The
English had occupied the monastery of Donegal, but in fear of
O'Donnell, they soon evacuated it on his orders. O’Donnell
was soon joined by his aging father as well as by MacSweeneys,
O’Dohertys and other Gaelic chiefs of Tir Connaill. At Kilmacrennan
on 3rd May 1592, the senior O’Donnell resigned in favour
of his son, who was duly elected chieftain of his clan.
Hugh
O’Neill began drilling his troops in the latest European
methods of warfare in the use of pike and matchlock firearms for
a battle that he knew would be inevitable, eventually commanding
about 1,000 cavalry, 1,000 pikemen, and 4,000 infantrymen.
In
may 1595, O'Donnell, Hugh Maguire, "Lion of the Erne",
and Cormac O’Neill seized Enniskillen, and Irish rebels invested
Monaghan castle. On May 27, Sir Henry Bagonel, Earl of Newry -
and Hugh O'Neill's brother-in-law - set of from Newry with 1,700
troops to relieve Monaghan's garrison, but when the English troops
stopped for the night at Ballymoyer, they found O'Neill and a
small troop of his cavalry surveying their camp. Upon riding up
to confer with O'Neill, Sir Edward Yorke was told that by 10 the
next morning, "it should be seen whether the Queen or they
should be the masters of the field and the owners of Ulster."
The
English were attacked the next morning at Crossdall, but managed
to fight their ay the last four miles to Monghan. On the 27th
of May while making his way back to Newry after leaving a company
of fresh troops and supplies at Monghan, Bagonel was ambushed
again at Clontibret by O'Neill with 4,000 troops and the first
major battle of the war took place.
The
14 mile running fight lasted almost eight hours before Bagonel
was able to break away and return to Newry on the 28th, reporting
losses of 43 men dead and 139 men wounded. That June O'Neill would
be proclaimed a traitor in Newry and Dundalk, but his public commitment
to the anti-English cause resulted in and escalation of the rebellion
which would come to be known as the "Nine Years War."
By
combining a guerilla strategy with modern field tactics taught
to his men, O'Neill had hoped to exhaust the English resolve by
attacking English forts and other strongholds to draw out relief
expeditions that could be ambushed much the same as Bagonel's
troops had been at Clontibret. O'Neill thought this would push
the Engilsh to negotiate a settlement that would leave him in
power in Ulster.
<<<<
Back | Nine Years War Page 5
>>>>
( 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 | 8
| 9 )