Part III Of Clan O'Moore's History
The Moores/ O'Moore fought in this war, and is possibilities that they both fought for the protestant Williamites and as well for the Catholic forces of James the 2. It started in March 12 1689 – October 3, 1691. This Jacobite rising at this time was located both in Ireland and Scotland. Like all other Jacobite rising this one was a defeat for the Jacobite forces. King James's troops were chiefly Celtic and Catholic. There were four regiments commanded by McCarthy More and Maguire O'More and others which they recruited among their own clansmen.
Siege of Derry
The siege of Derry was fought on April 18- July 28, 1689, there was a Lieutenant Patrick Moore, during this siege. Patrick Moore fought for the Army of William III. The Derry City Governor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lundy, turned away reinforcements led by Colonel Cunningham, which had arrived in the River Foyle, telling them that the city was to be surrendered. He wrote on 15 April that "without an immediate supply of money and provisions this place must fall very soon into the enemy's hands". Lundy called a meeting with several of his most loyal supporters to discuss surrender. News of the meeting spread, angering many of the citizens.
That night, Lundy (in disguise) and many others left the city and took ship to Scotland. The city's defense was overseen by Major Henry Baker, Colonel Adam Murray, and Major George Walker (also an Anglican priest). Their slogan was "No Surrender". As the Jacobite army neared, all the buildings outside the city walls were set alight by the defenders to prevent them being used as cover by the besiegers. The Jacobite army reached Derry on 18 April. King James and his retinue rode to within 300 yards of Bishop's Gate and demanded the surrender of the city. He was rebuffed with shouts of "No surrender!", and some of the city's defenders fired at him.
According to a later account, one of the king's aides-decamp was killed by a shot from the city's largest cannon which was called "Roaring Meg". James would ask thrice more, but was refused each time. This marked the beginning of the siege. Cannon and mortar fire were exchanged, and disease took hold within the city. James returned to Dublin and left his forces under the command of Richard Hamilton.
The Mountjoy rams through the boom. Royal Navy warships under Admiral Rooke arrived in Lough Foyle on 11 June, but initially declined to ram through the heavily defended defensive boom (floating barrier) across the River Foyle at Culmore. On 28 July, two armed merchant ships, Mountjoy and Phoenix, sailed toward the boom, protected by the frigate HMS Dartmouth under Captain John Leake. Mountjoy rammed and breached the boom at Culmore fort, and the ships moved in, unloading many tons of food to relieve the siege. The city had endured 105 days of siege during which some 8000 people of a population of 30,000 were said to have died. The Siege has been lifted by the royal Navy.
The Siege of Carrickfergus
During this siege from August 20-27 1689, there was a Charles MacCarthy More who was in command of a regiment. A second major wave of reinforcements was assembled at Chester under the veteran Huguenot commander Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg. While it was originally suggested that they might head for Cork, it was decided that they should be landed in Ulster. By the time the expedition sailed from Hoylake on 12 August 1689, news of the relief of Derry had reached England. It meant that Schomberg could now act offensively. During a council of war, the expedition's officers decided to make for Belfast Lough rather than Carlingford Lough, allowing them to join up with the advancing Irish Protestant forces of Derry and Enniskillen.
By 13 August the expedition was in sight of the Mountains of Mourne. They were accompanied into Bangor Bay by George Rooke who had led a Royal Navy force to clear Belfast Lough of French shipping. The same afternoon Schomberg began disembarking his men. He kept them at the alert in case the Jacobite garrisons of nearby Belfast, Bangor and Carrickfergus should attack, but there was no opposition as the troops were brought ashore. The artillery and supply ships arrived separately a few days later. By the end of August, a total of six cavalry and nine infantry regiments had been landed safely at Carrickfergus.
The landing added to a series of setbacks for the Jacobite's including their failures at Derry and Enniskillen and the defeat of a Jacobite force at the Battle of Newtownbutler. Faced with strong Williamite forces in both the north-west and north-east, the Jacobite commander in the north Thomas Maxwell ordered a withdrawal towards Newry. At Carrickfergus he left a garrison which consisted of Charles MacCarthy More's infantry regiment and nine companies of the Protestant Jacobite Cormac O'Neill's regiment. The garrison were charged with delaying Schomberg's army for as long as possible. The Jacobites abandoned Belfast which was swiftly occupied by Henry Wharton's English Regiment. As Schomberg wanted to march on Dublin before the winter set in, he intended to move rapidly to reduce Carrickfergus. He marched through to Belfast, sending out patrols to prevent plundering in the area by the retreating Jacobites. On 20 August Schomberg marched to Carrickfergus with five regiments, followed by another seven on the following day.
They joined up with newly arrived Enniskillen troops under General Percy Kirke. On 14 August, expecting an imminent siege, the Jacobites had set fire to the town's suburbs to deny their cover to the besiegers. They had tried to prepare Carrickfergus to withstand an assault, but much of the town's defenses were decayed from lack of recent use. The first skirmishes began around the town on 20 August. Schomberg sent a message summoning the town to surrender. The defenders asked for time to send a message to King James, asking for his advice. Schomberg rejected this as a delaying tactic to waste time. Shortly after the parley had taken place, the town's artillery took aim at Schomberg's command tent but he was absent at the time. During that night the Williamites dug trenches in an attempt to move as close to the walls possible, prompting intense exchanges of fire. Schomberg's artillery targeted the town house of the absent Lord Donegall, which had been taken over by the defenders and cannons mounted there.
Using intelligence received from local inhabitants the artillery fire became more carefully directed. Although Schomberg had initially spared Carrickfergus Castle from fire, probably because he hoped to use it after the town fell, he now ordered his artillery to open up on it. After his chief Engineer Jacob Richards was wounded, Schomberg had to take over much of his duties due to the lack of qualified replacements. However further infantry and cavalry reinforcements now arrived by boat. During another parley, Schomberg rejected a demand that the garrison be allowed to surrender with the honors of war (to be able to march away with their weapons to the nearest Jacobite garrison) and insisted on unconditional surrender. Many of the garrison wanted to agree terms, but a group led by Colonel Owen MacCarthy and the Governor MacCarthy More were determined to hold out.
Williamite fire had created a breach near the North Gate, but at night the defenders desperately tried to fill it in and make other running repairs on the defenses. To add to the pressure on the defenders, Schomberg ordered Royal Naval vessels in the harbor to join in the bombardment. Although the garrison had good stocks of food, they were already running low on gunpowder. By the evening of 27 August, with Henry Wharton's regiment poised to make an assault against the breach, the Jacobites ran up a white flag and agreed to surrender. Schomberg had reversed his earlier position and was now willing to grant them the honors of war, allowing the garrison to march to Newry with their weapons and baggage.
Many of the town's buildings had been hit during the artillery duel. On the morning of 28 August the garrison, accompanied by their families and other camp followers, marched out of Carrickfergus. A cavalry escort under Sir William Russell was provided to accompany them some of the way towards Jacobite-controlled Newry. Soon after they set off, the Catholic troops began to be robbed of their clothes, possessions and weapons by local Protestant civilians as compensation for the plundering and general persecution they had suffered during the Jacobite occupation of the town. The escort was overwhelmed by the weight of numbers, and many of the Catholics ran for shelter amongst the ranks of the Williamite infantry regiments standing outside Carrickfergus.
Order was finally restored when Schomberg rode amongst them firing his pistol. In response to Schomberg's landing, King James called out the militia across Ireland, and began making preparations to defend Dublin.
After leaving Sir Henry Ingoldsby's regiment to garrison Carrickfergus, Schomberg and his main force departed the town on 28 August. However, Schomberg's progress southwards was slower than he intended, and having reached Dundalk by 7 September he had to halt his force there due to lack of supplies, which were still being shipped through the increasingly distant Carrickfergus. Faced with a large Jacobite field army under James II, Schomberg remained at Dundalk Campduring the autumn, where his army suffered terribly from illness, losing thousands of dead.
Many of the Williamite sick were shipped via Carrickfergus to the hospital in Belfast. After a stand-off between the two armies, involving several skirmishes, both went into winter quarters. In June 1690 William of Orange landed at Carrickfergus, shortly before beginning the campaign that would lead to his victory at the Battle of the Boyne the following month.
Battle of the Boyne
At the battle of the Boyne was a major victory for the Williamite forces that ultimately destroying most of the Jacobite Forces. In this battle there was a William Mure, an ensign in King William 3rd's Army. William Mure, nobly fighting at the ever memorable battle of the Boyne, at the side of the brave Duke Schomberg, crossed the Boyne, was rewarded by Government with lands for his activity. The Battle took place on July 1, 1690 with a force of thirty six thousand soldiers, while the Jacobite force has twenty three thousand and five hundred.
The causalities of the Williamite force was about 750, while the Jacobites suffer one 1,500. William had landed in Carrickfergus in Ulster on 14 June 1690 and marched south to take Dublin. He was heard to remark that 'the place was worth fighting for'. James chose to place his line of defense on the River Boyne, around 30 miles (48 km) from Dublin. The Williamites reached the Boyne on 29 June. The day before the battle, William himself had a narrow escape when he was wounded in the shoulder by Jacobite artillery while surveying the fords over which his troops would cross the Boyne.
The battle itself was fought on 1 July , for control of a ford on the Boyne near Drogheda, about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) northwest of the hamlet of Oldbridge (and about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) westnorthwest of the modern Boyne River Bridge). William sent about a quarter of his men to cross the river at Roughgrange, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Donore and about 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Oldbridge. The Duke of Schomberg's son, Meinhardt, led this crossing, which Irish dragoons in piquet under Neil O'Neill unsuccessfully opposed.
James, an inexperienced general, thought that he might be outflanked and sent half his troops, along with most of his artillery, to counter this move. What neither side had realized was that there was a deep, swampy ravine at Roughgrange. Because of this ravine, the opposing forces there could not engage each other, but literally sat out the battle. The Williamite forces went on a long detour march which, later in the day, almost saw them cut off the Jacobite retreat at the village of Naul.
At the main ford near Old bridge, William's infantry, led by the elite Dutch Blue Guards, forced their way across the river, using their superior firepower to slowly drive back the enemy foot soldiers, but were pinned down when the Jacobite cavalry counter-attacked. Having secured the village of Old bridge, some Williamite infantry tried to hold off successive cavalry attacks with disciplined volley fire, but were scattered and driven into the river, with the exception of the Blue Guards. William's second-in-command, the Duke of Schomberg, and George Walker were killed in this phase of the battle. The Williamites were not able to resume their advance until their own horsemen managed to cross the river and, after being badly mauled, managed to hold off the Jacobite cavalry until they retired and regrouped at Donore, where they once again put up stiff resistance before retiring.
The Jacobites retired in good order. William had a chance to trap them as they retreated across the River Nanny at Duleek, but his troops were held up by a successful rear-guard action. The Dutch secretary of King William, Constantin Huygens Jr., has given a good description (in Dutch) of the battle and its aftermath, including subsequent cruelties committed by the victorious soldiers. The casualty figures of the battle were quite low for a battle of such a scale—of the 50,000 or so participants, about 2,000 died. Three-quarters of the dead were Jacobites. William's army had far more wounded.
At the time, most casualties of battles tended to be inflicted in the pursuit of an already beaten enemy; this did not happen at the Boyne, as the counter-attacks of the skilled Jacobite cavalry screened the retreat of the rest of their army, and in addition William was always disinclined to endanger the person of James, since he was the father of his wife, Mary. The Jacobites were badly demoralized by the order to retreat, which lost them the battle. Many of the Irish infantrymen deserted. The Williamites triumphantly marched into Dublin two days after the battle. The Jacobite army abandoned the city and marched to Limerick, behind the River Shannon, where they were Unsuccessfully besieged. Soon after the battle William issued the Declaration of Finglas, offering full pardons to ordinary Jacobite soldiers but not to their leaders. After his defeat, James did not stay in Dublin, but rode with a small escort to Duncannon and returned to exile in France, even though his army left the field relatively unscathed.
James's loss of nerve and speedy exit from the battlefield enraged his Irish supporters, who fought on until the Treaty of Limerick in 1691; he was derisively nicknamed Seamus a' chaca ("James the shit") in Irish. There is an oral tradition stating that no battle took place at all, that a symbolic victory was shown by the crossing of the River Boyne and that the total fatalities were a result of Williamite cavalry attacking the local able-bodied men.
It is well documented that Williams' horse on that day was black, despite all Orange Order murals depicting it as white with William holding his sword between the horse's ears to make it resemble a unicorn as a symbol of his "Savior" status. The battle was overshadowed by the defeat of an Anglo-Dutch fleet by the French two days later at the Battle of Beachy Head, a far more serious event in the short term; only on the continent was the Boyne treated as an important victory. Its importance lay in the fact that it was the first proper victory for the League of Augsburg, the first-ever alliance between the Vatican and Protestant countries.
The victory motivated more nations to join the alliance and in effect ended the fear of a French conquest of Europe. The Boyne also had strategic significance for both England and Ireland. It marked the end of James's hope of regaining his throne by military means and probably assured the triumph of the Glorious Revolution. In Scotland, news of this defeat temporarily silenced the Highlanders supporting the Jacobite rising, which Bonnie Dundee had led. In Ireland, the Boyne fully assured the Jacobites that they could successfully resist William.
But it was a general victory for William, and is still celebrated by the Protestant Orange order on the Twelfth of July. Ironically, due to the political situation mentioned above, the Pope also hailed the victory of William at the Boyne, ordered the bells of the Vatican to be rung in celebration. Some Irish Catholics who were taken prisoner after the battle were tortured until they agreed to convert to Protestantism. The Treaty of Limerick was very generous to Catholics. It allowed most land owners to keep their land so long as they swore allegiance to William of Orange. It also said that James could take a certain number of his soldiers and go back to France.
However, Protestants in England were annoyed with this kind treatment towards the Catholics, especially when they were gaining strength and money. Because of this, penal laws were introduced. These laws included banning Catholics from owning weapons, reducing their land, and prohibiting them from working in the legal profession.
Battle of Aughrim
There was a commander named Moore fought with his brigade at the following engagements at Ballymore Fort, Sligo, and Aughrim.He served in the Royal Regiment of Foot Guard of the Army of James II. This battle was fought in July 22, 1691. The Williamite was victorious in this battle. Williamite force have twenty thousand and their causalities were about three thousand killed, while the Jacobite forces have eighteen thousand and their causalities were about four thousand killed and three to four thousand capture. The battle started with Ginkel trying to assault the open flank of the Jacobite position with cavalry and infantry. This attack ground to a halt after determined Jacobite counterattacks and the Williamites halted and dug in behind stakes driven into the ground to protect against cavalry.
The French Huguenot forces committed here found themselves in low ground exposed to Jacobite fire and took a great number of casualties. Contemporaneous accounts speak of the grass being slippery with blood. To this day, this area on the south flank of the battle is known locally as the "Bloody Hollow". In the centre, the Williamite infantry under Hugh Mackay tried a frontal assault on the Jacobite infantry on Kilcommadan Hill. The Williamite troops, mainly English and Scots, had to take each line of trenches, only to find that the Irish had fallen back and were firing at them from the next line.
The Williamite infantry attempted three assaults, the first of which penetrated furthest. Eventually, the final Williamite assault was driven back with heavy losses by cavalry and pursued into the bog, where more of them were killed or drowned. In the rout, the pursuing Jacobites manage to spike a battery of Williamite guns. This left Ginkel with only one option, to try to force a way through the causeway on the Jacobite left. This should have been an impregnable position, with the attackers concentrated into a narrow lane and covered by the defenders of the castle there.
However, the Irish troops there were short on ammunition. Mackay directed this fourth assault, consisting mainly of cavalry, in two groups - one along the causeway and one parallel to the south. The Jacobites stalled this attack with heavy fire from the castle, but then found that their reserve ammunition, which was British-made, would not fit into the muzzles of their French-supplied muskets. The Williamites then charged again with a reasonably fresh regiment of Anglo-Dutch cavalry under Henri de Massure. Faced with only weak musket fire, they crossed the causeway and reached Aughrim village with few casualties. A force of Jacobite cavalry under Henry Luttrell had been held in reserve to cover this flank.
However, rather than counterattacking at this point, their commander ordered them to withdraw, following a route now known locally as "Luttrell's Pass". Henry Luttrell was alleged to have been in the pay of the Williamites and was assassinated in Dublin after the war. The castle quickly fell and its Jacobite garrison surrendered. "[The] fire from the castle on the right. . . was insignificant for it slew but a few in the passage. The reason of it was given because the men had French pieces, the bore of which was small and had English ball which was too large."
The Jacobite general Marquis de St Ruth, after the third infantry rush on the Williamite position
up to their cannons, appeared to believe that the battle could be won and was heard to shout, "they are running, we will chase them back to the gates of Dublin". However, as he tried to rally his cavalry on the left to counter-attack and drive the Williamite horse back, he was decapitated by a cannonball. At this point, the Jacobite position collapsed very quickly. Their horsemen, demoralised by the death of their commander, fled the battlefield, leaving the left flank open for the Williamites to funnel more troops into and envelope the Jacobite line. The Jacobites on the right, seeing the situation was hopeless, also began to melt away, although Sarsfield did try to organise a rearguard action.
This left the Jacobite infantry on Killcommadan Hill completely exposed and surrounded. They were slaughtered by the Williamite cavalry as they tried to get away, many of them having thrown away their weapons in order to run faster. One eyewitness, George Storey, said that bodies covered the hill and looked from a distance like a flock of sheep. Estimates of the two armies' losses vary. It is generally agreed that about 5–7,000 men were killed at the battle. Some recent studies put the Williamite dead as high as 3,000, but they are more generally given as between 1-2,000, with 4,000 Jacobites killed. However the Williamite death toll released by them at the time was only 600 and they claimed to have killed fully 7,000 Jacobites.
Many of the Jacobite dead were officers, who were very difficult to replace. On top of that, another 4,000 Jacobites either deserted or were taken prisoner. What was more, they had lost the better part of their equipment and supplies. For these reasons, Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite war in Ireland. The city of Galway surrendered without a fight after the battle, on advantageous terms, and the Jacobites' main army surrendered shortly afterwards at Limerick after a short siege. The battle, according to one author, "seared into Irish consciousness", and became known in the Irish language tradition as Eachdhroim an áir - "Aughrim of the slaughter".
The contemporary Gaelic poet Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta wrote of the Irish dead, "It is at Aughrim of the slaughter where they are to be found, their damp bones lying uncoffined". Another poet wrote, "Our friends in vast numbers and languishing forms, left lifeless in the mountains and corroded by worms". Since it marked the end of the Irish Catholic Jacobite resistance, Aughrim was the focus of Loyalist (particularly Orange Order) celebrations in Ireland on 12 July up until the early 19th century. Thereafter, it was superseded by the Battle of the Boyne in commemorations on "the twelfth to the switch to the Gregorian calendar .
It has also been suggested that the Boyne was preferred because the Irish troops there were more easily presented as cowardly than at Aughrim, where they generally fought bravely. It is also mentioned in "The Sash", an Ulster folksong: It is old but it is beautiful, and its colours they are fine It was worn at Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne. My father wore it as a youth in bygone days of yore, And on the Twelfth I love to wear the sash my father wore.
Irish Brigade in France
In the Irish Brigade of France there were many O'Mores of the Leix sept who were officers during the eighteenth century. They served France during the wars of War of Spainish Sucessions, Austrian Sucessions, and the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The battles fought in the 1745 Jacobite rising by the Irish Brigade was at Falkirk and Culloden.
Battle of Malplaquet
The allied army, mainly consisting of Dutch and Austrian troops, but also with considerable British and Prussian contingents, was led by Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, while the French and a contingent of Bavarians were commanded by Villars and Marshal Boufflers. Boufflers was officially Villars' superior but voluntarily serving under him. The allies had about 86,000 troops and 100 guns and the French had about 75,000 and 80 guns, and they were encamped within cannon range of each other near what is now the France/Belgium border.
At 9.00am on 11 September, the Austrians attacked with the support of Prussian and Danish troops under the command of Count Albrecht Konrad Finck von Finckenstein, pushing the French left wing back into the forest behind them. The Dutch under command of John William Friso, Prince of Orange, on the Allied left wing, attacked the French right flank half an hour later, and succeeded with heavy casualties in distracting Boufflers enough so that he could not come to Villars' aid.
Villars was able to regroup his forces, but Marlborough and Savoy attacked again, assisted by the advance of a detachment under General Withers advancing on the French left flank, forcing Villars to divert forces from his centre to confront them. At around 1.00 pm Villars was badly wounded by a musket ball which smashed his knee, and command passed to Boufflers. The decisive final attack was made on the now weakened French centre by British infantry under the command of the Earl of Orkney, which managed to occupy the French line of redans. This enabled the Allied cavalry to advance through this line and confront the French cavalry behind it.
A fierce cavalry battle now ensued, in which Boufflers personally led the elite troops of the Maison du Roi. He managed no less than six times to drive the Allied cavalry back upon the redans, but every time the French cavalry in its turn was driven back by British infantry fire. Finally, by 3.00 pm Boufflers, realising that the battle could not be won, ordered a retreat, which was made in good order. The Allies had suffered so many casualties in their attack that they could not pursue him. By this time they had lost over 21,000 men, almost twice as many as the French. Villars himself remarked on the enemy's Pyrrhic victory via the flip-side of King Pyrrhus' famous quote: "If it please God to give your majesty's enemies another such victory, they are ruined. By the norms of warfare of the era, the battle was an allied victory, because the French withdrew at the end of the day's fighting, and left Marlborough's army in possession of the battlefield, but with double the casualties. In contrast with the Duke's previous victories, however, the French army was able to withdraw in good order and relatively intact, and remained a potent threat to further allied operations.
Villars claimed that a few more such French defeats would destroy the allied armies; and the historian John A. Lynn in his book The Wars of Louis XIV 1667–1714 terms the battle a Pyrrhic victory but the attempt to save Mons failed, and the fortress fell on 20 October. Nonetheless, news of Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the eighteenth century, stunned Europe; a rumor abounded that even Marlborough had died. For the last of his four great battlefield victories, the Duke of Marlborough received no personal letter of thanks from Queen Anne. Richard Blackmore's Instructions to Vander Beck was virtually alone among English poems in attempting to celebrate the "victory" of Marlborough at Malplaquet, while it moved the English Tory party to begin agitating for a withdrawal from the alliance as soon as they formed a government the next year.
Battle of Fontenoy
Siege of Tournai by Louis XV of 30 April to 22 May 1745 by Louis Nicolas van Blarenberghe. Taking Tournai was the first step in Saxe's campaign. The fortress fell shortly after the Battle of Fontenoy. From Cambron the Allies marched to Moulbay and to within the sound of the siege guns at Tournai. Even now Cumberland was still unsure of the situation facing him, "I cannot come at any certain knowledge of the enemy's numbers, but I have concurring information that the body on this side the Schelde does not exceed 31 battalions and 32 squadrons. The reports vary of the progress of the siege, the weather is so bad that, tho' we are within a distance to hear the canon very distinctly, yet no true judgement can be formed from thence whether the enemy are retir'd over the Schelde or not."
On the evening of 9 May the Allies at last reached the final stage of their tiring march, encamping their left wing on Maubray, and their right on Baugnies, almost within musket-shot of the French outposts. Tournai lay six miles (~10 km) to the north-west. French reconnaissances had confirmed Saxe in his belief that the Allies would endeavour to relieve Tournai by attempting to force a passage from the south-east via the hamlet of Fontenoy and the small town of Antoing on the Scheldt. The French commander now cast about for a good spot where he might await the attack in security, finally settling on a potentially strong defensive position on the eastern side of the Scheldt, about 5 miles (~9 km) south-east of Tournai. To guard against any break-out by the Dutch from within the besieged city the Marquis of Dreux-Brézé was left with 21,550 men in the trenches, and orders to contain the garrison of about 8,000 men at all costs.
Louis XV took to the field in person, accompanied by his son Louis, and their enormous retinue. After observing the siege at Tournai, the King moved on to the Château de Calonne between Tournai and Antoing.That same day, 8 May, Saxe began to move his main troops into position to face the Pragmatic Army. During a hasty reconnoitre late on 9 May Cumberland, Königsegg, and Waldeck found the French fortifying the hamlet of Fontenoy; they also discovered the enemy's pickets at the villages of Vezon and Bourgeon. These outposts were dealt with on the following day: on the right the British under General Campbell moved to take Vezon, where Cumberland subsequently moved his headquarters; while the Dutch on the left possessed themselves of Bourgeon. The Allied forward units now held the Peronne–Bourgeon–Vezon line.
After another reconnoitre the Allied commanders resolved to defer the battle until the morning of the 11th, but all agreed that the French position – the barrier between themselves and Tournai – must be attacked.
The position which Saxe had chosen to make his defence was naturally strong: the right of his army rested on Antoing, the centre on Fontenoy, and the left was covered by the Wood of Barry. This defensive line rested on the edge of a crest of high ground. Here lay the strength and advantage of Saxe's choice: the descent in many places along the position formed a natural glacis, and throughout the whole length, from Antoing to the wood, the prolonged slope offered an even and deadly field for cannon and musketry fire. This position was further strengthened by the construction of redoubts. Two were built along the Fontenoy-Barry gap, defended by two regiments of the Brigade of Eu, and each supplied with four cannon – the first breastwork (nearest Fontenoy), known as the Redoubt of Eu, played a central part in the battle.
In the rear of these works and extending Northeast to the village of Ramcroix stood the French left wing, including the six battalions of the Irish Brigade. Between Fontenoy and the larger village of Antoing on the French right a further three redoubts were built along the ridge-line. These defences were manned and supported by the regiments of Crillon, Bettens, Diesbach, and Biron, and three dismounted dragoon regiments. Antoing itself was defended by seven battalions, including four veteran battalions of Piedmont, and six guns. Additionally, six 12-pounders were mounted on the far side of the Scheldt facing Antoing, targeting the left flank of any force attacking in that quarter. The hinge of the French line consisted of the small hamlet of Fontenoy.
This position was held by the Brigade Dauphin, comprising three battalions of the regiment Dauphin, and one of Beauvoisis, supported by six guns commanding the approaches. But it was the Fontenoy–Barry gap which was of particular danger to Saxe. Here the line comprised the Gardes Suisses, four battalions of the Gardes Françaises, as well as the brigade of Aubeterre composed of three battalions of the Swiss regiment of Courten and one battalion of the regiment Aubeterre. Immediately to the rear of Fontenoy there were three battalions of the regiment Le Roi.
Behind the first line were further infantry supports, and behind these stood the whole body of French cavalry, with their left resting on the Leuze–Tournai causeway, and their right some distance back from Fontenoy. In total Saxe had 60 battalions and 110 squadrons, of which about 6,000 were thrown into the bridgeheads at Calonne and Vaulx to secure possible lines of retreat and/or to guard against any sortie from Tournai in the rear of his position. This left the French commander with approximately 50,000 troops to fight the coming battle. One hundred guns were disposed along the whole line, between Antoing and the Wood of Barry. At 02:00 on 11 May, the Allied regiments took up their stations.
The British were posted on the right wing with the Hanoverians to their immediate left, while the Dutch took the left wing, supported by the small Austrian contingent made up mainly of mounted troops. A large battery of Allied guns, some 40 to 50 guns according to French accounts,[ began to bombard the French positions at long range. The allied bombardment was to little effect however, as most of the French were in the woods, or in redoubts, or behind the swell of ground leading to their position, or fortified in Fontenoy. Accounts from both sides speak to the three hour long duration and intensity of the other's fire.
Cumberland's reconnaissance on the evening of the 10th had failed to detect the Redoubt of Eu near the woods, but during the night information had been brought to him of its whereabouts. The strength of the French left was only now appreciated, and the position became a matter of the greatest importance. The task of neutralising the strong-point was given to Brigadier-General Ingolsby, for which he was given command of Duroure's (12th), Pulteney's (13th), the Highland Regiment (43rd), and Böschlanger's Hanoverian regiment. While this attack went in on the right, the Dutch and the Austrians with the Hanoverians in the centre would strike to Cumberland's left in all-out assaults on Fontenoy and Antoing. Once the flanks were under heavy attack, the massed body of the British infantry could storm the Fontenoy–Barry gap and dislodge the main French army..
Ingolsby had explicit orders from the Duke to capture the Redoubt of Eu, and either spike the guns or turn them on the enemy. At around 06:00 Ingolsby moved his brigade forward, but he halted in a 'hollow way' a short distance from the wood. Here he remained, telling Lord Bury (one of Cumberland's six aides-de-camp), "that he saw troops in the wood, that he did not know the number of them, and had consulted with his officers, who were of opinion it was impracticable." These 'troops in the wood' were the Grassins, a combination of light infantry and light cavalry who tenaciously defended the position against the Allied attack.
Ingolsby continued to falter and hesitate. He asked for cannon before he advanced and was immediately sent three six pounders but he still made no attack. At last Cumberland himself confronted the Brigadier, but by this time the British infantry were drawing up on the plain beyond Vezon in readiness for the main attack, while to their left the Dutch were preparing to advance on Fontenoy and the redoubts between that village and Antoing. With French cannon taking a heavy toll on these dense formations it was clear that the opportunity for Ingolsby's attack had slipped by, and the Duke simply ordered him to move his brigade forward in line with the main British formation under Ligonier.
Cumberland had decided to ignore the danger on his right flank. To compound his troubles General Campbell, commander of the British cavalry, had earlier been mortally wounded while screening the infantry advance onto the plain, and had been carried from the field without having revealed his orders to any other officer. With no one knowing what to do, the cavalry simply formed to the rear of the infantry where they remained until the battle was virtually decided. Ligonier finally sent word to Cumberland that he was ready to advance as soon as the Dutch carried out their attack on Fontenoy. The night of the 10th had seen the left wing of the allies more advanced towards the enemy than the right. Prince Waldeck was thus able to complete his dispositions for battle in the morning more rapidly than Ligonier. The Dutch line, from left to right, was formed of: 36 squadrons of cavalry, next 8 infantry battalions, then 4 squadrons and finally, facing Fontenoy, 12 battalions in two lines.
However, Waldeck also had not sufficiently reconnoitred his objectives, and was unaware of the strength of the enemy position in the village. The Dutch advanced, moving up three batteries of artillery to support their attack. The French infantry, secure behind their barriers, allowed the Dutch to draw very close before releasing a devastating volley upon them. Those Dutchmen who were not killed, fled. Meanwhile, a second column, with cavalry in its rear, advanced on Antoing. Encountering a terrible fire from the three redoubts and the battery on the far side of the Scheldt, the Dutch in this sector also wavered. Their cavalry turned about; but while the bulk of them halted within cannon-shot, a minority of them fled. Colonel Appius took flight with his regiment all the way back to Ath. It was now around 10:30, and the British and Hanoverian infantry stood ready to march forward.
However, both flank attacks – Inglosby on the right and the Dutch on the left – had failed. With Fontenoy and the Redoubt of Eu still in French hands Cumberland and Königsegg had to decide whether to move forward or retreat and wait for a more propitious opportunity. Cumberland chose to attack. Moreover, he personally chose to lead the column in what was to become one of the great infantry advances of the eighteenth century. The British and the Hanoverians were deployed in two lines. The first British line, from right to left, was composed of three brigades: first, on the right, the Guards brigade composed of the 1st, 3rd and 2nd Foot Guards; second, Ponsonby's brigade of the Royal Scots (1st Foot), Scots Fusiliers (21st Foot), Handaside's (31st Foot); third, Onslow's brigade of Onslow's's (8th Foot), Rothe's/Sempill's (25th Foot), Johnson's (33rd Foot) and Howard's (19th Foot). The second British line was three brigades, from right to left: first Howard's brigade with Howard's 'the Buffs' (3rd Foot) on the right, the Welsh Fusiliers (23rd) Foot and Skelton's (32nd Foot); second, Bland's brigade of Sowle's (11th Foot) and Bragg's (28th Foot); and third Skelton's brigade of Cholmondeley's (34th Foot) and Bligh's (20th Foot).
The Hanoverian regiments were on the left of the British lines. The Dutch now made a second attempt on Fontenoy, reinforced with Austrian cavalry and two battalions of British infantry, including the Highland Regiment. The Brigade of Dauphin were surprised by the irruption of these "Highland furies, who rushed upon us with more violence than ever sea did when driven by a tempest." However, concerted French fire drove the Allied forces off again. This dispirited the Dutch who retired out of range and did not participate in the main attack. Along the French right flank the Allies had been routed; but the battle was not yet over. On being congratulated by Monsieur de Bauffremont, Saxe simply replied, "all is not said; let us go to the English, they will be harder to digest." and, at about 10:15, he abandoned his wicker carriage and mounted his famous white palfrey.
As the second Dutch attack on Fontenoy went in, the main Allied formation moved towards the French position on the plateau. Cumberland took up his place alongside Ligonier at the head of 20 battalions, 15 British and 5 Hanoverian to their left, led by the British Guards brigade, each with their two battalion guns, about 13,000 to 15,000 men, drawn up in two disciplined lines, each six ranks deep. However, the narrowness of the defile through which the attack must pass forced the Hanoverians back to form a third line behind the British. As the British and Hanoverians advanced the French pushed forward the four small three-pound battalion guns of the Gardes Françaises brigade and the four of Aubeterre brigade, the fire from these was added to the bombardment from the Redoubt d'Eu. Cumberland responded by deploying seven of the Guard's Brigade's three-pound battalion guns to push them back. The Duc de Gramont, of Dettingen infamy, would be killed by a shot from these.
As the column advanced up a slight rise, the British brought up a battery of twelve six-pound
cannon to the front of the column at such close range that the Gardes Françaises left their supported defensive position against orders, as they had at Dettingen, and advanced, unsupported, in an attempt to take the guns. Both sides exchanged fire at close range. From the redoubt of d'Eu and Fontenoy the French cannon poured tremendous flanking fire. Whole Allied ranks were swept away, but still they pressed forward in perfect order as if on parade, the better to foster cohesion and the better to overawe their opponents. Saxe had never believed that the Allies would conceive or execute such a manoeuvre, and here was the one weak spot of his defence – a third redoubt between Fontenoy and the Redoubt of Eu would have rendered the Allied advance impossible.
On obtaining the summit of the ridge the Allied column found itself facing the French infantry line. The French guards rose and advanced towards the crest, whereupon the two forces confronted each other at a distance of 30 paces. The moment was immortalised by Lord Charles Hay of the 1st Regiment of Guards who later wrote that he stepped forward, took out a hip flask and drank with a flourish, shouting out to his opponent, "We are the English Guards, and we hope you will stand till we come up to you, and not swim the Scheldt as you did the Main at Dettingen!" He then led his men in three cheers. Voltaire's version of this famous episode has become proverbial. He wrote: "The English officers saluted the French by doffing their hats . . . the French, returned the greeting. My Lord Charles Hai, captain in the English Guards, cried, 'Gentlemen of the French Guards, fire!' The Comte d'Auteroche, then lieutenant of Grenadiers, shouted, ' Gentlemen, we never fire first; fire yourselves."
The French were the first to fire, the volley was somewhat ineffective but threw the Third Guards into some confusion and wounded George Churchill, the commander of the Guards brigade. Captain Lord Panmure led the unbroken companies of the Third Guards to the flank of the First Guards. Up to this point the British column had not fired a single musket shot, but now the Allied infantry poured a devastating discharge into the French. The volley of musketry with the battalion guns delivering numerous rounds of grape-shot, swept away the front rank of the ten battalions of the French first line, killing and wounding between 700–800 men, breaking the Gardes Françaises, while the Gardes Suisses and the four battalions of the brigade Aubeterre were driven back by the British advance. Historian David Chandler writes that upon the order 'First Firing, Take Care!,' in the British platoon firing system, the six platoons of the first firing with the whole of the front rank of each British battalion fired together – explaining the efficacy of the British first volley.
Additionally, Chandler describes the advance as also a British development of the platoon firing system in which troops mounting an attack continue to advance to give fire by stepping out ahead of the rest of the marching battalion, when they are done and reloading the other platoons advance ahead of them and give fire in turn. This explains the slow advance of the column noted in many first hand accounts. The French now faced an unexpected crisis. Although the Allied attack on Fontenoy had failed, the commander of the second line of the French center had dispatched much of this line to support the brigade in Fontenoy so there was now no support infantry line behind the part of the line formerly held by the Gardes Françaises and the British Guards advanced deep into this gap.
Saxe was still seriously ill on the day of the battle and had spent the early part of the engagement in his wicker carriage. By the time the of the British/Hanoverian advance, however, he had mounted his horse and, despite great pain, directed French actions personally. Saxe now ordered his cavalry to attack the advancing foe, but they too recoiled, broken by shattering fire. From his vantage point near Notre Dame de Bois Louis XV, attended by the Dauphin, Noailles, the Duke of Richelieu, and Louis XV's Minister of War, the Marquis d'Argenson, had witnessed his best infantry fall back in disorder. Convinced it was over, Noailles had implored the King to seek safety; but Saxe reassured him that the battle was not lost.
With his defiant oath that "We must all conquer or die together", the French commander rode off to restore order at the front. The King stayed. By now the Allied foot had penetrated the French lines for a distance of 300 yards, and into the French camp. However, the incessant fire from the flanks – from Fontenoy and the Redoubt of Eu – followed by the constant cavalry and infantry attacks, had caused the British and Hanoverian infantry to yield ground, forcing them slowly back towards the crest of the plateau. Endeavouring to restore order, Cumberland personally exhorted and inspired his men, halting their retreat, rallying them with the cry: “ "Don't you know me my countrymen? Will you leave me? I don't ask you to do anything without me: all I beg you is to share my danger. ” Newly encouraged, the Allies once again began to move forward.
Gradually, however, the French onslaught had brought about a change in the column's formation. The wings of the line had moved round on either flank in order to face the enemy to their left and right, thus forming a hollow, three sided square, against which Saxe now flung his second line of cavalry. The brigade of the Maison du Roi, the Carabiniers, the Gendarmerie, the finest cavalry of France, charged and charged again, but each time were driven back by the steady discipline and fire of the British infantry. The regiments of Vaisseaux, Hainault, Normandie, and part of the Irish Brigade, were all beaten back. Ligonier later recorded, "Having had orders to make a second attempt, our troops … a second time made the enemy give way; and they were once more pushed as far as their camp with great loss of men, which we too felt upon our side."
After the Allied attempts on the left had failed the French had become more and more focussed on the British infantry, and on the retreat of the Dutch all the guns of Fontenoy had been turned to face Cumberland's men. The British and Hanoverians themselves overlooked the opportunity to attack Fontenoy on its unbarricaded side with the French cannon either out of shot or running low on ammunition, a much easier task than that the Dutch had faced. The garrison from Tournai was contained by the French besiegers. Although the constant charges of the French cavalry had been thrown back, their perseverance at last achieved Saxe's aim: they had made time for his infantry brigades to reform. Long after the battle Saxe justified his tactics writing: “ "While Fontenoy remained untaken, the enemy's success in the centre was disadvantageous to them, for they had no pivot. The farther they penetrated the more were they exposed to the fire of our troops and batteries in their rear. It was essential to distract their attention by repeated cavalry charges, which were, it is true, unable to produce a decisive effect, but gave us time to organise the general attack on which all depended.”
The hollow 'square' had again progressed several hundred yards beyond the flanking batteries, but Cumberland had become increasingly isolated in the centre with his shrinking mass of British and Hanoverian infantry. The Allies grew indecisive. Löwendahl saw the true state of affairs, and galloped off to meet with Saxe. "Well, monsieur le maréchal, here is a great day for his Majesty! These fellows will never get themselves out of a fix like that!" After a council with Louis XV it was resolved to unite all available forces, and at around 14:00, Saxe made a final concerted effort to repulse the enemy. Four pieces of reserve artillery, loaded with grape-shot, were brought into action, and every available regiment mustered.
Saxe rallied six Irish battalions of the Wild Geese supported by the remnants of Vaisseaux and Normandie for a final assault and flung themselves into the attack with the wild Gaelic cry of "Cuimhnigidh ar Luimnech agus feall na Sassonach!" – "Remember Limerick and Saxon Perfidy". The Irish Brigade, as a brigade, would suffer the heaviest overall casualties on the French side, losing 656 men including one-quarter of their officers.
Sergeant Wheelock of Bulkeley captured a colour and the attack of the Irish compelled the
British Guards to retire. A simultaneous attack on the Allied left was made by all the regiments which had faced the Dutch between Fontenoy and Antoing. Meanwhile, the French Guards, now led by the Comte de Chabannes, eager for revenge, with fixed bayonets charged the front so closely that fire was exchanged muzzle to muzzle. As Saxe and Löwendahl led the infantry, D'Estrées, and Richelieu brought up the whole Household Cavalry. The fighting was extremely close and deadly, some British regiments lost half their strength such as the Royal Welch Fusiliers which lost 322 soldiers, over 200 killed, while the brigade of British Guards suffered over 700 casualties.
The French counter-attacks eventually halted and then repelled the British column, taking the field. The initial disorder of the Allied column was soon checked as each battalion rallied around its colours; the compact formation was restored, and the British and Hanoverians accomplished their retreat in good order. Attacked from three sides the Allies performed a fighting withdrawal – the rearguard of the column facing about at measured intervals to fire at their pursuers. Ligonier made provision for covering the retreat.
Skelton's (32nd) and Cholmondeley's (34th) formed the rearguard, the Buffs were ordered to hold the churchyard, while hedges and ravines were lined with the Black Watch.
On either flank the British cavalry closed in to form a screen for the infantry – the Royal Horse Guards to the fore especially distinguished themselves. The army reformed behind Vezon, before retreating on Ath. Upon reaching the safety of Ath, Cumberland burst into tears over his disappointment at the defeat and the huge number of lives the defeat cost. Saxe was blamed by the 'carpet generals' for halting the pursuit 100 yards from the battlefield and not turning the defeat of the Allies into a rout. But the enemy were not, even now, lacking in discipline or morale, and the Allied cavalry were at last admirably handled. He later explained that while the Allied cavalry was still relatively intact, his own had been decimated.
Afterwards he gave his reason for not pursuing the Allies further – "As we had enough of it, I thought only of restoring order of the troops engaged in the charge." As Louis XV rode over to congratulate his commander for avenging Poitiers, Saxe's personal guard helped their ailing Marshal onto his horse to meet and embrace his sovereign. Although the details have not been precisely established, casualty figures were high for both sides: the French amounting to at least 7,000 killed and wounded; the Allies are estimated as 10,000 to 12,000.
This casualty rate was the highest in western Europe since the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, where, as a boy, Saxe personally witnessed the carnage. After surveying the field, Louis XV told his son the Dauphin, Louis-Ferdinand "See how much blood a triumph costs. The blood of our enemies is still the blood of men. The true glory is to save it." Kneeling before his King after the battle Saxe remarked, "Sire, now you see what war really means." Nevertheless, he was gratified to receive a letter from Louis XV in acknowledgement of his services. "If I owe this triumph to the valour of my troops … you also contributed to it no less by your steadfast daring, by your sage counsel and by your remarkable foresight." Saxe wrote to his brother, King Augustus III, at Dresden, ""The engagement lasted nine hours and although I was half-dying by the end of it, I resisted my fatigue as though I was in perfect health. It is very sweet to win battles … " Louis XV lavished gifts on Saxe, including the royal Château de Chambord, for Saxe had been present where needed, in spite of his debilitating illness, to deal with every crisis of the battle from rallying troops, to directing and leading reserves, encouraging the king and counseling with his officers.
With his victory at Fontenoy, Saxe would become a great hero of Frederick the Great of Prussia, his ally, and would visit Frederick at Sanssouci in 1746. For the Allies there were recriminations with the Dutch getting most of the blame in English accounts with no explanation as to why the Hanoverian advance on Fontenoy failed to occur. However, Cumberland's official report praised his co-commander, Königsegg, who, fighting between the first and second lines of infantry "was present on horseback during the whole action, and gave his orders with great calmness."
Cumberland was universally praised for his bravery, but also criticised for his generalship, in particular for neglecting to clear the Woods of Barry at the beginning of the battle or to establish an adequate intelligence system, the failure of which gave Saxe ample time to prepare his position. He failed to make his orders clear and Ingolsby's hesitation on the Allied right was in part due to receiving conflicting orders. Brigadier Ingolsby was court-martialled on the charge 'That he received orders from the Duke to attack a redoubt or battery in the last action near Fontenoy, which orders he did not execute'.
The charge of disobedience of orders was found proved. Ingolsby's contention that he had been harassed by inconsistent orders was amply borne out by the evidence, and he was acquitted on the charge of cowardice. The court concluded his failure arose 'from an error of judgement, and not from want of courage.' He was suspended from service and allowed to sell out. Cumberland failed to make effective use of his cavalry. He was so absorbed in the infantry attack that he left his horse regiments idle in the rear until the time for useful action had passed. In effect, the Duke relied not on manoeuvre but on force; it was a direct approach that fell victim to Saxe's clever exploitation of his defensive position.
Additionally, with Cumberland at the head of the Allied column he was in no position to capitalize on his own attack through efforts elsewhere: he could not prevent the French from concentrating against his column because he was behaving more like a battalion commander than a Captain General. Although British leadership was found lacking, British infantry's superior discipline showed that however much French infantry had improved under Saxe's tutelage, France could not match the best that Britain could put in the field. Fontenoy dispelled the notion of British military superiority held in Europe since Marlborough and demonstrated French battlefield superiority over the British and their allies.
The Mordhas other battles n Feuds
Other battles that were fought by the O' Moore clans were the Battle of Portmore castle and the Battle of Corrondogh. There is probably an attack on Castle Lea in which the O' Moore clan took the castle from Clan Demspey. Since there is hard to find infomation on the O'Moore clan feuds. In conclusion the O'Moore clan was a powerful clan that the English fear the most, and quickly hated the O'Moore and did everything in their power to destory the clan. They have fought many battles and wars during Ireland trubulent History and many have shed their blood for their faith and country. There may be more battles that have been fought but sadly is very undoucument.
Clan O' Brenans and Clan O'Mordha Feud
In or about the year, 1026 the O'Brenans and their neighbours, the O'Moores became hostile to each other and fought a sanguinary battle in which Aimhergin O'Moore, Lord of Leix and Cuidhuilegh O' Brenan Lord of Uy Duach with many others were slain and the battle was won by the O' Brenans. This battle is name Bloody road.
Clan Mcduff and Clan O'Mordha feud
In the year of 1096 Gilmurry Mcduff the chief was killed by Magrath O'More in the doorway of the Penitentiary or of Tech Mochua after both had first sworn on a reliquary called the Caimin.
Clan McDonald and Clan O'Mordha Feud
Mac Donchad also called Donald had a quarrel with O More about that period when the Anglo Norman Invaders had landed in Wexford Having engaged some of the newly arrived warriors Mac Donchad invaded Leix which he overran for four days. These ravages were only arrested by O More's submission.
Clan O'Mordha and Clan O'Connor
Around 1196, Mahon the son of Connor of Connaught was slain by Donnell O' Mordha and the men of Leix who attempted to prevent him from bearing off the spoil which he had taken from the English. This act was perpetrated by a mercenary of the Laighis but O'Mordha was killed by Cathal Carrach O'Connor in revenge for his brother Mahon's death. Donnell was then seigneur of the tribes of Leix. He is declared to have resisted in defense and to have killed as a manifestation of loyalty to the Anglo Normans that the Irish chief. Thus when Mahon was bearing off the spoils taken from the English people, the annals of Kilronan state that he was slain by an archer of Donnell O'More's clansmen and that Donnell O'Mordha fell on the same day by the hand of Cathal Carragh in revenge of his brother. The annals of Boyle refer this incident to the year, 1197, while Mahon's death is attributed to one of the O'Mordha's archers.
Clan O'Mordha and Clan Geraldines
O' Conor and O'Moore taking part in a feud between the neighboring Geraldines and the English of the Pale, took up the cause of the former invaded Kildare burned the town of Athy and slaughtered many of the inhabitants.
Clan McMurroghs and Clan O'Moore
The McMurroghs along the ridge of and all their kindred upon the Barrow and the Slaney under a chief against the Lord justice was to march in person later in the campaign of 1316. Lord Dunamase was equally sanguine but 800 men of the O'Mordha's slain in one disastrous encounter crippled the time, the military strength of that great house.
There were feuds between O' Moore and MacGillapatrick and O'Dempsey. O'Moore attack O'Dempsey at Lea castle in which O' Moore capture the castle. Invasion of Laois On Saturday which was the eve of St Remigius feast AD 1333 Galfridus de la Frene slain by the O Morthys or O Moores Slemargys or Slievemarigue. Out of the mountain, fastness of the Slieve Bloom the O'Conor and the O'Moores swooped like birds of prey upon the plains of Leix and Offaly. Friar Clyn gives an interesting account of one of these raiders, Leysert O' Moore. He writes in the year of 1342, Leysert O'Moore, a man influential, rich, and wealthy and respected in his tribe.
By force he ejected almost all the English from his lands and inheritance; for in one night he burned eight English castles and destroyed the noble castle of Dunamase, the property of Lord Roger de Mortimer and obtained for himself and Lordship over his country. Earl Gerald set out to besiege Leap castle, in O'Moore country, but it happened that as he was watering his horse in the little river Greese, at Kilkea, he was shot by one of the O'Moores; he was immediately carried to Athy where shortly afterwards he die. In the year of 1606; Cosby challenged the O'Moores to a pitched battle and the contending clans to meet once more in the Glyn of Agsrabily under the rock of Dunamase; when a bloody conflict ensued, terminating in the triumph of Cosby and the total defeat of his foes who were never afterwards able to defeat them.
The MacMore
“ Between two woods at some distance from the sea. I beheld Mac more and a body of the Irish more than I can number descend the mountain. He had a horse without housing or saddle which was so fine and good that it had cost him they said four hundred cows for there is little money in the country wherefore their usual traffic is only with cattle. In coming down it galloped so hard that in my opinion I never in all my life saw hare deer sheep or any other animal. I declare to you for a certainty run with such speed as it did In his right hand he bore a great long dart which he cast with much skill, But his people drew up in front of the wood. These two like an out post met near a little brook.
There Macmore stopped He was a fine large man wondrously active. To look at him he seemed very stern and savage and an able man He and the Earl spake of their doing recounting the evil and injury that Macmore had done towards the king at sundry times and how they all forswore their fidelity when wrong fully without judgment or law they most mischievously put to death the courteous Earl of March. Then they exchanged much discourse did not come at last to agreement they took short leave and hastily parted Each took his way apart from the other and the Earl towards King Richard.”
Lugad Laighis who in a series of encounters destoryed the previously successful invaders in consideration of which he was granted the district called Laighis or Laoighis subsequently latinised into Lagisia or Lisia and anglicised into Lexi or Leax Lugad's descendants after the introduction of surnames took that of O'Mordha otherwise O'Morra, O'More, or O'Moore from Mordha or the Majestic; the 25th in descent from Conall Cearnach or Victorious. The O'Moores and their clansmen were led by the blood- curdling of drums and warpipes played by their hereditary pipers, the McCrimmins, who were the pipers to the O'Moores.
Clan O'Mordha ( O'Moore) According to Keating, the O’Mores have St. Fintan as their protector.
Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer". He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death. In his lifetime he was often referred to as Anacreon Moore.
From a relatively early age Moore showed an interest in music... and other performing arts. He sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John O'Keeffe (music by William Shield), and at one point had ambitions to become an actor.[1] Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whyte's English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life.[2] In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, in an effort to fulfill his mother's dream of him becoming a lawyer. Moore was initially a good student, but he later put less effort into his studies. His time at Trinity came amidst the ongoing turmoil following the French Revolution, and a number of his fellow students such as Robert Emmet were supporters of the United Irishmen movement, although Moore himself never was a member.[3] This movement sought support from the French government to launch a revolution in Ireland. In 1798 a rebellion broke out followed by a French invasion, neither of which succeeded.
