From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837
In 1641, it was attacked by the northern Irish in great numbers under Sir Phelim O'Nial, when a body of 600 foot and 50 horse, sent from Dublin for the relief of the garrison, was defeated at Julianstown bridge, about three miles from the town. Though Sir Henry Tichbourne, the governor, had an incompetent force, and the besieging army consisted of 20,000, yet from want of military skill, artillery, and ammunition, the latter were unable to form a regular encampment; and the siege was little more than a blockade. The town, however, was reduced to great distress from want of supplies, but the numerous assaults of the enemy were vigorously repulsed, and great numbers of their men, and several of their bravest officers were killed in the sallies of the garrison; and on intelligence of the approach of the Earl of Ormonde with a considerable force, the commander of the insurgent army raised the siege and retired towards the north.
When Ormonde advanced towards Dublin against the parliamentarian governors, Colonel Jones sent most of his cavalry to Drogheda, with a view to cut off Ormonde's supplies; but Lord Inchiquin coming immediately in pursuit of them, with a strong body of royalist cavalry, surprised and routed the party and laid siege to the town, which he soon obliged to surrender. After the battle of Rathmines, Colonel Jones besieged the garrison placed here by the royalists, but suddenly retired on the approach of the Marquess of Ormonde with 300 men. The Marquess inspected and repaired the fortifications; and foreseeing the danger to which it would be exposed, committed the government of the town to Sir Arthur Aston, a gallant R. C. officer, with a garrison of 2000 foot and 300 horse, all chosen men and well supplied with ammunition and provisions.
Cromwell, on landing at Dublin in 1649, marched with 10,000 men against Drogheda, as the most important town for opening a passage into the northern provinces; and after a siege of two days, his artillery having made a sufficient breach in the walls, the assault was commenced by his troops, who were twice repulsed; but in the third attack, headed by himself, he gained possession of the town, and in order to impress upon the Irish such a dread of his name as might prevent all opposition, gave orders to put the whole garrison to the sword: this barbarous execution was continued for five successive days, the governor and all his officers being included in the proscription, and even some ecclesiastics who were found within the town were butchered: a few of the garrison contrived to escape in disguise, and besides these only thirty were spared from the general massacre, who were instantly transported as slaves to Barbadoes.
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DROGHEDA | Drogheda in the 1640s | Drogheda during the Williamite Wars | Drogheda Infrastructure and Manufactures | Drogheda Trade in the 1830s | Drogheda Government in the 1830s | Drogheda Churches and Parishes
Truelove's Journal: A Bookshop Novella
From a sad, comfortless childhood Giles Truelove developed into a reclusive and uncommunicative man whose sole passion was books. For so long they were the only meaning to his existence. But when fate eventually intervened to have the outside world intrude upon his life, he began to discover emotions that he never knew he had.
This is a story for the genuine booklover, penned by an Irish bookseller under the pseudonym of Ralph St. John Featherstonehaugh.
Annals of the Famine in Ireland
Annals of the Famine in Ireland, by Asenath Nicholson, still has the power to shock and sadden even though the events described are ever-receding further into the past. When you read, for example, of the poor widowed mother who was caught trying to salvage a few potatoes from her landlord's field, and what the magistrate discovered in the pot in her cabin, you cannot help but be appalled and distressed.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger
This book, the prequel to Annals of the Famine in Ireland cannot be recommended highly enough to those interested in Irish social history. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, travelled from her native America to assess the condition of the poor in Ireland during the mid 1840s. Refusing the luxury of hotels and first class travel, she stayed at a variety of lodging-houses, and even in the crude cabins of the very poorest. Not to be missed!
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Henry Ford Jones' book, first published in 1915 by Princeton University, is a classic in its field. It covers the history of the Scotch-Irish from the first settlement in Ulster to the American Revolutionary period and the foundation of the country.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
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