Kieran’s Our City, Our Town,

Cork Independent,  31 March 2016

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 54)

Cromwell Comes to Cork

On 30 January 1649, the parliament in England arranged the beheading of Charles I and plans were made to restore the throne to parliament itself through the proclamation of a new king, Charles II (continued from last week). To suppress any royalist support in Ireland, a new army was established under the leadership of the new Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell landed in Drogheda on 15 August 1649 and swiftly took the town for the new parliament. The town’s defenders did not surrender and the town was besieged accordingly. Stories relate that three thousand combatants lay dead on the streets of Drogheda, following Cromwell’s attack.
Cromwell proceeded to Ross and sent out small contingents into the Munster countryside to take note of royalist military activities. Cromwell’s next major town for taking was that of Wexford which comprised a large amount of Royalist Protestant inhabitants. Soon after Waterford, Duncannon, Clonmel, Limerick, Galway and Kilkenny fell. The New Model Army met its only serious opposition at the Siege of Clonmel, where its attacks on the town walls were repelled at a cost of up to 2,000 men. The town nevertheless eventually surrendered.

    In Cork, the principal plotter and commander of Cromwell’s forces in Munster was Richard Townsend (later landowner of the Castletownsend region in West Cork). On the night of 16 October 1649, Townsend put plans into operation to take Elizabeth Fort off Barrack Street in Cork for Parliament. The choice of this night was due to the fact that the Royalist captain, Muschamp was away and the fort with its thirty-five men on duty that night was easily secured for parliament. Soldiers are also recorded as marching on the main guard at North Gate Drawbridge and forcing their way into the town. Seven days after the takeover of the walled town, a letter was sent to Cromwell informing him of the position. Shortly after, the anti-parliament Protestant army in Munster surrendered and an agreement was drawn up, which was signed by each member of the army itself submitting themselves to the parliament in England and the Lord Lieutenant, Cromwell.

   In the case of events that happened in Cork City in 1639, two urban folklore stories are prominent in the old antiquarian books. Tuckey’s Cork Rembrancer (1837) records that on the night of 16 October 1649 the taking of the town came as a surprise to the governor, Sir Robert Starling who did envisage losing his authority in the walled town of Cork. A second story told is recounted in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in 1905 by Mr Moore. It that tells of the escape of the wife of an officer named Lady Fanshawe from Red Abbey, the site of an old Augustinian Abbey, the tower of which still stands off Douglas Street. Her husband had previously been in the service of Charles I and she is said to have detailed an account to her son. A few days after her escape to Kinsale, her husband was given orders from the self-appointed new King in England, the son of Charles I, Charles II to go to Spain. To get to the continent, they had to travel to Galway in order to take a ship. It is detailed that they sailed from Galway in early February in a ship named Amsterdam bound for Malaga, Spain at which they are said to have arrived at in early March.

In the case of the Royalist supporters inhabiting the walled town, suburbs and liberties of Cork apart from signing an agreement to succumb to Cromwell, a further agreement was offered to them if they aided Cromwell in his military attacks on other Royalist garrisons throughout Munster. Throughout Cork County, there are many other stories relating to Cromwell and the devastation and his model army. The majority involve arson or the burning down of minor and major castles owned by Irish Lords or Royalists and Catholic Abbeys.

   By December 1649, Cromwell had seized control most of both the eastern and southern coasts from Belfast to Cork except for garrisons at Duncannon and Waterford City itself. The harshness of the ensuing winter weather forced Cromwell to fall back to Youghal and set up his headquarters there for the remainder of the winter period. Both Waterford and Duncannon were eventually taken but after Cromwell had departed Ireland in 1650. Urban folklore abounds about how Cromwell spent Christmas in 1649. One story relates that by mid December, Cromwell visited the walled town of Cork and is reputed to have spent Christmas in the company of a Mr Coppinger who occupied a house on South Main Street. Contradicting this evidence is another story, which relates that Cromwell spent his Christmas in the Ballyvolane area, in a house now known as Ellis House or The College. Whether or which, Cromwell is said have used the immediate area of the walled town as a headquarters in order to visit nearby garrisons at Kinsale and Bandon, both walled towns. He is also said to have ordered the rebuilding of Elizabeth Fort, which was damaged when it was taken in the previous October for Parliament by Cromwellian soldiers.

To be continued…

Captions:

836a. Oliver Cromwell by artist Samuel Cooper c.1656 (National Portrait Gallery, London)
836b. Red Abbey, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  17 March 2016

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 53)

Cessations, Confederates and Crown Supporters

   During the Confederate wars of the 1640s, one leading crown supporter in Munster was the prominent military commander and fifth Lord Inchiquin, Murrough O’ Brien. He ruthlessly kept control of south-western Ireland until the Cessation of Arms was signed between the Confederates and the King’s representative, the Marquis of Ormond, in September 1643. Then Inchiquin’s concerns began over his future as lord in the province and he defected to the side of the anti-crown supporters or the anti-royalist side. The religious policies of Charles I, united with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, produced the antipathy and mistrust of reformed groups such as the Puritans and Calvinists, who perceived his views too Catholic.

    Inchiquin was civil and military governor of Munster and held command by royal and parliamentary commissions but was highly ambitious. After his father-in-law, Sir William St Ledger, who held the presidential office in Munster died, he thought that he would receive the title. During the Cessation of Arms, Inchiquin sent five Irish regiments to reinforce the King’s army in England in the expectation that he would be granted the presidency of Munster. However, the position was left vacant and Inchiquin only became the acting president for several months. When it came to the securing of the post of President of Munster in February 1644 in Oxford with Charles I, he failed to acquire it.

   Inchiquin also had a fear of losing his land. When in September 1643, a truce regarding the hostilities between the crown, Charles I and the Irish Confederates was drawn up, Inchiquin and his companions were not too pleased. During the war with the Irish Catholics, finance for the English crown’s armies in Ireland was achieved through contributions from several baronies and towns and also through the raiding of monies belonging to Irish Catholics. However during the cessation of hostilities, commanders like Inchiquin were not willing to take the full burden of the expenses. He worried that through lack of finance his army would have to be disbanded and that towns and garrisons would return to Irish possession. Subsequently Inchiquin defected to the side of Parliament or to the growing anti-crown or anti-royalist side. To parliament he argued that his defection was due to the undermining plans for the English crown by the Irish Catholics. He demonstrated this by expelling hundreds of Irish people from their homes in Cork, Kinsale and Youghal in July 1644.

    The civil war in England between anti-crown Protestants and Charles Is’ supporters escalated quickly. Inchiquin after his defection received his title of President of Munster and used his position to upset the King’s peace covenant, primarily conducted by the King’s Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, Ormond. Inchiquin introduced a new oath which would maintain and defend the Protestant religion. Inchiquin remained on the defensive against the Confederates.

  Twelve months after the expulsion of the Irish, Inchiquin realised that parliament had no intention of sending soldiers to Munster and were content with the peace treaty in place. He appealed on the grounds of political and religious reasons but his undermining of Parliamentary power was clear and culminated in several Munster Parliamentarians calling for him to be impeached before the Commons in England. However, these claims were dismissed due to the Commons’ own problems with the parliament and king.

   During the summer and autumn of 1647, Inchiquin decided to assert his authority in Munster by mounting a major military offensive against the Confederates. He stormed and captured Dungarvan, Cappoquin and other garrisons. In the post cessation of arms period, the Confederates sent Viscount Taaffe of Corran, Co. Sligo and Sir Alasdair MacDonald of Colonsay, Scotland into County Cork with 8,200 troops. Although heavily outnumbered, Inchiquin with his 5,200 troops inflicted a decisive defeat on the confederates at the battle of Knocknanuss four miles east of Kanturk in November 1647. Approximately 3,500 men were killed, making the battle the bloodiest of the Confederate and the extended English Civil War. Inchiquin won, was praised by parliament but afterwards, it was discovered that there were several allegations made against Inchiquin concerning the fact that he had enlisted royalist soldiers and gave high positions in his army to ill fit men. He denied the allegations, escaped impeachment again. He still requested more soldiers to come to Munster to suppress the Irish.

  Inchiquin’s fear of the Irish retaking the land nearly became reality after Knocknanuss when royalist forces secretly blocked forces and supplies to Munster. As a result, parliamentary commissioners were sent to Munster, what Inchiquin had demanded since his first day as President of Munster. Unfortunately, by the time the Commissioners, arrived in Munster, Inchiquin had amassed a small army with his own loyal officers to deal with his fear of the Irish confederates himself. The Parliamentary Commissioners were called back to England and Inchiquin was declared a traitor and all honours bestowed on him were taken away.

   On 30 January 1649, the parliament in England arranged the beheading of Charles I and plans were made to restore the throne to parliament itself through the proclamation of a new king, Charles II. To suppress any royalist support in Ireland, a new army was established under the leadership of the new Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell.

 To be continued…

 Captions: 

835a. Historical plaque marking the site of the Battle of Knocknanuss 1647 (source: Cork City Library)

835b. Historical plaque marking the site of the Battle of Knocknanuss 1647 (source: Cork City Library)