Irish Rebellion of 1641

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 (Irish: Éirí Amach 1641) was an uprising by Catholics in Ireland, whose demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and return of confiscated Catholic lands. Its timing was partially driven by the dispute between Charles I and his opponents—the English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters—which the rebels feared would lead to an invasion and further anti-Catholic measures. Beginning as an attempted coup d'état by Catholic gentry and military officers, it developed into a widespread rebellion and ethnic conflict with English and Scottish Protestant settlers. It led to the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, with up to 20% of the Irish population becoming casualties.

Led by Felim O'Neill, the rebellion began on 23 October and despite failing to seize control of the English government at Dublin Castle, within days the rebels occupied most of the northern province of Ulster. O'Neill then issued the Proclamation of Dungannon, a forgery claiming support from Charles to secure Ireland against his opponents. This encouraged many Anglo-Irish Catholics to join the uprising and soon most of Ireland was in rebellion. In November, rebels besieged Drogheda and defeated an English relief force at Julianstown. In the early months, especially in Ulster, thousands of Protestant settlers were expelled or massacred, and Catholics were killed in retaliation. Events such as the Portadown massacre inflamed public opinion in Britain and had a lasting impact on the Ulster Protestant community.

While both Charles and Parliament sought to quell the rebellion, neither side trusted the other with control of any army raised to do so, one of the issues that led to the First English Civil War in August 1642. The first English troops arrived in Dublin in December 1641 and recaptured much of the Pale and the area around Cork. In March 1642, Charles approved the Adventurers' Act, under which Parliament raised loans to fund further military intervention which would be repaid by confiscating rebel lands. In April, a Covenanter army landed in Ulster to protect their Presbyterian co-religionists and swiftly captured most of the eastern area of the province, while a local Protestant militia known as the Laggan Army held the northwest. Most of the rest of Ireland was under rebel control.

In May 1642, Ireland's Catholic bishops met at Kilkenny, declared the rebellion to be a just war and took steps to control it. With representatives of the Catholic nobility in attendance, they agreed to set up an alternative government known as the Irish Catholic Confederacy and drew up the Confederate Oath of Association. For the next ten years, the Confederates fought a three-sided war against Irish Protestant Royalists, Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians.