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222 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
on 5 June, 1646. It is told that 3,300 of Monro’s army were slain, while all their cannon, 1,500 draft-horses, two months provisions, and tents remained in the hands of the victors, along with thirty-two standards; and the province of Ulster. O’Neill’s loss was reputed to have been seventy men and a hundred wounded. Taking to the field without artillery, O Neill’s success at the Battle of Benburb, was the result of masterly strategy and passion, and it is stated that, before the battle began, he addressed his army with the following words: “Behold the army of the enemies of God, the enemies of your lives. Fight valiantly against them to-day, for it is they who have deprived you of your chiefs, of your children, of your means of sub- sistence, spiritual and temporal; who have torn from you your lands, and made you wandering fugitives.”
The victory at Benburb raised the spirits of the Irish and temporarily secured the as- cendancy of the “Old” Irish party. The Anglo-Irish, on the other hand, did not trust O’Neill and his advocate, Rinuccini, and despite the opposition of the Old Irish they delayed his advance while they again opened negotiations with Ormond. Finally O’Neill was ordered to join forces with Thomas Preston, the Leinster commander, and attack Dublin. But when the two armies were just a short distance from the city, O’Neill discovered that his fellow- commander was also in communication with Ormond and intended treachery.
O’Neill immediately abandoned the proposed attack on Dublin and marched south- wards to protect Kilkenny, while Preston, realizing that his intrigues had been discovered, disavowed his dealings with Ormond and made his explanations to the Anglo-Irish con- trolled Supreme Council: his explanations were accepted.
Now by this time, Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarian army in England, ‘the Round- heads,’ as they were known in the vernacular of the day, had gained many victories, and the Royal cause there was as good as lost. Ormond found himself in a powerless position. Dub- lin was still his, and rather than let the city fall into the hands of O’Neill and the Catholic Nuncio, on 28 July ,1647, he surrendered it to the Parliament forces and left for France. It is told that when handing over the city Ormond reputedly stated that he ‘preferred English rebels to Irish ones.’ Lieutenant General Michael Jones, a supporter of Cromwell then as- sumed the title ‘Governor of Dublin.’
Although these events should have served as a warning to the Confederate Council, sur- prisingly, they still continued to hamper Eoghan Ruadh and favour less capable command- ers. But, in 1647, disaster overtook them when two important military events occurred. In
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