John Norreys - Return To Ireland

Return To Ireland

In March 1584, Norreys departed the Low Countries and was sent to Ireland in the following July, when he was appointed president of the province of Munster (at this time, his brother Edward was stationed there). Norris urged the plantation of the province with English settlers (an aim achieved in the following years), but the situation proved so unbearably miserable that many of his soldiers deserted him for the Low Countries.

In September 1584 Norreys accompanied the lord deputy of Ireland, Sir John Perrot, and the earl of Ormond into Ulster. The purpose was to dislodge the Scots in the Route and the Glynns, and Norreys helped seize fifty thousand cattle from the woods of Glenconkyne in order to deprive the enemy of its means of sustenance. The campaign was not quite successful, as the Scots simply regrouped in Kintyre before crossing back to Ireland once the lord deputy had withdrawn south. Norreys returned to Munster, but was summoned to Dublin in 1585 for the opening of parliament. He sat as the member for Cork and was forcibly eloquent on measures to confirm the queen's authority over the country. He also complained that he was prevented from launching a fresh campaign in Ulster.