Clonmel’s Empty Breach
Ireland’s defenders were divided by religion, local interest, military rivalry and competing ideas of loyalty. The coalition associated with James Butler, marquess of Ormond, joined Irish Catholic Confederates to Protestant royalists in the name of Charles II. Yet its unity had always been precarious. In April, Cromwell secured an agreement with many Protestant royalist forces in Munster and Leinster. They undertook not to fight for the Commonwealth’s enemies; in return, Cromwell promised security for their lives and property. This mattered militarily because it removed much of the Protestant armed support on which Ormond’s alliance depended. It also sharpened the conflict’s confessional edge: those most determined to continue organised resistance were increasingly Irish Catholics.
