ln 1689ー91 lreland was a sigmficant theatre of conflict in a major European war.
The exiled English king,JamesⅡ, wassupported by lrish catholics (the Jacobites),
who received significant military aid from King Louis XIV of France. lrish protestants
supported James's rival and Louis's enemy,William of Orange, who sent an international
army to conquer lreland. Athlone was the key fortress on the mid-Shannon. Besieged
by the Williamites in 1690 , it was successfully defended by the veteran Colonel Richard
Grace.In June 1691 the full Williamites army,under GeneraI Ginkel, again besieged AthIone.
The Jacobites defended the west town and the bridge with great resolution, despite a
massive artillery bombardment. Eventually a determined attack by the Williamites across the old ford caught the defenders by suprise,and the town was captured.Heavily defeated in the subsewuent battle of Aughrim,the Jacobites surrendered at Limerick in October.
The unpopular English king, the catholic JamesⅡ,was overthrown by his DutCh son-in-law, William of Orange,in the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1668.
This was a setback for King Louis XIV of France,Europe's most powerful ruler, for Jarnes was his ally,whereas、William was his most inveterate enemy and a key figure ln European— wide anti—French alliance.
A major European war soon broke out. lrish catholics laised a large army no support James, hoping a victory for him would reverse their losses of wealth and power.
Louis seized the opportunity to undermine William.His navy was strong,and sent James to Ireland with French officers and substantial military supplies.
Irish protestants backed William to use Ulster as a bridgehead for the build-up of a large multi-national army.In 1690 he came to Ireland to take personal command of his forces for the campaign against James.
BATTLE OF THE BOYNE In 1690 William's 35,000-strong army of British,Dutch,Danes,Huguenots and Irish protestants took the offensive south and on 1 Jury defeated James's 24,000- strong Jacobite army at the battle of the Boyne. This gave William Dublin and the east of Ireland.James returned to Flance.However,the Jacobite army made good its escape and regrouped at Limerick.William made no offer of reasonable peace terms.Patrick Sarsfield and the other Irish army leaders determined to continue the war.The line of the Shannon became the new frontier,with Athlone and Limerick as the princepal Jacobite strong points.Willam's siege train was wrecked by Sarsfield in a daring raid.and the Jacobites repulsed his subsequent attack on Limerick with heavy losses.They also defeated an attack on Athrone.William returned to England leaving his army to bring the war in Ireland to a conclusion in 1691.
Divided as now by the river Shannon,in 1690 the two halves of Athlone were linked by the narrow 10-arch Elizabethan stone bridge,situated immediately upstream of the old ford.The bridge supported several corn mills,powered by the fast flow of water through its arches.The crssinng was dominated by the medieval castle on the west bank. The west town was protected by bastioned earthworks.A stone wall with added bastioned and two gatherouses enclosed the core of the east town,where the parish church with its tower and most of the better houses,built of stone,were situated.Poorer mud houses with thatched roofs predominated in the west town and in the entra-mural suburbs.The narrow streets followed much the same pattern as today.There were market places on both sides of the river,with a market house immediately east of the bridge.The total population was about 1500.
After the battle of the Boyne, Athlone became a major Williamite objective.ln mid-July 1690 it was attacked by a 7,500-strong force under the commandof the Scottish generaI, James Douglas. A garrison of about 2,000 defended the town, under the governor,
Colonel Richard Grace, a dogged veteran of many wars. He abandoned the east town, withdrew across the river and broke down the bridge. When summoned to surrender, he defiantly fired his pistol into the air and shouted it was the only negotiation he wanted.
Douglas lacked heavy siege artillery, and his field guns made little impression on the castle and other defence works of the west town. He made no attempt to cross the river and after a week, learning the Grace was to be reinforced, he lifted his siege and withdrew. Grace had preserved Athlone and with it the line of the Shannon,enabling the Jacobites to carry on the war for another year.
My name is Margaret Daly.My husband was a tenant of Lord Westmeath.When King James came to Ireland the priests told us that catholics would have to fight for him to get their share.My husband joined his lordship's regiment.When the army was beaten and went beyond the Shannon,we were told to flee,because the Scots and the Danes would spare none. MY neighbours and I left our homes.My eldest lad joined the rapparees or partisans in the bogs. He will be hanged if the foreign soldiers get him.I took the younger children, with whatever clothes and oatcakes we could carry,and drove our cattle towards Irish.But the foreign horse soldiers came and robbed our cattle.They killed anyone that resisted. They insulted and ill-used us women. Near Athlone the lrish soldiers drove us back. They said there was no food. Grass and roots were all we could find to eat.
Near the foreign soldiers' camp we tore the flesh from the carcass of a dead horse crawling with vermin.For starving women and children,it was like Helicious food. Good spare us all.