Spanish land at Kinsale

KINSALE is a town that has figured prominently in two major events in Irish history. James II landed there in 1689 during the Williamite War. Since the Siege of Derry had already started and the opposition to him was concentrated in Ulster, it did not make a lot of sense for him to land at the opposite end of the country. After the Battle of the Boyne, he returned to Kinsale and fled from there to France.

Almost 90 years earlier, something similar happened. Coming to the end of the Nine Years War, O’Neill and O’Donnell were holding on in Ulster waiting for help from Spain but when it arrived, it also landed at the opposite end of the country. When the Spanish finally decided to send help to Ireland, the force they sent was much smaller than what had been requested by the Irish leaders. Sickness struck the troops before they even left port and then, at sea, several ships were forced to return to Spain by bad weather. Those ships were carrying most of the expedition’s artillery.

Nevertheless, over 3,000 troops under Don Juan D’Aquila, landed at Kinsale. The major problem was that the Irish leaders they were meant to help were hundreds of miles to the north, with a strong English army under Mountjoy and Carew in between. If they had arrived a few years earlier, while there was still resistance in Munster or landed in the north where O’Neill and O’Donnell were, they might have made a difference. As it was, they were too small a force, too late and in the wrong place.

Mountjoy immediately led his army of 12,000 men to Kinsale. As well as English troops, they also included men led by the Earl of Thomond and the Earl of Clanrichard. They camped outside the town and laid siege. The Ulster Earls were left with no option but to march south to come to the aid of the Spanish. They started their 300-mile winter march and arrived at Kinsale with about 6,000 men, including some led by Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare.

The Spanish were in the town surrounded by the English army which, in turn, was surrounded by the Irish troops. All that was needed was patience and to force the English army out. The Earls, however, were persuaded to launch a night-time attack. The English had learned of their plans and were ready. Some of the Irish troops went astray and the Spanish never attacked. The end result was a complete rout of the Irish forces.

O’Donnell sailed to Spain but died a few months later, said to have been poisoned. O’Neill led his Ulster forces home and continued his resistance for a further two years. Then he and his supporters also left for Spain, in what came to be known as the Flight of the Earls.

That defeat at Kinsale had a devastating effect on the old Irish culture and way of life. The old Gaelic system was at an end and the English took the opportunity to seize the lands of Ulster and organise the Plantation of Ulster.

Events leading up to the Battle of Kinsale started when the Spanish force sent to aid O’Neill and O’Donnell landed at Kinsale on October 2, 1601 – 411 years ago this week.