The Dursey massacre, also called the Dursey Island massacre, took place in June 1602 during the Nine Years' War on Dursey Island off the Beara Peninsula in southern Ireland. According to Philip O'Sullivan Beare, a group of around three hundred Gaelic Irish, including civilians, were killed by an English force under the command of George Carew.
During the Nine Years' War, a coalition of Irish lords led by Hugh O'Neill revolted against English rule in Ireland. In the southern province of Munster, one of these lords was Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare who was based in the Beara Peninsula in modern County Cork. [1]
After the siege of Kinsale in 1601, O'Sullivan remained one of the few Irish leaders in the region who continued to resist the English Crown. [1] In early 1602, with English forces tightening their control of Munster, O'Sullivan went north to Ulster to consult with O'Neill. In June, an English force attacked Dunboy Castle, one of the more prominent forts in O'Sullivan territory. [1] While O'Sullivan had returned south from Ulster, he was not present at the siege. While the main English force besieged Dunboy Castle, a detachment under George Carew attacked a small fort on the island of Dursey about 20 km away. This fort reportedly housed a group of Irish civilians taking refuge from the fighting in the region. [1]
O'Sullivan had hidden a group of civilians, including old men, women and children on the island to protect them from the violence in the area. [2] Approximately 40 Irish soldiers and mercenaries were stationed there to defend the fort. [3]
An English force of several hundred men and some cannons landed on the island in boats. According to varying accounts, the Irish, after initial skirmishes, accepted surrender, with the promise of their lives, when it was offered by Carew. [1] [3] According to a later account written by the nephew of Dónal Cam, Philip O'Sullivan Beare, Carew reneged on the terms of surrender and led his men in killing scores of the survivors. According to Beare's account (who was a child at the time and had been sent to Spain prior to the siege), some of those killed were bound and thrown from nearby cliffs onto the rocks below. The entire group of over three hundred people were killed in the massacre. [1]
Meanwhile, at nearby Dunboy, the outnumbered defenders were overrun and Dunboy Castle fell. The entire garrison, consisting of 143 soldiers, were killed, with 85 dying in the assault and 58 being executed afterwards. [1]
After the fall of Dunboy, O'Sullivan retreated north to West Breifne in modern County Leitrim. This long journey is commonly known as "O'Sullivan's March". On the march, hundreds died from attacks and exposure, while more settled along the way. In the end, of the 1,000 people who left the Beara Peninsula, just 35 remained. [1]
Upon arrival in the north, O'Sullivan put together a force to continue the fight, but the Irish alliance surrendered in March 1603, following O'Neill's surrender and the subsequent Treaty of Mellifont. [1]
County Kerry is a county in Ireland. It is in the Southern Region and the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the county was 156,458 at the 2022 census.
Dursey Island lies at the southwestern tip of the Beara Peninsula in the west of County Cork in Ireland. Dursey Island is 6.5 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide. The island is separated from the mainland by a narrow stretch of water, Dursey Sound, which has a very strong tidal race, with the submerged Flag Rock close to the centre of the channel.
Dunboy Castle is a ruined 15th century castle on the Beara Peninsula in south-west Ireland near the town of Castletownbere. The castle's tower house and bawn were destroyed in the 1602 Siege of Dunboy, though its ruins remain open to the public.
Castletownbere is a town in County Cork in Ireland. It is located on the Beara Peninsula by Berehaven Harbour. It is also known as Castletown Berehaven.
Beara or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare "river" to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down its centre: the Caha Mountains and the Slieve Miskish Mountains. The northern part of the peninsula from Kenmare to near Ardgroom is in County Kerry, while the rest forms the barony of Bear in County Cork.
The siege of Kinsale, also known as the battle of Kinsale, was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of the Nine Years' War—a campaign by Hugh O'Neill, Hugh Roe O'Donnell and other Irish lords against English rule.
The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish confederation—led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell—against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war began in Ulster and northern Connacht, but eventually engulfed the entire island. The Irish alliance won numerous victories against the English forces in Ireland, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a pivotal victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and led to the Plantation of Ulster.
George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes, known as Sir George Carew between 1586 and 1605 and as The Lord Carew between 1605 and 1626, served under Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and was appointed President of Munster. He was an authority on heraldry and the author of Carew's Scroll of Arms 1588, Collected from Churches in Devonshire etc., with Additions from Joseph Holland's Collection of Arms 1579.
The siege of Dunboy took place at Dunboy Castle between 5 June and 18 June 1602, during the Nine Years' War in Ireland. It was one of the last battles of the war. An English army of up to 5,000 under Sir George Carew besieged the castle, which was held by a Gaelic Irish force of 143 loyal to Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare. The English took the castle after eleven days and hanged the majority of captured prisoners. The English also captured a fort on nearby Dursey Island.
The Beara Way is a long-distance trail in the southwest of Ireland. It is a 206-kilometre (128-mile) long circular trail around the Beara Peninsula that begins and ends in Glengarriff, County Cork, also passing through parts of County Kerry. It is typically completed in nine days. It is designated as a National Waymarked Trail by the National Trails Office of the Irish Sports Council and is managed by the Beara Tourism and Development Association.
James Archer (1550–1620) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus who played a highly controversial role in both the Nine Years War and in the military resistance to both the House of Tudor's religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the Elizabethan wars against both Gaelic Ireland and the Irish clans. During the final decade of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Fr. James Archer became a leading figure of hate in the anti-Catholic propaganda of the English government, but his most lasting achievement was his role in the establishment and strengthening of the Irish Colleges in Catholic Europe during the Counter-Reformation.
O'Sullivan is an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Cork and County Kerry. According to traditional genealogy, the O’Sullivans were descended from the ancient Eóganacht Chaisil sept of Cenél Fíngin, the founder of the clan who was placed in the 9th century, eight generations removed from Fíngen mac Áedo Duib, king of Cashel or Munster from 601 to 618. Later, they became the chief princes underneath their close kinsmen, the MacCarthy dynasty, in the small but powerful Kingdom of Desmond, successor of Cashel/Munster. The last independent ruler of the clan was Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, who was defeated in the Nine Years' War of 1594–1603.
Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, Prince of Beare, 1st Count of Berehaven (1561–1618), was an Irish nobleman and soldier who was the last independent Chief of the Name of Clan O'Sullivan. He was thus the last O'Sullivan Beare, a title of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, and Lord of the Beara Peninsula in the southwest of Ireland during the early seventeenth century, when the English Crown was attempting to secure their rule over the whole island.
Presented below is a chronology of the major events of the Irish Confederate Wars from 1641 to 1653. This conflict is also known as the Eleven Years War. The conflict began with the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and ended with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53).
Dominic Collins, SJ was an Irish Jesuit lay brother, an ex-soldier, who died for his Catholic faith. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, on 27 September 1993.
Donal II O'Donovan, The O'Donovan of Clann Cathail, Lord of Clancahill, was the son of Ellen O'Leary, daughter of O'Leary of Carrignacurra, and Donal of the Skins, The O'Donovan of Clann Cathail. He is most commonly referred to as Donnell O'Donevane of Castledonovan in contemporary references of his time.
The Wild Atlantic Way is a tourism trail on the west coast, and on parts of the north and south coasts, of Ireland. The 2,500 km driving route passes through nine counties and three provinces, stretching from County Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula in Ulster to Kinsale, County Cork, in Munster, on the Celtic Sea coast.
Priest's Leap is a steep and nearly straight single-lane mountain pass between Coomhola Bridge and the village of Bonane east of the more winding road from Bantry to Kenmare in Ireland. Just below the summit of the 519 m high mountain with the same name, it is the highest pass road in Munster at 463m, crossing from County Cork to County Kerry.