The end of October was chosen as the time to put their plan into action. Rents and taxes were paid in Ireland on November 1 which meant that the rents would still be in the hands of the tenants and his crops would be housed. The high winds at the fall of the year made communication with England difficult and in 1641 these winds were exceptionally wild. They felt that a blow struck simultaneously and fiercely over the whole North, without a note of warning, might crush the settlers and their religion at once and forever. Priests were used to spread the word and organize the assault.
The order relayed by the priests was that on the same day, the Irish people were to rise and dispose of the settlers and their families. Directions were given to drive them from their houses: strip them--man, woman and child--of their property, strip them even of their clothes on their backs, to take such chances of life as the elements would allow, in the late autumn amidst sleet and rain, without food or covering. The plan also included an assault and seizure of Dublin Castle as it held arms for nine thousand men in its cellars. News of this part of the plan leaked out and was ultimately stopped but the attack on the settlers went ahead as planned.
On the morning of October 23, 1641 there appeared, before the houses of the settlers and their tenants, gangs of armed Irish, who demanded instant possession, on being admitted, ejected the entire families, and stripped most of them to the skin. Many resisted and were killed; many, the young vigorous men especially, who could save their own lives by flight, sought shelter for their women and little ones in the houses of their Irish neighbors, with whom they had lived in intimacy
The priests, however told them it was held a mortal sin to give relief or protection to the settlers. These helpless ones were often betrayed or murdered by their hosts, although there were a few exceptions, as in the case of the Blair and Crawford families who were saved by the brave warning of a dear Irish servant girl.
(Thousands of us are alive today because of that one act of kindness!)
Naked men flying for their lives, carried the alarm to Londonderry, Coleraine and Carrickfergus, and the inhabitants there had time to close their gates.
Within the next two weeks, with the exception of the places mentioned above, every town, village, fort or private house belonging to a Protestant in six northern counties and in Down and Monaghan was in the hands of the Irish insurgents, while the roads were covered with bands of miserable, fugitives dragging themselves either toward Dublin, or Londonderry, or Carrickfergus. In the wildest of remembered winters the shivering fugitives were goaded along the highways stark naked and foodless. If some found a few rags to throw about them, they were instantly torn away. If others, in modesty, twisted straw ropes round their waists, the straw was set on fire. Many were buried alive.
Those who died first were never buried, but were left to be devoured by dogs, and rats and swine. Some were driven into rivers and drowned, some hanged, some mutilated, some ripped with knives.
The priests told the people "that Protestants were worse than dogs, they were devils and served the devil, and the killing of them was a meritorious act."
They flung babies into boiling pots, or tossed them into the ditches to the pigs. They plucked out grown men’s eyes, turned them adrift to wander, and starved them to death. The towns could not hold the numbers which flocked into them, and the plague came to add to the general horrors. In Coleraine, in four months, six thousand are said to have died of the pestilence alone. The following extract comes from Henry Jones’ Remonstrance of Diverse Remarkable Proceedings Concerning the Church and Kingdom of Ireland (1641). Published as a petition to Parliament on the eve of the English Civil War, it contains a digest of atrocities committed by Irish Catholic rebels against Protestant settlers
This rebellion – which sought to revise the structure of politics in Ireland was marked by incredible levels of violence against Protestant noncombatants. The author, Henry Jones, was a Protestant minister and an assistant to a Protestant bishop in Ireland. His early career is something of a mystery, however, he apparently lost substantial property when Irish rebels rose in his home county. He therefore spent much of his later career trying to preserve the memory of Irish Protestant “martyrs” killed during the 1641 Rebellion. The Remonstrance, from which this excerpt is taken, was intended to help raise charity from English Protestants. The poor despoiled and distressed ministers of the gospel in Ireland, with the widows and orphans of such, humbly represent their lamentable condition, Showing that by the instigation of popish priests, friars, and Jesuits, with other firebrands and incendiaries of the state; partly such of them as have been resident in this kingdom of Ireland before, party flocking in from foreign parts, of late in multitudes more than ordinary, and chiefly by such of them as resorted hither out of the kingdom of Ireland.
And out of that ancient and known hatred the Church of Rome beareth to the reformed religion; as also by reason of the surfit of that freedom and indulgence, which through God’s forbearance for our trial, they of the popish faction have hitherto enjoyed in this kingdom. There hath been beyond all parallel of former ages, a most bloody and antichristian combination and plot hatched, by well nigh the whole romish sect, by way of combination from part foreign, with those at home, against this our church and state; thereby intending the utter extirpation of the reformed religion, and the professors of it.
Upon view of which, it doth evidently appear that in the present most dangerous design against this kingdom, the popish faction therein hath been confederate with foreign states, if we may rely upon the report made thereof by the conspirators themselves, and their adherents here, whereof the follow examinations are full. It being confessed that they had their commission for what they did from beyond the seas. That from Spain they did expect an army before Easter next…. From France also they look for aid. Being in all this further encouraged by bulls from Rome, some of these rebels requiring to the Pope’s use, and in his name…. In all which respects, and in allusion to that league in France, they terming themselves the Catholic Army, and the ground of their war the Catholic cause.
And as we find the hearts of these men in their tongues, so in their actions, doing what they profess; and being in both beyond all measure profane and heathenish in their impious words and behaviors towards God, and the holy scriptures, religion and the places of God’s public worship. Blaspheming our God, bidding his servants, whom they had first stripped naked, to go to their Protestant God and let him give them clothes. Breaking into churches, burning pulpits, pews, and all belonging thereunto, with extreme violence, and expression of hatred to religion and triumphing also in their impiety.
Professing, that not one Protestant should be left in the kingdom: dragging some professors through the streets by the hair of the head, into the church, where stripping, whipping, and cruelly using them, they added these taunting words: “If you come tomorrow, you shall hear the like sermon.” How have our sacred book of holy scriptures been used? God’s book hath been, O horrible! Cast into and tumbled in the kennel, thence taken up and dashed in the faces of some Protestants, with these words:
“I know you a good lesson, this is and excellent one; come tomorrow and you shall have as good.” They have torn it in pieces, kicked it up and down, treading it under foot with leaping thereon, they causing a bagpipe to play the while; laying also the leaves in the kennel, leaping and trampling thereupon, saying a plague on it… hoping within three weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be so used, or worse, and that none should be left in the kingdom.
But what pen can set forth, what tongue express, whose eye can read, ear hear, or heart, without melting, consider the cruelties, more than barbarous, daily exercised upon up by those inhumane, blood sucking tigers! Stripping quite naked men, women and children, even children sucking upon the breast, whereby multitudes of all sorts in the extremity of that cold season of frost and snow have perished. Women being dragged up and down naked, women in child bed thence drawn out and cast into prison… a child of 14 years of age taken from his mother, in her sight cast into a bog pit and held under water while he was drowned.
The forcing of 40 or 50 Protestants to renounced their profession, and then cutting all their throats. What should we speak of these murders, their hanging, half-hanging… and delighting in the tortures of the miserable? Of which their aforesaid many and barbarous cruelties, each day doth afford us variety of new instances. This city of Dublin being the common receptacle for these miserable sufferers. Here are many thousands of poor people, sometimes of good respects and estates, now in want and sickness, whereof many daily die, notwithstanding the great care of those tender hearted Protestants without whom all of them had before now perished.
In all which, as our sufferings are general, the hatred of the popish enemy being expressed to the whole nation, and to all the professors of the truth. So chief in and above all others do we find it with the deadliest venom spit against the persons of us the ministers of the gospel, towards whom their rage is without bounds.
The order relayed by the priests was that on the same day, the Irish people were to rise and dispose of the settlers and their families. Directions were given to drive them from their houses: strip them--man, woman and child--of their property, strip them even of their clothes on their backs, to take such chances of life as the elements would allow, in the late autumn amidst sleet and rain, without food or covering. The plan also included an assault and seizure of Dublin Castle as it held arms for nine thousand men in its cellars. News of this part of the plan leaked out and was ultimately stopped but the attack on the settlers went ahead as planned.
On the morning of October 23, 1641 there appeared, before the houses of the settlers and their tenants, gangs of armed Irish, who demanded instant possession, on being admitted, ejected the entire families, and stripped most of them to the skin. Many resisted and were killed; many, the young vigorous men especially, who could save their own lives by flight, sought shelter for their women and little ones in the houses of their Irish neighbors, with whom they had lived in intimacy
The priests, however told them it was held a mortal sin to give relief or protection to the settlers. These helpless ones were often betrayed or murdered by their hosts, although there were a few exceptions, as in the case of the Blair and Crawford families who were saved by the brave warning of a dear Irish servant girl.
(Thousands of us are alive today because of that one act of kindness!)
Naked men flying for their lives, carried the alarm to Londonderry, Coleraine and Carrickfergus, and the inhabitants there had time to close their gates.
Within the next two weeks, with the exception of the places mentioned above, every town, village, fort or private house belonging to a Protestant in six northern counties and in Down and Monaghan was in the hands of the Irish insurgents, while the roads were covered with bands of miserable, fugitives dragging themselves either toward Dublin, or Londonderry, or Carrickfergus. In the wildest of remembered winters the shivering fugitives were goaded along the highways stark naked and foodless. If some found a few rags to throw about them, they were instantly torn away. If others, in modesty, twisted straw ropes round their waists, the straw was set on fire. Many were buried alive.
Those who died first were never buried, but were left to be devoured by dogs, and rats and swine. Some were driven into rivers and drowned, some hanged, some mutilated, some ripped with knives.
The priests told the people "that Protestants were worse than dogs, they were devils and served the devil, and the killing of them was a meritorious act."
They flung babies into boiling pots, or tossed them into the ditches to the pigs. They plucked out grown men’s eyes, turned them adrift to wander, and starved them to death. The towns could not hold the numbers which flocked into them, and the plague came to add to the general horrors. In Coleraine, in four months, six thousand are said to have died of the pestilence alone. The following extract comes from Henry Jones’ Remonstrance of Diverse Remarkable Proceedings Concerning the Church and Kingdom of Ireland (1641). Published as a petition to Parliament on the eve of the English Civil War, it contains a digest of atrocities committed by Irish Catholic rebels against Protestant settlers
This rebellion – which sought to revise the structure of politics in Ireland was marked by incredible levels of violence against Protestant noncombatants. The author, Henry Jones, was a Protestant minister and an assistant to a Protestant bishop in Ireland. His early career is something of a mystery, however, he apparently lost substantial property when Irish rebels rose in his home county. He therefore spent much of his later career trying to preserve the memory of Irish Protestant “martyrs” killed during the 1641 Rebellion. The Remonstrance, from which this excerpt is taken, was intended to help raise charity from English Protestants. The poor despoiled and distressed ministers of the gospel in Ireland, with the widows and orphans of such, humbly represent their lamentable condition, Showing that by the instigation of popish priests, friars, and Jesuits, with other firebrands and incendiaries of the state; partly such of them as have been resident in this kingdom of Ireland before, party flocking in from foreign parts, of late in multitudes more than ordinary, and chiefly by such of them as resorted hither out of the kingdom of Ireland.
And out of that ancient and known hatred the Church of Rome beareth to the reformed religion; as also by reason of the surfit of that freedom and indulgence, which through God’s forbearance for our trial, they of the popish faction have hitherto enjoyed in this kingdom. There hath been beyond all parallel of former ages, a most bloody and antichristian combination and plot hatched, by well nigh the whole romish sect, by way of combination from part foreign, with those at home, against this our church and state; thereby intending the utter extirpation of the reformed religion, and the professors of it.Upon view of which, it doth evidently appear that in the present most dangerous design against this kingdom, the popish faction therein hath been confederate with foreign states, if we may rely upon the report made thereof by the conspirators themselves, and their adherents here, whereof the follow examinations are full. It being confessed that they had their commission for what they did from beyond the seas. That from Spain they did expect an army before Easter next…. From France also they look for aid. Being in all this further encouraged by bulls from Rome, some of these rebels requiring to the Pope’s use, and in his name…. In all which respects, and in allusion to that league in France, they terming themselves the Catholic Army, and the ground of their war the Catholic cause.
And as we find the hearts of these men in their tongues, so in their actions, doing what they profess; and being in both beyond all measure profane and heathenish in their impious words and behaviors towards God, and the holy scriptures, religion and the places of God’s public worship. Blaspheming our God, bidding his servants, whom they had first stripped naked, to go to their Protestant God and let him give them clothes. Breaking into churches, burning pulpits, pews, and all belonging thereunto, with extreme violence, and expression of hatred to religion and triumphing also in their impiety.
Professing, that not one Protestant should be left in the kingdom: dragging some professors through the streets by the hair of the head, into the church, where stripping, whipping, and cruelly using them, they added these taunting words: “If you come tomorrow, you shall hear the like sermon.” How have our sacred book of holy scriptures been used? God’s book hath been, O horrible! Cast into and tumbled in the kennel, thence taken up and dashed in the faces of some Protestants, with these words:
“I know you a good lesson, this is and excellent one; come tomorrow and you shall have as good.” They have torn it in pieces, kicked it up and down, treading it under foot with leaping thereon, they causing a bagpipe to play the while; laying also the leaves in the kennel, leaping and trampling thereupon, saying a plague on it… hoping within three weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be so used, or worse, and that none should be left in the kingdom.
But what pen can set forth, what tongue express, whose eye can read, ear hear, or heart, without melting, consider the cruelties, more than barbarous, daily exercised upon up by those inhumane, blood sucking tigers! Stripping quite naked men, women and children, even children sucking upon the breast, whereby multitudes of all sorts in the extremity of that cold season of frost and snow have perished. Women being dragged up and down naked, women in child bed thence drawn out and cast into prison… a child of 14 years of age taken from his mother, in her sight cast into a bog pit and held under water while he was drowned.
The forcing of 40 or 50 Protestants to renounced their profession, and then cutting all their throats. What should we speak of these murders, their hanging, half-hanging… and delighting in the tortures of the miserable? Of which their aforesaid many and barbarous cruelties, each day doth afford us variety of new instances. This city of Dublin being the common receptacle for these miserable sufferers. Here are many thousands of poor people, sometimes of good respects and estates, now in want and sickness, whereof many daily die, notwithstanding the great care of those tender hearted Protestants without whom all of them had before now perished.
In all which, as our sufferings are general, the hatred of the popish enemy being expressed to the whole nation, and to all the professors of the truth. So chief in and above all others do we find it with the deadliest venom spit against the persons of us the ministers of the gospel, towards whom their rage is without bounds.
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