stores, my son. Be certain you have enough food to last for at least six weeks if you are besieged. Although there is a good spring at Burrishoole, order your servants to fill every container with fresh water as well.
Your armoury is well stocked with the muskets and pistols I imported. Inspect them thoroughly. Be certain each one is in working condition in case you are attacked.
When Bingham returns to Connacht he will find that we have repaid him in full measure for his cruelty. He has sown seeds of hatred. From them grows a tree of fire and fury.
Always,
Granuaile
The rebellion that erupts in Connacht alarms the new lord deputy. He had been assured that the province was submissive. This will not look good on his record. Soon the rebels hold not only Mayo but also parts of Sligo, Roscommon and Galway.
Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy, orders Richard Bingham to arrange a truce. Reluctantly, Bingham does so.
The Bourkes refuse to accept the truce. Advised by Granuaile, they demand that Richard Bingham be removed as governor of Connacht. A Book of Complaints against him is drawn up. He is charged with many acts of extreme cruelty.
Accompanied by Tibbott, Granuaile sails to Dublin to present the Book of Complaints to Fitzwilliam. The tall woman who strides into the lord deputy’s chambers brings with her the scent of the sea. Her face might have been carved from the oaks of Ireland. Fitzwilliam’s attendants shrink away from her as from a wild animal.
Fitzwilliam personally takes the book from Granuaile’s hands. ‘Her Majesty and I appreciate yourinforming us of Richard Bingham’s … shortcomings,’ he says through an interpreter.
‘Richard Bingham is a monster,’ Granuaile replies flatly. ‘Hang him.’
Then she and Tibbott go on to Scotland – to import more gallowglasses.
The queen’s privy council orders Fitzwilliam to determine if Richard Bingham is guilty of the charges brought against him. Various witnesses, all carefully selected, give statements to the lord deputy. Bingham is cleared. In January of 1590 he is instructed to put down the rebellion by any means necessary. No measure is too severe
Bingham and his soldiers pursue a scorched earth policy. Rebel families are put to the sword and their homes and property destroyed. Irish men and women who have taken no part in the rebellion suffer the same fate. This turns them against the rebels, whom they blame for their misfortune. Even the most valiant Irish warriors cannot fight both the English and their own people.
By the end of March the rebellion is over.
To Granuaile’s disgust, she learns that her second son, Murrough O’Flaherty, took the field on Bingham’s side during the rebellion. For some time she refuses to believe this, but many people saw him. ‘I do not know whether my son acted out of cowardice, or out of malice toward me,’ she tells her followers.
The result is the same either way. She must respond.
Taking several galleys, she sets sail for Bunowen. Murrough returns from a cattle fair just in time to find his mother with a torch in her hands, burning one of his outbuildings . ‘If I cannot defeat Richard Bingham,’ she shouts at him, ‘at least I can teach my own flesh and blood not to defy his mother!’
She is no longer the mother Murrough remembers. He hardly recognises her, this savage creature who is ordering her men to plunder his lands. If she were anyone else he would fight back. But something stops him.
Murrough O’Flaherty is afraid of Granuaile.
Connacht can now be described as submissive once more, and Fitzwilliam can boast that he has pacified most of Ireland . Pockets of resistance keep appearing, and battles are fought here and there with mixed results, but the wild Irish have been brought to heel, the lord deputy assures Elizabeth.
Richard Bingham does not believe for a moment that his troubles with Granuaile are over. He is well aware that she possesses a pardon in
Your armoury is well stocked with the muskets and pistols I imported. Inspect them thoroughly. Be certain each one is in working condition in case you are attacked.
When Bingham returns to Connacht he will find that we have repaid him in full measure for his cruelty. He has sown seeds of hatred. From them grows a tree of fire and fury.
Always,
Granuaile
The rebellion that erupts in Connacht alarms the new lord deputy. He had been assured that the province was submissive. This will not look good on his record. Soon the rebels hold not only Mayo but also parts of Sligo, Roscommon and Galway.
Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy, orders Richard Bingham to arrange a truce. Reluctantly, Bingham does so.
The Bourkes refuse to accept the truce. Advised by Granuaile, they demand that Richard Bingham be removed as governor of Connacht. A Book of Complaints against him is drawn up. He is charged with many acts of extreme cruelty.
Accompanied by Tibbott, Granuaile sails to Dublin to present the Book of Complaints to Fitzwilliam. The tall woman who strides into the lord deputy’s chambers brings with her the scent of the sea. Her face might have been carved from the oaks of Ireland. Fitzwilliam’s attendants shrink away from her as from a wild animal.
Fitzwilliam personally takes the book from Granuaile’s hands. ‘Her Majesty and I appreciate yourinforming us of Richard Bingham’s … shortcomings,’ he says through an interpreter.
‘Richard Bingham is a monster,’ Granuaile replies flatly. ‘Hang him.’
Then she and Tibbott go on to Scotland – to import more gallowglasses.
The queen’s privy council orders Fitzwilliam to determine if Richard Bingham is guilty of the charges brought against him. Various witnesses, all carefully selected, give statements to the lord deputy. Bingham is cleared. In January of 1590 he is instructed to put down the rebellion by any means necessary. No measure is too severe
Bingham and his soldiers pursue a scorched earth policy. Rebel families are put to the sword and their homes and property destroyed. Irish men and women who have taken no part in the rebellion suffer the same fate. This turns them against the rebels, whom they blame for their misfortune. Even the most valiant Irish warriors cannot fight both the English and their own people.
By the end of March the rebellion is over.
To Granuaile’s disgust, she learns that her second son, Murrough O’Flaherty, took the field on Bingham’s side during the rebellion. For some time she refuses to believe this, but many people saw him. ‘I do not know whether my son acted out of cowardice, or out of malice toward me,’ she tells her followers.
The result is the same either way. She must respond.
Taking several galleys, she sets sail for Bunowen. Murrough returns from a cattle fair just in time to find his mother with a torch in her hands, burning one of his outbuildings . ‘If I cannot defeat Richard Bingham,’ she shouts at him, ‘at least I can teach my own flesh and blood not to defy his mother!’
She is no longer the mother Murrough remembers. He hardly recognises her, this savage creature who is ordering her men to plunder his lands. If she were anyone else he would fight back. But something stops him.
Murrough O’Flaherty is afraid of Granuaile.
Connacht can now be described as submissive once more, and Fitzwilliam can boast that he has pacified most of Ireland . Pockets of resistance keep appearing, and battles are fought here and there with mixed results, but the wild Irish have been brought to heel, the lord deputy assures Elizabeth.
Richard Bingham does not believe for a moment that his troubles with Granuaile are over. He is well aware that she possesses a pardon in
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