Ireland: Political History and Notable Figures

1595 - 1616 - Hugh O’Neill (All Facts)

• Irish Chief (of his namesake clan) and Earl of Tyrone

  • Initially, he had been officially proclaimed Earl of Tyrone for his devoted services to the English cause

  • He loudly professed loyalty to England, having married the daughter of an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family

    • This union did not last, however

    • In doing so, he raised a force of 600 men, trained by the English

• However, he was declared a traitor once he defected back to Ireland against the English

  • He replaced each year’s recruits trained by the English until he had a force of 4,000 musketeers, 1,000 pikemen, and 1,000 cavalry

  • He thus set himself up as the champion of the Catholics

• He led the Nine Years’ War rebellion against Queen Elizabeth and England

  • He smuggled arms into Ireland in preparation for a Catholic uprising against the introduction of Protestant ways into Ireland by the English

  • Moreover, the Catholic Irish were angered by the immigration of into Ulster of fiercely anti-Catholic Scottish Calvinists

  • He captured Enniskillen and Monaghan Castles

  • He appealed to Philip II of Spain for help

  • He was later pardoned by Queen Elizabeth of England for his rebellious activities

  • He and his forces defeated the English forces in the Battle of the Yellow Ford, the first Irish victory of the War

  • He made a truce with Robert Devereux of England

• After the Nine Years’ War, he fled to the continent of Europe and was received at the gates of Rome by seven cardinals, where the Pope placed a palace at his disposal, but back home he was declared a traitor and his land in Ulster was seized for settlement by Protestants from England and Scotland

  • He was eventually pardoned by King James of England and his land was restored to him

• He initially fought with the English, then against the English, and then on their side later and against them later

  • When he found himself in a dispute over his feudal rights, King James of England invited him to put his case in London

  • Fearing arrest, he joined with Rory O’Donnell, the first earl of Tyrconnell, and hired a ship to escape abroad with both of their families and servants

  • They planned to go to Spain, but were driven ashore in France, and, not wanted there, they sought refuge in the Spanish Netherlands, and, unwelcome there, sought refuge in Lorraine and Switzerland, and unwelcome there; finally found refuge in Rome

  • Their restored lands granted via their pardon by King James of England were eventually seized after they were declared traitors back in Ulster for fleeing due to the namesake’s feudal dispute; and in which English and Scottish Protestants began to settle in those seized lands

1592 - 1602 - Hugh Roe O'Donnell II (All Facts)

• He was the Lord of Tyrconnell in Ireland

• Irish Chief and Leader of the confederacy of Irish lords during the Nine Years' War

  • He and his forces defeated the English forces in the Battle of the Yellow Ford, the first Irish victory of the War

1603 - 1608 - Rory O'Donnell (All Facts)

• He was the First Earl of Tyrconnell

• He fled to the continent of Europe and was received at the gates of Rome by seven cardinals, where the Pope placed a palace at his disposal, but back home he was declared a traitor and his land in Ulster was seized for settlement by Protestants from England and Scotland

  • He was eventually pardoned by King James of England and his land was restored to him

• He joined with Hugh O’Neill, the first earl of Tyrone, and hired a ship to escape abroad with both of their families and servants

  • They planned to go to Spain, but were driven ashore in France, and, not wanted there, they sought refuge in the Spanish Netherlands, and, unwelcome there, sought refuge in Lorraine and Switzerland, and unwelcome there; finally found refuge in Rome

  • Their restored lands granted via their pardon by King James of England were eventually seized after they were declared traitors back in Ulster for fleeing due to the namesake’s feudal dispute; and in which English and Scottish Protestants began to settle in those seized lands

1642 - 1652 - Confederate Ireland (All Facts)

• Period of Irish history in which Ireland established their own rebel Parliament, the Catholic Confederacy, which first met during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Kilkenny

• Irish rebels against England were divided into groups, both with loyalty to King Charles over the militantly Protestant Parliament in London, but with different demands

  • The Anglo-Catholic Irish wanted to protect Catholic Ireland from Protestant London

  • The Old Irish were more interested in

    • recovering confiscated property

    • preserving their rapidly vanishing Gaelic language and traditions

1611 - 1659 - William Lamport (All Facts)

• Irish Adventurer, Nobleman, and Political Activist

• He came to Mexico with plans to

  • abolish taxes and slavery

  • restore the power of religious orders

  • protect the privileges of ruling colonial families

• He was tried by the Mexican Inquisition, his alleged crime being a plot to declare Mexico (New Spain) an independent kingdom ruled by itself

  • He suffered harshly under Spanish rule

• His life story inspired the character of “Zorro”

1643 - 1689 - James Butler (All Facts)

• He was the First Duke of Ormond

• He was put in charge of quelling the Irish Rebellion during the Irish Confederate Wars, and negotiated a truce

1687 - 1689 - Richard Talbot (All Facts)

• He was the Final Lord Deputy of Ireland

  • He was the First Earl of Tyrconnell

• He was the First Viceroy of Ireland

1689 - 1690 - James II (All Facts)

• Final Catholic King of Ireland

  • He was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution

    • After that, he fled to France where he received troops and money from France’s (Catholic) King Louis XIV

    • He then landed in Ireland following his exile to France

    • He was promptly acknowledged as King of Ireland by the Irish Parliament in Dublin

1600s - 1900s - Protestant / Anglican Ascendancy (All Facts)

• Sociopolitical and economic domination of Ireland by a small Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of aristocrats, landowners, barristers, politicians, clergymen, military officers and prominent professions, which were all by practice and law closed to Catholics

• Period in Ireland during which Penal laws were passed, a form of racial and religious segregation introduced by the English into Ireland; a series of laws in which

  • The Catholic Irish were allowed to practice their religion

  • The Catholic Irish were not permitted to vote

  • The Catholic Irish were barred from the armed forces

  • The Catholic Irish were not allowed to send their children abroad to be educated as Catholics

  • The Catholic Irish were banned from gambling, done in an attempt to prevent the upper classes from losing their family fortunes

  • A Protestant could not marry a Catholic and must produce a certificate of religious denomination before marriage