Page 224 - Demo

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Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
the enemy were slain about four thousand, and 2,517 taken prisoner. We took on the place three demi-cannons, one large square gun, carrying a ball of twelve pounds, one saker-drake, and one mortar piece; all these brass. Then we also gained about 200 oxen for the train besides carriages. The next day we seized a brass cannon within five miles of the camp.”
(Colonel Michael Jones to William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons)
This was an important battle. Resulting as it did, the conquest of Ireland by the Parlia- mentary army became comparatively easy; because as one historian of the day noted “if Dublin fell, an independent government would be established which might hold out the hand to the English Royalists.”
Strongbow’s force and Henry’s wile Tudors wrath and Stuart guile,
And Iron Stafford’s tiger jaws,
And brutal Brunswick’s Penal Laws; Not forgetting Saxon faith,
Not forgetting Norman scath, Not forgetting William’s word Not forgetting Cromwell’s sword.
(Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry)
Oliver Cromwell, portrait by Samuel Cooper
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