Irish Confederate Wars

The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. The Wars were the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms - a series of civil wars in Kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland (all ruled by Charles I of England) that also included the English Civil War and Scottish Civil War. The conflict in Ireland essentially pitted the native Irish Roman Catholics against the Protestant British settlers and their supporters in England and Scotland.

The Confederate?s war - 1642-48

See also Confederate Ireland

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King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland in 1642 to put down the rebellion, as did the Scottish Covenanters. These armies quickly drove the Irish out Ulster and from around Dublin. In self-defence, Irish Catholics formed their own government, the Catholic Confederation and raised their own armies. Almost all Irish Catholics joined the Confederation, with the odd exception like the Earl of Clanricarde, who stayed neutral. They had available to them only the militias and lord?s private levies, commanded by aristocratic amateurs like Lord Mountgarret. These were defeated in a series of encounters with British troops at Liscarroll, Kilrush and New Ross.

Related Topics:
Charles I - 1642 - Covenanters - Clanricarde - Militia - Mountgarret - Liscarroll - Kilrush - New Ross

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However, they were saved from defeat by the outbreak of the English Civil War. Most of the English troops in Ireland were recalled to fight on the Royalist side in the civil war. The Irish Confederates mopped up the remaining garrisons within their territory, leaving only Ulster, Dublin and Cork in British hands. The remaining British forces were disunited. The garrison of Cork, commanded by Inchiquinn, sided with the Parliament, as did the British settler army around Derry, whereas the troops on Ireland?s east coast, commanded by Earl of Ormonde, sided with the King. The Scottish Covenanter army pursued the agenda of the Edinburgh based Scottish government, allied with the Parliament up to 1647.

Related Topics:
English Civil War - Royalist - Inchiquinn - Ormonde - Covenanter - Edinburgh - 1647

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Stalemate

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This gave the Confederates breathing space to create regular, full time armies. They supplied these by creating an extensive system of taxation throughout the country, centred on their capital at Kilkenny. They also received modest subsidies of arms and money from France, Spain and the Papacy. The Confederate armies were commanded mainly by professional Irish soldiers such as Thomas Preston and Owen Roe O'Neill, who had served in the Spanish army in the Thirty Years War. In total, the Confederates managed to put around 60,000 men into the field in different armies in the course of the war. Arguably, the Confederates squandered the military opportunity presented to them by the English Civil War to re-conquer all of Ireland. They signed a truce with the Royalists in 1643 and spent the next three years in abortive negotiations with them. It was not until 1646 that they launched a determined offensive on the Protestant enclaves in Ireland. Between 1642 and 1646, the war in Ireland was dominated by raids and skirmishes. All sides tried to starve their enemies by burning the crops and supplies in their territory. This fighting caused great loss of life, particularly among the civilian population, but saw no significant battles. The Confederates failed to capture any significant territory, with the exception of Thomas Preston?s successful siege of Duncannon in 1645.

Related Topics:
Taxation - Kilkenny - France - Spain - Papacy - Thomas Preston - Owen Roe O'Neill - Thirty Years War - English Civil War - 1643 - 1646 - 1642 - Skirmish - Siege of Duncannon - 1645

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Refugees

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The opening years of the war saw widesread displacment of civilians - both sides practising what would now be called ethnic cleansing. In the initial phase of the rebellion in 1641, the vulnerable Protestant settler population fled to walled towns such as Dublin, Cork and Derry for protection. Others fled to England.

Related Topics:
Ethnic cleansing - Dublin - Cork - Derry

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When Ulster was occupied by Scottish Covenanter troops in 1642, they retaliated for the attacks on settlers by attacks on the Irish Catholic civilian population. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 30,000 people fled Ulster in 1642, to live in Confederate held territory. Many of them became camp followers of Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster Army, living in clan-based groupings called "creaghts" and driving their herds of cattle around with the army. Outside of Ulster, the treatment of civilians was less harsh, although the "no-mans-land" in between Confederate and British held territory in Leinster and Munster was repeatedly raided and burned, with the result that it too became de-populated.

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Victory and Defeat for the Confederates

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However, all this changed in 1646, with the end of the first English Civil War. The Confederates abandoned negotiations with the defeated Royalists and tried to re-take all of Ireland before the English Parliament could launch an invasion of the country. They were bolstered by the arrival in Ireland of the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought with him large amounts of money and arms. They managed to capture a Parliamentarian stronghold at Bunratty castle in Clare and to smash the Scottish Covenanter army at the battle of Benburb and also take Sligo town. Late in the year, the Ulster and Leinster Confederate armies under Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston (a total of 18,000 men) laid siege to Dublin, trying to take the city off Ormonde?s Royalist garrison. However Ormonde had devastated the land around the capital and the Confederates, unable to supply their troops, had to lift the siege. In hindsight, this was the high tide for the Irish Confederates. Ormonde, who said that he, "preferred English rebels to Irish ones", left Dublin and handed it over to a Parliamentarian army under Michael Jones.

Related Topics:
1646 - English Civil War - English Parliament - Papal Nuncio - Rinuccini - Parliamentarian - Bunratty castle - Clare - Battle of Benburb - Sligo - Owen Roe O'Neill - Thomas Preston - Dublin - Michael Jones

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In 1647, The Parliamentarian forces inflicted a shattering series of defeats on the Confederates, ultimately forcing them to join a Royalist coalition to try and hold off a Parliamentarian invasion. Firstly, in August 1647, Thomas Preston?s Leinster army was annihilated at the battle of Dungans Hill by Jones? Parliamentarian army when it tried to march on Dublin. This was the best trained and best equipped Confederate army and the loss of its manpower and equipment was a body blow to the Confederation. Secondly, the Parliamentarians in Cork devastated the Confederate?s territory in Munster, provoking famine among the civilian population. When the Irish Munster army brought them to battle at Knocknanauss, they too were crushed. Sligo also changed hands again -captured by the Ulster British settler's army. It is noticeable that the battles in this phase of the war were exceptionally bloody, with the losers having up to half of their men killed. This string of defeats forced the Confederates to come to a deal with the Royalists, and to put their troops under their command. Amid factional fighting within their ranks over this deal, the Confederates dissolved their association in 1648 and accepted Ormonde as the commander in chief of the Royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquinn, the Parliamentarian commander in Cork also defected to the Royalists.

Related Topics:
1647 - Battle of Dungans Hill - Cork - Munster - Knocknanauss - Sligo - Royalists - 1648 - Ormonde

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