In short, while that portion of Ireland within the oblong or semi-oval line of the Irish posts was comparatively at peace as regarded the incursions of the enemy, and completely so with respect to the disposition of the inhabitants, the provinces occupied by the English were not merely subjected to the harassing inroads of Irish military parties from beyond the Shannon,1 but were vigorously infested with those he, "burnt Philip's Town, (the chief town in the King's County, . . .) though we had a garrison in it; for they came from a great adjacent bog during the night, and, having set the town on fire, RETREATED THITHER AGAIN!" (Imp. Hist. p. 148.) In the so-called "impartial" history of the English Parson, where every little instance of partisan fighting is daubed forth at full length, in which the English succeeded, or were reported or made out to have succeeded, it will be perceived, that the only important military circumstance connected with the attack on Philipstown, or O'Connor's destruction of the 120 dragoons, a force as numerous and better disciplined than his own, is most unfairly passed over; the mere statement of "though we had a garrison in it" being so placed in the sentence as to convey no idea of the whole truth of the matter to the mind of a reader. And, in this same "impartial" history, there is, moreover, not a single word said of the brave O'Connor's first 'bould action" in surprising and "doing the business" of the superior number of the "British Grenadiers!" The suppressio veri and suggestio falsi of Story with respect to those two little transactions, luckily rescued from concealment and misrepresentation by King James, will serve to show, better than whole pages of criticism, how little "justice to Ireland" there is to be found in the so-called "impartial" narrative of the Williamite Parson. In these two instances it may be well said, in every sense of the word, that "one Story is good till another story is told." But since the Parson was afterwards made a Dean, as Archbishop King subsequently became a Primate, chiefly on account of his archiepiscopal libel on Ireland already adverted to, (note 1, p. 195,) we may be sure that the Parson, like the Archbishop, was well aware of the value to be derived from adhering in his work to the purport of the Spanish saying, that "a lie, if it will last only half an hour, is worth telling!" "We retired further into the country," says Story, "and left them all the passes and forts upon the Shannon, by which means," he continues, "they are not to be kept in their own province [Connaught], as they might have been, but can both keep us out, and also come amongst us when they have a mind to it!" (Imp. Hist. p. 147.) It is needless to say that the Irish had "a mind to it," since, in aid of those "trips over the water," the territory nominally in possession of the English was overrun and ravaged as far as Kildare, Wicklow, and the counties adjacent to Dublin, by different light parties under various Rapparee leaders, such as Macabe, Grace, Higgins, Callaghan, Cavanagh, the "White Sergeant," and "galloping Hogan," who were called "robbers, thieves, and bogtrotters," by the English and their faction, for only levying contributions and waging a system of defensive and patriotic warfare, with the approbation of their legitimate sovereign, James II.! similar to the hardy Hibernian guerillas, the Rapparees-partially repulsed, indeed, but never entirely subdued-disappearing to-day, only to appear in greater force to-morrow-rapid in flight, but equally rapid in pursuit-and, in the sharp, active, and untiring spirit of their incessant hostilities against ... hostilities which Alfred entitled the Great, because successful! carried on with his Rapparees from the woods and bogs of Somersetshire against the Danes and the advocates of a Danish "connexion" and "glorious revolution!" 66 He sought," says the historian, speaking of Alfred, "the woods and deserts to conceal himself. . . where there was a peninsula surrounded by SWAMPS Fortified in his island against a surprise from the enemy, by entrenchments of earth and wood, he led the HARD and SAVAGE life reserved in every conquered country for such of the vanquished as are TOO PROUD FOR SLAVERY-that of a FREEBOOTER in the wooDS, MORASSES, and DEFILES! At the head of his friends, formed into bands, he plundered the DANES laden with SPOIL, and, if Danes were wanting, the Saxon who OBEYED the FOREIGNERS and saluted THEM as HIS masters!" (Thierry, vol. 1. p. 110-12.) most distinguished, however, of those brave Irish partisans who infested the Irish territory occupied by the enemy-one who, in the language of Milton, The -above the rest, In shape and gesture proudly eminent, was a gentleman of Tipperary, Anthony Carroll, surnamed Fada, or the Tall, who possessed an estate there, and by his influence among the Rapparees, could, according to Story, "upon any alarm bring together to the number of at least 2000!" This gentleman (who, unlike our heroes of the present day, required no Special Commissions or Insurrection Acts to protect him from his tenantry!) seized on, garrisoned, and held the Castle of Nenagh, taken from the English after their defeat at Limerick, and gave them "plenty to do" through the autumn and winter of 1690, and part of the spring and summer of 1691, during which he maintained himself in that strong hold, whence he made frequent excursions through the country till the 2d of August, 1691, when, on the collection in his neighbourhood of ALL the English forces, after the battle of Aughrim, for the second siege of Limerick, the gallant castellan of Nenagh evacuated that fortress, burned the town, and brought away the whole of his garrison of 500 men in safety, towards Limerick, in spite of the pursuit of a strong party of Ginckle's cavalry, under Brigadier Leveson and Major Wood. (Story, Cont. Hist. p. 61, 62, 69, 181 & 182. Harris, p. 297 & 334.) The present Major General Sir William Parker Carroll, of Tulla House, near Nenagh, so distinguished in the Spanish service during the Peninsular War, and now Military Governor of the Western District of Ireland, is, if I am not mistaken, one of the race of the brave Anthony Carroll Fada. the invader, best typified by the "vengeful hornet" of the poet, that "Repulsed in vain, and thirsty still of gore, (Bold son of air and heat!) on angry wings, With such persevering bravery, though deserted if not actually betrayed by their French allies, did the Irish resist the great military and financial resources of William's go Story thus describes the judicious system of irregular warfare which the Irish carried on against the English quarters during the winter of 1690 and 1691. "As to any public action," says he, "little of moment hapned for some time after we returned to our winter quarters, tho' the Rapparees, being encouraged by our withdrawing, were very troublesome all the country over... doing much more mischief at this time o' th' year, than any thing that had the face of an Army could pretend to. When the Irish understood therefore how our men were posted all along the line, and what advantages might be hoped for at such and such places, they not only encouraged all the protected Irish to do us secretly all the mischief they could, either by concealed arms, or private intelligence. but they let loose a great part of their Army to manage the best for themselves, that time and opportunity would allow them: to all these they gave passes, signifying to what Regiment they belonged, that in case they were taken, they might not be dealt withal as Rapparees but souldiers. These men knew the country, nay, all the secret corners, woods and bogs; keeping a constant correspondence with one another, and also with the [Irish] Army, who furnished them with all necessaries, especially ammunition. When they had any project on foot, their method was not to appear in a body, for then they would have been discovered; and not only so, but carriages and several other things had been wanting. . . . Their way was therefore, to make a private appointment to meet at such a pass or wood, precisely at such a time o' th' night or day as it stood with their conveniency; and tho' you could not see a man over night, yet exactly at their hour you might find three or four hundred, more or less, as they had occasion, all well armed, and ready for what design they had formerly projected; but if they hapned to be discovered, or overpowered, they presently dispersed, having before-hand appointed another place or rendezvous, 10 or 12 miles (it may be) from the place they then were at; by which means our men could never fix any close engagement upon them during the winter." Then, after mentioning, amongst other things, the prejudice done by the Rapparees to the English army in cutting off its provisions, and after relating some trifling advantages gained in different directions over those Irish irregulars by parties of William's forces, the English annalist adds "Yet, for all this, the enemy watched all opportunities of advantage, killing our men by surprize in a great many places; but especially, keeping correspondence with the protected Irish in all corners of the country, they stole away our horses sometimes in the night, and vernment, backed by a regular force alone of above 41,000 men, or an army larger in number than England ever displayed upon any one point of the continent of Europe, even during the period of her most vigorous exertions in the late war against Napoleon, till the memorable battle of Waterloo!" And this resistance to England-supported under such disheartening circumstances to the Irish, and maintained, not, it should be remembered, by a hostile national confederacy of Irishmen in general, but only by about three provinces of Ireland, against England, assisted by the fourth province, and by no inconsiderable party in the other three this resistance, I say, took place at a time, when the entire population of Ireland was not, as at present, between 8 and 9,000,000 of souls, but, at the very highest computation, no more than 1,500,000 inhabitants! Yet this is the nation which has been accused of having "always fought badly at home" by the superficial criticism of Vol taire! often in the noon day, when our men least expected it; by which means they recruited their own horse considerably and did us no small disservice; nor is it probable, unless they had made use of some such ways, they could have brought any body of horse into the field, worth taking notice of, the succeeding campaign, whereas we were sensible afterwards that their horse were once not contemptible!" (Cont. Hist. p. 50 & 55.) Such is the excellent character of the Rapparees as irregulars, given by the hostile testimony of Story. England, according to Mr. Alison, never collected together above 40,000 upon any one point of the Continent, till the battle of Waterloo. In that engagement, the British force, including the King's German Legion, was in all about 45,000 men. (Hist. of Europe, &c. vol. 1. p. 518, & vol. VII. p. 540.) How much those representatives of the "British heart and the British arm" would have been reduced by withdrawing the proportion that came from the ST. PATRICK'S side of St. George's Channel, has been already seen. Stripp'd of his borrow'd plumes, the crow, forlorn, 2 See Introduction to the Parliamentary Census Report for Ireland in 1821, p. VI. & VII. 18* CHAPTER VI. Great preparations of the English for the next campaign, or that of 1691, and strictures on the equally base and impolitic conduct of the French, who, by any thing like proper succours, would have enabled the Irish, at the very least, to maintain James on the throne of Ireland, as is shown by the events of the war in Ulster, previous to Kirk's and Schomberg's landing-or, in other words, by the complete defeats of the Orange insurgents by the Irish army, with very inferior numbers, at Dromore-Iveagh, the passes of the Ban, and at Clady-ford before Derry, and even by a fair view of the shamelessly-overrated Williamite defence of that place, WHILE James's army, whose immediate territory was now confined to Limerick, Kerry, Clare, Connaught, and a few places to the east of the Shannon, were thus holding out against the enemy, though struggling with the greatest difficulties on account of the delay of pecuniary and military supplies from France, William's forces, in addition to what they derived from the "free quarters' upon which they lived as in an "enemy's country," and thereby drove numbers to turn Rapparees in self-defence,' were daily receiv 1 Harris, page 282, 283, 287, 290, 295, &c. Dalrymple, vol. 111. p. 49. The conduct of William's army towards the Rapparees and the Irish peasantry in general is sufficiently illustrated by the following extracts from Dr. Lesley and King James. The Doctor says, that "many of the Protestants did loudly attest, and many of the country gentlemen, as likewise several officers of King William's army, who had more bowels or justice than the rest, did abhor to see what small evidence, or even presumption, was thought sufficient to condemn men for Rapparees; and what sport they made to hang up poor Irish people by dozens, almost without pains to examine them;" in fine, observes the Doctor, "they hardly thought them human kind." King James adds, with respect to the Prince of Orange's army, that "they cared not what load they laid upon the inhabitants of the country, . . and made no difficulty of treating them like slaves for the better relief of their troops; of which," continues the King, "there could not be a greater instance, than the contrivance they made use of to redeem 3,000 of those prisoners which the French had lately taken at Flerus (Fleurus) and other places, pretending they had so many in Ireland and would send them to be exchanged; whereas they had not in reality 1000, the rest were poor people of the country they gather'd together and sent away by force, which the Irish complained of, as a piece of cruelty they would have made a scruple of doing to Indians, or the most barberous nation in the world." (Mem. vol. 11. p. 435 & 6.) This infamous kidnapping |