By mid-Summer of 1570 another Lord Deputy for Ireland
had fallen victim to the quagmire that was Ireland.
Sidney, like others before him, had been expected to
achieve miracles with inadequate resources. When he
departed in November, 1570, replaced by FitzWilliam, the entire English
military establishment in Ireland consisted of fewer
than 2,000 troops. Showing the depth of feeling
against the English throughout Ireland, that
“arch traitor,” James FitzMaurice FitzGerald
rebelled in Munster and, after he was crushed by the
English in 1572, fled to the continent, where he is
said to have offered the crown of Ireland, first to
Henry III of France, then to Don John of Austria.
Wishing to quell Irish unrest, a policy of
displacing the legitimate large land owners was
adopted by Elizabeth, followed by colonization for
profit. With the English badly in need of troops, the entire gallóglaigh of Leinster were pardoned by the queen
for some offense in 1573, probably FitzGerald’s
revolt. Loyalty to the FitzGeralds, whom they had
served for more than 150 years, would surely have
led Hugh Buidhe MacDonnell’s brothers Alexander,
Walter, Donough and Brian, along with sixty-six of
their gallóglaigh, to rebellion against the
Sasunnaich, as we are told. We may only speculate as to what
subterfuges had to be undertaken for the MacDonnells
to survive. Since they did so when their
mentors, the Geraldines, did not is testimony to
their cleverness.
The lack of English resolve to finally conquer Ireland
resulted in a Byzantine cesspool of intrigue, plot and
counterplot for the remainder of Elizabeth’s reign. The
ambitions of the Irish chieftains, together with the
machinations of several governments, were acted out over
and over again in a macabre dance of alliances made and
broken, raids back and forth, massacres, kidnappings and
murders.
The English repeated previously failed policies
because they accomplished delay in the hope that
more pressing confrontations with Spain and France
would be won, thus allowing a later commitment in
Ireland. Meanwhile, the Irish had a limited resource
in the military superiority of their Scottish red
shanks, with no place to employ them profitably
other than Ireland. The Irish clans played out their
role because it was the only means of survival they
knew.
In the Fall of 1580, a Spanish and
Italian force of some six hundred men, led by
previously exiled Sir James FitzGerald, landed at
Smerwick on the Dingle Peninsula, intending to
support the Irish. A Spanish spokesman at a parley
“avouched that they were all sent by the Pope for
the defense of the Catholica Fide.” They were
besieged by an English force under the current Lord
Deputy, Grey of Wilton, one of whose officers was a
certain Captain Walter Raleigh. The papal invaders,
unable to counter the English artillery, soon laid
down their arms. Lord Grey’s report goes on to
state, “I put in certain bands who straight fell
to execution. There were six hundred slain. . .”
This merciless Puritan attitude at Smerwick earned
Grey much criticism. He also had defenders and
considerable sympathy.
One of them was the Puritan poet,
Edmund Spenser, serving as Lord Grey’s secretary,
who had a personal interest. He was a settler in
Cork, supporting himself as sheriff while he
completed three books of his epic allegory “The
Faerie Queen” and wrote “A View of the
Present State of Ireland,” both of which were to
make him famous. His own house at Kilcoleman in Cork
was later burned by Irish rebels and one of his four
children burned in the fire during the Irish revolt
following the Battle of Yellow Ford in 1598. Spenser
never fully recovered from his loss and never
completed the allegory. He considered, but
reluctantly rejected, genocide of the Irish, saying:
“How then? Should the Irish have been quite
rooted out? That too bloody a course, and yet their
continual rebellious deeds deserve little better.”
In his own sphere, Spenser is symbolic of the
passing of the Gaelic order. The Gaelic bards faced
ruin after the battle of Kinsale in 1601, for with
the “flight of the earls,” there were no
longer patrons for Irish art and culture.
Mhainistir Liath
(Grey Abbey), Kildare
A Franciscan Friory built by Lord William De
Vesci in 1260, eight FitzGerald earls of Kildare are
buried there.
The Friars were expelled and the buildings
demolished by Henry VIII in 1540. It’s
condition is a profound
testament to the English “sweetness and
civility” described by Spenser.
As a humanist, Spenser said he
wanted the extirpation of “popery” in
order to make way for what he called
“sweetness and civility,” the values of
the Renaissance; not quite the image
that English scholars have painted of
that period of “enlightenment.” He
believed that the Irish were responsible
for their own plight, dying “of famine
which they themselves had wrought,” and
describing it as punishment they
deserved:
“Out of every corner of the woods and
glens they came creeping forth upon
their hands, for their legs would not
bear them; they looked like anatomies of
death; they spoke like ghosts crying out
of their graves; they did eat the dead
carrions, happy where they could find
them; yea and one another soon after,
insomuch as the very carcasses they
spared not to scrape out of their graves
. . .”
This English humanist had no concept
of Irish “civility,” seeing
them as a wild people, rather than
the products of a culture more
ancient and pure than his own. Their
traditions marked and degraded the
Puritan movement. Without regret,
Cromwell abolished the Brehon laws
in 1603, just as Spenser witnessed
the execution of Murrough ÓBrien at
Limerick and saw how:
“An old woman, which
was his foster-mother,
took up his head whilst
he was quartered, and
sucked up all the blood
running thereout, saying
that the earth was not
worthy to drink it . .
.”
Spenser saw no
barbarism in
beheading and
quartering ÓBrien,
but somehow saw the
act of profound
respect and love
carried out by the
Irishman’s foster
mother as barbarous.
The English
genuinely believed
that they were
engaged in a mission
to civilize Ireland
and their
psychological denial
of their own rape of
a sovereign people,
while they murdered
and pillaged as if
they were strolling
on the beach, will
forever live in
history as one of
the most barbarous
acts of all.
It is
generally accepted that Saint Brigid and her followers came to Kildare in 480, building their first
humble cell under a great oak tree there and giving a name to the town (Cille
Doire - Church of the Oak, Kildare). This mysterious saint has
come to hold an important place in the hearts and folklore of Ireland,
transcending faith, denomination and history. Brigid was an
important Celtic deity widely worshipped throughout Ireland prior to the
coming of Christianity and her early Christian namesake became so
interwoven with her pagan predecessor in folklore as to become virtually
indistinguishable. It is told that Brigid was born c.453, perhaps
in Umeras, about five miles northwest of Kildare town. Her father
may have been Dubthach, a local chieftain whose descendants now bear the
name Duff, MacDuff or Duffy (of no relation to the MacDuffs of Fife and
Moray in Scotland). Her mother, Broicsech, is said to
have been a Christian bondservant in Dubthach's pagan household.
Some authorities suggest that her foundation may have originated as a
sanctuary for Druidic priestesses who converted to Christianity.
Tradition avers that she invited Conleth, a hermit from Old Connell,
near present day Newbridge, to assist her, and established a double
monastery for both men and women that became famous throughout Ireland
and beyond, as a center of education, culture and hospitality, as well
as of worship.
Between 835 and 998, Brigid's monastery was repeatedly
plundered by both Viking and Irish brigands, as well as
being destroyed several times by fire. After the
Norman conquest in the 12th Century, the female community
and its abbess, apparently remained under Celtic control,
whereas the monastery for men was placed under the authority
of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine and thereafter the
bishops of Kildare were required to be either English or of
English descent. In 1223 the first English bishop,
Ralph of Bristol, built a cathedral on Brigid's site which
survived without much alteration until the Irish rising in
1641, when it was reduced to ashes by the English, the tomb
of Bishop Walter Wellesley, who died in 1539, with its
unique sculptured effigy of the bishop, and sheela-na-gig to
protect him from evil, left in the ruins.
A portion of the ruined cathedral was
appropriated as a Protestant church in 1686, but
there is no record of any Brigidine abbey in
Ireland from the 16th Century until 1807, when
Daniel Delaney, Roman Catholic Bishop of
Kildare, restored the ancient Order of Brigid,
gathering six catechists in Tullow, Co. Carlow.
Demonstrating their continuity, he brought an
oak sapling from Kildare that was planted in the
convent grounds in Tullow where it still stands,
now a mighty oak tree. In 1992, two
sisters of Saint Brigid returned to Kildare and
opened a center for Celtic Spirituality, where
they and their friends work together to promote
justice, peace and reconciliation in concert
with other organizations that share their goals.
Today, a spirit of reconciliation prevails in
Kildare, in spite of the past. The use of
the Protestant cathedral was graciously given to
the Roman Catholic community for their Sunday
Eucharist while their parish church was
undergoing restoration, and significant support
has been given by the Roman Catholic community
for the renovation of the cathedral.
Saint Brigid's
Cathedral Interior, Kildare
Bishop Walter Wellesley's
1539 Tomb
Saint Brigid's Well, Kildare
Saint Brigid's Cathedral (Church Of
Ireland), Kildare
Built between 1223 and 1230 by Norman Bishop Ralph of Bristol on the ruins
of Saint Brigid’s Monastery,
first occupied by she and her followers in 480, it was again
derelict by 1649, partially rebuilt
as a Protestant church in 1686 and finally restored between 1875 and 1896.
Today, the Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Anglican Diocese of Meath
and Kildare.
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Kildare Castle Gatehouse
The one remaining gatehouse of four.
which served this 12th Century fortress that
was one of the most important Norman
edifices in Leinster.
