Part III. History of the County of Clare

Chapter 21. Catholic Confederation

1. Confederation of Kilkenny; Murrogh-an-Tothain, Baron and Earl of Inchiquin—Frequent changes of his political and religious creed; Barnabas, Earl of Thomond; his vascillating conduct; forced to receive a contingent of English troops into his castle of Bunratty; Presbyterian fleet arrives in the Shannon and anchors at Grass Island
2. Importance of Bunratty as a strategical position; Description of the Palace and park of Lord Thomond at Bunratty; its noble herd of deer
3. The Confederate Catholics resolve to wrest it from the Parliamentarians; Siege of the Castle; Surrender of the place to the Catholics, and the standards found there sent to Limerick by Rinuccini, the Papal Legate; Rejoicings at Limerick
4. Ireton crosses the Shannon at O’Briensbridge and Castleconnell, and marches to Limerick
5. Siege of that city; A detachment of troops, under command of Ludlow, ordered to proceed from Limerick into Clare; They blow up Carrigaholt, rout the Irish at Ennis, and hang Conor O’Brien; After a little time the Cromwellians become masters of nearly the whole County
6. Ludlow gives a full account of his progress through Clare
7. Declaration of the Confederated Catholics at Kilkenny signed by several Clare men; Ruin and depopulation of the County consequent on the Cromwellian conquest
8. Census taken by Sir William Petty in 1659; names of the principal householders
9. Merciless rigour of Cromwell’s lieutenants, and wholesale murders committed by them; Irish inhabitants transported to Barbadoes
10. Murrogh, Earl of Inchiquin; sketch of his character; his death

Notes

Chapter 20