An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 27 Tyrone's Military Revolution: The Nine Years War 1593-1603 BY DR JAMES O'NEILL T he Nine Years War (1593-1603), also known as Tyrone's Rebellion, was a conflict during which Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, led a confederation of Irish lords that almost extinguished English power in Ireland; yet victory at the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598) turned to bitter defeat at Kinsale (1601) and eventual conquest at the hands of the English armies of Elizabeth I by 1603. However, this narrative appeared a bit off, as the traditional Irish heavily armed and armoured galloglass, and light kerne, armed with spears, swords and shields, rarely bested crown armies in the field. So how could an Irish lord and his allies almost expel Elizabe- than authority from Ireland? It was not just firearms, as they had been available for over a century. Shane O'Neill's troops had them as did the O'Flahertys in Mayo, but none achieved the success of Tyrone. Something very different had happened to the nature of Irish arms in the last decade of the sixteenth century. Did the history books have the answer? In short...not really. Inves- tigation of the literature on the war failed to produce a single text addressing the conflict in its entirety. That doyen of Irish military history, GA Hayes-McCoy, related how Hugh O'Neill had trained his troops in modern techniques, and Cyril Falls credited Tyrone's ge- nius with transforming Irish units into modern copies of their English adversaries, but there was no single text dedicated to examining and explaining the course of the war. Some authors suggested that the Irish could never really hope to defeat England and that it was just a matter of time until Eliza- beth I crushed the brave but ultimately doomed Irish cause. This interpretation relegated the conflict to a colonial sideshow on the western fringe of Europe. Yet this critically misrepresented a conflict that cost more in lives and money than any of the Elizabe- than interventions on continental Europe. The war directly cost the English exchequer two million pounds and almost bankrupted the state. This was no sideshow, but one of the greatest threats the Tudors ever faced. The war came as a result of English encroachment on the Irish lordships in Ulster. An unprecedented alliance between the O'Neills of Tyrone and the O'Donnells of Tirconnell (usually bitter rivals), and support from Philip II of Spain, enabled resistance to Crown plans to establish English law in the north. The Battle of the Yellow Ford, 14 August 1598. The greatest single victory of the Irish over an English army. Photo courtesy of Trinity College Dublin, MS 1209/35. Irish pike and shot infantry drawn in 1600. Modern weapons had entirely replaced the traditional axe and spear. Photo courtesy of Trinity College Dublin, MS 1209/13.

• Cover