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Siege and Capture of Droghed

In March, 1649, Oliver Cromwell was appointed by the English Parliament Commander-General for Ireland, and in July he left London in State to take up his office. He landed in Ireland in August, and marched at once to Dublin. He desired to put down as quickly as possible all resistance, and to proceed with the scheme of Confiscation and Plantation which tho Parliament had already outlined. He had no scruple as to methods, no pity or sympathy for the Irish people.

His forces amounted to over 20,000 tried and well-equipped troops, and the artillery was the best and heaviest then in use.
The enemy who were to oppose him. were made up of the parties who had fought in Ireland for the past eight years : Ormondists, Old Irish, Anglo-Irish, and lastly Scotch Presbyterians, a section of whom had been so horrified at the trial and execution of Charles I that they had gone over to the Royalists.

 All these were disorganised, disheartened, suspicious of each other, weary of conflict and intrigues. Ormond, the Royalist General, had garrisoned most of the larger towns which still held for the King’s cause, and against one of the strongest of them, Drogheda, Cromwell now directed his efforts.  

The Spaniards Retreat and The Siege and Capture of Dunboy Castle

D’Aquila did not justify the hopes which the Irish had entertained of his protracted resistance. He was sick of thcountry and the people, and desired nothing but to see the last of both. The disasters of the campaign he attributed to the treachery and cowardice of the Irish. Almost immediately he began negotiations with Mountjoy, who, eager ” to see his heels towards Ireland,” treated him with the utmost consideration and politeness. The conditions were soon arranged. D’Aquila handed over to the Deputy not only the town of Kinsale, but also the various castles which had been entrusted to his care by the chiefs, their owners. In February he and his men set sail, taking with them their arms, supplies and money

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For more than a year the war dragged on, but, unless speedy succours came from abroad to the Irish, its end was a foregone conclusion. O’Sullivan Beare, indignant at the treachery of D’Aquila in delivering over to the English his ancestral castle of Dunboy, succeeded in recovering it by a stratagem, and put into it a small garrison of Irish troops. In June, Carew, with a force of over 3,000, laid siege to Dunboy. The little garrison resisted bravely, but after ten days the castle, battered by red-hot shots from the English cannon, was crumbling to pieces around them. Still they fought on, retreating first to the great hall, which had remained intact, and, when driven from there, to the basement, where they made their last stand.

The Siege of Limerick (1690)

Siege Of Limerick

Above: The Siege of Limerick

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