The Irish Confederate Wars were a series of clashes between Irish Catholics and British Protestant settlers that lasted from 1641 to 1653. This conflict was profoundly murderous, massacring thousands of Irish people over a period of more than 12 years. Here’s a glimpse of what happened in those troubled days of the Irish Civil War.
The Irish Confederate Wars originally stemmed from a higher conflict known as the “War of the 3 Kingdoms”, in which the kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland were exposed to widespread conflict… At that time, the 3 territories were under the reign of a single monarch: Charles I of England. A series of disagreements then arose between the king and the people, in the name of the right to choose one’s own religion, and not the one ordained by the king… Not forgetting, of course, the desire to emancipate Ireland and Scotland from the primacy of England…
This was followed by a series of battles and civil wars in Ireland, known as the “Irish Confederate Wars”.
It all begins with the plot of October 1641, led by Felim O’Neill. The aim of the plot was to organize an insurrection to take back power from the British, and seize key strategic buildings such as Dublin Castle. This revolt would have enabled them to assert the autonomy of the Kingdom of Ireland, as well as their freedom to choose their own religion, without King Charles I of England having to impose his own.
Nevertheless, the plot was exposed at the last minute, and the Irish people became furious, launching a rebellion without further preparation.
As soon as this violence broke out, the rebellion quickly degenerated all over Ireland, especially in Ulster. At this time, the Irish Catholics of Ulster decided to settle their accounts with the British Protestant settlers who had previously confiscated their land during the new plantations in Ireland.
Irish Catholics quickly formed militias to attack the British Protestants who had come to suppress the rebellion. Throughout these revolts, Catholics and Protestants clashed in particularly bloody battles. The British Protestants lost over 16,000 men at Portadown, while many Catholic civilians and soldiers were murdered in the woods of Kilwarlin and on the island of Rathlin.
It was at the Battle of Julianstown that the Ulster rebels defeated the British. This victory immediately galvanized the rest of the country, and unfortunately the Ulster Irish immediately tried to seize Drogheda and march towards Dublin… in vain. The British get the better of them, and have them massacred.
Despite the British victory over Ulster, the war was not over, and Charles I sent a gigantic army to Ireland to put an end to the rebellions. This army was made up of British Protestants and Scots sympathetic to the Protestant cause. These men succeeded in suppressing the Irish rebels hiding in Dublin and Ulster, while the Irish Catholics created the “Irish Confederation” at Kilkenny Castle in 1642. This group was tasked with rallying Irish Catholic society around the creation of a free and independent state, liberated from British tutelage.
Clashes lasted for several years, until the outbreak of the English Civil War. Charles I of England immediately recalled his troops to fight on behalf of the royalists.
The Confederates seized the opportunity with both hands, attacking the last remaining British troops. They quickly recaptured the towns they had lost, leaving only Dublin, Cork and the Uslter in Scottish and British hands. They then took advantage of this to form more formal armies, numbering up to 60,000 men, where soldiers were above all skilled and efficient tradesmen. As a means of financing, they instituted taxes throughout the island, and obtained from France and Spain the weapons needed for the coming battle.
In 1643, the Irish Confederates decided to sign a truce with the Royalists, in order to negotiate the autonomy of the Kingdom of Ireland, as well as their right to choose their own religion. Negotiations lasted until 1646, when the Irish confederates lost patience and decided to reconquer Ireland by force, without further negotiations.
They began the fighting with the capture of Bunratty Castle, then followed up with a crushing victory over the Scottish Covenanters’ army at Benurb, and took Sligo. They march to Dublin and lay siege to the city. Nevertheless, the British had taken care to massacre the surrounding countryside, to deprive the armed Irish troops of food. Without food or water, the Irish had to resign themselves to failure.
The Royalists attack the Irish Confederate armies with renewed vigor. A series of defeats followed for the Irish: they were defeated at the battle of Knocknanauss, and lost Sligo again. Faced with so many defeats and losses, the Confederates made a new agreement with the Royalists, placing their army under British command. Needless to say, this decision caused a great deal of dissension within the Confederate army. Following this decision, the Confederation announced its dissolution in 1648.
In 1649, Cromwell landed in Ireland at the head of a gigantic army. From 1649 to 1653, he literally crushed Ireland under his boot, decimating more than half the Irish population in multiple sieges (at Drogheda, Wexford, Galway, Limerick, etc.). From then on, England regained control of Ireland, dispossessing the Irish of their own lands.
Ireland is now very weakened, and without an army. Only a few Irish resistance fighters (known as “Tories”) attempted to fight back through guerrilla warfare in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains. These guerrilla attempts resulted in violent measures by the British Parliamentarians, who burned crops in the surrounding countryside, plunging the population into famine and disease (bubonic plague was raging at the time).
By 1653, Ireland was a poverty-stricken country. Cromwell soon obtained the total surrender of the island, making the Irish subject to the British government.
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