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Event 2007: Flight of the Earls/ Imeacht na nIarlaí.
Teacht le Chéile Síol tSuibhne na dTuath.
Reunion of the Descendants of Mac Sweeney Doe.
Remembering the 400th Anniversary of the Flight of the Earls.
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4.00pm Descendants of Mac Sweeney Doe and friends will gather at Doe Castle on Sunday, July 22, 2007, i.e., the Sunday nearest the anniversaries of the deaths in Rome of: (a) Rory O Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, Saturday July 28, 1608; (b) Hugh O Neill, Earl of Tyrone, Friday July 20, 1616.
Irish and European music of the period will be performed in the castle by Dr Eamon Sweeney, a descendant of Mac Sweeney Doe and member of the Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama Early Music Ensemble. He will play Irish music known in Ireland when the Earls left in 1607 and music of the period that they would have heard on their journey through Europe to Rome. The music has been recorded on a CD 'Flow My Tears: Musical Journeys with the Flight of the Earls' launched February last by the Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama to mark the 400th anniversary of the Flight.
5.30pm Mass will be celebrated in the Capuchin Friary Ards, Creeslough, for the repose of the souls of the O Donnell, O Neill and Mac Sweeney chiefly families.
7.30pm Mac Sweeney Doe Commemorative Dinner, Arnold's Hotel, Dunfanaghy.
Copies of the CD 'Flow My Tears' are available from Fiona Howard, Dublin Institute of Technology, tel. 00-353-1-4027815 OR fiona.howard@dit.ie, price €15 +postage.
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Red Hugh O Donnell's March from Tírconnell to Kinsale 1601.
It was said of Hugh O Neill and Red Hugh O Donnell, until the Spaniards came to help them in their struggle against England, that they would not fight upon the plain, but `would lay all passes and streights for her Majesty's forces'. In other words, the two Hughs stayed on the defensive in Ulster where English superiority in numbers, armament and supplies were least effective and where their own method of warfare was most effective. They fought in the traditional way, attacking columns on the march and laying ambushes some of which developed into battles, e.g., the Yellow Ford, 1598. Until the winter of 1601 when O Neill and O Donnell marched south to help the Spaniards and engage Lord Deputy Mountjoy's forces outside the walls of Kinsale in County Cork they avoided committing their forces irrevocably to battle in the open field.
When Red Hugh O Donnell and his men left Ulster it was obvious that the battle of Kinsale would be decisive because they left Red Hugh's cousin and rival, Niall Garbh O Donnell, raiding and plundering in Tírconnell on behalf of the English. Red Hugh mustered his men at Ballymote Castle in County Sligo and on 2 November marched south. With him were the Mac Sweeney galloglasses under the command of Maolmhuire/ Sir Myles Mac Sweeney, Chief of Doe. Other leaders who accompanied O Donnell to Kinsale included O Rourke, O Doherty, O Boyle, Mac Dermott, the two Mac Donaghs, O Kelly, the two sons of O Conor Roe, Burke, O Hara, and Maguire. Fitzmaurice, Fitzthomas and Mac Carthy joined them from Munster.
O Donnell's army travelled light and each man carried his own weapons and food rations. From Ballymote they marched towards Lough Key and the Curlew Mountains but bye-passed Boyle which was probably garrisoned by the English. The Tírconnell army halted at Elphin that first day, having travelled a total of 30 miles. The following day they continued south through Roscommon and Galway gathering additional forces as they went. They avoided Athlone because it was fortified and crossed the Shannon near Shannon Harbour and it was there that they encountered their first serious opposition from the Mac Coughlans. In retaliation, they pillaged, plundered and devastated large tracts of Mac Coughlan's territory. They moved on between the Devilsbit and the Slieve Bloom Mountains and encamped about five miles from Roscrea to await the arrival of O Neill. It was estimated that O Donnell had 1000 foot and 200 horse and that O Rourke had 500 foot and 40 horse. Captain Tyrrell from Westmeath is said to have joined them and that he had 400 foot and 40 horse.
O Neill was busy plundering the midlands, in the hope of drawing some of Lord Mounjoy's forces away from Kinsale and did not join O Donnell at Roscrea. However, Lord George Carew, President of Munster, did. Mountjoy sent Carew and about 2,500 soldiers to engage O Donnell and prevent him moving southwards along the valley of the Suir. Carew's forces marched from Kinsale and by the 21st of November were encamped about four miles from the Tírconnell army. However, O Donnell managed to outwit him because the month of November had been very wet and the ground waterlogged. Then an exceptionally hard frost set in making impassable ground passable. O Donnell took advantage of the situation and with the aid of local guides made his way over the side of the Slieve Felim mountains and on into Limerick. Local people kept his camp fires burning throughout that night and thereby deceived Carew into believing that the camp was still occupied. Carew was unable to keep up with an army that could traverse up to forty miles in one march - and later recorded that he had never seen the like - and consequently returned to Kinsale with his forces.
O Donnell's army continued onwards to Croom and rested there for a short while before resuming the march to Kinsale by way of Muskerry, Dunhallow and Innishannon which was reached in mid December 1601. O Neill and his army of 3000 foot and 400 horse, joined O Donnell at Innishannon having marched by way of Westmeath, Offaly, Leix and Tipperary. Their combined forces were about 5500 foot including 120 to 200 Spaniards who had landed at Castlehaven. On 21 December the Irish encamped at Coolcarron near Kinsale and on December 24 (Old Style) they marched towards Kinsale and into battle and were defeated by Lord Mountjoy.
Mountjoy's victory at Kinsale meant the repulse of the Spanish invasion and the ultimate overthrow of O Neill, O Donnell and their allies. It also meant the downfall of the last of the Gaelic lordships and the end of Gaelic Ireland and set in motion events that led to the Flight of the Earls in 1607.
THE MARCH TO KINSALE
Aubrey de Vere (1814-1902)
O'er many a river bridged with ice
Through many a vale with snow-drifts dumb
Past quaking fen and precipice
the Princes of the North have come
Lo these are they that, year by year
rolled back the tide of England's war
Rejoice Kinsale thy help is near
That wondrous winter march is o'er
And thus they sang: 'Tomorrow morn
our eyes shall rest upon the foe;
Pass on swift night in silence borne
And blow thy breeze of sunrise blow'.
Blithe as a boy on marched the host
With droning pipe and clear-voiced harp
At last above that southern coast
Rang out their war steeds' whinny sharp
And up the sea salt slopes they wound
And airs once more of ocean quaff'd
Those frosty woods the blue waves bound
As though May touched them waved and laugh'd
And thus they sang: 'Tomorrow morn
our eyes shall rest upon the foe;
Pass on swift night in silence borne
And blow thou breeze of sunrise blow'.
Beside their watch fires couched all night
Some slept some danced at cards some play'd
While chanting on a central height
Of moonlit crag the priesthood pray'd
And some to sweetheart some to wife
Sent messages kind while others told
Triumphant tales of recent fight
Or legends of their sires of old
And thus they sang: 'Tomorrow morn
our eyes at last shall see the foe;
Roll on swift night in silence borne
And blow thou breeze of sunrise, blow'.
Revised July 1, 2007.
