Above : Monument Statue For Oliver Cromwell

This was Cromwell’s last military action in the war. On May 28th he sailed from Youghal, and at Bristol was enthusiastically received by the crowds, who had already learned how he had crushed and slaughtered the Irish Papist rebels. In the country he had left his deeds were naturally regarded differently ; but they were longer remembered. To the English ploughman or artizan, the great Purtian General is now no more than a name, if indeed that; while still, in our own day, the Irish peasant can utter no deeper imprecation than to invoke ” the curse of Cromwell ” on his adversary.

For over two years more the war in Ireland dragged on. After Eoghan Ruadh’s death, the Ulster army had chosen Heber Mac Mahon, Bishop of Clogher, to succeed him in the command. Mac Mahon, though courageous and patriotic, was destitute of that prudence which was peculiarly necessary for a leader to whom was confided the last considerable army that the Irish could put in the field.

The other commanders urged him to avoid a pitched battle with Coote and Venables, the Parliamentary generals ; ” Delay is often braver than wild courage,” said Henry Ruadh O’Neill. But Mac Mahon would not listen, and he ordered an attack. The Ulster army suffered a complete defeat next day (June 2ist, 1650) at Scariffhollis, near Letterkenny (Co. Donegal). About 3,000 men were slain. After the battle, Bishop Mac Mahon and Henry O’Neill, who had been captured, were put to death.

After Cromwell’s departure, Major General Ireton had taken chief command of the Parliamentary forces in Ireland. Waterford was surrendered, on conditions, after a siege of a couple of weeks, and Limerick, Athlone, and Galway were now the only places of importance remaining in Royalist or Irish hands. Ireton laid siege to Limerick, where Hugh Dubh O’Neill was in command (June 1650). He did not make very rapid progress, however, and was obliged to retire into winter quarters without having achieved much. Meanwhile Lord Dillon surrendered Athlone.

In May (1651), the siege of Limerick was renewed with vigour. All through the summer it continued, but at last the gallant defenders felt that no more could be done. Negotiations were opened, and on October 27th (1651), articles were signed, giving quarter to all soldiers and civilians, with certain named exceptions Hugh Dubh O’Neill was one of those specially excluded from mercy, but some of the Parliamentarian officers seem to have admired his gallantry, and his life was spared.

He retired to Spain, and was still living at the time of Charles IPs Restoration (1660). Within a fortnight of the fall of Limerick, Ireton died there of the plague, and Lieutenant-General Ludlow succeeded to his office of Commander of the Forces.
Galway, where Preston was in command, had been besieged since July 1651, but it did not surrender till April 1652, and then on terms very similar to those granted to Limerick. Preston had, previous to this, fled to France.

In May a peace was made at Kilkenny between Commissioners of the Parliament and the Earl of Westmeath, Commander of the Royalist forces in Leinster. This may be considered as the end of the war, though a few remote places held out even into the early months of the year 1653.