The
goal of the Irish rebels was, of course, to turn out the Protestant
settlers from Ireland, regain the estates confiscated by the Plantations,
overthrow English rule in Ireland, root out and remove Protestantism,
and to secure freedom for the Roman Catholic faith.
Beginning
in Ulster on 22 October 1641, the rebellion had spread throughout
Ireland by the spring 1642. Protestant settlers were evicted from
their lands, their farms were burned, their cattle stolen, and
many settlers killed. Key strongholds were captured or besieged
by the insurgents, and gruesome reports of wholesale massacres
and atrocities provoked fears of an international Popish conspiracy
across England and Scotland.
Stories
spread of terrible violence against men, women, and children who
were murdered, drowned, and burned alive. The more famous stories
include the slaughter of a large number of Protestant families
at Portadown. Although some of the stories told have been dismissed
as exaggeration, there is little doubt from the extensive records
of the time that the rebellion was a bloody one to which some
scholars have estimated the death toll of settlers bewteen 10,000
and 15,000.
This
is perhaps the most famous account of the violence associated
with the Rebellion of 1641 and is recalled to this day on the
banners of some Orange Lodges during their parades.
The
following account is taken from records from the time found at
Trinity College, Dublin.
THE
ACCOUNT OF ELIZABETH PRIZE OF ARMAGH
And
as for this deponent and many others that where stayed behind,
diverse tortures were used upon them..... and this deponent for
her part was thrice hanged up to confess to money, and afterwards
let down, and had the soles of her feet fried and burnt at the
fire and was often scourged and whipt....
And
a great number of other Protestants, principally women and children,
whom the rebels would take, they pricked and stabbed with their
pitchforks, skeans and swords and would slash, mangle and cut
them in their heads and breasts, faces, arms, and hands and other
parts of their bodies, but not kill them outright but leave them
wallowing in their blood to languish and starve them to death.
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