Battle of Kilrush
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The
Battle of Kilrush was a minor engagement at the start of the
Irish Confederate Wars. It was fought in June
1642 between an
English army under
the Earl of Ormonde, and Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret, who led an untrained horde of
Irish troops raised during the
Irish Rebellion of 1641. Ormonde led a punitive raid into rebel held territory, burning the lands of landowners who had joined the rebellion. His troops marched from
Dublin to
Portlaoise, re-supplying the English garrison there before returning to Dublin. On their return march, the government troops were intercepted by Mountgarret’s rebel militia at
Kilrush, near
Athy in
County Kildare. The Irish troops were badly equipped and completely untrained, and after a short fire fight, many of them fled. Most of the Irish reached the safety of a nearby bog, where the English horse could not follow, but some of them were overtaken and killed. Irish sources claim their casualties were very light, while Ormonde claimed that over 500 of them had been killed. It is probable that losses on both sides were low. Ormonde afterwards successfully returned to Dublin.
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