 |
The Rathlin Island massacre took place on Rathlin Island, off the coast of Ireland on 26 July 1575, [1] when more than 600 Scots and Irish were killed.
| |
The Rathlin Island massacre took place on Rathlin Island, off the coast of Ireland on 26 July 1575, [1] when more than 600 Scots and Irish were killed.
Rathlin Island was used as a sanctuary because of its natural defences and rocky shores; when the wind blew from the west, in earlier times it was almost impossible to land. [2] It was also respected as a hiding place, as it was the one-time abode of St. Columba. [2] Installing themselves in Rathlin Castle, the MacDonnells of Antrim had made Rathlin their base for expanding their control over the north-eastern coast of Ireland in direct conflict with the local Irish and English resulting in several campaigns to expel them from Ireland. Their military leader, Sorley Boy MacDonnell ( Scottish Gaelic : Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill) and other Scots had thought it prudent to send their wives, children, elderly, and sick to Rathlin Island for safety. [2]
Acting on the instructions of Henry Sidney and the Earl of Essex, Francis Drake and John Norreys took the castle by storm. Drake used two cannons to batter the castle and when the walls gave in, Norreys ordered a direct attack on 25 July, and the Garrison surrendered. [3] Norreys set the terms of surrender, [3] whereupon the constable, his family, and one of the hostages were given safe passage and all other defending soldiers were killed, and on 26 July 1575, Norreys' forces hunted the old, sick, very young and women who were hiding in the caves. [3] Despite the surrender, they killed all the 200 defenders and more than 400 civilian men, women and children. Drake was also charged with the task of preventing any Scottish reinforcement vessels reaching the Island. [4]
The entire family of Sorley Boy MacDonnell perished in the massacre. [3] Essex, who ordered the killings, boasted in a letter to Francis Walsingham, the Queen's secretary and spymaster, that Sorley Boy MacDonnell watched the massacre from the mainland helplessly and was "like to run mad from sorrow". [5]
Norreys stayed on the island and tried to rebuild the walls of the castle so that the English might use the structure as a fortress. As Drake was not paid to defend the island, he departed with his ships. Norreys realised that it was not possible to defend the island without intercepting Scottish galleys and he returned to Carrickfergus in September 1575. [5]
Ballycastle is a small seaside town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is on the northeasternmost coastal tip of Ireland, in the Antrim Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The harbour hosts the ferry to Rathlin Island and a smaller passenger and charter service to Campbeltown and Port Ellen in Scotland, with both Rathlin Island and Scotland's Kintyre peninsula able to be seen from the coast. The Ould Lammas Fair is held each year in Ballycastle on the last Monday and Tuesday of August. Ballycastle is the home of the Corrymeela Community.
Rathlin Island is an island and civil parish off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's northernmost point. As of the 2021 Census there are 141 people living on the island.
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, KG, was an English nobleman and general. From 1573 until his death he fought in Ireland in connection with the Plantations of Ireland, most notably the Rathlin Island massacre. He was the father of Robert, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was Elizabeth I's favourite during her later years.
Somhairle Buíodh MacDonnell, also spelt as MacDonald, was a Gaelic chief, the son of Alexander Carragh MacDonnell, 5th of Dunnyveg, of Dunyvaig Castle, lord of Islay and Cantire, and Catherine, daughter of the Lord of Ardnamurchan, both in Scotland. MacDonnell is best known for establishing the MacDonnell clan in Antrim, Ireland, and resisting the campaign of Shane O'Neill and the English crown to expel the clan from Ireland. Sorley Boy's connection to other Irish Roman Catholic lords was complicated, but also culturally and familiarly strong: for example, he married Mary O'Neill, the daughter of Conn O'Neill. He is also known in English as Somerled and Somerled of the yellow hair.
Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, a prominent politician and courtier during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, from both of whom he received extensive grants of land, including the manor of Penshurst in Kent, which became the principal residence of the family.
Sir John Norris, or Norreys, of Rycote, Oxfordshire, and of Yattendon and Notley in Berkshire, was an English soldier. The son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys, he was a lifelong friend of Queen Elizabeth.
Randall MacSorley MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, PC (Ire), rebelled together with Tyrone and Tyrconnell in the Nine Years' War but having succeeded his brother, Sir James mac Sorley MacDonnell, as Lord of the Route and the Glynns in 1601, he submitted to Mountjoy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, in 1602.
Clandeboye or Clannaboy was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, comprising what is now south County Antrim, north County Down, and the barony of Loughinsholin. The entity was relatively late in appearance and is associated partly with the Gaelic resurgence of the High Middle Ages. The O'Neill Clandeboy who reigned in the territory descended from Hugh Boy O'Neill, a king of Tyrone. His descendants took advantage of the demise of the Earldom of Ulster during the latter 14th century and seized vast portions of territory. Clandeboye's main seats of power were Shane's Castle and Castle Reagh.
The Battle of Glentaisie, was an Irish battle fought in the north of Ulster on 2 May 1565. The result was a victory for Shane O'Neill over the Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg. The conflict was a part of the political and military struggle, involving the English and occasionally the Scots, for control of northern Ireland. Although the MacDonalds were a Scottish family, based principally on the island of Islay in the Hebrides, they had long been associated with the Gaelic polity rather than the Kingdom of Scotland.
Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg, also known as Clan Donald South, Clan Iain Mor, Clan MacDonald of Islay and Kintyre, MacDonalds of the Glens (Antrim) and sometimes referred to as MacDonnells, is a Scottish clan and a branch of Clan Donald. The founder of the MacDonalds of Dunnyveg is Eòin Mòr Tànaiste Mac Dhòmhnaill, a son of Iain Mic Dhòmhnaill and Margaret Stewart of Scotland, daughter of King Robert II. Members of the clan actually pronounced and spelled their name M'Connall due to the Gaelic pronunciation of the name Mac Domhnuill thus giving rise to the surname McConnell and its variants. While historically recognised as a clan by the Court of the Lord Lyon, it is now an armigerous clan as it no longer has a chief. The last chief was Sir James MacDonald, 9th of the Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg or Clan Donald South, who died in London in 1626.
The MacDonnells of Antrim, also known as the MacDonnells of the Glens, are a branch in Ireland of the Scottish-based Clan Donald. Initially part of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg, the MacDonnells of Antrim became their own branch in 1558 when Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell obtained the lordship of the territory in Ireland from James MacDonald, 6th chief of the Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg. The MacDonnells of Antrim were a sept of the Clan Donald of the royal Clann Somhairle, that the English crown had attempted to cultivate since the early 14th century in its efforts to influence the course of politics in Scotland. The MacDonnells established a growing presence in Ireland throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, and played a crucial role in the politics of 17th century Ireland. The MacDonnell's achieved much success in Ireland largely to cultural and familial connections to the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. Today the surname is predominantly spelled McDonnell in Ireland and abroad, although many McConnells are also of the same family, as that is the Gaelic pronunciation of the Mac Domhnaill. Most of the leadership of the Clan wrote their name as a variant of McConnell up until the 17th century, including Sorley Boy MacDonnell himself. Many of the present-day McDonnells have a common descent from Sorley Boy MacDonnell.
Events from the year 1575 in Ireland.
Dunaneeny Castle is a ruined castle on the outskirts of Ballycastle in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The castle was home to the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg and later the MacDonnells of Antrim. The castle is purported to be the birthplace of Scottish-Irish chief Sorley Boy MacDonnell.
Rathlin Castle, also known as Bruce's Castle, was a castle on Rathlin Island off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Sir Duncan Campbell (1597–1645), 2nd Baronet and 6th Lord of Auchinbreck, was a Scottish landowner and soldier. He was commander of the Marquess of Argyll, Archibald Campbell's troops, (Covenanters) in Ireland.
Sir Nicholas Malby (1530?–1584) was an English soldier active in Ireland, Lord President of Connaught from 1579 to 1581.
James MacDonald, alias McDonnell, 6th Chief of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg, Scottish-Gaelic lord, died 1565.
The history of the Bissett family in Ireland can be studied independently from that of the originally identical family in Scotland, because of their unique experience following their arrival in Ulster in the early or mid-13th century. Here, while still remaining involved in Scottish affairs, the Bissetts would establish themselves as the Lords of the Glens of Antrim and quickly become equally, then eventually more involved in the politics of the Irish province, becoming among the most Gaelicised of all the so-called Anglo-Norman families in Ireland. The heads of the leading branch of the family soon adopted the Gaelic lineage style Mac Eoin Bissett, by which they are known in the Irish annals, and which translates as "Son/Descendant of John Byset", after a prominent ancestor born in Scotland. In a number of English and Anglo-Norman sources the same head of the family is referred to as the Baron Bissett, also with variants.
The Clandeboye massacre in 1574 was a massacre of the O'Neills of Lower Clandeboye by the English forces of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. It took place during an attempted English colonisation of Ulster as part of the Tudor conquest of Ireland. The Lord of Lower Clandeboye, Sir Brian McPhelim O'Neill, had violently opposed these attempts at colonisation. O'Neill would invite Lord Essex to parley at his castle in Belfast; however, at the end of the feast, the English forces turned on the O'Neills and killed up to 200 of them including women and children. Essex ordered that O'Neill, his wife and brother to be seized and executed for treason and for opposing the plantations.