Second Desmond Rebellion - Rebellion in Leinster

Rebellion in Leinster

In July, 1580, Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, based in the Wicklow Mountains launched the rebellion in the east of Ireland. He assembled a coalition of local lords and clan leaders, including the Kavanaghs, the O’Tooles and the O’Moores. Many of these had already been fighting on and off with English garrisons for several years. In particular, the arbitrary killings by an English officer named Masterson, based in Wicklow, seems to have provoked many into revolt. In a symbolic rejection of English rule, the rebels bestowed the title of King of Leinster on Creon MacMurrough Kavanagh, whose ancestors had held this title before the English conquest. O’Byrne was joined by James Eustace, Viscount of Baltinglass, an Old English marcher lord of the Pale, who was motivated primarily by his devout Catholicism.

In August, John of Desmond and Nicholas Sanders met Baltinglass in Laois to try to co-ordinate their forces, but aside from limited co-operation in the Barrow valley region, they were unable to forge a common strategy. Nevertheless, the outbreak of rebellion so close to the centre of English government in Dublin was of grave concern to the English.

Sir Henry Sidney, the former Lord Deputy of Ireland influenced the response from his membership of the Privy council and in August 1580 a new Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton was sent from England with 6000 troops. Grey's immediate priority was to put down the Leinster rebellion.

On August 25, 1580, English forces under Grey were routed in the Battle of Glenmalure with the forces of O'Byrne and Viscount Baltinglass. While trying to storm O’Byrne’s fortress at Glenmalure in the heart of the Wicklow mountains, they were ambushed and mauled, losing over 800 men killed. William Stanley was sent by Grey de Wilton to defend the Pale area of Leinster. For the remainder of the war, O’Byrne and his allies raided English settlements in the east and south east, but were unable to take strategic advantage of their victory at Glenmalure.

The rebellion and its aftermath saw a number of people from the Pale and other Old English areas such as Wexford (who had previously always been loyal to English authority) hanged as traitors. Those executed included Dermot O'Hurley the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Margaret Ball the wife of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, also died in prison in Dublin Castle. Those executed often proclaimed their Catholic faith on the scaffold and were honoured by their Church as Catholic martyrs . These executions were a major factor in the long term alienation of the Old English from the English state in Ireland.