A Brief History of County Down.

By 1210 John was King and de Lacy has fallen from his favour, John landed at Waterford on 20th June with de Courcy, they were joined by Justiciar, John de Gray, bishop of Norwich and a body of Irish troops. They pursued De Lacy northwards and were at Dundalk on the 8th July where 400 of de Lacys soldiers who had deserted him. De Lacys men destroyed and set fire to their castle's in the county, De Lacy fled to Carrickfergus. The King took the De Lacy castle at Carlingford. De Lacy appears to have came south to Dundrum castle then known as the castle of Rath, when John's army approached he fearing having his retreat path cut returned to Carrickfergus his strongest castle, De lacy did not await John's arrival and took boat to Scotland. The castle surrendered some thirty Knights being taken prisoner. The king stayed in Carrick from the 19th to 28th July

From The History of Ulster by Ramsey Colles LLD MRIA F.R. Hist.S.

There was an unsuccessful attempt to plant Ulster in 1569 when Sir Thomas Smith tried to bring English settlers into the Ards Peninsular and County Down. He may have made more than one attempt as another source gives his arrival date as August 1572, August was not a prudent time of the year to embark upon a plantation, to survive the oncoming winter shelter is needed, food stocks are required for almost a full year until the following years crops have been planted and harvested. In 1569 Brian ONeill burnt Movilla and other monasteries in County Down, to deprive Smith and his settlers of shelter.

The major Ulster chieftain at the time Hugh ONeill, began a general rebellion in Ulster in 1594, the English response to this was to adopt a scorched earth policy. It was not until 1607 after the Flight of the Earls, that the plantation of Ulster began in earnest, thousands of settlers were brought to the Provence adventurers such as Annesleu, (Mourne) Hill (North Down) and Montgomery and Hamilton (Ards) these men were granted large tracts of land if they brought in a specified number of settlers to their estates. Scottish settlers such as James Hamilton who brought 10,000 settlers to north western Ulster, bringing with them the language and culture of the Scottish Lowlands to the county of Down. The Hamilton and Montgomery estates shared a common boundary, the location of which appears to have been constantly in dispute, the pair eventually resorting to litigation.

Many accounts of the plantations of the late 16th early 17th centuries relate that the English and Scottish settlers encountered a barren uncared for land devoid of population. This is undoudtably true, the reason being that previously Sir Arthur Chichester from his base in Carrickfergus had systematically destroyed crops, burnt houses, murdered people including women and children, whatever livestock could not be carried off were killed, the text below is taken from a letter written by him"I burned along the lough within four miles of Dungannon and killed one hundred people, sparing none, of what quality, age or sex so ever, besides many burned to death; we kill man, woman and child, horse, beast and whatsoever we find."The text continues in the same vane and concludes."I have often said and written it is famine that must consume them; our swords and other endeavours work not that speedie effect which is expected; for their overthrowes are safties to the speedie runners, upon which we kill no multitudes." Another of Chichester's quotations below.'a million swords will not do them so much harm as one winter's famine' (Chichester to Cecil, 21 May 1600

This scorched earth policy was employed across Ireland by the Lord Deputy Lord Mountjoy (Charles Blonc) and Carew in Munster it was largly responsible for the defeat of the Irish Clans, and ultimately resulted in The Flight of the Earls.

It is interesting to note that many of the protestant planters brought to Ireland may not have been there of theit own choice, to get a grant of land you first of all had to be well connected to the rulers of the time, this precluded the vast majority of the population. You had to undertake to plant the land with a given number of people and build a fortified house or castle, these people became known as Undertakers.

The were for the most part people who already had estates in England, so they would have said to some of their tennants there I am going to Ireland would you like to come with me and I will rent you some land on which to build a house, you can then start a new life there as a tennant of mine, If they said no they would probably have been told to move on.

In 1641 a general rebellion broke out in Ireland, this was in some way precipitated by events in England where Charles I was in conflict with his parliament, this led to civil war in England. The Irish rebellion was led by Sir Phelim ONeill, his cousin Owen Roe ONeill who left Ireland as a child with the 'Flight of the Earls' joined him in the struggle. The ONeill's were the Gaelic lords of Ulster, their dynasty founded by Nial of the Nine Hostages, in the fifth century AD. They struggled for nine years but were finally defeated when the English puritan Oliver Cromwell brought his army to Ireland in 1649 and crushed the rebellion with great ruthlessness.

A mere forty years were to pass before Ireland was to be again bathed in blood, as a result of political maneuvering in England and Europe, the consequences of the Williamite wars manifest themselves in Northern Ireland to this day, its population, becoming victims of history, polarized by the power struggles of egocentric Kings and Lords of three centuries past, who in war saw not the widows and orphans, they left destitute in the various theatres of conflict, their interest lying only in the perpetuation of their often corrupt regimes.

Such was the Williamite war, James II of England was deposed by his parliament, they invited William III (King Billy) of the Netherlands who was married to James daughter Mary, to become king of England. James fled to France seeking the help of Louis XIV. James realised if he could persuade mainly Catholic Ireland to rebel against the English, it would be the first step to regaining his throne. He proceeded to Ireland and convened a parliament in Dublin and announced his intension if victorious he would reinstating all the land confiscated by the English to its original Gaelic owners. Philip of Spain is reported to have said around the time of the Armada in 1588 and "He who holds the key to Ireland, holds the key to England's door."

James marched his army to Londonderry where he unsuccessfully besieged the city for three months.

On August 13th.1689 Marshal Schomberg disembarked 10,000 troops together with heavy artillery from seventy transport ships at Groomsport Co Down to defend the Williamite cause in Ireland. On Saturday 14th June 1690 William III lands with his army at Carrickfergus (Co Antrim) he marched south to Droheda in County Louth where with a superior army he defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne James left Ireland a few days later. The following year the descivise battle in the conflict took place on the 12th July at Aughram County Galway, the Jacobite army was defeated, the battle is said to have been the bloodiest in Irish history leaving over seven thousand dead.

In 1798 Ballynahinch was the scene of a determined stand by Presbyterian rebels against the British Army. Soon afterward, the north and east of Down became noted for strong loyalty to the United Kingdom. South Down, where the population is mainly Roman Catholic, has much support for Irish nationalism.

See also the Chronology of Ireland and history of Ireland.