Hugh O’Neill comes into the Field : The Battle of Yellow Ford
In May (1595) Hugh O’Neill himself came into the field, his brother Art having previously captured Portmore. He laid siege to Monaghan, but Bagenal marched to its relief, and he was forced to withdraw. The Deputy Russell, with Sir John Norris, invaded North Ulster, and pressed on to Armagh, O’Neill retreating before them. The army then turned south, and the Deputy went back to Dublin, leaving Norris in command. O’Neill defeated him at Clontibret, on the river Erne, near Monaghan. The English were forced to retreat, and Monaghan soon after surrendered. The Irish victory was followed by a great extension of the revolt. Almost the whole of the Connacht chiefs now threw in their lot with the National party.In the winter hostilities grew less active. The English authorities proposed negotiations, and the Irish agreed. Probably there was little sincerity on either side. In January 1596, O’Neill and O’Donnell, with some of their allies, met the English Commissioners in a field near Dundalk. They demanded complete religious liberty ; that no sheriff or other English official should come into Tir Owen or Tirconnell,orinto the lands of any of the chiefs who had joined them ; and that no garrisons should be planted in Ulster, except at Carrickfergus and Newry. These terms were refused ; the demand for religious freedom being specially objected to as most insolent.
The negotiations dragged on month after month, each side meanwhile continuing its preparations. The Deputy was increasing his army, and seeing to its equipment and drill; the chiefs were extending their alliances and trying to hasten the coming of the foreign aid.
In 1597 a new Deputy, Lord Borough, was appointed. In Connacht the cruel and treacherous Bingham was succeeded as President by Sir Conyers Clifford, whose mild and conciliatory rule won over many who had previously sided with the Irish chiefs.
In August 1597, Borough prepared for a great campaign against the Ulster rebels. They were to be assailed from three directions.surrendered. The Irish suffered the garrison to depart in safety, with only the loss of their arms and ammunition. When the news of Yellow Ford reached Elizabeth, her wrath was unbounded, and she vented it by pouring a flood of blame and reproach on the Irish officials, collectively and individually, ascribing this and all previous disasters to their mismanagement.
It had always been the case in Ireland that any considerable success gained by either party in any internal war or revolt was immediately followed by a great accession to the number of adherents to the side of the victors. This happened in the present instance. In Munster there was an almost general revolt, not only of the Celtic chiefs and landowners, but also of the Anglo-Irish. The Geraldines, younger branches of the Desmond family; the Burkes, the Roches and some of the Butlers, joined O’Neill. The Planters found scant mercy. Their lands were.raided; their houses burnt; they themselves were fortunate if they escaped with their lives. In Gonnacht, O’Donnell returned from his raiding of Clanrickard’s country with a great spoil of cattle.
Now, in the three provinces of Ulster, Munster and Connacht, there remained to the English only the larger cities, and a few garrisons here and there. The rest of the country was under the overlordship of one or other of the two Irish leaders, while the internal administration of each district remained, as before, in the hands of its local chief. Timid and disheartened, the English scarcely ventured beyond the walls of their fortified towns and castles.
