End of the War
This was Cromwell’s last military action in the war. On May 28th he sailed from Youghal, and at Bristol was enthusiastically received by the crowds, who had already learned how he had crushed and slaughtered the Irish Papist rebels. In the country he had left his deeds were naturally regarded differently ; but they were longer remembered. To the English ploughman or artizan, the great Purtian General is now no more than a name, if indeed that; while still, in our own day, the Irish peasant can utter no deeper imprecation than to invoke ” the curse of Cromwell ” on his adversary.
For over two years more the war in Ireland dragged on. After Eoghan Ruadh’s death, the Ulster army had chosen Heber Mac Mahon, Bishop of Clogher, to succeed him in the command. Mac Mahon, though courageous and patriotic, was destitute of that prudence which was peculiarly necessary for a leader to whom was confided the last considerable army that the Irish could put in the field.
The other commanders urged him to avoid a pitched battle with Coote and Venables, the Parliamentary generals ; ” Delay is often braver than wild courage,” said Henry Ruadh O’Neill. But Mac Mahon would not listen, and he ordered an attack. The Ulster army suffered a complete defeat next day (June 2ist, 1650) at Scariffhollis, near Letterkenny (Co. Donegal). About 3,000 men were slain. After the battle, Bishop Mac Mahon and Henry O’Neill, who had been captured, were put to death.
