H. Mangan

“ Meanwhile the Irish Grenadiers had pushed home a fierce assault and driven the defenders out of the redoubts upon their right. But the arrival of reinforcements checked their flight; and the very women of Derry, who had been carrying ammunition and food to the fighting line, now joined boldly in the fray, and hurled stones upon the Grenadiers, who were, in turn, beaten out of the works and pursued across the meadows with great slaughter. ”

“ Had the city on the Shannon held out, William could not have transferred an army to the Continent to aid the confederacy against Louis, whose foes would have been compelled to sue for peace, leaving him free to restore the Stuart, who was an importunate beggar at his Court.
Derry was the scene of a great episode in the history of a colony; at Limerick a national tragedy had been enacted. The Jacobite administrators were but "a crowd." Their helplessness' prevented the evolution of an effective national government, and so Ireland, always a nation in posse, had not become a nation in being. ”

“ The Protestants and Catholics of Ireland were treated with sublimely impartial injustice; aggravated, on the one hand, by ungrateful indifference, and, on the other, by deliberate breach of faith. The Irish were robbed of the rights they had won; the soldiers of Derry were cheated of the pay they had earned; [6] the moral of which seems to be that, except in small or ideal communities, the advantages of centralisation of government gravitate from the circumference to the centre. ”

“ The Irish Catholics at the Revolution numbered some 900,000 of the population. They were poor, and unarmed; opposed to them stood some 300,000 English Protestant colonists, backed by all the resources of their country and the veteran army of the Prince of Orange. But King James was coming from France with aid from the great Louis; to strike for him was to strike for their civil and religious rights, so once more the people of Ireland, "home of lost causes," went forth to the fight. ”

“ Salted hides and horseflesh were luxuries; dogs, cats, rats, and mice fetched good prices; herbs and weeds were eagerly devoured; every day scores perished, and hopes from Kirke sank lower. Rumours of treachery were renewed; jealousies arose amongst the leaders, and a mutinous spirit amongst the men, for the city was drifting into the anarchy of despair.
On the 13th of July commissioners were sent out to confer with the Jacobites. While the deliberations were in progress, a message came from Kirke. ”

“ The inhabitants of Limerick, and all then in arms for James, should hold all estates to which they were entitled under Charles the Second, or since, and could exercise all professions and trades as in the reign of James the Second, upon taking the oath of allegiance to William and Mary.
The Irish troops marched out "with drums beating, and colours flying." Those who wished could enter the French service. Sarsfield exhorted them, their bishops blessed them, and, on the 6th, under the eyes of Ginkel and Sarsfield, they made their decision. ”

“ History must concur with the House of Commons in the verdict of "not proven," for though his acts wore the appearance of treachery, faint-heartedness and incapacity would produce similar effects. He could scarcely know the inefficiency of Hamilton's army; he did not turn his coat; and, it should be noted, the new Council actually continued his policy.
Their first proceeding was to elect deputies to arrange terms of surrender. But Murray refused to be a party to their cowardly tactics, and the populace once more decided the fate of their city. Now began the citizen soldiers' siege. ”

“ So, for all it is well to know how to forget. ("Pour tous il est bon de savoir oublier.") Yet, surely, Knowledge is better than Forgetfulness? For, though a religious war, the war in Ireland was not one of extermination, and both Derry and Limerick have their memories of glorious deeds of courage and endurance. Both had been abandoned by regular soldiers as untenable: both, with newly levied troops, had successfully defied a monarch at the head of a victorious army ”

“ The Jacobites did not despair. Arms and money were scarce, but recruits were plenty. In March, 1690, Lauzun brought over 7,000 French troops. The "grand monarch" had not yet realised the importance of the struggle. William had—at last—and in June came himself to Ireland.
When on the 1st of July the rival Kings met at the Boyne, James was but half-hearted. By nightfall he and his advisers had entirely lost heart. But their Irish troops were no more cowed after that battle than the Ulster Protestants had been after Cladyford. ”

“ On the 2nd and 3rd of July all the Protestants, men, women, and children, within ten miles of Derry—some 1,200 in number—were driven under the walls. There they spent a miserable night: some few were smuggled in contrary to orders, for if their friends took pity upon them the citizens' provisions would soon be exhausted: the poor creatures even entreated the garrison to hold firm. To this stratagem the besieged replied by setting up a gallows in view of the enemy's camp, and threatening to hang a score of prisoners. ”

“ Tradition has enshrined every detail.
All next day Sarsfield and his men "lurked among the mountains." Their scouts reported that William's convoy had lain at Cashel on Sunday, and on Monday marched beyond Cullen to Ballyneety, or Whitestown, fourteen miles from Limerick. The unsuspecting escort turned most of their tired horses out to grass, made their dispositions carelessly, and, posting a slender guard, fell to sleep, little dreaming of danger from a beaten enemy so near their own camp. Fortune had given Sarsfield an additional chance of success. ”

“ Torches waved, bonfires blazed, cannon roared, the church bells pealed, and the triumphant yells of the populace echoed across the Foyle. Then for two days longer the Jacobites clung to their trenches, and, on the night of the 31st of July, decamped by the light of their blazing huts.
So, after 105 days, ended the historic defence. By sword and disease Derry had lost over 3,000 men and the besiegers some 8,000. Here had been a rough "camp of exercise" for two raw armies, and both sides paid dearly for the lessons of "the ridiculous siege," as A Jacobite Narrative terms it. ”

“ Both cities depended for relief upon sea-borne aid from a foreign king. But while William threw his whole energy into the Irish struggle, Louis, until it was too late, regarded it as a side issue, and took but a mild interest in the result. At Derry James lost two crowns, at Limerick the third. Upon the fate of the small city on the Foyle hung the fate of Scotland and England. But for its long defence James might have sent an army to Scotland and entered England with the Highlanders. ”

“ Pointis, the artillerist, had no siege train. Soon after his arrival De Rosen had written to James that his heart bled at the negligence which supplied his troops with arms, the greater part of which were damaged, while there was not in the army a gunsmith to mend them. His strongest battalions of foot had but 200 effective men, his strongest troops of cavalry but fourteen. ”

“ On the 21st the citizens made their first sortie. All who cared to go went out, heedless of military order.
Colonel Murray, with a few horse, gallantly sustained a charge by James's cavalry, but most of his troops fled, hotly pursued to the city gates by the Jacobites. The Derry foot, however, lined the ditches and poured in such a deadly flanking fire upon them as they returned, that they lost over 200 men, including Generals Maumont, Pusignan, and several other officers. ”

“ He was not a Lally Tollendal; but could he have foreseen how the treaty was kept, he would have clung to his defences to the end, like that grim warrior at Pondicherry.
Historical studies, says Renan, are often a danger to nationality, which is built up by the fusion of races: for union is always brutally created. ”

“ When his main battery on the north-east of the town, near the island, was finished, nearly sixty guns opened together upon the city—the hottest bombardment Limerick had ever sustained.
By the 9th of September a great breach was made in the wall within King's Island, between the Abbey and Ball's Bridge. But stormers should advance under fire 200 paces from behind their battery to the river, ford it, and then cover nearly 400 paces more before gaining its foot. ”

“ Tyrconnell, however, detached Sarsfield with a small party to watch the movements of the enemy, and in his absence gained over most of the principal officers to his peace policy; while Lauzun, declaring that the city "could be taken with roasted apples," marched away to Galway with all the French troops, eight guns and much ammunition. But upon William's approach Sarsfield returned to Limerick, and the defence of the city was resolved upon. ”

“ On the very day of the defeat Colonels Cunningham and Richards had come into Lough Foyle with two regiments. On the 16th they came to Derry, and a council of war was held, to which some of the principal officers were refused admittance. Upon Lundy's representations, which were not contradicted by officers who had been some time in the town, the Council resolved that, as the place was not tenable against a well-appointed army, the regiments should not be landed, and the principal officers should privately withdraw. ”

“ Soon news came that the Enniskilleners, with equal determination and even greater daring, had refused to receive a Jacobite garrison.
Meanwhile Lord Mountjoy and Lieutenant-Colonel Lundy, with six companies of their regiment, were ordered to Derry by Tyrconnell. After much discussion, two companies, all Protestants, were admitted; the others were not allowed in until they had been "purged of Papists." In the South an attempted rising of Protestants was suppressed. In Sligo they occupied several towns, and in Ulster formed a Defence Association and raised regiments. ”

“ The Jacobites pitched their main camp at Ballougry Hill, two miles south-west of Derry, and erected sixteen forts around the city. in which, however, they could only mount six guns.
The lack of discipline amongst the defenders soon became apparent. Rumours of treachery filled the air. From time to time officers and men deserted. Colonel Mitchelburn was suspected by Governor Baker. They quarrelled, fought, and Mitchelburn was wounded and placed under arrest. No less a person than the Rev. ”