Second Desmond Rebellion - End of The Rebellion

End of The Rebellion

With the massacre at Smerwick, the tide had turned decisively against the rebels. However, the war dragged on for two more years of increasingly bitter guerrilla fighting. The civilian population was to suffer tremendously as a result of the war, being targeted by both sides and having their crops, livestock and homes destroyed.

Grey was the most ruthless of the English commanders, being described once as "a bloody man, who regarded not the life of subjects more than dogs". He described his own tactics as "burning their corn, spoiling their harvest and driving their cattle". The result of this was famine and the outbreak of epidemics of diseases caused by malnutrition. In the summer of 1582, Elizabeth I removed Grey from the office of Lord Deputy for his excessive brutality. By mid 1582, Warham St Leger reported that around 30,000 people had died of famine in Munster alone in the previous six months and hundreds were dying in Cork city of starvation and disease.

Meanwhile the rebellion slowly fell apart. As a result of the defeat at Smerwick, Papal assistance to Nicholas Sanders was cut off. After spending almost two years as a fugitive in the south-west of Ireland, he is believed to have died of cold and starvation in the spring of 1581. In April 1581, a general pardon was offered to all but the rebellion’s leaders. Many of the Desmond’s erstwhile supporters surrendered. Baltinglass fled for France in August 1581. Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne made a false surrender in April 1581 but continued his raiding after a short period. However he surrendered for good in September 1582, ending the fighting in Leinster.

For the Earl of Desmond, there would be no pardon, and he was pursued by crown forces until the end. For the remainder of the war, the Earl and the remaining Geraldines evaded capture on the run in the mountains of Kerry, and Tipperary and engaged in guerrilla warfare. In early 1582, John of Desmond was killed in a skirmish north of Cork. The rebellion was finally ended in 1583, when the Earl of Ormonde assumed command of Crown forces. Ormonde took a less ruthless approach to the campaign than the English officers had, preferring diplomacy to scorched earth tactics. He contained the rebels to west Cork and Kerry and persuaded many of Desmond’s closest relatives to surrender. On 11 November 1583 the end came when the Earl was killed in Glenaginty in the Slieve Mish Mountains (near Tralee in County Kerry) by the local Moriarty clan of Castledrum on the Dingle peninsula. The Earl and his followers had raided the property of clan Moriarty, stole cattle and mistreated the sister of the clan chief, Owen Moriarty. Men of clan Moriarty, with 25 soldiers, pursued the Earl's followers until they captured and killed the Earl at Glenaginty. Owen Moriarty received 1000 pounds of silver from the English government for Desmond's head, which was sent to Queen Elizabeth in London, his body was triumphantly displayed on the walls of Cork city.

While some commentators criticized Moriarty for the slaying of the Earl, to many it brought an end to the ruinous Desmond rebellion and the famine that followed it.