On the trail of King Billy

By Richard Doherty

ON July 12, 1691 in County Galway there occurred the bloodiest day in Irish history. At the end of the day, some 9,000 men lay dead or wounded, a toll almost equal to that suffered by the Allied forces that landed in Normandy on D Day in 1944.

The bloodshed that day was a result of the Battle of Aughrim, 'Aughrim of the Slaughter', the fiercest battle of the war between Williamites and Jacobites for the control of Ireland and Britain. It was the death knell of the hopes of the Irish Jacobites to see King James II restored to his kingdoms and led to the siege of Limerick, the surrender of that city and the treaty that ushered in the period of the Protestant Ascendancy.

For the majority of the dead of that July day at Aughrim were soldiers of the Jacobite army which, for much of the day, had appeared to be winning but, through a series of misfortunes, found itself suffering defeat instead.

The Battle of Aughrim took place just over a year after the Battle of the Boyne, fought on July 1, 1690. The latter was the only occasion on which the two kings who were central to this conflict – James II and William III, Prince of Orange – met in battle. It's probably for that reason that the Boyne is the battle that is better remembered and commemorated by Orangemen. Paradoxically, the date on which that commemoration is held is really that of Aughrim; but that's a dim memory of a time when Aughrim was the more celebrated battle.

Last week a small group of individuals took part in a new venture to commemorate those battles, and the sieges of Athlone – one in 1690 and the second in 1691. They gathered in Drogheda where former Taoiseach John Bruton launched the venture, Military Heritage Tours Ltd, the brainchild of Captain Donal Buckley, a retired officer of the Irish army. Significantly the date chosen for the launch was July 1, the true anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and also the anniversary of the first day of the Somme campaign of 1916.

The company's first tour is called The Williamite Trail and covers part of the campaign waged by King William's army in Ireland between 1689 and 1691. From Drogheda the first stop was the site of the Battle of the Boyne itself where 'living history' players were on hand to demonstrate weapons of the period and typical cavalry and dragoon horses that would have been used by the armies that clashed there three centuries ago.

The weapons display ended with the firing of a flintlock musket and the tour moved on to look at what happened during the battle under the expert guidance of Dr Harman Murtagh, an authority on the period.

As a result of the Belfast Agreement the site of the Battle of the Boyne is being developed by Duchas, the Heritage Department and much work is being undertaken that should produce a battlefield site that will attract visitors from many lands.

Next day it was off to Athlone which was besieged twice by William's army. The first siege, in 1690, was abandoned by the Williamites but a stronger army returned in 1691 under the dour Dutch general Ginkel, later to become Baron Athlone. In a ten-day period Athlone suffered a bombardment of at least 10,000 cannon rounds, plus mortar shells, giving it the unenviable distinction of being the most bombarded town in these islands. Needless to say, Ginkel's army was successful, Athlone fell to the Williamites and the road to Connaught was open.

From Athlone the trail moved to Aughrim for a tour of the battlefield and the interpretative centre. Here on July 12, 1691 Ginkel faced the Jacobite commander, the French Marshal St Ruth.

The armies were evenly matched with 25,000 Williamites facing 20,000 Jacobites who had the advantage of good defensive positions and made good use of that advantage for most of the day until daring work by Williamite commanders forced a causeway, Jacobite defenders found that they had been supplied with the wrong ammunition and the Williamite army was able to push through the defensive lines, turning the field of Aughrim into a field of blood.

Those who followed the Williamite Trail were guided ably by Donal Buckley and Dr Harman Murtagh of Athlone delivered the various lectures on the tour. This initial tour followed only part of the Williamite Trail but Donal Buckley hopes to extend it in the future to include sites in Northern Ireland, including Londonderry and Enniskillen, as well as Limerick, where the war came to its bitter end.

Military Heritage Tours Ltd plans a series of events that will also include dinner lectures on the disbanded Irish regiments of the British Army, the first of which, on the Connaught Rangers, will be held this autumn.

This month also sees a tour in West Cork covering the Kilmichael ambush during the Anglo-Irish war and the civil war ambush at Beal na Blath where Michael Collins was killed.

Next year the company plans to introduce tours based on the experience of Irish soldiers in the First and Second World Wars.

Further tours that are on offer cover the Battle of Kinsale (1601), the Cromwellian Campaign of 1649–50, the 1798 Rebellion, the Irish Brigades in European service and the role of the Irish soldier today at home and abroad.

Some years ago it would not have been possible to offer such a programme of tours in Ireland and attract any custom. That Donal Buckley and his team have succeeded in launching Military History Tours must be a sign that there is a growing maturity about attitudes to history on both sides of the border. John Bruton, in congratulating Captain Buckley on his venture, supported the company's intention to 'present accurate history to the public'.

Details of Military History Tours Ltd's programme can be obtained from the company's website www.militaryheritagetours.com or by contacting MHTL at 'Woodfield', Derryhick, Castlebar, Co Mayo. (00 353 94 31344)

Publication Date: 12 July 2002