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14
Ulster, Hugh O’Neill, whom Queen Elizabeth had made earl of Tyrone.
Anxious to secure support for English rule in Ulster, which was then the least
penetrated of all the four provinces of Ireland, she had helped him since childhood in
his disputes with other branches of the O’Neill’s of Ulster. He had even been brought
up for eight years in England as a boy and man – a young protégé of leading
Englishmen with excess to Elizabeth’s court. Loyalty to the queen, in one sense, was
in his blood. Yet also in his blood was a feeling of descent from those Ui Nialls who
had been High kings of Ireland for centuries before. His Ulster was still little different
from the territories they had ruled, and he wanted to keep it that way. Indeed, he
wanted to be free of her rule when he felt like it. This was not a formula for success
with someone like Queen Elizabeth.
Finally Tyrone’s Gaelic self got the better of his Elizabethan self. In alliance with
his powerful Ulster neighbour, Hugh O’Donnell, he resolved to make a last stand for
the independence of the Gaelic way of life. And though he had earlier fought for
Elizabeth in her armies, confronting the rebellious Old English of Munster, now, in
his native Ulster, he rose in arms against her.
It was on the southern borders of his Ulster kingdom, a few miles north of
Armagh, that in 1598 at a place known as the Yellow Ford he came closest to
success. Here Tyrone dramatically defeated an English army which had set out from
Armagh to try and relieve an isolated English fort on the river Blackwater. This
victory of his at the Yellow Ford (over an English commander, incidentally, who was
his own brother-in-law) was a major disaster for the new English government in
Ireland – ‘shaking it’, as a contemporary put it, ‘till it tottered’.
But Tyrone was fighting in his own interest for an Irish way of life. It is
anachronistic to regard him as fighting for ‘Ireland’ in a modern nationalistic sense.
Irish political nationalism was something that had to be synthesized later.
When, in September 1601, a great Spanish fleet set sail for Ireland to help Tyrone
and his ally O’Donnell, and anchored in the harbour of Kinsale, Tyrone and
O’Donnell were at the very other end of Ireland in their native Ulster. To meet the
threat, the latest British deputy, the Protestant Mountjoy, marched south at once to
besiege the Spaniards in Kinsale. And it was then that Tyrone and O’Donnell
marched south too, brilliantly evading English forces sent to intercept them. They in
turn besieged Mountjoy as he sat before Kinsale.
What can now be seen as the final battle for Gaelic Ireland took place there,
outside Kinsale, on Christmas Eve 1601? But when Tyrone’s forces attacked
Mountjoy routed them and they scattered north in disorder. And that, at last, was the
end of the old Gaelic Ireland.
Tyrone finally made his formal submission to the Crown and, to the fury of many
Englishmen who had been fighting him, obtained pardon, after kneeling humbly for a
long time before Mountjoy and then being taken to Dublin Castle. Over three
centuries later Dublin Castle was to be taken over by Irish troops in Irish uniforms
and a new Irish flag raised above it to replace the Union Jack. What is the real
connection between these two events separated by over 300 years? What thread, if
any, is there between Tyrone and those Irish Fenians who blew up Clerkenwell prison
in the 1860s; between Tyrone and the present IRA?
14 Ulster, Hugh O’Neill, whom Queen Elizabeth had made earl of Tyrone. Anxious to secure support for English rule in Ulster, which was then the least penetrated of all the four provinces of Ireland, she had helped him since childhood in his disputes with other branches of the O’Neill’s of Ulster. He had even been brought up for eight years in England as a boy and man – a young protégé of leading Englishmen with excess to Elizabeth’s court. Loyalty to the queen, in one sense, was in his blood. Yet also in his blood was a feeling of descent from those Ui Nialls who had been High kings of Ireland for centuries before. His Ulster was still little different from the territories they had ruled, and he wanted to keep it that way. Indeed, he wanted to be free of her rule when he felt like it. This was not a formula for success with someone like Queen Elizabeth. Finally Tyrone’s Gaelic self got the better of his Elizabethan self. In alliance with his powerful Ulster neighbour, Hugh O’Donnell, he resolved to make a last stand for the independence of the Gaelic way of life. And though he had earlier fought for Elizabeth in her armies, confronting the rebellious Old English of Munster, now, in his native Ulster, he rose in arms against her. It was on the southern borders of his Ulster kingdom, a few miles north of Armagh, that in 1598 at a place known as the Yellow Ford he came closest to success. Here Tyrone dramatically defeated an English army which had set out from Armagh to try and relieve an isolated English fort on the river Blackwater. This victory of his at the Yellow Ford (over an English commander, incidentally, who was his own brother-in-law) was a major disaster for the new English government in Ireland – ‘shaking it’, as a contemporary put it, ‘till it tottered’. But Tyrone was fighting in his own interest for an Irish way of life. It is anachronistic to regard him as fighting for ‘Ireland’ in a modern nationalistic sense. Irish political nationalism was something that had to be synthesized later. When, in September 1601, a great Spanish fleet set sail for Ireland to help Tyrone and his ally O’Donnell, and anchored in the harbour of Kinsale, Tyrone and O’Donnell were at the very other end of Ireland in their native Ulster. To meet the threat, the latest British deputy, the Protestant Mountjoy, marched south at once to besiege the Spaniards in Kinsale. And it was then that Tyrone and O’Donnell marched south too, brilliantly evading English forces sent to intercept them. They in turn besieged Mountjoy as he sat before Kinsale. What can now be seen as the final battle for Gaelic Ireland took place there, outside Kinsale, on Christmas Eve 1601? But when Tyrone’s forces attacked Mountjoy routed them and they scattered north in disorder. And that, at last, was the end of the old Gaelic Ireland. Tyrone finally made his formal submission to the Crown and, to the fury of many Englishmen who had been fighting him, obtained pardon, after kneeling humbly for a long time before Mountjoy and then being taken to Dublin Castle. Over three centuries later Dublin Castle was to be taken over by Irish troops in Irish uniforms and a new Irish flag raised above it to replace the Union Jack. What is the real connection between these two events separated by over 300 years? What thread, if any, is there between Tyrone and those Irish Fenians who blew up Clerkenwell prison in the 1860s; between Tyrone and the present IRA?