Success of the Insurrection: Kilkenny Draws Up a Scheme of Government
Above : Picture Of Owen Roe O’Neill
The period of Irish History on which we are now entering is one extremely difficult to treat within narrow limits. It is, as has been well said by Carlyle, both confused and confusing. ” There ara Parties on the back of Parties, at war with the world and with each other.
There are Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom of religion. . . . There are old Irish Catholics, under the Pope’s nuncio . . . and Owen Roe O’Neill, demanding, not religious freedom alone, but what we now call ‘ Repeal of the Union.’ Then there are Ormond Royalists of the Episcopalian and mixed creeds, strong for King without Covenant; Ulster and other Presbyterians, strong for King and Covenant ; lastly, Michael Jones and the Commonwealth of England, who want neither King nor Covenant.” In order to convey a clear idea of the course of events, it will be necessary to confine ourselves to the relation only of those which exercised important influence and modified the situation as a whole.
The insurgents, by the summer of 1642, held almost the whole of Ireland, except a few of the largest towns. The only counties not in their hands were Dublin, Louth, Down, Antrim, part of Cork and Derry, and a very small portion of Meath. A message had been sent to Eoghan Ruadh to come over as soon as possible, and to bring with him money, supplies and arms. Meanwhile, however, it was necessary to organise the insurrection and to establish some sort of government in Ireland.
A meeting of the clergy and laity, to some extent representative, was held in Kilkenny in May, and there was drawn up the outline of the Constitution which governed the greater part of the country for some seven or eight stormy years. It was agreed that a general assembly, to which representatives from all counties and boroughs, as well as the Temporal and (Catholic) Spiritual Lords, should be summoned, should take place in October in the same city. What had been done should be submitted to this assembly for their approval or alteration.
