Enniskilleners at Omagh

From Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689 by Thomas Witherow

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CHAPTER VI...continued

VISIT TO OMAGH.—Monday, 3rd June.

At Trillic, on the road to Omagh, two troops of Enniskillen horse, under Captain Francis Gore and Captain Arnold Crosbie, were quartered in a house belonging to Captain Mervin. On the 3rd of June, intelligence reached this little garrison that dragoon horses belonging to the Jacobite garrison of Omagh were usually sent out to graze on the waste lands adjoining the town, and were very slackly guarded. They resolved to act upon the information. Taking with them two foot companies, under Captain Henry Smith and Captain Robert Corry, which quartered at Newport, four miles off, they left Trillic at sunset, marched to Omagh, and brought away with them about 160 troop-horses and about as many cows. This they regarded as rather a lucky hit, as at one stroke they disabled three troops of the enemy, and mounted three troops of their own much better than before. The country Irish, as usual, sent forward news that the Eniskilleners were coming, so that the garrison had time to save the town, but not their horses, from being captured.[32]

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NOTES

[32] MacCarmick, p. 44. Hamilton, p. 22.

Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689

Thomas Witherow's thoroughly researched and well-annotated work is a classic account of the Siege of Derry, from the shutting of the gates against the Jacobite forces by the thirteen apprentice boys to the relief of the city by Major-General Kirke's fleet in July 1689. The defence of Enniskillen and the counteroffensive actions of the Enniskilleners is also ably documented.

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Fighters of Derry

William R. Young’s Fighters of Derry has for decades been one of the most overlooked works on the Siege of Derry and as a local genealogical resource. First published in 1932, the book was the product of ten years’ research into identifying participants at the siege which the author undertook when suffering from ill-health in the latter part of his life.

The book is essentially divided into two parts: the first contains 1660 biographical entries relating to the defenders of Derry, tracing, where possible, the family lineage; and the second part includes 352 entries on the Jacobite side. Apart from individual accounts of eminent protagonists in the siege, such as David Cairnes, Rev. George Walker, the Duke of Schomberg, Patrick Sarsfield, etc., there is also background given to many of the most influential families involved in the conflict.

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The Actions of the Enniskillen-men

While the epic siege of Derry is usually accorded its proper place in history, the contemporaneous exploits of the Enniskillen men are often overlooked. This is manifestly unjust because the Enniskilleners demonstrated bravery and heroism in battle at least equal to that of the defenders of Londonderry. Some, of course, rate the actions of the Enniskillen men more highly. As far as Revd Andrew Hamilton, the Rector of Kilskeery and author of A True Relation of the Actions of the Inniskilling Men (1690), was concerned ‘The Derry men saved a city but the Enniskilleners saved a kingdom.’

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