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Chapter Six 195
ing , as we know, under the harsh rule of its President, Sir Richard Bingham, carried of the cattle, and burned the houses of many of the English. ‘Now taking fright,’ as one chronicler mused, Elizabeth ordered her deputy to again make contact with O’Neill, and negotiations were accordingly opened. O’Neill and his allies came to the table with certain demands, namely, Liberty of conscience for the Irish-The Freedom of Ulster and North Connacht from the sherif’s interference-That no English garrison be stationed in Ulster save in Newry and Carrickfergus.
These demands were not acceded to and the war was renewed with greater vigour.
In 1597 the English attacked Ulster at three points almost simultaneously. O’Donnell defeated one force en route, near Ballyshannon, county Donegal; the second attack was repulsed by an Irish force under Captain Richard Tyrell at a place ever since called “Tyrell’s Pass” near Mullingar, county Westmeath; whilst O’Neill himself defeated the third at Drum- lugh, in county Armagh. But the most decisive demonstration was to come in August of the following year, 1598, in the greatest victory of all this war, and one of the most memorable of Irish history, the Battle of Béal an Atha Buidhe - ‘The Battle of the Yellow Ford.’
In the early part of 1598 one of the two stratergic gateways to Ulster, the great castle of Portmore, the other being Armagh, was besieged by O’Neill, who failing to take it by storm, determined to reduce it by starvation.
By August the suferings of the commander of Portmore, Captain Williams and his gar- rison, had become so acute that Marshal Sir Henry Bagenal, with a large army was sent to the relief of the garrison. It is recounted that Bagenal, who was described by the great Irish chieftain O’Sullivan Beare as being “equally pre-eminent in council and in courage, cautious in prosperity, courageous in adversity,” and whose sister Mabel was married to Red Hugh O’Donnell’s father, Black Hugh, drew together an army of 4,500 foot, under forty captains and oicers of inferior rank, and 500 cavalry. To inspire these ighters, a thousand pounds reward was ofered to the man who would bring in the head of O’Neill or O’Donnell-either the father or son.
One chronicler of the day left us this record of Bagenal’s army
“As usual there was a slight majority of Irish mercenaries, excellent marksmen and
sharpshooters, and among the oicers were some of illustrious Irish family. But all were veteran troops, either survivors of the picked forces of Norris who had endured with him the long wars in Flanders, or men who had fought in Ireland under experi-