Swords Around the Cross: The Nine Years War: Ireland's Defense of Faith and Fatherland, 1594-1603

by Timothy T. O'Donnell

One of the only full-length treatments of the heroic struggle of the Irish clansmen in their effort to defend their faith and country against English encroachment and conquest in the 16th century.

Genres: Military History

311 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2001

Reviews

[Joseph R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Irish have almost always been at odds with their neighbors to the east. The late 1500s saw a particularly hard oppression of the Irish by the United Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth. Red Hugh O'Donnell of Tirconnaill in the northwest and Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone in the north raised an army to fight against the British invaders. This book chronicles the Nine Years War, fought from 1594 to 1603. The conflict was not just about nationalism. England had just established the Anglican Church and wanted to impose their own system on other subjects. The Irish were fiercely Catholic and bristled under a foreign power that took their lands and their churches while requiring them to accept the queen as head of the church. The Irish appealed to the pope for moral authority to fight and to Spain for material resources to fight. They received both and spent nearly a decade fighting for their independence.

At the time, Ireland was still not united. Many different clans had authority over their regions; no central authority existed. O'Donnell and O'Neill established The Catholic Confederacy and worked to unite the various clans against their common enemy. The war raged on in various parts of the country. The Irish did well even with the unsteady support of Catholic Spain. The final major battle of the war was the Siege of Kinsale in 1601 and 1602. The Irish had a chance to smash a large English army but on the day of battle several things went wrong, resulting in a humbling loss. The armies retreated and the leaders were eventually driven from Ireland.

The narrative is written in an exciting style and includes many extended quotes from the correspondence and writings of the people involved in the war. The book unabashedly takes the Catholic point of view, which gives the story a dramatic sweep and enables O'Donnell (the author) to take in the larger picture. The facts of what happened in Ireland aren't the only relevant ones. England spent a lot of their resources fighting this war, which meant they had much fewer to devote to conflicts on the European continent, where Protestants and Catholics were in conflict as well. Spain spent fewer resources while being involved in those other conflicts as well as their development of colonies in the New World. The Nine Years War was more than just a local conflict with an unhappy ending.

Recommended.

[Roger Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ireland, O Ireland! This is a wonderful book about the triumph of failure. For it tells of an apparently doomed war against the English and yet Irish Catholicism and Irish Catholic culture were only saved thereby - indeed not only for Ireland but the entire English-speaking world ...

Living as I do in Ireland, I have a site devoted in significant measure to Catholic Ireland and a review of this book here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2012/...

This is an admittedly self-promotional plug - hoping to catch the attention of people out there, who care about Ireland the way I care about Ireland ...

Plug aside, however, I will just say here that the book is also notable for the fact that it refuses to kowtow to the materialistic prejudice prevalent in secular academia - and so it combines obvious detailed research, the author's clear personal passion - as well as reverence for Christ and His Church. Highly recommended.

[Atlasgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered some movies and books at a conference and they were to send me the items by mail. When they arrived there was a mistake, and Swords Around The Cross was in the box, despite my boy ordering it. I read the back cover and the first few pages and told the company that I wanted to but it and that I was grateful for this mistake. I had never heard of the Nine Years War, and I love Irish history.

This book tells the story of the bond between O'Neil and O'Fonnell. Their fight to preserve the Faith of their Fatherd is an incredible one!