IRE
acknowledged the King's sway, and Water- ford, Galway, and Limerick remained in the hands of the Irish, as well as Sligo, Duncannon, Carlow, Athlone, Nenagh, and Charlemont. There was, however, neither order, union, nor co-operation among the Irish parties; and faction, discord, and ill-management did for Iretonfar more than all his military force could have accom- plished. After the defeat of the Bishop of Clogher at Letterkenny by Sir Charles Coote, and the surrender of Charlemont, almost the whole of Ulster was subdued. General Hudson reduced Naas, Athy, Maryborough, and Castledermot. Duncan- non was taken. "Waterford surrendered on loth August. The garrison of Carlow, after enduring a short bombardment, sur- rendered, and were allowed to march out with the honours of war. In December the Marquis of Ormond retired to France, and after the reduction of Athlone by Coote, the only places of importance that remained in the hands of the Irish were Limerick, Sligo, and Galway. Ireton be- gan his operations against Limerick early in 165 1. The city was defended by Major- General Hugh O'Neill, who had so distin- guished himself in the defence of Clonmel against Cromwell. Ireton forced the pas- sage of the Shannon at O'Brien 's-bridge, dispersed Castlehaven's army, and was thus enabled to invest Limerick, while Lord Muskei-ry, who got together a considerable force to raise the siege, was defeated by Lord BroghiU, with great slaughter, at Castleishen, in the County of Cork, on 26th of July. The castle on the salmon-weir at Limerick was next taken. Ireton lost 1 20 men in his first attempt on King's Island, and 300 more were cut ofi" in a sally ; but soon afterwards a bridge was constructed to the island, and 6,000 troops marched over, and eflfected a permanent lodgment. The defence was heroically conducted for several weeks. Pestilence raged within the walls, and one of the most thrilling in- cidents in Ludlow's Memoirs is his account of how they beat back into the town a crowd of famished and plague-stricken non-com- batants who sought to leave it. At length, when Ireton's preparations for bombard- ment were complete, and when upwards of 5,000, according to one account, had fallen by the plague, the city capitulated on 27th October 1 6 5 1 . The garrison and inhabitants, except the governor, Hugh O'Neill, Gene- ral Purcell, the Bishops of Limerick and Emly, and eighteen other persons of dis- tinction who had " opposed and restrained the deluded people from accepting the con- ditions so often offered to them," received liberty to remove themselves, their families,
R*
ITA
and property to any part of Ireland. As the garrison of 2,500 men marched out, several fell dead of the plague. On a third vote of a court-martial, and partly at the solici- tation of Ludlow, O'Neill's life was spared, while most of the other excepted persons were executed : O'Dwyer, Bishop of Emly, and Father "Wolfe suffered with singular bravery and fortitude. Ireton died of the plague at Limerick on i5th^Novem- ber 1 65 1, aged about 41. His death was deeply felt by his own party, who revered him as a good soldier, an able statesman, and a saint. Cromwell had a profound faith in his judgment, and entrusted to him the drawing up of many of the important public acts, memorials, and documents of his party. His body was embalmed and conveyed to England, where it was buried in Westminster Abbey. After the Restora- tion his remains were, with Cromwell's, disinterred, exposed on a scafibld, and burned at Tyburn. '"5 no* m =15 219*
Irvine, William, Brigadier-General in the American revolutionary army, was born in the County of Fermanagh, 3rd Novem- ber 1 74 1. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he studied medicine, was for some time a surgeon in the royal navy, and after 1763 removed to America, and practised at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was a mem- ber of the convention which met at Phila- delphia in 1774, and recommended a gene- ral congress ; was representative of Carlisle until 1776; raised and commanded the 6th Pennsylvania regiment; was taken prisoner at Trois Rivieres, Canada, and exchanged in 1778. After minor commands, he was, in the autumn of 1781, stationed at Fort Pitt, and entrusted with the defence of the north-western frontier. In 1785 he was appointed to examine the public lands of the State of Pennsylvania, and suggested the purchase of the " Triangle " which gave to that State an outlet upon Lake Erie. He was a member of the old Congress of i786-'8, of the convention that revised the constitution of Pennsylvania, and of Con- gress, i793-'5. He died in Philadelphia, 29th July 1804, aged 62. Two of his bro- thers and three of his sons also served in the army of the United States. 37*
Ita, Saint, so called "from the ita (thirst) of the love of God which she had," ^34 flourished in the 6th century. " Deirdre was her first name," she was also known as Mide. She was born in the present County of Waterford about 480, and became one of the most venerated of Irish saints. O'Hanlon devotes five chapters of his great work ^34 to the particulars of her life, and gives an engraving of the ruins of her church of Klilleedy, in the County of Lime- 259
