Chapter XXII: Part 22

During the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce in 1315 some of the suburbs of Dublin were burnt to prevent them from falling into his hand. The inroad of Bruce had been countenanced by the native Irish ecclesiastics, whose sentiments were recorded in a statement addressed to Pope John XXII. Some notion of the defence made against Bruce's invasion may be gained from the fact that the churches were torn down to supply stones for the building of the city walls. Bruce had seized Greencastle on his march; but the natives re-took the town, and brought to Dublin the governor who had yielded to Bruce. He was starved to death.

Richard II. erected Dublin into a marquisate in favour of Robert de Vere, whom he also created duke of Ireland. The same monarch entered Dublin in 1394 with 30,000 bowmen and 4000 cavalry, bringing with him the crown jewels; but after holding a parliament and making much courtly display before the native chieftains, on several of whom he conferred knighthood, he returned to England. Five years later, enriched with the spoils of his uncle, John of Gaunt, Richard returned to Ireland, landing at Waterford, whence he marched through the counties of Kilkenny and Wicklow, and subsequently arrived in Dublin, where he remained a fortnight, sumptuously entertained by the provost, as the chief magistrate of the city was then called, till intelligence of the invasion of his kingdom by Bolingbroke recalled him to England.

In 1534 Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, better known as Silken Thomas (so called because of a fantastic fringe worn in the helmet of his followers), a young man of rash courage and good abilities, son of the Lord Deputy Kildare, believing his father, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London, to have been beheaded, organized a rebellion against the English Government, and marched with his followers from the mansion of the earls of Kildare in Thomas Court, through Dame's Gate to St Mary's Abbey, where, in the council chamber, he proclaimed himself a rebel. On his appearing before the wall with a powerful force, the citizens were induced through fear to give admission to a detachment of his troops to besiege the castle; but, on hearing that he had met with a reverse in another quarter, they suddenly closed their gates and detained his men as prisoners. He then attacked the city itself; but, finding it too strong to be seized by a _coup de main_, he raised the siege on condition of having his captured soldiers exchanged for the children of some of the principal citizens who had fallen into his hands. After much vicissitude of fortune, Lord Thomas and others concerned in this rebellion were executed at Tyburn in 1536.

At the outbreak of civil war in 1641, a conspiracy of the Irish septs, under the direction of Roger Moore, to seize Dublin Castle, was disclosed by one Owen Connolly on the eve of the day on which the attempt was to have been made, and the city was thus preserved for the king's party; but the Irish outside began an indiscriminate extermination of the Protestant population. In 1646 Dublin was besieged, but without success, by the Irish army of 16,000 foot and 1600 horse, under the guidance of the Pope's nuncio Rinuccini and others, banded together "to restore and establish in Ireland the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion." The city had been put in an efficient state of defence by the marquess of Ormonde, then lord-lieutenant; but in the following year, to prevent it falling into the hands of the Irish, he surrendered it on conditions to Colonel Jones, commander of the Parliamentary forces. In 1649 Ormonde was totally defeated at the battle of Baggotrath, near Old Rathmines, in an attempt to recover possession. The same year Cromwell landed in Dublin, as commander-in-chief under the parliament, with 9000 foot and 4000 horse, and proceeded thence on his career of conquest.

When James II. landed in Ireland in 1689 to assert his right to the British throne, he held a parliament in Dublin, which passed acts of attainder against upwards of 3000 Protestants. The governor of the city, Colonel Luttrell, at the same time issued a proclamation ordering all Protestants not housekeepers, excepting those following some trade, to depart from the city within 24 hours, under pain of death or imprisonment, and in various ways restricting those who were allowed to remain. In the hope of relieving his financial difficulties, the king erected a mint, where money was coined of the "worst kind of old brass, guns and the refuse of metals, melted down together," of the nominal value of L1,568,800, with which his troops were paid, and tradesmen were compelled to receive it under penalty of being hanged in case of refusal. Under these regulations the entire coinage was put into circulation. After his defeat at the battle of the Boyne, James returned to Dublin, but left it again before daybreak the next day; and William III. advancing by slow marches, on his arrival encamped at Finglas, with upwards of 30,000 men, and the following day proceeded in state to St Patrick's cathedral to return thanks for his victory.

In 1783 a convention of delegates from all the volunteer corps in Ireland assembled in Dublin for the purpose of procuring a reform in parliament; but the House of Commons refused to entertain the proposition, and the convention separated without coming to any practical result. In May 1798 the breaking out of a conspiracy planned by the United Irishmen to seize the city was prevented by the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, son of the duke of Leinster and husband of the celebrated "Pamela." Lord Edward died in prison of the wounds received in the encounter which preceded his capture. In 1803 an insurrection headed by Robert Emmett, a young barrister of much promise, broke out, but was immediately quelled, with the loss of some lives in the tumult, and the death of its leaders on the scaffold. In 1848 William Smith O'Brien, M.P. for Limerick, raised a rebellion in Tipperary, and the lower classes in Dublin were greatly agitated. Owing, however, to timely and judicious disposition of the military and police forces the city was saved from much bloodshed. In 1867 the most serious of modern conspiracies, that known as the Fenian organization, came to light. The reality of it was proved by a ship being found laden with gunpowder in the Liverpool docks, and another with L5000 and 2000 pike-heads in Dublin. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended at one sitting by both Houses of Parliament and about 960 arrests were made in Dublin in a few hours. Dublin castle was fortified; and the citizens lived in a state of terror for several weeks together. For later history, see IRELAND.

See W. Harris, _History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin_
(Dublin, 1766); Sir J. T. Gilbert, _History of the City of Dublin_
(Dublin, 1859). The history of the Norsemen in Dublin has been dealt
with by a Norwegian writer, L. J. Vogt, _Dublin som Norsk By_
(Christiania, 1896).