Irish History Guide - Early History to Present Day Ireland
Above : Picture Of Ormond
The departure of Ormond, if it did not improve, certainly simplified the state of parties in Ireland. The Royalists for the time disappear, and there remain only the Confederates ; still, however, divided into the two sections of the Anglo-Irish and the Old Irish, and the Parliamentarians. The ascendancy of the Nuncio’s party in the Supreme Council did not long endure.
Above : Castle Of Bunratty, Storage Of Arms & Ammunitions
Now, when the peace had been concluded, it was thought that some military enterprise should be attempted againsl the Parliamentarians, and especially against Munroe, who had madfl preparations to march southward and invade Leinster. He hoped to effect a junction at Glasslough (Co. Monaghan) with his brother George’s forces, and subsequently with those of Sir Robert Stewart. This junction O’Neill resolved to prevent. He marched his troops from Cavan, pitched his tents at Benburb on the Blackwater, and there awaited the enemy. Munroe hurried south from Armagh, and early in the morning of June 5th (1646), the two armies were face to face on the same side of the river. O’Neill had selected his position with care.
Above : Belfast Castle
Meanwhile the negotiations were being carried on between Ormond and the Confederates. The former had been directed by the King to agree to a cessation of hostilities for a year, during which arrangements for a permanent peace might be made. The old Irish, like the Parliamentarians, though, of course, for widely different reasons, disapproved of the proposed cessation, and indeed held that an attempt to treat with any English party at this juncture was a mistake, ff they continued to press their conquests, they would be in a position to force good terms from whichever side should be victorious in England ; whereas the cessation would give their enemies time to sow dissensions amongst them; moreover, the loss of 10,000 men whom they were to send to the King’s aid would seriously diminish their military power, and consequently their chances of a successful resistance, should the negotiations end unsatisfactorily, or the terms granted them not be observed. The Anglo-Irish party, however, were the stronger in the Supreme Council and also apparently in the General Assembly.