Dungan’s Hill and Cashel
The Confederation’s leadership entered 1647 with unresolved disputes over both religion and strategy. The failed peace agreement negotiated with James Butler, marquess of Ormond, the king’s lord lieutenant, had divided Confederate opinion in 1646. Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, the papal nuncio, and many clergy had rejected a settlement that did not secure sufficiently extensive guarantees for Catholic worship and property. Others, especially among the Old English Catholic political elite, considered a negotiated arrangement with the crown essential.