by C R Dempsey
Eunan landed on his back, on the ground. It was completely dry, unlike the familiar well of his village. He looked upwards, and the walls were sheer and the sky unreachable. Beside him was a hole in the wall. It was the only means of escape. He braced himself, crouched down and crawled on his belly for several minutes through dust, stone and debris, coughing every couple of meters. He bled from his elbow and his knees, coated in dust and small stones. But at long last, he made it to a circular room. As he dusted himself off, suddenly he saw before him was his mother on a stone altar. She was dressed in the funeral garb of Maguire nobility, a green flowing dress and around her the pride and beauty of the plants of Fermanagh. Beneath the altar was dried firewood, completing the funeral pyre. Caoimhe ran crying from the shadows and threw herself on his mother’s dead body. Caoimhe wailed as if his mother were her own. Eunan walked towards her and reached out.
Cillian O’Cassidy emerged from the shadows and stood between Eunan and the altar with an axe rested on his forearms. Eunan tried to get past him, but Cillian kept moving to block his way. He tried to push past, but Cillian shoved him back and squeezed the shaft of his axe. A hand placed itself upon Eunan’s shoulders.
“One man stands between you and your mother and the woman of your dreams. Put an axe through his head,” a whisper came in Eunan’s ear.
Eunan turned his head and saw Seamus.
“Put an axe through his head!” and Seamus nodded in the grim-faced Cillian’s direction.
Eunan’s veins bulged.
“Put an axe through his head!”
“I…I have no axe.”
“Here, take mine. Now put an axe through his head.”
Eunan looked at Cillian, whose face did not move.
“Put an axe through his head!” commanded Seamus. “Do I have to tell your father?!”
“M-my father?”
Eunan looked at his forearm. His blood began to boil, and the bubble protruded out of his veins.
“Yes! Your father! Here he comes now!”
Cillian O’Cassidy now gripped his axe shaft with both hands.
“Now what were you told, boy? Put an axe through his head!” came a roar from the shadows.
A ginger giant emerged, covered in his mother’s blood, and ran at Eunan. Eunan tried to run, but Finn came from behind and crouched down and tripped him. His head hit the ground. The bad blood boiled over and exploded from his arms. Eunan screamed into the ceiling of his tent.
10
Second siege of Enniskillen
Several months of stability passed by in Tirconnell. Red Hugh concentrated his time sending delegations to Scotland to hire mercenaries, training his men, and gathering together rebels from Connacht and Leinster and directing them to take up residence in his lands. The news of the siege of Enniskillen spread like wildfire across the north. Hugh Maguire lit the beacon of rebellion, and it drove potential recruits from all over Ireland to Tirconnell, eager for action. Red Hugh, determined not to disappoint, prepared his men for war.
* * *
In the meantime, as one of the favoured men, they provided Seamus with coin and livery. He took up residence in a small house on the outskirts of Donegal town, much to the anger of Shea Óg, who had to make do with the squalor of the camp. Heaped upon this burden, Shea Óg also had to hold together his rabble of misfits and ensure that Seamus delivered Hugh Boye MacDavitt. Seamus tried to prise out news of his wife back in Enniskillen from any source but Shea Óg to no avail. He grew more anxious about her welfare, so he put aside his better judgment and sought Shea Óg.
Shea Óg sat beside a modest fire, trying to suck the last of the meat off a poor unfortunate rabbit that in its fatal error made a burrow beside a camp of hungry, drunken men. He was so engrossed that he did not see Seamus coming.
“Have you made yourself at home in the land of the O’Donnell’s yet?” asked Seamus over Shea’s shoulder.
Shea Óg turned his head.
“You haven’t lost your sense of humour, you lazy shite. Another two have disappeared, and we don’t have a single corpse to show for it. You’d better worry about your wife! I need to report back soon, and I can’t be telling them the men are mysteriously dying,” but the talk of his men’s demise did not stop him from stripping another piece of meat off the rabbit with his teeth.
“And how do you do that?” asked Seamus.
Shea Óg could smell weakness even over the waft of the rabbit.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he turned to Seamus, his attention now fully settled on their conversation.
“Well, I wouldn’t want yourself and Sean getting killed, not until I get my wife back.”
“You’ve heard the news of the siege of Enniskillen. She’ll be a long time gone to the security of Lisnaskea and Connor Roe.” Shea Óg smiled. “Our leverage will be safely hidden away.”
Seamus cursed and got up to leave.
“Well, when you write your report, you can tell them that the O’Donnell has assigned me to Connacht, and there’s no sign of Hugh Boye MacDavitt. So they’d better keep my wife well until he shows up.”
“You’d better not be lying to me, Seamus MacSheehy.”
“If you’d brains, you’d be dangerous. Don’t be getting yourself killed in some stupid drunken brawl or the like. I want my wife back!”
“Good day to you as well,” and Shea Óg turned his back on Seamus, returning his full attention to the rabbit bones.
Seamus cursed again before setting off back to Donegal town. Asking Shea Óg had only increased his anxiety.
* * *
The borderlands of Ulster had become a dangerous place for the servants of the Crown and their allies. Besides the Blackwater Fort, three isolated garrisons in Cavan, Monaghan, and Enniskillen protruded out as rocks in the turbulent sea of rebellion. The Maguire roamed free in Fermanagh, except for Enniskillen, and bands of warriors from the north’s minor clans terrorised the countryside. Red Hugh O’Donnell had by now openly joined the rebellion and arrived outside Enniskillen with his finest soldiers that had not yet departed to Connacht with Niall Garbh.
He rode into the camp like a proud peacock, eager to brandish his axe in the anger of war, and was directed straight to Hugh Maguire’s tent. Hugh and Cormac MacBaron were hunched over maps, planning the siege as he entered.
“I have arrived with my warriors to lead the attack. When is the assault?” Red Hugh roared as he extended out his arms to his allies.
“My friend!” and Hugh Maguire ran to embrace him.
Cormac MacBaron did not look so impressed, and ignored the invitation. He had no desire to be usurped as army commander. He wished to move swiftly to business.
“We have to squeeze them until they squeal. Then we can attack. There’ll be no assault, for the only way to take the castle without filling the graveyards is with siege equipment, and we’ve none of that.”
“Well, I am here now,” said Red Hugh with contempt for caution. “I will survey the castle tomorrow. Hugh, can you assign me a few of your men to show me how the English got into the castle to take it in the first place?”
Cormac was not one to be ignored.
“Hugh O’Neill has given me explicit orders not to assault the castle. The O’Neill is not ready for war.”
Red Hugh squared up to Cormac MacBaron.
“Well, the O’Neill isn’t here, and I am the O’Donnell. We assault if I say we assault!”
Hugh Maguire stood between them.
“I will give you some of my best scouts tomorrow. You may change your mind once you survey the castle, Hugh.”
“Are you saying the Maguires can’t take back their castle?” asked Red Hugh.
“I’m saying the English are well dug in, and we have time to starve them out. I’m sure you’ll agree once you inspect the castle.”
“We’ll see! Send your men to men at first light. My men and I will set up camp on the other side of the river.”
Cormac MacBaron bowed to him.
“You go do that!” and Red Hugh stormed out.
* * *
The next day Hugh Maguire arrived at Red Hugh’s camp with several of his best scouts. Red Hugh gathered his military advisors and bodyguards. They mounted and rode out to a nearby hilltop to survey the land. Seamus was a trusted adviser. Hugh Maguire rode alongside Red Hugh as he surveyed the landscape.
“If you look at the moat and walls of the castle, whatever holes or secret ways existed before, the English first exploited and then neutralised them. There’s no way in, except over a pile of dead bodies.”
Red Hugh turned to his entourage.
“Well, men, is there any way in?”
“Hugh Maguire is right. Better to starve them out,” said Seamus.
Hugh Maguire recognised the voice and cocked his head back to check it was Seamus.
“Glad to have you back with us!” said Hugh Maguire. “Few can say they survived the siege of Enniskillen.”
“Aye, few can. Nobody wants to take her more than me, but we need to preserve our men, for the English will want to give battle soon. If we sit here and besiege the castle, they will come to us. Therefore, we can pick where and when we want to fight them. So I say let the siege continue.”
“You won’t get wiser than that from me,” said Red Hugh. “My men will build earthworks and let us wait for the English to attack. In the meantime, I will send emissaries to Scotland to recruit redshanks. We’ll need all the men we can get. Let us set off back to camp.”
They turned their horses and set off. Hugh Maguire rode up to Seamus while they were mid-journey.
“I’m glad to see you’re still alive!”
“No one is more glad than me, lord.”
“Why did you not come back into my service?”
“When I escaped from the castle and fled Fermanagh, Red Hugh gave me sanctuary. The O’Donnell wants me to organise veterans from the Netherlands to train and fight with his armies.”
“We could always do with your help here. Eunan is in the camp. I’m sure he would be delighted to see you.”
“All in good time. However, lord, I have a favour to ask of you.”
“What is it?”
“They captured my wife and the families of my original Galloglass when Enniskillen fell. Have you heard anything about them?”
“You are the only survivor of Enniskillen that I know of, but if I hear anything, I shall pass it on to you. Now I must ride with Red Hugh, but we shall speak again.”
* * *
Red Hugh and his men settled in for a long siege, but the rebels’ actions had not gone unnoticed in the Pale. The lord deputy ordered a relief force in Cavan of six hundred men and forty-six horse to relieve the siege and resupply Enniskillen. He put Sir Henry Duke and Sir Edward Herbert in charge. They had the services of such veterans of Fermanagh as Captain Dowdall, who previously took Enniskillen and Captain Humphrey Willis, the ex-sheriff of Fermanagh, whose actions were one of the leading causes of Hugh Maguire to rebel. They set out on the road to Enniskillen, but the Irish rebels were soon aware of their movements.
* * *
Another axe missed its target. This time it did not even shave the wood on its side.
“What am I supposed to do with you? Who trained you?” cried Eunan as the O’Cassidy boys just stared at him, for they had by now developed thick skins from his berating.
Donnacha and Cillian O’Cassidy looked on and smiled.
“I’m sick of all of you! Just leave me, and we’ll start tomorrow morning again,” said Eunan, throwing up his hands in exasperation.
The O’Cassidy boys sloped back off to the camp to find some alcohol or other mischief.
“What are you looking at?” Eunan growled at Cillian. “If you don’t train, Donnacha will have to send your corpse back to your father.”
“They don’t like having some impostor imposed on them pretending to be their leader,” said Cillian O’Cassidy.
“Well, it’s an insult to God and the Maguire, including your father. For all the wealth he had on his farm, he could have hired a few Galloglass for the cause instead of sending us these useless idiots.”
“Are the boys not a sacrifice enough?” replied Donnacha. “The O’Cassidy land will change hands so many times before Hugh Maguire has the sense to sign an agreement with the English. There is no point in antagonising the future winner of the conflict and throwing away all that money and all that life. The boys are here to learn how to fight, and it is you, my dear sir, who is doing the insulting by the poor job you are doing of training them!”
“I never figured you for a traitor,” shouted Eunan.
“No, you always figured me for a wise man, but you are too deaf to hear my wise words. Train the boys, play your silly war games, but they will settle this when the Queen gets her cattle and coin.”
“You can play your silly politics all you like, but an English army is marching towards Enniskillen right now. They are coming from Cavan, so they will march right through the O’Cassidy lands and then give battle. Every man must be prepared! These boys will die on the battlefield, and you’ll have to bring their bodies back to the O’Cassidys whose lands will have been pillaged by the English army. Then you can play your politics.”
“Don’t get over-excited! The O’Cassidy boys can run as fast as any other man. As soon as the English army appears, the army of the Maguire will melt away. Why don’t you spend your time better and go look for Seamus, who has returned to the camp?”
Eunan went silent, the thunderstorms in his brain etched on his face. But he remembered the words of Desmond, to forget about Seamus and concentrate on becoming the O’Cassidy.
“First things first!” he exclaimed. “Cillian, you train the men, and I’ll be back in several days.”
Donnacha smirked, for he thought he knew how to pull Eunan’s strings. Within the hour, Eunan, Óisin, and several more of his reliable men were on the road to Derrylinn.
11
The crossroads
Eunan and his men rode for the imagined lives of his brethren: the O’Cassidys. Derrylinn’s prosperity was now its downfall, for the same road that brought it wealth now brought it the English army. Eunan arrived at the town to see its limbs were as sluggish as before. No evacuation, no preparation. He knew he had to act. He went to the blacksmith, where he got his new axe. The blacksmith was engrossed in the flaming metal wrapped around his anvil. No sign of panic for the imminent arrival of the English. Eunan sought attention by slapping his hand down the blacksmith’s rough-and-ready counter.
“I’ve kept my promise and am here to return the favour you did for me. Pack your things and come to Enniskillen. Men of your skills are in high demand and will be well rewarded by the Maguire. The English army is but a day’s march away and will destroy everything in its path,” Eunan shouted at him over the rhythmic banging of the hammer.
The blacksmith stopped hammering.
“Kept your promise? But you are here! You reneged on your promise. You said you would go and never come back. All that follows you is destruction!”
“Quit babbling, old man! I am going to the O’Cassidy’s house and will see you on the road to Enniskillen. My men will protect you. Goodbye.”
“The road to Enniskillen?” the blacksmith shouted after him. “Captain Willis is there with his men. There is no escape that way.”
That name stopped Eunan in his tracks. He turned, both in mood and stance.
“Where is Willis? Tell me now!”
“Up there beyond those woods, on the crossroads to Enniskillen.”
He jumped on his horse and pointed his axe toward the crossroads.
* * *
Eunan crouched beneath the cover provided by the bushes and trees and tried to contain the urge to leap out and confront Willis. He had instantaneously recognised him from the siege of the church. He barely looked a day older than when he saw him la
st.
“If I knew then what I know now, I could have sabotaged Willis’s negotiations at the church, and my father would have been partly avenged. By God’s bones, I’ll not let this fresh opportunity pass.”
He reached for his throwing axes and cursed for the simple solution did not avail itself, for he was out of range. He turned to the crouched Óisin, who was beside him.
“If you go around the front and lay a covering fire of arrows and prevent their escape, I’ll take the rest of the men and confront Willis.”
“Do you hear yourself?” replied Óisin. “They outnumber us two to one! They’re English regulars, not mercenary scum from the Pale. We’d be dead in minutes.”
Eunan looked him straight in the eye.
“I didn’t take you as a coward!”
The words lit the anger in Óisin’s eye, and he raised his axe to signal the men to follow him. Eunan quickly learned how to manipulate Óisin’s combustible ego. Several minutes later, the hail of arrows attacked Captain Willis and his men, who took to the woods as Eunan had predicted. The English ran for a couple of minutes until they realised how few arrows were coming after them. Captain Willis halted his men, and they returned fire. This time it was Óisin under pressure and his turn to retreat. Eunan had laid his ambush, but seeing that the English had stopped, he assumed Óisin had engaged. He could not let Willis escape a second time, nor let Óisin take the glory of what should be his revenge.
“THE CRY OF THE MAGUIRE!” and his men followed him out from the cover of the trees.
Eunan had much ground to cover before he let out his rebel yell, but it was a time for haste, not sense. Bullets quickly honed in on the rebels’ shouts, and one by one, they fell while making up the ground to engage. Soon only three rebels remained.
“TAKE COVER!” Eunan ordered.
The bullets stopped. He heard the distant cracking of sticks and branches, waiving to his men to retreat. The cracking noise got nearer. Eunan looked out from behind his tree.