1588 was the Armada year. The King of Spain’s great fleet was foiled in its attack on England, and many of the vessels, ” flying from the wind and their enemies,” doubled round the north of Scotland, and went to pieces on the rocky coasts of western and northern Ireland. The majority of the crews were drowned ; while, of those who came alive to land, not a few found foes more cruel than the waves awaiting them.

The English authorities hanged almost all whom they could find. Though some few of the Irish chiefs showed little humanity towards the fugitives, they, for the most part, were true to their country’s traditions of hospitality. The common people, too, generally sheltered the Spaniards, till an opportunity offered of sending them home.