Irish Historical Allusions, Curious Customs and Superstitions, County of Kerry, CorkaguinyFoley, Patrick M.
History
Irish Historical Allusions, Curious Customs and Superstitions, County of Kerry, Corkaguiny
Foley, Patrick M.
Allusions; Ireland -- History; Kerry (Ireland) -- Social life and customs
it at the head of an English commander in order to sow hatred for
one another amongst the Irish. This wicked journey of the Earl of
Ormond, such was the blight that it brought on the homes of everybody
that it left a memory everywhere through which he passed, which can
never fade while a Father can speak to a son. The soldiers under
Ormond, like ravenous beasts, having once tasted human blood, could
not quench their craving for slaughter. Young women, who refused to
be outraged were hanged from trees by the hair of their heads. When
they could not subdue men they turned their weapons against women and
children.
"His hosts are all gather'd, his cordon is set,
Strong and close wove the meshes--wide stretches the net,
As it sweeps the doom'd district, its progress thus trace'd,
All before as a garden--behind as a waste.
Their course is unsparing and searching as fire,
Leaves not sheaf in the barn, nor hoof in the byre,
While hymning their triumph, in concert combined,
The wild wail of women, with the lowing of kine.
The raid is accomplished--the war waves roll back,
Smoke, ember, and bloodprints are left on the track,
And long the scared mother, her infant will tame,
With the terrors attached to the _Thierna-Dubhs'_ name."
--Three verses of twenty published in the Kerry Magazine, a
publication under the control of a Protestant minister.
Spenser the poet described the people "as emerging like ghouls to
feed on corpse, carrion and grass." "All such people as they met
they did without mercie putte to the sworde. By this means the whole
countrie having no cattel nor kine left they were driven to such
extremities for want of vittels they were either to die or perish
in the famine or to die under the sword."--The Black Earl's Raid on
Corkaguiny in 1580 in Hooker's Chronicle A. D. 1580.
(The Burning of Dingle, Lord Gray Slaughter at Fort-del-Ore and the
torture of Kerry martyrs and other subjects are lost in the Dublin
fire.)
Before the Fitzmaurices arrived in Dingle, or Fort-del-Ore, three
persons landed in Dingle off Spanish ships. They were seized by
government spies, and first taken before the Earl of Desmond. The
vain creature ordered them to be taken before the authorities in
Limerick. Two persons turned out to be Dr. Patrick O'Haly, Bishop
of Mayo, and Father Cornelous O'Rourke. To extract a confession the
English had them tortured. When this failed they were hanged to a
tree and used as targets by the soldiers. Desmond, in his pretentions
of loyalty, took credit for this act.
The reader is referred to the following Protestant authorities:
Hooker's Chronicle, 1590, Smith's History of Kerry, Pelham's Letters
and the State Papers from 1579 to 1585.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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