Dundalk

“ Distilling and brewing are the principal industrial works, and there are besides a flax and jute-spinning mill, salt works, &c. The port is the seat of a considerable trade, mainly in agricultural produce and live stock. It is also the centre of a sea-fishery district and of salmon fisheries. Dundalk was a borough by prescription, and received charters from Edward III. and successive monarchs. Edward Bruce, having invaded Ireland from Scotland in 1315, proceeded south from his landing-place in Antrim, ravaging as he came, to Dundalk, which he stormed, and proclaimed himself king here. ”

“ Dundalk (dun-da ̈k ́) , a seaport and former parliamentary borough, Ireland, capital of the county of Louth, on Castletown River, about 2 miles above its mouth in Dundalk Bay. It has railway workshops, tanyards, and a spinning-mill; the trade, chiefly in cattle and agricultural produce, is extensive. It was the seat of the court of Edward Bruce from 1315 to 1318. In 1649 it was captured by Cromwell. ”

“ Entire villages were sometimes turned adrift, and we are told that in travelling from Dublin to Dundalk through a country esteemed the most fruitful in the kingdom, a man would see no improvements of any kind, no houses fit for gentlemen, no farmers' houses, few fields of corn, nothing but a bare face of nature with a few wretched cottages scattered about, three or four miles apart. ”

“ The people of Dundalk were themselves starving. Strong bodies of cavalry foraged the country, but were able to find next to nothing in the shape of food for themselves, or corn for their horses. The ships from England, laden with provisions which ought to have arrived at Belfast, were forced back by contrary winds. Thus the army was becoming rapidly famished. Disease soon made its appearance, and carried off the men by hundreds. Schomberg's camp, outside Dundalk, was situated by the side of a marsh—a most unwholesome position ”

“ And the part of Ulster from Dundalk southward to Usna in Meath, which is called the Plain of Murthemney, was allotted for his inheritance, and in later days his fortress and dwelling-place was in Dundalk.
It is said that the Druid Morann prophesied over the infant: “His praise will be in the mouths of all men; charioteers and warriors, kings and sages will recount his deeds; he will win the love of many. This child will avenge all your wrongs; he will give combat at your fords, he will decide all your quarrels.” ”

“ Strange it is, but perfectly true, that in most cases an Irishman's politics may be determined by outward and visible signs, so plain that he who runs may read. In Dundalk, which should be a thriving port, you see in and around the town long rows of low thatch-covered cabins, with putrid dunghills "convaynient," dirty, half-fed, barefooted children, and—magnificent Catholic churches. Home Rule rules the roost. As you move northwards, the symptoms of poverty gradually disappear. ”

“ According to Wadding, the tradition was, that his parents came to Dundalk from the well known territory in the north of Ireland, called Ruta, or the Route. Wood states that almost all writers—auctores pene omnes—make him an Irishman. This tradition is also clearly expressed in the appellation of Richard of Dundalk, by which he was universally known. It was the custom of the age to designate men by the name of their native place. Of this we have an excellent example in the name of John Baconthorpius, or of Baconthorpe, who, as we shall see, was Fitz-Ralph's professor at Oxford. ”

“ The surroundings of the town are pleasant, and, although thatched cottages abound, they are very superior to the dirty dens of Tipperary. Nearly all have the half-doors so convenient for gossiping, and the female population [279] of these cabins spend much of their time in leaning over the lower half. The superiority of Dundalk is by most people attributed to the strong mixture of Northerners there resident, and the favourable position of the port. Earnest Unionists are by no means scarce, and, as usual, they are the pick of the population. ”

“ Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry represent the bulk of the live stock. Linen manufactures are of some importance. The deep-sea and coast fishery has its headquarters at Dundalk, and the salmon fisheries at Dundalk (Castletown river) and Drogheda (river Boyne) . These fisheries, together with oyster beds in Carlingford Lough, are of great value. The county is traversed from S. to N. by the Great Northern railway, with a branch westward from Dundalk; while the same town is connected with the port of Greenore by a line owned by the London & North-Western railway of England. ”

“ The O’Briens re-established their sway in Thomond and the illustrious name of Clare disappears from Irish history. Edward Bruce fell in battle near Dundalk, and most of his army recrossed the channel, leaving behind a reputation for cruelty and rapacity. The colonists were victorious, but their organization was undermined, and the authority of the crown, which had never been able to keep the peace, grew rapidly weaker. Within twenty years after the great victory of Dundalk, the quarrels of the barons allowed the Irish to recover much of the land they had lost. ”

“ The graves of thousands of English soldiers had been dug in the pestilential morass of Dundalk. It was owing to the exertions and sacrifices of the English people that, from the basaltic pillars of Ulster to the lakes of Kerry, the Saxon settlers were trampling on the children of the soil. The colony in Ireland was therefore emphatically a dependency; a dependency, not merely by the common law of the realm, but by the nature of things. It was absurd to claim independence for a community which could not cease to be dependent without ceasing to exist. ”

“ From Castle Bellingham—as famous for ale as Drogheda, and remarkable likewise for a still better thing than ale, an excellent resident proprietress, whose fine park lies by the road, and by whose care and taste the village has been rendered one of the most neat and elegant I have yet seen in Ireland—the road to Dundalk is exceedingly picturesque, and the traveller has the pleasure of feasting his eye with the noble line of Mourn Mountains, which rise before him while he journeys over a level country for several miles. ”

“ In 1864 D'Alton was requested to write the 'History of Dundalk.' He had prepared the earlier part of this work, but as his strength was failing, it was entrusted to Mr. J. R. O'Flanagan, who completed it from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Queen Victoria. D'Alton had great business qualities, and his rigid adherence to the naked facts of history doubtless impaired the literary success of his books. ”

“ They are of no weight whatever when compared with the mass of testimony on the other side. 1.—The name of Richard of Dundalk could not have arisen from the primate's long residence in that town, for he resided in his diocese only for about nine years, and certainly did not spend all his time in Dundalk. 2.—Nor is it told in history that he performed any eminent exploit here. 3.—It does not make against the Irish origin of Archbishop Fitz-Ralph that he had his education at Oxford. It is well known that at the beginning of the fourteenth century there were very many Irishmen at Oxford. ”

“ The people, too, show signs of the general prosperity. A National school had just dismissed its female scholars as we passed through Dunlar; and though the children had most of them bare feet, their clothes were good and clean, their faces rosy and bright, and their long hair as shiny and as nicely combed as young ladies’ need to be. Numerous old castles and towers stand on the road here and there; and long before we entered Dundalk we had a sight of a huge factory-chimney in the town, and of the dazzling white walls of the Roman Catholic church lately erected there. ”

“ But Tyrone protested that he had never corresponded with Spain before 20 Aug., which was probably true enough, and, the government being willing to accept his assurances, a truce was concluded on 2 Oct. for a week, but was subsequently extended to 1 Jan. 1596. Gardiner and Wallop were sent to Dundalk to come to some terms with him; but Elizabeth thought their language too subservient to him, and substituted Norris and Fenton. On 9 April Maguire, MacMahon, and O'Reilly submitted on their knees in the market-place of Dundalk. ”

“ The officers, however, were brave and skilful; but they had only twelve field-pieces, which had been recently received from France. On the 22nd, news came that James had encamped near Dundalk; on the 23rd he marched towards Drogheda. On the same day William went to Newry; he was thoroughly aware of the movements of his hapless father-in-law, for deserters came into his camp from time to time. James obtained his information from an English officer, Captain Farlow, and some soldiers whom he made prisoners at a trifling engagement which took place between Newry and Dundalk. ”

“ Dundalk (12) , capital of co. Louth, Ireland, 50 m. N. of Dublin; a place of considerable trade and manufactures; is an ancient city; Edward Bruce, the last king of all Ireland, was crowned and resided here; it was besieged and taken more than once, by Cromwell for one.
Dundas (of Arniston) , the name of a Scottish family, many of the members of which have distinguished themselves at the bar and on the bench.
Dundas, Henry, Viscount Melville, a junior member of the above family; trained for the bar; rose to be Lord Advocate for Scotland and M.P. for the county of Edinburgh ”

“ Marshal Duke Schomberg, finding Dundalk to be a strong situation, with a convenient harbour for obtaining supplies from England, and knowing that the enemy's army was more than double his own in numbers, formed an intrenched camp, where he resolved to continue during the remainder of the campaign; but the ground where the troops were encamped being low, and the weather proving wet, this injudicious choice of situation proved so fatal to his army, that the infantry corps lost half their men from disease. ”

“ Devoting himself to politics, he represented Dundalk in parliament in the liberal interest from 1837 to 1846. On 11 July 1846 he was appointed under-secretary of state for Ireland, in 1847 a commissioner of national education, and ex officio an Irish poor-law commissioner. ”

“ The fields were yellow with the stubble of the corn, which in this, one of the chief corn counties of Ireland, had just been cut down; and a long straggling line of neat farmhouses and cottages runs almost the whole way from Castle Bellingham to Dundalk. For nearly a couple of miles of the distance the road runs along the picturesque flat called Lurgan Green; and gentlemen’s residences and parks are numerous along the road, and one seems to have come amongst a new race of people, so trim are the cottages, so neat the gates and hedges, in this peaceful smiling district. ”

“ On the 5th of November they write that the rebels had seized the houses and estates of almost all the English in Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone, Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, and a great part of Down, and were beginning to threaten the English plantations in the King’s County and Queen’s County, that Dundalk had surrendered to them without a blow, and that they were marching on Drogheda. ”

“ From Greenore the London & North-Western railway passenger steamers run regularly to Holyhead. The town of Ardee is served by a branch from the Great Northern line at Dromin.
The population (71,914 in 1891; 65,820 in 1901) decreases at about an average rate, and a considerable number of the inhabitants emigrate. Of the total population about 92% are Roman Catholics. The principal towns are Dundalk (pop. 13,076) , Drogheda (12,760) and Ardee (1883) . The county includes six baronies and sixty-four parishes. Assizes are held at Dundalk and quarter sessions at Ardee, Drogheda and Dundalk. ”

“ Accordingly, quitting Drogheda on 21 March with a thousand foot and two hundred horse, they marched in the direction of Dundalk, laying the country waste with fire and sword. At Atherdee they dispersed a number of the rebels, and on the 26th attacked Dundalk. After a short but sharp resistance the place was carried by storm. Its capture, being unexpected, afforded great satisfaction to government, and the defence of it was entrusted to Tichborne, Lord Moore succeeding him as governor of Drogheda. ”

“ From this point on, for many miles, the scenery is very wild and beautiful, and every foot of it has been a battle-ground. Just before the train reaches Dundalk, it passes close to the hill of Faughart, topped by a great earthwork, and it was here that Edward Bruce was slain in battle a year after he had been crowned king of Ireland; and farther on is another rath, the Dun of Dealgan, where dwelt Cuchulain, chief of the Red Branch Knights, and one of the great heroes of Irish legend. ”

“ After resting until [Pg 227] the evening of next day, they rode all night, and passed through Dundalk as soon as the gates were opened in the morning. The danger was now over, and Tirlogh MacHenry O’Neill, whose power lay in the south part of Armagh, forwarded them safely to Dungannon, whence Tyrone sent Hugh O’Donnell, under escort, to Lough Erne. Here he was met by Maguire, and brought in triumph to Ballyshannon. Henry MacShane O’Neill did not go to Glenmalure at all, but escaped northwards from the Dublin mountains, among which his brother had died, and thus fell into Tyrone’s hands. ”