Irish History Synopsis:The Great Lords of the North

I am just reading some of the Beata Aoda Ruaid published in irish
[middle] and english by the Irish Text Society.

The Great Lords of the North

When the two great lords of the north O Domnail and O Neil met with
their well ordered forces at Dun Bain in Munster of the Carberries
[Bandain i Cairpreacaib]and procceded down to Kinsale to assist the
beseiged Don Juan Aguila of Spain, they held a conference among
themselves and their chiefs as how best to proceed.

O Neil advised that an attack would not be wise because ofthe English
great strength of numbers but that they should be kept under siege,
which they already were in their fort until theyshould die of
hunger,or surrender


O Domnail oppositionally felt that the English should be attacked
forthwith as it brought shame to the Irish honor to let the Spanish
king Phillip had sent be distroyed by the English while the Irish
forces did nothing to relieve them.

This plan carried the day with the chiefs present in the two armys
and was to be implimented.
However the two lords O Neill and O Domnaill had between them a code
of chivalry that neither of them should be put before the other into
the forefront of battle.

This created a tension among the troops as well as themselves and it
was agreed that they would go shoulder to shoulder into the fight as
one rather than one army proceeding the other.

This plan was cumbersome and could not give the pathfinders and
guides a clear direction of the road they were on. Hence during their
night march intended to arrive at the English encapment in early morn
for best suprise attach was foiled the army becoming separated and
lost during the march. It was unable therefore to arrive at the
English stronghold until mid morning in broad daylight loosings its
cover.
The ONeill flank found itself face to face with well oiled shot and
was turned into the ODonnell army next it with the English horse in
quick pursuit. This creatd a melee and a rout of the Irish army into
a retreat.
It is said also that the lord Deputy[mountjoy] has intelligence of
the move to attack from Irish persons in the Irish camp .

This history transcibed from older MS by OCleary of the Fransiscan
monastary and ollam to the cenel conail includes a fine peice of
writing in year ten 1601 which i transcibe here for your thought:

188. Yet though there fell in that defeat at Kinsale so few of the
Irish that they would not miss them after a while, and indeed did not
miss even then, yet there was not lost in any defeat in recent times
in Ireland so much as was lost there. There was lost there to begin
with the one island which was most productive and fruitful, most
temerate in heat and cold in the greater part of Europe,in which
there was much honey and wheat, with many fish-abounding, rivers,
waterfalls and estuaries, in whichwer calm, profitable harbours, as
the first man of the race of Gaedil Glas, son of Niul, who came to
Ireland gave this testimony, ie:Ith, son of Breaogan, in the presence
of the last kings who were of the Tuatha De Danann over Eire. There
were lost there all who escaped of the noble freeborn sons of Mil,
valiant, impetious chiefs, lords of territories and tribes,
chieftains of districts and cantreds; for it is full certain that
there never will be in Erin at any time together people better or
more famous than the nobles who were there, and who died afterwards
in other countries one after another, after being robbed of their
patramony and their noble land which they left to their enemies in
that defeat.there were lost besides nobility and honor, generosity
and great deeds, hospitality and kindliness, courtesy and noble
birth, culture and activity, streangth and courage, valour and
steadfastness, the authority and sovereignty of the Gaels of Ireland
to the end of time.'

Odonnell after this defeat tells his men to go home with their prey
to their family and their lands that he cannot return to Donegal but
will go to Spain. He was enraged at the loss and in so much sorry of
it that his people though he might kill himself.He said he would
rather die than stand with those Irish who had been routed meaning
Oneill and his forces.
The ms lists the defeat at kinsale as Jan 3 1602 Not Christmas eve.
The solders kept Christmas and the nativity in their camp before they
marched to the attack of the English stronghold.
He took ship at Castlehaven with his retainers and Captain Reamon de
Burc mac Sean na Seamar and Captain Aod Moss mac Roibeard. on Jan 6
1602
He landed safely at Coronna Spain from whence his ancestors had come
to Ireland.When he saw King Phillip the king promised him aid and
asked him to wait at Coronna. ODonnell waited ten months there and
than went out to reseak his petition. When he arrived at a town called
Simancas two miles from the kings palace he was taken ill with a
desease. At the end of 16 days he died of this desease on September 10
1602.

The King of Spain gave him a state funeral and buried him in the
chapel house of the monastary of St Francis. He was 30 years old.

'194. Pitiful indeed, was the state of the Gaels of Ireland after the
death of the true prince, for they changed their characteristics and
dispositionss. they gave up bravery for cowardice, courage for
weakness, pride for servility. Their hatred, valor, prowess, heroism,
triumph, and military glory vanished after his death. they abandoned
all hope of relief from any one, so that most of them fled thereafter
to the mercy of foes and enemies, those who were noblest of them,
under the guise of peace and friendship. And some of them were
dispersed and scattered not only throughout Ireland but all over
Europe in groups and bands, poor and miserable, and others as
soldiers of fortune in foreign lands for pay and hire, so that many
of them were killed and others died, and the graves they are buried
in are unknown. But, indeed, it would be tedious to recount or relate
the great woes which were sown and propagated in Ireland as the
result of the death of Aodh O Domnaill.'


Judi Donnelly
Copyright August 1 2007







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