Page 197 - Demo

Chapter Six 197
With many a chieftain and warrior clan!
A thousand proud steeds in his vanguard are prancing Neath the Borderers brave from the banks of the Bann! Many a heart shall quail under its coat of mail,
Deeply the merciless foeman shall rue
When on his ear shall ring, borne on the breezes wing Tyr Connell’s dread war cry O’Donnell abu!
Wildly o’er Desmond the war wolf is howling
Fearless the eagle sweeps over the plain
The fox in the streets of the city is prowling
And all who would conquer them are banished, or slain! On with O’Donnell then! Fight the good ight again! Sons of Tyr Connell are valiant and true!
Make the proud Saxon feel Erin’s avenging steel!
Strike! For your Country! O’Donnell abu!
The victory at “The Yellow Ford,” encouraged the Irish throughout the country to take up arms and in no time the rebellion had extended into Connacht and Munster. In the latter province the rebels had risen under the leadership of James Desmond, nephew of the late Earl of Desmond, since known as the Sugán Earl - Sugán is the Irish word for a straw-rope, and the cognomen applied because James held his title, not from the Queen, but from the Earl of Tyrone.
Queen Elizabeth now determined to employ all her vast resources in crushing this very real threat to her authority. Consequently, in 1599 she dispatched to Ireland an army of 20,000 foot and 2,000 cavalry, under the command of her favourite, and as many believe, lover, Robert Devereaux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was also appointed Lord-Lieutenant-a role he postured in. Instead of proceeding north against O’Neill and his confederates, bizarrely, Essex began his largely fallacious campaign by undertaking an expedition into Munster with the intention of subduing and forcing obedience in that part of the country. But at many points along his laborious route southwards, Essex was harassed, ambushed, and even attacked, and whilst passing through the territory around Ballybrittas, in county Laois, the rearguard of his army was set upon by the O’Moores and 500 of his men slain. The deile in which the engagement took place has since been called Bearna na gCleite - ‘The Pass of