The Siege of Clonmel took place in April - May 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when the town of Clonmel in County Tipperary, Ireland was besieged by Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army. Cromwell's 8000 men eventually took the town from its 1000 Irish defenders, but not before they suffered heavy losses. The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. ... Statistics Area: 24,481 Population (estimate) 1,931,981 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... The New Model Army became the best known of the various Parliamentarian armies in the English Civil War. ... Hugh Dubh ONeill (Black Hugh) was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. ... Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ... Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. ... The battle of Rathmines was fought in around the modern Dublin suburb of Rathmines in August 1649, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... Drogheda, a town in eastern Ireland, was besieged twice in the 1640s, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... The Sack of Wexford took place in October 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took Wexford town in south-eastern Ireland. ... The city of Waterford in south eastern Ireland was besieged from 1649-50 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. ... The battle of Macroom was fought in 1650, near Macroom, county Cork, in southern Ireland, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. ... The battle of Scarrifholis was fought in Donegal in north-western Ireland, on the 21st of June 1650, during the Irish Confederate Wars – part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... 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. ... The battle of Knocknaclashy, took place in county Cork in southern Ireland in 1651. ... Combatants Irish Confederate Catholics English Parliamentarians New Model Army and Protestant settlers from Ulster Commanders Thomas Preston Charles Coote Strength 2000 soldiers and civilian population, 3000 more soldiers nearby 6-7000 men, Galway a port city in western Ireland, was besieged from August 1651 to May 1652 during the Cromwellian... // Events June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler. ... Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. ... Clonmel (Cluain Meala in Irish) is a medium-sized town situated in south County Tipperary, Ireland. ... County Tipperary (Tiobraid Árann in Irish) is a traditional county in the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Munster. ... Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ... The New Model Army became the best known of the various Parliamentarian armies in the English Civil War. ...

The town was defended by Hugh Dubh ("Black Hugh") O’Neill, a veteran of siege warfare in the Thirty Years' War and experienced soldiers from the Irish Ulster army. Cromwell was in a hurry to take the town as he was being summoned back to England by the English Parliament to deal with a Royalist uprising there. As a result he tried to take Clonmel immediately by assault, rather than opt for a lengthy siege.Cromwell’s artillery battered a breach in the town walls, which his infantry was supposed to storm and then open the main town gate to let in Cromwell himself and the Parliamentarian cavalry. Hugh Dubh ONeill (Black Hugh) was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. ... A siege is a prolonged military blockade and assault of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition. ... Combatants Protestantism: Sweden,Denmark, France, Scotland and protestant German countries like Saxony Roman Catholic Church: Holy Roman Empire, Spain Commanders Gustav II Adolf Ferdinand II The Thirty Years War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of todays Germany, also involving most of the major European... A body now called the English Parliament first arose during the thirteenth century, referred to variously as colloquium and parliamentum. It shared most of the powers typical of representative institutions in medieval and early modern Europe, and was arranged from the fourteenth century in a bicameral manner, with a House... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...

However, O’Neill put all able bodied townspeople to work building a coupure inside the breach lined with artillery, muskets and pikemen. The coupure was v-shaped, starting at the mouth of the breach and narrowing until it ended about 50 metres inside the town. At the end of the breach, O'Neill positioned two cannon, loaded with chain-shot. The breach, as a result was, in military terms, a "killing field". The Parliamentarian infantry who assaulted the breach were repeatedly cut down by the concentrated musket and cannon fire, until the soldiers finally refused to make any further attacks on what appeared to be a death trap. Cromwell then appealed to his elite cavalry, the Ironsides to make a fresh assault on foot. They assaulted the breach for three hours, taking heavy casualties, but failing to break into the town. Eventually, as night fell, Cromwell called off the assault. During a siege a Coupure is a ditch or an earthenwork or wooden palisade built behind a breach in the walls of a fortress, or a city, made by the attackers guns. ... A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth-bore long gun. ... A modern recreation of a company of pikemen. ... In artillery, chain-shot is a type of ammunition formed of two balls, or half-balls, chained together. ... In military science, a killing field is a field of fire, usually covered by machine guns in modern warfare. ... English parliament in front of the king c. ... Ironside may refer to: Oliver Cromwell, the English political leader who was nicknamed Old Ironsides. Ironside, a cavalry trooper in the army formed by Cromwell. ...

However, O’Neill’s men were out of ammunition and slipped away under cover of darkness - making their way to Waterford. Cromwell negotiated a surrender with the town’s mayor, believing that Clonmel was still heavily defended. The surrender terms stipulated that the lives and property of the townspeople would be respected. Cromwell, although angry at the deception, did not allow his soldiers to abuse the terms of the surrender when he found that the garrison was gone and the town defenceless. His admirers cite this as an example of his integrity while his critics contrast it with the massacre he ordered at Drogheda the previous year. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 52. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

The New Model Army lost at least 1500 men killed at Clonmel, and possibly as many as 2500, with hundreds more wounded, its largest ever loss in a single day. However it successfully completed the conquest of Ireland in the next two years.

See also

• Irish Confederate Wars
• Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• Irish battles

The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. ... The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in Scotland, Ireland, and England between 1639 and 1651 at a time when these countries had come under the Personal Rule of the same monarch. ... This page aims to give a list of and links to pages of battles in Irish history. ...

References

• Clonmel: Its Monastery, and Siege by Cromwell From Duffy's Hibernian Magazine, Vol. III, No. 14, August 1861