Page 248 - Demo

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Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh Till victory declares itself
For Erin’s daring sons.
“Oh for those guns in Limerick now Placed on the city walls!
We’d bid King William breakfast On his own black cannon balls!
It may not be - but trebly charged, And filled with shot. and shell, They’ll toll the robber’s requiem, And sound the soldier’s knell.”
Oh, sudden flash of blinding light! Oh, hollow-sounding roar!
Down history’s pages in Irish ears It echoes evermore.
And Balleneety’s blackened tower Still marks the famous place.
Where Sarsfield staked his all to win, And won that midnight race!
William’s resources, however, were not at an end. Another equally formidable siege-train was brought from Waterford, and on 17 August, the bombardment and assault on the city of Limerick began in earnest. But the resistance was equal to the occasion and after one days’ hard fighting, even though the walls were breached, the besiegers withdrew with the loss of 2,000 men. Four days later the siege was raised and William returned to England with his work half done, leaving his Dutch general, de Ginkle in command.
Lauzun returned to France early in 1691, but in May of that year, Tyrconnell who was already in France having left the previous year, returned accompanied by a capable, though arrogant, and unpopular soldier, Charles Chalmont, Marquis St.Ruth, or Marshal St. Ruth as he is more often referred to. Upon arrival, St.Ruth assumed supreme command of the Jacobite army with Sarsfield as his second-in-command. As a result of the disliked St. Ruth being confirmed in the Irish command, there was much discord between the three main
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