Confederate Ireland - Definition

Confederate Ireland 1642-49

Confederate Ireland is the term given to brief period of Irish self-government in between the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two thirds of the territory of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the Confederation of Kilkenny. The remaining Protestant enclaves in Ulster, Munster and Leinster were held by armies loyal to either the Royalist, Parliamentarian or Scottish Covenanters during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The Confederates failed to defeat the British armies in Ireland in 1642-49 in a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars and joined a Royalist alliance in 1648 against the English Parliament.

Rebellion and the Formation of the Confederation

The Catholic Confederation was formed in the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, both to control the popular uprising and to organise an Irish Catholic war effort against an English or Scottish re-conquest of the country. The initiative for the Confederation came from Catholic Bishops Nicholas Plunkett and Nicholas French and Irish Catholic nobles such as Viscount Gormanstown, Lord Mountgarret and Viscount Muskerry. The Confederation itself was composed of a General Assembly, elected from and by Irish landowners and Catholic Clergy, which in turn elected a government known as the Supreme Council. The General Assembly and the Supreme council met in the city of Kilkenny.

The Confederate’s stated objective was to reach an agreement with the King, Charles I, for full rights for Catholics in Ireland, toleration of the Catholic religion and self-government for Ireland – notably the reversal of Poynings Law. The motto of the Confederation was Pro Deo, Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis – "for God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is United". The members of the Supreme Council were predominantly of Old English descent and were distrusted by many of the Gaelic Irish, who felt they were too moderate in their demands for a reversal of the Plantations and toleration of the Catholic religion. The Confederates believed that their aspirations were best served by alliance with the Royalist cause because the English Parliament and Scottish Covenanters had threatened before the war to invade Ireland and destroy the Catholic religion and Irish land-owning class.

Cessation with the Royalists and the First Ormonde Peace

In 1643, the Confederates negotiated a ceasefire or cessation, with the Royalists in Ireland and opened negotiations with James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde – Charles I’s representative in Ireland. This meant that hostilities ceased between the Confederates and Ormonde’s Royalist army in Dublin. However, the English garrison in Cork (which was commanded by Murrough O’Brien, Earl Inchiquinn, a rare Gaelic Irish Protestant) objecting to the ceasefire, mutinied and declared allegiance to the English Parliament. The Scottish Covenanters had also landed an army in Ulster in 1642, which remained hostile to the Confederates. In 1644, the Confederates sent around 1500 men under Alisdair MacColla to Scotland to support the Royalists there under Montrose against the Covenanters, sparking the Scottish Civil War.

By 1646, the Supreme Council of the Confederates had come to an agreement with Ormonde. Under its terms Catholics would be allowed to serve in Public Office and found schools, there were also verbal promises of future concessions on religious toleration. There was an amnesty for acts committed in the rebellion and a guarantee against further seizure of Irish Catholic land. However, there was no reversal of Poynings Law which subordinated the Irish Parliament to the English one, no reversal of the Protestant domination of Parliament and no reversal of the main Plantations, or [[colonisation[[, in Ulster and Munster. In return, for these concessions Irish troops would be sent to England to fight for the Royalists in the English Civil War. However, the terms agreed were not acceptable to either the Catholic Clergy, the Irish military commanders – notably Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston – or the majority of the General Assembly.

Many believed the Supreme Council were unreliable since many of them were related or otherwise bound to Ormonde. Besides, it was pointed out that the English Civil War had already been decided in the English Parliament’s favour and that sending Irish troops to the Royalists would be a futile sacrifice. On the other hand, may felt after O’Neill’s Ulster army defeated the Scots at Benburb, that the Confederates were in a position to re-conquer all of Ireland. Furthermore, those who opposed the peace were backed, both spiritually and financially, by the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Gianbattista Rinuccini. The Supreme Council were arrested and the General Assembly voted to reject the deal.

Military Defeat and a New Ormonde Peace

After the Confederates rejected the peace deal, Ormonde, handed Dublin over to a Parliamentarian army under Michael Jones. The Confederates now tried to eliminate the remaining Protestant outposts in Dublin and Cork, but in 1647 suffered a series of military disasters. First, Thomas Preston’s Leinster army was destroyed by Jone’s Parliamentarians at the battle of Dungans Hill in Meath. Then the Confederates Munster army met a similar fate at the hands of Inchiquinn’s British forces at Knocknanauss.

These setbacks made most Confederates much more eager to come to an agreement with the Royalists and negotiations were re-opened. The Supreme Council got very generous terms from Charles I and Ormonde, including toleration of the Catholic religion, a commitment to repealing Poynings Law (and therefore to Irish self-government), recognition of lands taken by Irish Catholics during the war and a commitment to a partial reversal of the Plantation of Ulster. In addition, there was to be an Act of Oblivion, or amnesty for all acts committed during the rebellion and war – in particular the killings of British Protestant settlers in 1641 and the Confederate armies would remain in existence. However, in hindsight, Charles granted these terms only out of desperation and in fact he later repudiated them. Under the terms of the agreement, the Confederation was to dissolve itself, place its troops under Royalist commanders and accept English Royalist troops. Inchiquinn also defected from the Parliament and rejoined the Royalists in Ireland.

Civil War within the Confederation

However, many of the Irish Catholics continued to reject a deal with the Royalists. Owen Roe O'Neill refused to join the new Royalist alliance and fought with the Royalists and Confederates in the Summer of 1648. This split within the Confederate ranks is often argued to represent a split between Gaelic Irish and Old English. This is partially true, especially since the Gaelic Irish had lost more land and power since the English conquest of Ireland and hence were more radical in their demands. However, there were members of both ethnicities on either side. For example, Phelim O’Neill, the Gaelic Irish instigator of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, sided with the moderates. The Catholic clergy were also split over the issue. O’Neill retreated to Ulster and did not rejoin his former comrades until Cromwell’s invasion of 1649.

Cromwell’s Invasion

Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649 to crush the new alliance of Irish Confederates and Royalists. The Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland was the bloodiest warfare to date in the country and was accompanied by plague and famine. It ended in total defeat for the Irish Catholics and Royalists.

Significance

Confederate Ireland was the only sustained period of Ireland self government before the foundation of Irish Free state in 1922. Arguably it was also an early example of parliamentary-style government. However the Confederates ultimately failed in their objective to defend the interests of Irish Catholics. The Irish Confederate Wars and Cromwellian Conquest caused massive loss of life and ended with the confiscation of almost all Irish Catholic owned land. The end of the period cemented the British colonisation of Ireland.

Sources

• O'Siochru, Micheal, Confederate Ireland 1642-49, Four Courts Press Dublin 1999.
• Lenihan, Padraig, Confederate Catholics at War 1641-49, Cork University Press, Cork 2001.
• Ohlmeyer, Jane and Kenyon, John (ed.s), The Civil Wars, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998.
• Canny, Nicholas, Making Ireland British 1580-1650, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001.