Ormonde has been blamed by many Irish writers for not supporting the Bishop of Clogher; but he had no army with him and no means of raising one. Inchiquin's force had disappeared in the manner already described, and Castlehaven could do little with his small following. Meanwhile, the Shannon estuary was at the mercy of the Parliamentary fleet. Kilrush and Tarbert were burned and all country boats destroyed, so that Clare was cut off from the rest of Munster. The possession of Limerick was absolutely necessary to keep up the communications between Connaught and the other provinces, and Limerick was contumacious. To those who criticised him for keeping the few soldiers he had in scattered country quarters instead of concentrating them in important garrisons, the Lord Lieutenant sarcastically answered that the towns themselves were responsible, 'wherein we cannot yet prevail, nor ever could, till by the enemies' lying at one end of the town we were, not without articling and conditioning, permitted to put such men as we could then get in at the other end.' He summoned a general assembly to meet at Loughrea on April 27, enclosing a copy of the young King's letter, which permitted him to leave Ireland if he could not secure obedience. He had a vessel ready in Galway Bay, but the conciliatory attitude of the assembly, owing to the presence of a lay element, induced him to dismiss her and to stay on in Ireland a little longer. The Archbishop of Tuam and Sir Lucas Dillon went to Limerick with directions to settle matters between the town and Ormonde, who in consequence received a rather halting invitation from the mayor, John Creagh. He came within four miles of Limerick, and agreed to visit the city on condition that he should be received with the respect due to a Lord Lieutenant; that he should have military command within the walls, and that he should be attended by his own guard of fifty horse and one hundred foot, all Roman Catholics and old soldiers of the Confederacy. The mayor would have agreed, but Dominick Fanning and a friar named Wolfe possessed themselves of the keys, collected a number of young men, who had already distinguished themselves by plundering Ormonde's papers on board a ship, and admitted Colonel Murtagh O'Brien with an Irish regiment consisting largely of recruits. Clanricarde, supported by the Commissioners of Trust, called upon the Bishop of Limerick to excommunicate Fanning and O'Brien; but, of course, this was not done. Ormonde offered to remain in Limerick during the coming siege and take his chance with the rest, provided he was allowed to put in a proper garrison and strengthen the works as he thought fit; but his efforts were all in vain, and Galway was equally determined not to admit Clanricarde.[183] [Sidenote: and Clanricarde out of Galway.] [Sidenote: Progress of Ireton.] [Sidenote: Tecroghan taken, June 25.] [Sidenote: Castlehaven failed to relieve it.]