Sir
Phelim O'Neill seized Charlemont, and soon after captured Dungannon,
Castlecaulfield, Newry and Lurgan. On his march from Newry to
Armagh in 1641, Sir Phelim O'Neill ordered Mulmory MacDonell,
" . . . to kill all the English and Scots within the parishes
of Mullebrack, Logilly and Kilcluney".
The
Civil War in Ireland meant conflict with Scotland, which was a
traditional ally against the English. On the 8th. February 1642,
a Covenanter army lead by General Robert Monroe was sent from
Scotland with a large force to quell the Ulster rebellion.
Kilkenny
The
rebels called themselves the Confederate Catholics and were divided
into two groups with very different ambitions. The Old English
would have been happy to agree on fairly modest terms with King
Charles, as they were afraid of losing their lands, while the
Irish exiled following the Nine Years War, along with Cardinal
Rinuccini in 1645, insisted on the restoration of confiscated
lands and full recognition of Catholicism.
Owen
Roe was a nephew of Hugh O’Neill, ‘Earl of Tyrone’,
who fled after the Nine Years War in what has become known as,
"The Flight of the Earls". Owen Roe was a young man
at the time of the Flight of the Earls and had fought in that
last disastrous fight at Kinsale. Owen had fled with the Earls
and later won distinction as a military commander in the Spanish
Netherlands. Arriving near Donegal on the 6th July 1642 with a
hundred officers in his company, Owen Roe was given command of
the Northern Irish army.
In
June 1646 Owen Roe O'Neill fought and won a great pitched battle
resulting in his famous victory of Benburb. In the beginning of
June 1646, General Monroe was caught at the River Blackwater at
Benburb. Though the Scots were superior in number to the Irish,
the Irish had the advantage of position and the Scots were completely
overwhelmed. Monroe was fortunate to escape, and the remaining
Scottish forces were sent scurrying into the two strongholds of
Derry and Carrickfergus.
It
was the greatest and most annihilating victory in arms the Irish
ever won over the British. Unfortunately the fruits of this were
frittered away by the Supreme Council in futile negotiations with
the Marquis of Ormonde, and by divisions among the Catholics.
O'Neill, backed by Rinuccini, wanted to cease negotiating and
fight both the Puritans and the Royalists, but the Pale Catholics
were more in agreement with Ormonde than with O'Neill
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