Inchiquin’s decision to join Parliament illustrates how wartime allegiance could be shaped less by fixed ideology than by fears over security, property and religious power. The subsequent expulsions from Cork, Youghal and Kinsale show how strategic calculations transformed civic life for Catholic communities, while the article also cautions against reducing events to partisan claims. This raises a broader question about the relationship between military necessity and coercive population policies in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms: how should we interpret Inchiquin’s actions alongside other contemporary efforts to secure contested towns and regions, and what further evidence might clarify the motives?