Cromwellian conquest of Ireland: Encyclopedia II - Cromwellian conquest of Ireland - Guerrilla warfare famine and plague

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland - Guerrilla warfare famine and plague

The fall of Galway saw the end of organised resistance to the Cromwellian conquest, but fighting continued as small units of Irish troops launched guerrilla attacks on the Parliamentarians. These men were known as "tories" (from the Irish word toraidhe meaning, "pursued man"). They operated from difficult terrain such as the Bog of Allen, the Wicklow Mountains and the drumlin country in the north midlands. and within months, made the countryside extremely dangerous for all except large parties of Parliamentarian troops. Henry Ireton and John Hewson both mounted punitive expedition to the Wicklow mountains to try and put down the tories there, but without success. In response, the Parliamentarians destroyed food supplies and forcibly evicted civilians who were thought to helping the tories. The result was famine throughout much of Ireland, aggravated by an outbreak of Bubonic plague. As the guerrilla war ground on, the Parliamentarians designated areas such as county Wicklow as what would now be called Free-fire zones, where anyone found would be killed. In addition they began selling prisoners of war as slaves to the West Indies (especially Barbados, where their descendants are known as Redlegs).

This phase of the war may actually have been the most costly in terms of civilian loss of life.The combination of warfare, famine and plague caused a huge mortality among the Irish population. William Petty estimated the death toll of the wars in Ireland since 1641 as over 400,000 people, or about one third of the country’s population. Eventually, the guerrilla war was ended by publishing surrender terms in 1652 allowing Irish troops to go abroad to serve in foreign armies not at war with the Commonwealth of England. Most went to France or Spain. The last Irish and Royalist forces (the remnants of the Confederate's Ulster Army) formally surrendered at Cloughoughter in Cavan in 1653. However, low-level guerrilla warfare continued for the remainder of the decade and was accompanied by widespread lawlessness and banditry. Undoubtedly some of the tories were simple bandits, whereas others were politically motivated. The Cromwellians distinguished in their rewards between "private tories" and "public tories".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Guerrilla warfare famine and plague", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki