The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite war in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691, near the village of Aughrim in County Galway. For the context of this war see Jacobitism and Glorious Revolution. ... This article is not about the Jacobite Orthodox Church, nor is it about Jacobinism or the earlier Jacobean period. ... William III of England (14 November 1650–8 March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William of Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and the Holy Roman Empires Prince of Orange from his birth, King of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scotland... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... Events March 5 - French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons March 29 - Siege of Mons ends to the city’s surrender October 3 - Treaty of Limerick which guaranteed civil rights to catholics was signed. ... Aughrim is a village in County Galway in the Republic of Ireland. ... County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe in Irish) is located on the west coast of Ireland. ...

The battle was the bloodiest ever fought on Irish soil – over 7,000 people were killed. It meant the effective end of Jacobitism in Ireland, although the city of Limerick held out until the autumn of 1691. This article is not about the Jacobite Orthodox Church, nor is it about Jacobinism or the earlier Jacobean period. ... Limerick (Irish: Luimneach) is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of the Republic of Ireland. ...

The Campaign

The Jacobite position in the summer of 1691 was a defensive one. In the previous year, they had retreated behind the River Shannon, which acted as an enormous moat around the province of Connacht, with strongholds at Sligo, Athlone and Limerick guarding its crossings. From this position, the Jacobites hoped to receive military aid from Louis XIV of France via the port towns and eventually be in a position to re-take the rest of Ireland. The River Shannon, Irelands longest river, divides the West of Ireland (mostly the province of Connaught) from the east and south (Leinster and most of Munster). ... Connaught redirects here. ... Sligo (Sligeach in Irish) is the county town of County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland. ... Remains of the abbey at Athlone. ... Limerick (Irish: Luimneach) is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of the Republic of Ireland. ... Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ...

Ginkel, the Williamite general had breached this line of defence by crossing the Shannon at Athlone - taking the town after a bloody siege. St Ruth, the French Jacobite general moved too slowly to save Athlone, as he had to gather his troops from their quarters and raise new ones from rapparee bands and the levies of Irish landowners. Ginkel marched through Ballinasloe, on the main road towards Limerick and Galway, before he found his way blocked by St Ruth’s army at Aughrim on the 12th of July 1691. Both armies were about 20,000 men strong. St Ruth’s army was almost entirely Irish Catholic, whereas Ginkel were English, Scottish, Danish, Dutch and French Huguenot (members of William III’s League of Augsburg) and Ulster Protestants. Rapparees were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side during the 1690s Williamite war in Ireland. ... Ballinasloe (Béal Átha na Sluaighe in Irish) is a town in County Galway in the Republic of Ireland. ... Aughrim is a village in County Galway in the Republic of Ireland. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ... William III King of England, Scotland and Ireland William III and II (14 November 1650–8 March 1702; also known as William Henry and William of Orange) was Prince of Orange from his birth, King of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scotland from 11 April... The Grand Alliance (known, prior to 1689, as the League of Augsburg) was a European coalition, consisting (at various times) of Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Netherlands, the Palatinate of the Rhine, Saxony, Spain, Sweden, and the United Provinces. ... Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland. ...

The Jacobite position at Aughrim was quite strong. St Ruth had drawn up his infantry along the crest of a ridge known as Kicommadan Hill. The hill was lined with small stone walls and hedgerows which marked the boundaries of farmer’s fields, but which could also be used as temporary earthworks for the Jacobite infantry to shelter behind. The left of the position was bounded by a bog, through which there was only one causeway, which was overlooked by Aughrim village and a ruined castle. On the other, open, flank, St Ruth placed his best infantry and most of his cavalry under Patrick Sarsfield. Patrick Sarsfield (d. ...

The Battle

The battle started with Ginkel trying to assault the open flank of the Jacobite position with cavalry and infantry. This attack ground to a halt after determined Jacobite counter-attacks and the Williamites halted and dug in behind stakes driven into the ground to protect against cavalry. In the centre, the Williamite infantry under Hugh Mackay tried a frontal assault on the Jacobite infantry on Kilcommadan Hill. The Williamite troops, mainly English and Scots, had to take each line of hedgerows, only to find that the Irish had had fallen back and were firing at them from the next line. Eventually, the Williamites were driven back with heavy losses and pursued into a bog, where more of them were killed or drowned. In the rout, the pursuing Jacobites manage to spike a battery of Williamite guns. Hugh Mackay Hugh Mackay (c. ...

This left Ginkel with only one option, to try and force a way through the causeway on the Jacobite left. This should have been an impregnable position, with the attackers concentrated into a narrow lane and covered by the defenders of the castle there. However, the Irish troops there were short on ammunition and found that their reserve ammunition, which was British made, would not fit into the muzzles of their French supplied muskets. As a result, the Williamite cavalry were able to gallop across the causeway and outflank the Jacobite position. A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth-bore long gun. ...

St Ruth was still confident that the battle could be won and was heard to shout, "they are running, we will chase them back to the gates of Dublin". However, as he tried to rally his cavalry on the left to counter-attack and drive the Williamite horse back, he was decapitated by a cannon ball. At this point, the Jacobite position collapsed very quickly. Their horsemen, demoralised by the death of their commander, fled the battlefield, leaving the left flank open for the Williamites to funnel more troops into and envelope the Jacobite line. The Jacobites on the right, seeing the situation was hopeless, also began to melt away, although Sarsfield did try to organise a rearguard action. This left the Jacobite infantry on Killcommadan Hill completely exposed and surrounded. They were slaughtered by the Williamite cavalry as they tried to get away, many of them having thrown away their weapons in order to run faster. One eyewitness, George Story, said that bodies covered the Hill, and looked from a distance like a flock of sheep. To this day, this area is known as the "Bloody Hollow".

Aftermath

Estimates of the two army’s losses vary. It is generally agreed that about 7000 men were killed at the battle. Most recent studies put the Williamite dead as high as 3000, with 4000 Jacobites killed. Many of the Jacobite dead were officers whom it was very difficult to replace. On top of that, another 4000 Jacobites either deserted or were taken prisoner. What was more, they had lost the better part of their equipment and supplies. For these reasons, Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite war in Ireland. The city of Galway surrendered without a fight after the battle and the Jacobite's main army surrendered shortly afterwards at Limerick after a short siege. The battle according to one author, "seared into Irish consciousness", and became known in the Irish language tradition as Eachroim an air - "Aughrim of the slaughter". The contemporary Gaelic poet Seamus Dall wrote of the Irish dead, "It is at Aughrim of the slaughter where they are to found, their damp bones lying uncoffined". Another poet wrote, "Our friends in vast numbers and languishing forms, left lifeless in the mountains and corroded by worms". Galway (official Irish name: Gaillimh) is the only city in the province of Connacht in Ireland and capital of County Galway. ... The city of Limerick in south-western Ireland was besieged several times in the 17th century, first during the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s and’50s again in the Williamite war in Ireland. ... Irish (Gaeilge in Irish), a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland, the UK, and the USA, is constitutionally recognised as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. ... The Gaels are an ethnic group in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, whose language is one that is Gaelic (Goidelic). ...

Since it marked the end of the Irish Catholic Jacobite resistance, Aughrim up until the early 19th century, was the focus of Loyalist celebrations in Ireland on the 12th of July – in particular the Orange Order. Thereafter, it was superseded by the battle of the Boyne in commemorations on "the Twelfth" due to the switch to the Gregorian calendar. It has also been suggested that the Boyne was preferred because the Irish troops there were more easily presented as cowardly, whereas at Aughrim they generally fought bravely. In general, a loyalist is an individual who is loyal to the powers that be. ... The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternal organisation largely based in Northern Ireland and in western Scotland but which has a worldwide membership. ... William III King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Stadtholder of the Netherlands The Battle of the Boyne was a turning point in the Williamite war in Ireland between the deposed King James II of England and VII of Scotland and his son-in-law and successor, William, for the English... Annual Protestant celebrations on the 12th of July, originating in Ireland, commonly known as The Twelfth but also as, Orangemens Day or as the Boyne celebrations, commemorating the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and the Glorious Revolution. ...

The Aughrim battlefield site has recently become the subject of controversy in Ireland over plans to build a new dual carriageway the N6 road, through the former battlefield. Historians, enviromentalists and members of the Orange Order object to the destruction of the 1691 battlefield. The N6 road is a National Primary Route in the Republic of Ireland, connecting Dublin to Galway across the midlands of Ireland. ...

Sources

• Piers Waudchope, Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite War, Dublin 1992.
• J.G. Simms, 'Jacobite Ireland, London 1969.
• G.A., Hayes McCoy, Irish Battles, Belfast 1990.
• Eamonn O Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite cause - a Fatal Attachment, Dublin 2002.

See also

• Williamite war in Ireland
• battle of the Boyne
• Irish battles

For the context of this war see Jacobitism and Glorious Revolution. ... William III King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Stadtholder of the Netherlands The Battle of the Boyne was a turning point in the Williamite war in Ireland between the deposed King James II of England and VII of Scotland and his son-in-law and successor, William, for the English... This page aims to give a list of and links to pages of battles in Irish history. ...

External links

• http://genforum.com/kirwin/messages/29.html Kirwin Family Ms.
• BBC History page on the Battle of Aughrim