338 Timehri 
SLAVE-RAIDS. 
This particular Irish War had lasted eight years when Cromwell arrived 
and it was not concluded either by the initial slaughter of Drogheda or by 
the stark fighting of the rest of his campaign. Cromwell departed in May 1650. 
He had dealt the royalist cause some fearful blows by the capture of most 
of the leading towns of Leinster and Munster, but Waterford he failed to take, 
Duncannon repulsed one of his divisions and Black Hugh O’Neill at Clonmel 
gave him a terrible defeat, which, but for the fact that the total disorganization 
of Ormonde’s leadership left the heroic nephew of Owen Roe without support 
and even without ammunition, had in Cromwell’s own words “ almost changed 
his noble to a ninepence.” Limerick was taken by Ireton who died of plague 
in the ruined town after he had hanged all the leaders of the defence 
except Black Hugh, who escaped on a third trial by a single vote of the 
court martial. But Ireton succeeded only through the treachery of the 
Ormondite Fennell and his friends after thirteen months’ blockade and six 
months’ siege and bombardment on October 27th, 1651. It was to 
survive fiercer sieges and other betrayals. Galway surrendered in 1652, 
and the war was officially declared to be over in September, 1653, but in the 
form of savage guerilla fighting it lasted till the Restoration. In the form of 
sporadic rebellions, isolated murders and unceasing turmoil and agitation it 
may be said to have lasted to our own times. The terror inspired by 
the massacres of Drogheda and Wexford which was and remains their sole 
justification, affected only some of the Leinster towns and the royalist 
garrisons, English or Anglo-Irish. Beyond that area it did not prevent the 
Trish from defending every ruined wall in the four provinces. They were 
almost without ammunition or other resources and had few friends ; but two 
years after the crowning mercy of Worcester they were still in arms for a king 
who had repudiated them to gain the favour of the bigots of the Covenant 
and who at a later day would cheerfully have seen every Irish head under the 
axe rather than risk being sent “on his travels again.” Cromwell like most 
great military leaders benefited by the whims of fortune. The death of Owen 
Roe on his southward march to face him, removed the only general 
of established European reputation opposed to him in Ireland. The only 
army which could venture to face the Ironsides and which Owen Roe had 
trained, was frittered away by incapable direction and finally led to the 
slaughter at Scariffhollis by the worthy but incapable bishop-general Mac- 
Mahon. Yet Cromwell left his work unfinished, and unfinished it remained 
when he died on that stormy night in 1658. In those years vast numbers 
of Catholic and a few Royalist Protestant Trish, men, women, and children, 
were transported to the West Indies. 
At a meeting of the Irish Catholic bishops and clergy at Clonmacnoise on the 
Shannon in December, 1649, a Declaration wasissued to undeceive many of 
their flock who were, they thought, misled with a vain opinion of hopes that the 
Commander-in-Chief of the rebel forces, commonly called Parliamentarians, 
would afford them good conditions. Many of the Old Irish, as distinct from 
those of Normanstock, had no great attachment tothe Stuarte.and Owen Roe 
