Page 227 - Demo

Chapter Seven 227
turned his attentions southward, to the stout-walled town of Wexford then garrisoned by a body of troops under the command of the town Governor, David Sinnot, a local Wexford landowner of Norman descent. The speedy capture of this well defended town was facili- tated by the treachery of one of its defenders, Captain James Staford, who betrayed into the hands of the besiegers the castle outside the southern walls. The possession of this strate- gic fortiication placed the town at the mercy of Cromwell and quickly forced its surrender. Fearful scenes of butchery and carnage again took place, when once more the roundheads were allowed to run riot, and, as Cromwell himself noted, ‘put all to the sword that came in their way.’
To a man, the garrison of Wexford was slaughtered, along with all the Catholic clergy and great number of innocent civilians-amongst them 300 women who had gathered at the foot of the Cross which then stood in the Market Square. Cromwell afterwards wrote of the massacre, saying: “I thought it not right or good to restrain of the soldiers from their right of pillage or from doing execution on them.”
It was about this time that Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill and Ormond came to terms, the for- mer, in one of his last acts, inally agreeing to bring 6,000 men to Ormond’s assistance. Ear- lier in the year, in a letter to the Nuncio Rinuccini, who was by then back in Rome, Eoghan Ruadh lamented the state of afairs in Ireland, when he wrote: “We are almost reduced to despair. On the one hand, Ormond entreats us to join him; on the other, the Parliamentary Party seeks our friendship. God knows we hate and detest both alike.”
The victor of Benburb, however, was not destined to lead the Ulstermen to Kilkenny, as arranged with Ormond. On November 6, 1649, the great Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill died at Cloch Uachtair Castle, in county Cavan.
Despite no reliable evidence existing to show that O’Neill’s death was anything other than natural, it is claimed in the tradition and believed by many that he was the victim of the poisoner’s hand. To the Irish cause the death of O’Neill was an irreparable loss. He died at a time when his military genius and courage were sorely needed by his countrymen, and his passing left the way clear for Cromwell’s rampaging armies. It is often said that though there were many great O’Neills, Eoghan Ruadh was perhaps the greatest of them all, and to the Irish, his death must have seemed the prelude to inal disaster. Following the death of Eoghan Ruadh, his nephew, Aodh Dubh O’Neill, ‘Black Hugh’ O’Neill, took command of the Ulster troops and led them south as previously arranged.