As a small boy Joe Joyce played soldiers on the fields of Aughrim, a small village in Co Galway, between the towns of Loughrea and Ballinasloe. In his early years the games were fun, running among the ditches with his sisters Marie and Cepta, playing around the ruined castle, gazing across the flat east Galway countryside from Kilcommadan Hill, far from the reality of where bitter and often hand to hand fighting took place; and where just before dark, on that fateful wet Sunday July 12 1691, the fearless Scottish general Hugh Mackey led a one-thousand strong cavalry charge into the reeling Irish Jacobite infantry to win the day.
It marked the climax of the three year Williamite War in Ireland, the end of centuries of Irish resistance to English plantation and land confiscation, and began the flight from Ireland of its best fighting men, romantically referred to as the Flight of the Wild Geese.
Joe’s father, Martin Joyce, who was headteacher in the local national school, where he taught for 40 years, became one of the best informed experts on the battle in Ireland. Gradually Joe was drawn into his father’s enthusiasm especially as debris from the battlefield, unearthed by farmers ploughing the land, included cannon and musket balls. A teacher from Wicklow and his son, Colman Morrissey, stopped by every Summer, and the two boys became friends following their fathers over the fields as landmarks in the battle were noted, the events of the battle discussed.
Aughrim did not end the war. It would drag on for a further three months, but the fighting was over. Galway surrendered within days without a siege; Limerick followed in October where the famous treaty was signed allowing the Irish army to leave the country in ships, to continue the war on the continent.
There was a surprising note of chivalry among 17th century professional soldiers on the field. Treaties with former enemies were often entered into with the best intentions; but in this case the victorious Williamite government had a different view. The Treaty of Limerick, among other things guaranteed Catholic landowners the right to keep their lands if they swore allegiance to the Protestant parliament, but other freedoms in the treaty were quickly torn up, and a dark period of systematic restrictions on Catholic life began.
Land and religion
The Williamite War in Ireland had all the ingredients for great hatred: land and religion. It began with King Louis XIV - a king who burned so bright in his elaborate costumes, periwigs, palaces and mistresses, he was called the Le Roi Soleil, - whose excesses were equalled by the length of his reign, and relentless ambition.
James II of England, a deeply unpopular Catholic monarch, was overthrown by his Protestant son-in-law William of Orange, the titular head of the Dutch Republic, and head of a grand European alliance seeking to contain the French king’s military ambitions.
William first fled to King Louis asking for help, and with French arms, and a limited number of men came to Ireland hoping for a series of victories which would begin the fight back for his crown.
Previously James had appointed Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, to be his Lord Deputy. A man who was quick to charge exorbitant fees for using his influence to have land seized by previous English monarchs, and more recently by the harsh Cromwellian confiscations, returned to their original owners. Among the Irish army, known as Jacobites, which quickly rallied to James’ banner, many were former aristocratic Catholics, hoping to win their lands back, and live in a Catholic Ireland once again.
Total disaster
Even with French help James’ Irish campaign was a total disaster. It began with the calamitous siege of Derry, where from April 18 until August 1 1698, the Jacobites failed to control one of the key towns in the north.
William, now declared king of England as James was deemed to have abandoned his throne, followed James to Ireland with an army consisting of English, Scottish, Dutch, Danish, and other nationalities, including Irish Protestants who rushed to his banner. On July 1 1690 both armies met at the Boyne, where, unusually, both kings took to the field. Again total defeat for the Jacobites ending with King James fleeing from the scene, seeking refuge in France.
Although the Jacobites were defeated at the Boyne their army, of approximately 20,000 men, was still a fighting force. It withdrew across the Shannon and awaited its fate at Aughrim.
“It is generally believed that 6,000 men were killed that July 12 1691, at least 4,000 of the Jacobites. It is an extraordinary number of men killed in one day,” said Joe Joyce. “In the Battle of Gettysburg, during the American Civil War, 170,000 fought each other, and 8,000 were killed. But that battle was fought over three days; compare that to the slaughter at Aughrim.”*
The Williamite army buried its dead in large pits; and not wanting to lose the momentum of victory moved quickly on to Galway. The Irish dead were left scattered over the fields.
Scavengers would have been immediately among the dead where bodies were stripped, and searched for money and valuables. But we get a truly horrific picture of the dead from the writings of John Dutton** who visited the scene seven years after the battle. ‘After the battle the English did not tarry to bury any of the dead except their own, and left those of the enemy exposed to the fowls of the air, for the country was then so uninhabited that there were not hands to inter them. Many dogs resorted to this aceldama (meaning a place associated with Judas Iscariot ) where for want for other food they fed on men’s flesh, and thereby became so dangerous and fierce that a single person could not pass that way without manifest hazard.’
Dutton ends his description with a story of a faithful greyhound belonging to a Jacobite killed in battle who remained by his master’s body defending it until shot by a passing soldier in January the following year.
Next week: Patrick Sarsfield, and the fate of Marquis de St Ruth at Aughrim.
NOTES: * His father’s stories and his own research with his natural skill at story telling has inspired Joe Joyce’s excellent book 1691- A Novel, recently published by Cove Books, now on sale €15.
** From Teague Land - A Merry Ramble through the Wild Irish (1698 ), republished by Four Court’s Press 2003.
