereupon he commenced to retreat slowly, his object being to effect, either by military strategy or diplomacy, a separation of the enemy’s forces. This object was soon accomplished. When the Connachian king, Felim O’Connor, joined the Red Earl, and marched against Bruce, in his own principality his act was revolted against as parricidal treason. Ruari, son of Cathal Roe O’Conor, head of the Clanna-Murtough, unfurled the national flag, declared for the national cause, and soon struck for it boldly and decisively. Hurriedly despatching envoys to Bruce, tendering,adhesion, and requesting to be commissioned or recognised as Prince of Connacht in place of Felim, who had forfeited by fighting against his country at such a crisis, he meanwhile swept through all the west, tearing down the Norman rule and erecting in its stead the national authority, declaring the penalty of high treason against all who favored or sided with the Norman enemy or refused to aid the national cause. Felim heard of these, proceedings before Ruari’s envoys reached Bruce, and quickly saw that his only chance of, safetyand in truth the course most in consonance with his secret feelingswas, himself, to make overtures to Bruce, which he did; so that about the time Ruari’s envoys arrived, Felim’s offer’s were also before the Scoto-Irish commander. Valuable as were Ruari’s services in the west, the greater and more urgent consideration was to detach Felim from the Norman army, which thus might be fought, but which otherwise could not be withstood." Accordingly, Bruce came to terms with Felim, and answered to Ruari that he was in no way to molest the possessions of Felim, who was now on the right side, but to take all. he could« from the common enemy, the English. Felim, in pursuance of his agreement with Bruce, now withdrew from the English camp and faced homeward, whereupon Bruce and O’Neill, no longer afraid to encounter the enemy, though still superior to them in numbers, give battle

to the . lord' justice. A desperate engagement ensued at Connoyre> on .the :, banks of the river Bann, -near Ballymena. The great Norman army was defeated the haughty Earl Richard was obliged to seek personal safety in flight; his brother, William, with quite a number of other Norman knights and nobles, being taken prisoners by that same soldier-chief whom he had arrogantly undertaken to capture and present, dead or alive, within a few days, at Dublin Castle gate! The shattered forces of the lord justice re-* treated southward as best they could. The Red Earl fled into Connacht, where, for a year, he was fain to seek safety in comparative obscurity, shorn of all power, pomp, . and possessions. Of these, what he had not lost on the battle field at Connoyre, he found wrested from him by the Prince of Tyrconnell, who, by way of giving the Red Earl something to do near home, had burst down upon the Anglo-Norman possessions in the west, and levelled every castle that flew the red flag of England ! The Irish army now marched southward once more, capturing all the great towns and Norman castles on the way. At Loughsweedy, in Westmeath, Bruce and O’Neill went into winter quarters, and spent their Christmas “in the midst of the most considerable chiefs of Ulster, Meath, and Connacht.” Thus closed the first campaign in this, the first really national war undertaken against the English power in Ireland. “The termination of his first campaign on Irish soil,” says a historian, “might be considered highly favorable to Bruce. More than half the clans had risen, and others were certain to follow their example : the clergy were almost wholly with him, and his heroic brother had promised to lead an army to his aid in the ensuing spring.” In the early spring of the succeeding year (1316) he opened the next campaign by a march southwards. The Anglo-Norman armies made several ineffectual efforts to bar his progress. At Kells, in King’s Co. of the present day, Sir Roger Mortimer at the head of 15,000 men made the most determined stand. A eat battle ensued, the Irish utterly routing this the last army of any proportions now' opposed to them. Soon after this decisive victory, Bruce and O’Neill returned northwards in proud exaltation. Already it seemed that the liberation of Ireland was complete. Having arrived at Dundalk, the national army halted, and preparations were commenced for the great ceremonial that was to consummate and commemorate the national deliverance. At a solemn council of the native princes and chiefs, Edward Bruce was elected King of Ireland; Donald O’Neill, the heart and head of the entire movement, formally resigning by letters patent in favor of Bruce such rights as belonged to him as son of the last acknowledged native sovereign. After the election, the ceremonial of inauguration was carried out in the native Irish forms, with a pomp and splendor such as had not been witnessed since the reign of Brian the First. This imposing ceremony took place on the hill of Knocknemelan, within a mile of Dundalk ; and the formal election and inauguration being over, the king and the assembled princes and chiefs marched in procession into the town, where the solemn consecration took place in one of the churches. King Edward now established his court in the castle of Northburg, possessing and exercising all the prerogatives,- powers, and privileges of royalty, holding courts of justice, and enforcing such regulations as were necessary for the welfare and good order of the country. (To be continued.) _