Chapter 3

This _Donat_, Bishop of _Fesula_, was an _Irishman_, of the antient and hospitable Family, afterwards _O Hogan_; a Family which held ample and fair Possessions in the Province of _Munster_, and which, in former Times, adorned the See of _Killaloe_, with four very learned and exemplary Prelates; namely, with _Matthew O Hogan_, who succeeded to this Bishoprick, in the Reign of _Henry_ the IIId, and in the Year of our Lord 1267; and who, having much enlarged his Diocese, and done many signal Acts of popular Charity, died in the Year, 1281, and was buried in _Limerick_, in a Convent of _Dominican_ Friars. To this Bishop succeeded _Maurice O Hogan_, who governed this See with peculiar Zeal and Charity, upwards of sixteen Years, and died in 1298, or the Year following, and was buried in his own Church. _Thomas O Hogan_, Canon of _Killaloe_, was consecrated in 1343, and died on the 30th of _October_, 1354; five Days after which, he was buried among his worthy Ancestors at _Nenagh_; as may be seen in the Annals of that Place.

_Richard O Hogan_ succeeded to the See of _Killaloe_, in 1525, and was in 1539 translated to _Clon Mac Nois_: He was a Prelate of great Learning and Capacity, in all spiritual and ecclesiastical Matters.

This antient Family is, at this Time, represented by _Edmund O Hogan_, Esq; High Sheriff of the County of _Clare_, a Gentleman, who, by the whole Tenor of his Life, hath proved Generosity of Heart, Charity, and Hospitality, to be Qualities inherent.

_Dermod Mac Murchad_, sovereign Prince of _Hy-Kinsellagh_, banished by _Roderick O Connor_, King of _Ireland_, for his various and high State Crimes, sought Sanctuary and Redress in the Court of _England_; where, in the Absence of _Henry_, then in _Normandy_, diverse adventurous _Normans_, _Flemings_, _Saxons_, and old _Britons_, (being themselves unsettled, and unestablished) acceded to the Fate and Fortunes of _Dermod_, under the Conduct of _Strongbow_, Earl of _Pembroke_; whose casual Success in _Ireland_, against _Roderick_ (owing _more_ to the general Defection, at that fatal Period, of the _Irish_ Chiefs against their lawful Sovereign, than to any _superior Valour_ or Address of those Adventurers) induced _Henry_ to a deliberate and grand Invasion of a Kingdom, to which he could lay no Claim on the Score of Nature, Reason, or Right, and whither his pretended Mission, on the Score of collecting St. _Peter_’s Dues, (which St. _Peter_ himself never once thought of, or imagined) was as _ridiculous_ as _groundless_. The _Summa Dies_, however, arrived: and the People of _Ireland_, wearied out with intestine Strife, acknowledged _Henry_ for their Sovereign Lord; and a grand Charter of Rights and Covenants, mutual Protection and Allegiance, was entered into, anteriorly to that of _England_. How well this Charter was _observed_ on the _protective_ Side, the absolute Anarchy of near four Centuries, from its original Date and Perfection, to the Reign of Queen _Elizabeth_, demonstrates: A whole Nation, that sought Protection, and that _agreed_ for quiet, regular, and lawful Government, upon rationable Terms, deprived of the Power of ordaining Laws for its own Security and Well-being, and precluded (all to four or five great and favourite Families) from the Benefits and Advantages accruing from those of that Kingdom, to which it had voluntarily united itself; exposed, through such a Length of Time, to arbitary Depredations, and unpunished, unredressed, uncensured Rapine, _Quis talia sando temperet a Lachrymis_!

King _Henry_ called back into _England_, to lay the Storms raised by his rebellious Sons, with whom and _Thomas Becket_, Archbishop of _Canterbury_, he was so constantly embroiled to the End of his Life, that he could little attend to the Settlement of the Affairs of this new acquired Sovereignty.

_Richard_ the First, his immediate Successor, called away to the Holy Wars against the _Saracens_, had as little Leisure as his Predecessor to promote the Quiet, or Happiness of _Ireland_.

From the usurped Authority of King _John_, a continued Series of Papal Animosity, Bloodshed, Calamities and Piracies, closed at last by Poison; little beside political Disasters of all Sorts, could be expected.

_Henry_ the Third, through a Reign of Fifty-six Years, was continually involved in Troubles and Hostilities, with his inflexible _English_ Barons.

_Edward_ the First, a great and warlike Prince, was, throughout his whole Reign, engaged in the Reduction of the _Welch_ and _Scots_, and so intent thereon, that he could turn his Thoughts to no other Object.

_Edward_ the Second, indeed, sent _Gaveston_ hither, more to screen him from the implacable Resentments of the stubborn _English_ Nobility, than to render any good Offices to the Inhabitants of this Country; who, indiscriminately, (_Strongbownians_ as well as _Irish_) felt the Severity of that insolent Favourite’s Measures.

_Richard_ the Second visited this Kingdom in Person, with the good Intentions of establishing Peace, Order, and Harmony, in a valuable but long neglected Estate: Yet his own adverse Fate, conspiring with that of this Land, called him back, before he could carry his favourable Resolutions into Execution, to defend his _English_ Dominions from the hostile Attacks of _Henry_, Earl of _Hereford_, who, with the Duke of _Norfolk_, Son to _John_ of _Gaunt_, had some Years before been banished by _Richard_, to prevent a personal Combat: This King, worthy more propitious Stars, long agitated and afflicted by the Turbulence and irreconcilable Obstinacy of his _British_ Subjects, perished at last under the impious Hands of Sir _Pierce_ of _Exton_, who, at the Head of eight barbarous armed Assassins, rushed into his Chamber, and murdered him.

The Reign of _Henry_ the Fourth was short, tumultuous, and bloody; Deluges of noble Blood having been shed by the bare Hands of the common Executioner, to confirm a Throne acquired by abominable Crimes, and Violence! And no sooner had these dreadful Storms begun to abate, than _Henry_ was forced to depart from a Scene he had more adorned, (for he was, without Question, a great and valiant Man) had not his Ambition blindly hurried him beyond the Bounds of Justice and Nature.

_Henry_ the Fifth, his Son and Successor, and truly Inheritor of his Ambition and warlike Genius, imagining himself aggrieved by the _Salique Law_, which excluded his Great Great-Grandmother, _Isabel_, from the Monarchy of _France_, turned his elevated Thoughts intirely to the Conquest of that Kingdom: Wherein, by his own vast Merit in martial Affairs, and the Co-operation of the Queen of _France_, (Consort of _Charles_ the Sixth, then frantick,) and that of the Duke of _Burgundy_, a great and powerful Prince, he so far succeeded, as, after his Marriage with _Catharine de Valois_, Daughter of _Charles_ the Sixth, to be crowned, and acknowledged King of _France_.

To this great and victorious Monarch succeeded _Henry_ the Sixth, who, through a long, various, and constantly clouded Reign, seemed the very Play of Fortune! This Day a King, the next a Prisoner! One Day acknowleged by his Parliament, the next attainted! One Day a Conqueror, and the next a Captive!

Fierce, frequent, and bloody, were the Conflicts between the Houses of _York_ and _Lancaster_, the _White_ and _Red Roses_; the former endeavouring to recover its Loss, the latter to maintain its usurped Authority. In this dreadful Quarrel perished two hundred thousand of private Soldiers; ten thousand of the Nobility, Gentry, and Persons of Distinction; three Kings; and, at last, the entire Race of _Plantagenet_.

_Edward_ the Fourth soon fell, by his natural Intemperance, or rather by the insatiable Cruelty of _Gloucester_; who had already sacrificed his Brother _Clarence_, to pave his Way to the Throne. Nor better fared it with _Edward_ the Fifth, who, by all the Arts of Seduction and Delusion, which his unnatural Uncle and Guardian, _Richard_, practised on the Fears and Weakness of the Queen Dowager; was, with his Brother the Duke of _York_, conveyed with great Pomp to the Tower; where the bloody Tyrant, aided by the Duke of _Buckingham_, soon sacrificed those young, innocent and hopeful Princes to his wicked and boundless Ambition. But he soon after lost his own flagitious Life, and a most cruelly-acquired Crown, on the Plains of _Bosworth_.

To him succeeded _Henry_ the Seventh, and the first of the Race of _Tudor_, a great, wise and valiant Prince, but rather too much inclined to Rigour, and Avarice; Imperfections which extremely blemished his other great Qualities.

In the tenth Year of this Reign, the Parliamentary Constitution of _Ireland_ received a deeper Stab than had ever before, or since, been inflicted thereon, by a Statute Law, commonly called _Poynin_’s Act; by which a new, and, till that wretched Period, an unheard of Order, was added to the three established Ranks of the State. By this Law, the _English_ Privy-Council may impose a _Negative_ on the _free_ and _unanimous_ Parliamentary Ordinances of the representative Body of the Kingdom of _Ireland_; a manifest Injury to the Authority and Dignity of Parliament; and an equal Diminution of the Royal Prerogative, that only should include, and should alone exert, a Power so important.

In Times dark, tumultuated and dangerous, no Wonder extraordinary Laws should pass: _Desperate Diseases_ require _desperate Remedies_: But when the _Fever_ is removed, it certainly is a horrid Management to leave the blistering Plaister _still sticking_ to the _recovered_ Patient’s Back.

The Distempers of this Nation were heavy, complicated and chronic; and finally curable, only by the salutary all-healing Hands of our present King, and present Parliament.

To _Henry_ the Seventh succeeded _Henry_ the Eighth, as consummate a Tyrant, in every Sense, as ever swayed the _British_, or any other Sceptre; whose whole Life was so continued a Scene of wanton Dissipation, Lust, Cruelty, Rapine, Bloodshed and Sacrilege, that it must have been a peculiar Happiness, to any Part of his Dominions, to have been _neglected_ or _forgotten_ by him: Nor could the two succeeding Reigns of _Edward_ the Sixth, and Queen _Mary_, short, various, cloudy, and vastly agitated on the Score of Religion, (which, in those two Reigns, took Faces almost diametrically opposite,) afford this Kingdom much reflected Sunshine.

To those ensued that of Queen _Elizabeth_, a Princess of powerful Abilities, who, truly intent on the Peace and Welfare of her Subjects, caused her Laws to operate, and Justice to circulate in this Kingdom, abandoned, as hath been observed, to a State almost of Anarchy, thro’ a dismal Series of seventeen Reigns: But the Reformation in Religion, which she established in _England_, and introduced in _Ireland_, much obviated her Purposes for the latter Kingdom: For, the _Irish_, more tenacious of their Altars, than of their Fire-places, could not easily reconcile themselves to the Exchange of a Religion they deemed a _new one_, for _that_ they had been in Possession of from the fourth, to the fifteenth Century: Which produced a rebellious Defection, in a few of the principal Chieftains of this Land, and gave Occasion to the greedy Provincial Precedents, of trumping up _imaginary Rebellions_, to pave the Way to _real Forfeitures_; thereby to aggrandize their own Houses; what some of them effectually accomplished, to the Ruin and Extirpation of many honest Families.

This great and illustrious Princess, (whose Reign had remained untarnished, had it not been for the Death of the ill-fated Queen of _Scotland_) was succeeded by _James_ the Sixth of _Scotland_, and the first of the _Stuart_ Race that governed _England_: From this Prince, descended of _Irish_ Kings, the People of _Ireland_ might have expected many Favours and Immunities; wherein, however, they were miserably disappointed: Which, with a Train of other Hardships and antiparental Severities, (particularly his alienating, at _one Stroke_, six of the best Counties in the Kingdom, on the _procured_ Testimony of an obscure wretched Individual, one _Teige Lenane_,) is too sufficient and too lasting a Proof of: _Heu! tot Conquesta Annorum, hauserit una Dies!_ The Possession of at least twenty Centuries, of the great and good, the heroic and hospitable _O Neils_, _O Donnels_, _Mac Guires_, _Mac Gennises_, _O Reillys_, _O Cahanes_, &c. ravished away to gratify hungry Favourites, and indigent Relatives! the six Counties, however, as the Law Term has it, _escheated_. Had the _Highlands_ of _Scotland_, at that unhappy Period, been more populated, probably six or eight Counties _more_ had been procured to _escheat_, and there had been _a braa Clutch of bonny Traitors_; the _O Connors_, _Mac Carthys_, _O Briens_, _O Donnels_, _O Hares_, _O Malones_, &c. had been _all_ in the _same Bottom_ with the Families above mentioned; especially, as they could not, according to _James_ the First’s own Phrase, _look to the Pope, and row with him_.

To _James_ the 6th of _Scotland_, and first of _England_, succeeded _Charles_ the First; who, notwithstanding his eminent Possession of all the Virtues that adorn and illustrate human Nature, could neither divert the adverse Fate of Subjects, or prevent his own.

The Disseisin of many honest Families in the County of _Kilkenny_, and elsewhere, by the Earl of _Strafford_, on stale Pretences of _Non Performance of Covenants_ on their Part; his Attempt of confiscating twenty-five Parts in thirty of the whole Province of _Connaught_, on a Claim of Descent, dormant 300 Years, and _originally ill founded_, with the arbitrary Steps by him taken to the Accomplishment of this wasteful Purpose; too clearly proved that Nobleman a second _Verres_. The cruel and intoxicated Administration of the Rump Parliament; the insolent, licentious, and riotous Controul of the military _Independents_; the abject Tyranny of _Oliver Cromwell_, who prostrated Constitution, Church and State, will always be recollected with the Contempt, Horror, and Detestation of every good Subject.

The Calamities from 1641, to the happy Restoration of King _Charles_ the Second, in 1660, being common to all good Subjects, were the more tolerable, _ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes, nemo recusat_: But now or never, surely, might his ever loyal, ever faithful _Irish_ Subjects have, with the most reasonable Assurance, hoped, if not for publick and lasting Rewards, the common Wages of uncommon Fidelity; at least, for a Restitution of what had been their own, through Ages immemorial.

Will late Posterity _believe_, that, in Favour of mercenary Adventurers, who advanced Money to provide for a desperate regicide Army; in Favour of the Officers of this same Army, whom their Ringleader _Cromwell_, seared as his Conscience was, indulged with no more than _temporary_ Grants of the Estates belonging to the King’s most faithful Subjects: Will Posterity, I say, believe, that, in special Favour of such Men, those _identical Subjects_, the bravest Advocates, as well as the most affectionate undeviating Friends of the Monarchy and Constitution, were _for ever_ deprived of their Properties! To remunerate the _others_, the most _inveterate_ and _implacable_ Enemies of EITHER! _Doing Good for Evil_ is a Divine Precept, and certainly includes a most sublime Moral; but _rendering Evil for Good_, is such a Principle as must carry Horror with it, among savage Nations!

The King of _France_’s immediate Letter, on this Subject, to King _Charles_ the Second, as it reflects Honour on the Memory of those illustrious Sufferers, I therefore take Leave to transcribe in this Place.

* * * * *

_His Most Christian Majesty’s Letter to the King of __Great Britain__, in Favour of the __Roman Catholicks__ of __Ireland__._

“Most High, Most Excellent, and Most Potent Prince, our dear and well-beloved Brother and Cousin! At the same Time that we have been told of your Majesty’s great Goodness towards your Subjects, and the Precedent you have given of an extraordinary Clemency, in granting them your general Amnesty (some few only excepted, of those whom the Blood of their King, and that of his People, cry aloud to Heaven for Revenge against). We could not but let your Majesty know, that we were extremely surprized to hear, that the _Catholicks_ of _Ireland_ were _excluded_ from that Act of Oblivion, and, by that Means, put into the Number of the _most criminal_! This News has so much the more excited our Compassion towards them, that we have been informed, that, in _all the Changes_ which have hitherto happened in your Dominions, and in the almost general _Defection of_ your Subjects, _none_ stood _more constant_ to their lawful Sovereign, even in the greatest Streights, than the _Catholicks_: So that, if they are now branded for their Religion, it may be said, for their Honour, that, in Times past, none could be found _readier_, or more _cheerfully disposed_, than _they_, to serve and assist their Prince; and that with so much _Ardour_, that their Zeal then for the Royal Family was reckoned a certain Mark of their true Religion. It is for that Reason that we now become their Intercessors to you: For, otherwise, had they _failed_ in the Fidelity they owe you, instead of interceding for them, we would join with you in using them with all imaginable Rigour; and it would never come into our Thoughts to concern ourselves, as we do, for the _Catholicks_ of _Ireland_; though we _were obliged to it_, by the last Treaty of Peace made with the Marquess of _Ormond_, and which was granted them by our Mediation. And, as we are well assured, that, since the Conclusion of that Peace, they have done Nothing which can be called a _Failure of their Duty to you_, we find ourselves under so much the greater Obligation to conjure you, to make good that Treaty to them, in that they _religiously_ observed it on _their_ Side, in all its Parts: And to beseech you not to suffer, that either the Hatred, which an immoderate Zeal swells some bigotted Sectaries with, nor the unlucky Spoils of these poor People, render criminal or miserable the _most faithful_ of your Subjects; to whom their lawful King, as you are, is not _the less dear_, nor _less respected_, because of a _different Belief_ from _theirs_. We propose Nothing to ourselves in this, nor ask any Thing, but what we daily _practise_ (as you may know) towards those of our Subjects who are of the _reformed Religion_. And, as we have commanded the Sieur Marquis _de Rouvigny_ to explain our Sentiments more amply on this Subject to you, be pleased to give him a favourable Audience: And, above all Things, be perswaded, that, in this Affair, we have no less your own _true Interest_ in View, than what _natural Reason_ and _Equity_ requires; and that our sincere Friendship for you is the principal Motive of this Request. Dated at _Paris_, the 7th of _September_, 1660.”

The _good_ King _Charles_, regardless of this important Solicitation, unattentive to the plain Suggestions of _common Right_, and unaccountably forgetful of all their _past signal Services_ and inviolate Zeal; observed indeed that those faithful _Irish_ Subjects had no Stock; consequently, that dispossessing the Adherents of _Oliver_, who, with the Land, had pirated the national Stock, would cause much Confusion. As for the _former_, he hoped some Settlement might in Time be found for them; (in Truth, I believe, for aught his Majesty in Reality concerned himself, this might have been in _Terra Australis Incognita_). Their Want of Stock is the less to be admired at, it being well known, that, with their Pay in foreign Service, chiefly expended to contribute all in their Power to the _Royal Support_, they even went so far as to sell their Plate, and valuable Moveables, to answer the same _generous Purpose_: But, when every known Acre in the Kingdom, that could be disposed of, was given away by Wholesale to the Duke of _York_, the Heir-apparent of the Crown, (partial Distribution!) to new-fangled Favourites, and the staunch old Enemies of Church and Crown; it was hoped some Lands might be _yet_ discovered, to satisfy and compensate those _Irish_ Worthies, who had Nothing left for their Support, beside an inalienable Sense of Honour and Loyalty, and a Character of invincible Fidelity (which all Nations admired and applauded). No such Discovery, however, was made, nor any relative to the _Irish_, under that Administration, but what tended to convince them, by the famous Act of Settlement, _&c._ of the extraordinary severe Peculiarity of their Fate! Yet, ordained to shew Posterity unprecedented Specimens of Loyalty and Zeal, they still adhered, with inflexible Constancy, to the Fortunes of King _James_ the Second, not mindful of their Injuries by _James_ the First, their unexampled Sufferings by the excessive harsh Measures of King _Charles_ the First, his Ministers, and Deputies, or their unheard-of Treatment (I won’t say _Wrongs_, it being a Maxim the King of _England_ can do none) by King _Charles_ II. Little Wonder, a House, constantly sapping it’s own best Pillars, should at length fall.

King _James_ the Second, constrained to abdicate the Throne of _England_, endeavoured the Preservation of this his Kingdom of _Ireland_, where his faithful Subjects, (a Remnant of the various and manifold Wastes of foregoing Reigns) considering the thousand Disadvantages they laboured under, made _such a Stand_ as later Ages will look up to with Astonishment! A Parcel of Men, congregated in the utmost Hurry and Confusion, undisciplin’d, unarm’d, uncloathed, unpaid! Yet did those very Men, animated by the Example of their heroick Leaders, (I mean their immediate Lords and Countrymen) on the Plains of _Aughrim_, convince the best veteran Army that Day in _Europe_, superior in Numbers, excellently provided for in every Respect, and conducted by a Prince of singular Valour and Address, that _Irishmen_ were deserving of more auspicious Stars.

Never was a more gallant Defence than they, after this, made in _Limerick_; where, although abandoned by the Prince, (whose Cause they had so remarkably espoused) and his auxiliary _French_, they obtained an honourable CAPITULATION from those in Commission under King _William_ the Third, whose strict _Observance_ thereof, to the End of his glorious Life, reflects, among many other his great Atchievements, deserved Honour on his Memory.

The distinguished Figure made by those Noblemen and Gentlemen, who, regardless of _Property_ or _Ease_, followed the Destiny of that hard-fated Prince, King _James_ the Second, (namely, the Lords _Mount-Cashel_, _Tyrconnel_, _Clare_ and _Lucan_, the _Dillons_, _Nugents_, _Rooths_, _Burkes_, _Lees_, _Fitz-Geralds_, _Cooks_, _Lacys_, _Browns_, _Wogans_, _Baggots_, _Sheridans_, _Creaghs_, _Plunkets_, _Barnewals_, _Neagles_, _Lallys_, _Mac Carthys_, _Mac Donnels_, _Mac Guires_, _Mac Namarras_, _Mac Mahons_, _Mac Gennis’s_, _O Neils_, _O Connors_, _O Donnels_, _O Briens_, _O Dwyers_, _O Shaghnussys_, _O Mahonys_, _O Sullivans_, _O Kellys_, _O Ferralls_, _O Reillys_, _O Haras_, _O Hogans_, _O Byrnes_, _O Daes_, &c. &c. &c. the military Annals of _Germany_, _France_, _Spain_, _Flanders_, _Italy_, _Naples_, and _Russia_), must bear ample and authentic Testimony of, to future Ages.

Those were they, of whom Dr. _Mac en Crow_ gives the following concise, but just and happy Character.

_Genus acre Bello, Studiis Genus acre Minervæ, Devotumque mori pro Rege, Fidêque tuendis._