The Siege of Dunboy took place towards the end of the Nine Years War (Ireland) in 1602 and was a sequel to the siege of Kinsale. It took place from 5-18 June, 1602, and centred on Dunboy Castle situated near the town of Castletownbere, on the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork, in south-western Ireland. The Nine Years War in Ireland took place from 1594 to 1603 and is also known as Tyrones Rebellion. ... This page is about the year. ... The Siege of Kinsale was one of the more decisive battles in Englands effort to conquer Ireland. ... This page is about the year. ... Dunboy Castle was a stronghold of the OSullivan Bere, a Gaelic clan leader and Chief of Dunboy. The castle is located on the Beara Peninsula in south-west Ireland and was built to guard and defend the harbour of Bearhaven. ... Castletownbere (Baile Chaisleáin Bhéarra in Irish) is a town in County Cork, Ireland, in West Cork. ... The Beara peninsula in Ireland is the southernmost of the main peninsulas on the south-west coast. ...

This castle, built to control and defend the harbour of Bearhaven, was a stronghold of Donal Cam O'Sullivan Bere, a Gaelic clan leader and the 'Chief of Dunboy'. O'Sullivan was part of a confederation of Gaelic leaders who had gone into rebellion against Elizabeth I of England and were aided by King Philip III of Spain who sent troops under Don Juan del Águila. However, after Águila had surrendered his forces to the queen's Lord Deputy, Lord Mountjoy, in January, 1602, Donal Cam resolved to continue fighting from his homebase at Dunboy. The Gaels are an ethnic group in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, whose language is one that is Gaelic (Goidelic). ... Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603 ) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: England Travel guide to England from Wikitravel English language English law English (people) List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree List of English people Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named) UK... Philip III of Spain Philip III (Spanish: Felipe III) (April 14, 1578 – March 31, 1621) was the king of Spain and Portugal (as Philip II Portuguese: Filipe II), from 1598 until his death. ... Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon and 8th Baron Mountjoy (1563 - April 3, 1606) served as Lord Deputy and as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. ...

O'Sullivan Bere had first to recover possession of his castle which was garrisoned by a small force of Spanish troops under the command of a Captain Saavedra. In February, as part of the terms of Águila's surrender to Mountjoy, Saavedra was preparing to hand the castle over to crown forces when he and his men were overpowered and disarmed by O'Sullivan Bere and later released for transportation back to Spain. O'Sullivan Bere kept all of their arms, ordnance and munitions and immediately began strengthening Dunboy in readiness for the inevitable assault to come. O'Sullivan left a picked force of 143 of his best men to defend Dunboy in his absence under the charge of Captain Richard MacGeoghegan and Friar Domenic Collins.

The Crown sent a 5000 strong army under the command of Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster, to suppress the insurgents. Carew also had the support of the navy. By the time Carew's siege got under way O'Sullivan Bere himself and most of his forces had already marched to another of his fortresses, Ardea Castle, on the northern coast of the Beara promontory in order to secure money and supplies that had just arrived by ship from Spain. George Carew (29 May 1555-27 March 1629), Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totnes, served in the Irish wars under Queen Elizabeth I and became President of Munster. ... Munster (Irish: An Mhumhain, IPA: ) is the southernmost province of Ireland, comprising the counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. ...

Carew besieged Dunboy with its 183 defenders with fierce naval and artillery bombardment and relentless assaults for 11 days before it fell. During the siege, Carew's forces raided nearby Dursey Island where O'Sullivan families resided. Men were burned in the church, and women and children were thrown from the cliff. Carew thought Dunboy to be impregnable. An enemy cousin of Donal Cam who had allied himself with Carew, Owen O'Sullivan of Carrignass, then informed Carew of a weak point in the castle walls at a stairwell, and Carew ordered fierce bombardment of that section, which was eventually breached. By the 10th day of the assault, the castle was reduced to ruins, and final defeat seemed certain. MacGeoghegan sent a messenger to Carew requesting a surrender. Carew replied by hanging the messenger in sight of the defenders. Certain of their fate, some of the surviving defenders attempted to swim to nearby Dursey Island where they were murdered or captured in the water. The rest of the surviving defenders, after repelling another assault, sealed themselves in the cellar of the castle. On the 11th day, the cellar was finally overrun amid desperate hand-to-hand fighting where MacGeoghegan was hacked to pieces by Captain Power as he attempted to ignite the powder storage to blow up the cellar. All but three of those captured during the siege were promptly hanged in the market square in nearby Castletown Berehaven. Friar Domenic Collins was one of the three men not immediately hanged. Carew wanted to interrogate the three men before hanging them, and he wanted Father Collins to renounce his faith for propaganda purposes prior to execution. Two were hanged after they gave no information, and Father Collins was taken to Yougal where he was hanged after he refused to renounce his religion despite pressure under torture.

After Dunboy fell, O'Sullivan Bere went on a campaign of guerrilla warfare around West Cork, taking at least six castles. Faced with overwhelming odds and starvation, O'Sullivan Bere commenced on an epic march to allies in the north of Ireland with 1000 men, women and children. Known in historical annals as "O'Sullivan's March," they were besieged by enemies and the elements throughout the long journey. By the time they arrived at O'Rourke's castle in Leitrim where they could seek refuge and alliance, only 35 people remained, many having died in battles or from exposure and hunger, with many others having settled along the route where descendants are still known as 'the Beres' to this date. In Leitrim, O'Sullivan Bere sought to join with other northern chiefs to fight the English forces and organised a force, but the northern chiefs then sued for peace with the English and took a loyalty oath. Refusing, O'Sullivan Bere sought exile in Spain where he was later murdered.

References

• Pól Uí Súileabháin, "The Last Chieftan of Gaelic Ireland: The True Story of Donal O'Sullivan Beare", Published 2004 with the assistance of the Beara Historical Association.

• Standish O'Grady (ed.), "Pacata Hibernia", Vol II, London 1896.

• T. D. Sullivan, "Bantry, Berehaven and the O'Sullivan Sept", Tower Books, Cork, 1978.

• Barry O'Brien, "Munster at War", The Mercier Press, Cork, 1971.

See also

• An account of O'Sullivan Bere's long march

External links

• Beara Tourism website

• Beara web guide

• Beara Information Resource site