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General Robert
Munro's homeland and seat of the Clan was on the
north side of the
Cromarty of Firth in Scotland. He was sent to Ulster by the Scottish parliament to protect the English
and Scottish settlers as a
result of the 1641 uprising initiated by Sir Phelim O’Neill, Lord Maguire
and Rory O’ More, an uprising which was backed by many of the
old Anglo-Irish settlers. It is worthwhile noting that
over eighty percent of Scotland were pro covenant at the time and opposed to attempts by King Charles 1st to impose a revised Prayer Book on the
Scottish Church, this lead to conflict between the Scottish parliament and
the English crown - shortly after Munro landed in Ulster the English
civil war began. Munro landed
in Carrickfergus in April of 1642 and made his residence at Trooperslane,
he brought with him 10,000 troops complete with artillery, he also brought under
his command troops ‘raised’ locally amongst the settlers
including a mounted cavalry regiment under Lord Conway. Owen Roe
O’Neill had returned to Ireland from Spain in July of 1642 and took
command of the ‘raised’ Confederate Irish Army, Preston and others
followed to add weight to their Ulster campaign - the conflict that
took place in Ulster was barbaric, many of the
‘raised’ troops were undisciplined and atrocities were being matched
by atrocity. Munro's strategy was just as ruthless and no measure was spared
in his campaign against
O’Neill and his supporters - the conflict led to thousands of innocent people
getting
slaughtered on both sides. O’Neill waged a
guerrilla type offensive in Ulster, whereas Munro, superior in
numbers, systematically destroyed castles and villages throughout the land –
some accounts tell of him laying waste to both Antrim and Down in what we
would nowadays refer to as a 'scorched earth policy'. He attacked and
took Newry in 1642 and Belfast by superior force in 1644.
Munro suffered the worst setback to his Ulster campaign at the Battle of Benburb in 1646, when
he was defeated by O’Neill. Heavily outnumbered and without
artillery, O’Neill had taken the advantage of position and strategy, the
ensuing pitched battle left 3,000 of Munro’s troops dead and Lord Conway’s mounted regiment reduced to 40 horsemen. With confrontation going on between the English parliament and
the Crown, the English civil war underway, confrontation between the
Scottish covenanters forces and the English crown -
there was little control over what was going on in Ulster and the
conflict continued from 1641 to 1649. After the English civil war had ended, Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland
and by superior military force and the systematic implementation of
a ruthless and barbaric war strategy, brought about a swift end to
the long and bloody rebellion. Cromwell is always cited as being barbaric in Irish
history - He was a military tactician well experienced in warfare and it
must be pointed out that he was no more barbaric than the conflict had already been, on all sides there
had been accounts of atrocities, people being burned
alive in buildings and villages systematically destroyed, heads cut off and
stuck on posts - on both sides. All war is barbaric, that is its nature
from ancient to modern times it is and will always be that way. Although Charles 1st was a Scottish Protestant married to a Roman
Catholic, there were many in power who suspected him of ‘catholic’
sympathies, some believing
that he silently approved of the 1641 uprising, interestingly
enough, Sir Phelim O’ Neill, before his execution in Dublin when
asked to confess to that same question, remained silent. Whatever
the truth of these suspicions about Charles 1st and his support for Sir
Phelim O' Neill - they both suffered the same fate by
being executed by the new master's of power in England and
Ireland. |
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