Above : Portrait Of King Charles I, King At The Time

A Supreme Council of the Confederated Catholics of Ireland was elected, consisting of twenty-five members. Before this Council all matters of importance, civil or military, were to be brought. Under the Supreme Council were Provincial Councils, to which each county in the province should send representatives, and under these, County Councils.

This complicated machinery was eminently unsuited for war-time, when promptitude of action is ever of the greatest importance and a strong administration in the hands of few is required. So, during the war, we constantly find golden opportunities lost, defeats brought about and even victories rendered useless, by the delays, vacillations, jealousies and absurd formalities of the Supreme Council. Still worse were the arrangements for the army. There was to be a general for each Province, but no commander-in-chief. Obviously, all the troops should have been placed under Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill, who was by this time in Ireland, but he was merely made Commander of the Ulster army, while Preston was entrusted with that of Leinster. As O’Neill and Preston already disliked each other intensely, they were little likely to act in harmony.

Of harmony there was, in the Council itself or outside it, very little from the first. The difference between the standpoint and the aims of the old Irish and of the Anglo-Irish was too radical to be bridged over or forgotten. The general arrangements made during the first session were indications of the preponderance of the Anglo-Irish element in the Council. The Oath of Association included a solemn declaration of allegiance to King Charles ; his head appeared on the coins, and the Confederates’ Seal bore the motto ” Pro Deo, pro Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis ” (Ireland is united for God, King and Country). Many of the enactments show much enlightenment. Laws against members of any religious creed were repealed, and there was to be complete toleration for all. The episcopal lands were, however, to be restored to the Catholic hierarchy.