Cahermonane, Drumlynn, Ballycar, etc. The occupiers and tillers of the soil were left to settle as best they could with those who received the English titles to the land. Their title, coming down to them from time immemorial under the operation of the Brehon law, began from the date of this Indenture to be utterly ignored. Here we find the origin of that war between landlords and tenants which has continued, with results highly injurious to both classes and to the whole country, down to our own time.

Besides MacNamara of Clancuilean West, there was one other of note who would have no part in this surrender. Mahon O'Brien alone among the O'Briens, from whom the Mahons of Clare are called,' held out stoutly from first to last against Sir John Perrot. It was a bold and manly stand, but devoid of the smallest hope of final success. Sir George Bingham, Governor of Connaught, was ordered to besiege him in his castle of Cluanoon, the remains of which may still be traced in the parish of Kilkeady, about six miles north-east of Corofin. It was then a place of considerable strength, as the resistance to the large force provided with artillery brought against it clearly proved. For three months the small garrison kept them at bay. If desperate and rash, it was certainly a glorious defence. Finding that the cannons took little effect on the strong walls of the castle, and that all his assaults on the fortress were so vigorously repulsed, Sir George Bingham endeavoured to undermine it. Sharpshooters were so placed as to command every point where the besieged might expose themselves, while engaged in flinging down stones and other missiles on their enemies underneath. By one of these Mahon was shot dead on the battlement of the castle. The garrison then surrendered quickly, in the hope of receiving quarter. A really brave man readily recognises bravery in an enemy. They were all, however, put to death, and great part of the castle was razed to the ground. This was not Bingham's only act of cruelty. He spared no one.2 Not only did he hang all of the fighting men who at any

1 Four Masters.

2 He first signalised himself in Ireland at the treacherous and bloody massacre of Dun-an-oir, near Smerwick, in Kerry, in 1580. Yet this is

time fell into his hands,1 but the Four Masters assert that even women, boys, peasants, and decrepit persons were killed by the soldiers under his command. He was not alone in the work of butchery. Rivals worthy of him in this respect crop up in almost every chapter of the English progress in Ireland.

Towards the close of this century, in Clare, the death of another son of John MacNamara of West Clancuilean is recorded,2 and the slaying, at the doorway of the monastery of Ennis, by the O'Griffys of Ballygriffy Castle, of a son of that Doctor Neillan who had all along actively supported the English interest.

We have been following, in the preceding pages, the steps taken by the agents of Elizabeth to Anglicise Clare. It will be interesting to consider the state of Clare just before the process began. We have a description of it from the pen of Sir T. Cusack, written in 1574, and preserved in the library of Trinity College.3

The following summary conveys as clear an idea of it as can well be gathered from the English spelling of the Irish

names:

"The Barony of Tullaghanaspul conteyneth MacNamara's country by east, the Baron of Inshyquyn, and Donal Reogh MacNamara, chief in the same; the castles are thirty-eight in number." Of these, three, Tomgraney, Moynoe, and Truagh, belonged to the O'Gradys; one, Castlelogh, to the Baron of Inchiquin; one, Castle Callogh, to the Earl of Thomond; three, Glanoradone, Fomeara, and Tyredagh, to Turlogh O'Brien; one, Dunass, to John the Dane (Waterhouse); all the others, twenty-nine in all, beginning with Tulla, where the chief lived, to the various branches of the MacNamara family in the east.

the man the inscription on whose monument in Westminster Abbey begins with, "To the glory of the Lord of Hosts."

1 About seventy were hanged in Galway alone, among whom were Teigue, the son of Donal MacNamara of East Clancuilean, and the son of O'Connor Roe.-Four Masters.

2 In Sydney's Letters, fol., vol. i. p. 102, we read: "The two MacNamaras, if the countrie were quiet, might live like principal knights in England.” 3 MS. marked E 2. 14, and the Carew MSS. vol. 611.

"The Barony of Dangen conteyninge West MacNamara's country. Shane MacNamara, chief in the same. Castles forty-three." Of these, the Earl of Thomond owned three, Bunratty, Clounmoney, and Rossmanaher; other O'Briens, five; the MacClancys, six; the Neylons, three, Ballyshannon, Ballycastlea, and Ballyalla; Shane O'Mulconry, one, Ballynagun; Donogh O'Grady, one, Cluanagh; MacInerny, one, Ballynacraggy; Shane MacMahon, one, Corbally; twenty-two in all; the rest belonged to the MacNamaras.

wasten.

'The Baronie of Cloyntherala conteyninge East CorkeTege MacMahon, chief in the same. Castles seven." Of these, five, Clonderalaw, Dangen y Burke (Ballynacally), Cahircon, Ballymacolman, and Derracrossan, belonged to the MacMahons; and two, Dunagrogue and Coruberigane, to the O'Briens.

The Baronie of Moyartha which conteyneth West CorkeWaskin. Terlogh MacMahon, chief in ye same. Castles eight." Of these, four, Carrigaholt, Moyarta, Dunlicky, and Dunsumayn, belonged to the MacMahons; two, Dunbeg and Dunmore, to Sir Donal O'Brien; one, Ballyket, to James Cahane; and one, Iniscatha, to Charles Cahane.

"This man by inheritance is called a Courboc," i.e. steward to the monastery-literally, cowherd.

comroe.

"The Baronie of Tuogh Morey Conor conteyninge CorSir Donal O'Brien, knight, chief in ye same. Castles twenty-three." Of these, one, Tuomolyn, belonged to MacClancy; one, Ennistymon, to O'Connor; the rest, twenty-one in all, to the O'Briens. They wrested these from the original owners, who were mostly O'Connors.

The Baronie of Gregans conteyninge the country of Burren. O'Loghlin, chief in the same. Castles twenty." All of these belonged to the O'Loughlins.

"The Baronie of Tullagh Idea. Sir Donal O'Brien, knight, chiefe. Castles twenty-four." Of these, three, Ballynalicky, Magowna, and Dysert, belonged to the O'Deas; one, Ballygriffy, to O'Griffy; three, Dunmulvihil, Carigathoher, and Ballynafircruane, to the MacSwineys, who answered to the modern militia; the rest, seventeen in all, to the O'Briens.

"The Baronie of Cloyneraude conteyninge ye troghkied of

the same.

Cloynerade and ye Ilands. Therle of Thomonde, chiefe in Castles nineteen." Of these, one, Enenshy (Inch), belonged to MacClancy; one, Island Magrath, to MacGrath; two, Cragbrien and Tirmaclane, to MacGillaroe (Gallery); the rest, fifteen in all, to the O'Briens. "There are eight Baronies, seventy-nine parish churches, and one hundred and seventy-two castles, and eight Abbeyes.

"The Abbeyes and Religious Houses are:

"The Abbey of Clare, possessed by Sir Donal and Teige MacConor (O'Brien), his brother. Inish by James Nillan. St. John's, a nunrye, by ye Baron of Inshiquyn. Corcomroe Iland Chanens (Canon Island), by Therle of Thomond. Kiltsna (Kilshanny), Quynhye (Quin), occupied by ffriers. The Abbey of Inis Cronan."

Who can say that the people who built all these castles, churches, and abbeys were the semi-barbarians English writers represent them?

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM 1590 To 1602.

The Earl of Thomond joins the English in an Attack on the Northern Princes-Driven back-Besieged in Armagh and Newry-O'Brien of Ballycorick hanged - Defeat at Ballyshannon - Uprising in Clare O'Donnell's Raid in Clare-Sieges of Carrigaholt, Dunbeg, and Dunmore-Second Raid of O'Donnell, A.D. 1600-The Earl of Thomond reduces Clare to submission.

THE English sway was now unchallenged in Clare. The queen's writ began to run there. Two of the vessels of the ill-fated Armada having been wrecked, A.D. 1588, on the coast, with six hundred men on board, local tradition has it that Boetius MacClancy, acting as sheriff, seized and executed the few Spaniards who succeeded in reaching the shore at Spanish Point-so named from this event. To this day the people point to mounds close to the sea, called by them the Spaniards' Graves.”

Sir Turlogh O'Brien of Ennistymon was commissioned, with the sheriff, by the Lord Deputy, to hunt up the Spaniards, with power "to use torture in process of this inquiry." So terrified were the people, that water was refused at Kilrush and Liscannor to a vessel which weathered the gale, though an equal quantity of wine was offered for it.

An epidemic of some kind must have raged through Clare in 1591 and the following years, as we find recorded in the Four Masters the death of considerable numbers of the principal persons among the O'Briens, MacNamaras, and MacMahons.

The base plot by which Sir John Perrot succeeded in seizing and carrying off to Dublin Castle the young princes, O'Donnell and O'Neill, led to the next commotion in Clare. After their romantic escape, the whole North combined against the