60 Rev. W. S. Green on 



incidents in the histories of Galway and of Waterford formed 

 good illustrations of this, as Spanish ships bearing wine and 

 other commodities were constantly coming, and taking back 

 hides, tallow, and fish. The fishing banks of the Irish coast 

 were annually visited by Spaniards, who had permanent 

 establishments in the harbours and creeks. In the early days 

 of Queen Elizabeth as many as 600 Spanish fishing vessels were 

 reported on the Irish coast in a single year, and Spaniards had 

 permanent curing establishments. 



Turning from peace to war, they read of a great sea fight in 

 the Harbour of Kinsale in the year 1380, when Spanish and 

 French galleys were attacked and destroyed by English and 

 Irish. Later on, when Europe was convulsed by the wars 

 resulting from the Reformation and the breaking up of the 

 great empire of Charles V., Ireland came in for her share of 

 disturbance, but in those times Spanish experiences in Ireland 

 were almost a series of terrible disasters. The first act of 

 invasion was followed by the massacre at Fort Del Ore in 1580, 

 in Smerwick Harbour, in Kerry. 



This, however, paled into insignificance when compared with 

 the loss of the ships of the great Armada, which took place 

 eight years after. In Connaught alone Sir Richard Bingham 

 reported between 6,000 and 7,000 men drowned, and that he 

 had executed 1,100 wretches who had escaped from the sea, 

 many of them being notable grandees of Spain. Besides these 

 losses thousands were drowned or slain in Ulster, while others 

 perished on the coast of Kerry. 



Though they had read long ago in their story books that the 

 English fleet which went to attack the Armada was a small 

 fleet, and that the vessels were small, yet when they came to 

 look up the State papers they found that the vessels were fairly 

 matched, and at least in the battle fought at Calais the English 

 fleet outnumbered the Spanish considerably. There were about 

 100 Spanish vessels engaged against 140 ordinary English 

 ships, with 9,000 English sailors. The Spaniards had 7,000 

 seamen. The largest guns in those days were the 42-pounders, 



