From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 1 - Ballyboyle - our ancient ancestors
The Spanish Armada
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Destruction of the Invincible Armada by Spanish painter Jose Gartner – (1892). Public domain
Having failed to invade England in 1588, what was left of the Spanish Armada tried to return to Spain by sailing around the north of Scotland and along the west coast of Ireland. However violent storms drove many of the ships onto the rocks.
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At least 24 ships of the Armada were wrecked from Antrim in the north to Kerry in the south. Many of the survivors of the multiple wrecks were put to death, and the remainder fled across the sea to Scotland. It is estimated that some 6,000 members of the fleet perished in Ireland or off its coasts.
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One of these, the Duquesa Santa Ana, was grounded on Tramore strand, just a few hundred metres from the site of one of O'Boyle's castles at Kiltoorish. This 900 ton-ship's normal complement was 23 guns and 357 men, but it had taken on board some 600 survivors of wrecks further along the coast, together with whatever goods, money, jewels and armour they had salvaged. Leading those on board was Alonso de Leyva, a nobleman and former Captain-General of the Cavalry of Milan and second in command of the entire Armada fleet, described as the ‘Armada’s finest flower’. All those on board survived the grounding to transfer onto land, where the crew encamped at the ship's side while the officers and young noblemen sheltered in what is described as "the ruins of O'Boyle's Castle" on Kiltoorish lake.
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The passage of the Armada, and wreck sites on the Scottish and Irish coasts
The Spanish spent nine days sheltering here, and were supplied with food and water by MacSweeney Banagh who controlled this area. Unlike other survivors along the coast, they were not massacred as the English authorities demanded elsewhere. Mac Sweeney also informed them that three Armada ships were anchored in Killybegs harbour, some 20 miles (32km) to the south. Carrying De Leyva, who had been injured, the crew made their way cross-country (there were no roads) to what they had hoped would be their salvation, to find that only one of the three ships remained, the others had sunk.
The little galleass Girona, was all that greeted the luckless de Leyva. and his men. They piled onto the Girona and set sail for Scotland where they hoped to get support to return to Spain. However, another storm drove the Girona onto the rocks near Dunluce in Antrim. Of the estimated 1,300 men who crowded her decks, only nine men , more dead than alive, .were washed ashore. With this tragic shipwreck went the flower of Spanish chivalry, the wealthy, the brave and Don Alonzo de Leyva. It is said (with some hyperbole) that King Philip of Spain felt more grief for his death than for the loss of the whole fleet.
A gold salamander pendant set with rubies, one of 12,000 artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Girona, when it was discovered in the 1960s, including gold and silver coins, jewellery, cameos, trinkets and religious charms. This and other finds from the wreck are on display at the Ulster Museum, Belfast.
O'Boyle's Castle in Ruins?
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The Spaniards took shelter in O'Boyle's Castle, in O'Boyle territory. But where were the O'Boyles, and why was this castle in ruins? This is not explained in the surviving accounts, and it is stated that this was in MacSweeney Banagh's territory, even though this was heretofore and subsequently the residence of leading members of the O'Boyle sept. When the boundaries of baronies were regularised not long after these events, this area was included in Boylagh, not Mac Sweeney's Banagh.(Loughros More Bay forms the boundary).
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The strand here where the Armada ship was grounded is also the site of one of the O'Boyles' tragic events in 1540:
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The two sons of O'Boyle, Niall Roe and Conor, were in contention and at strife with each other. Niall made an incursion against Conor into Loughros (for Conor had his seat and residence there), and remained that night in ambush in the church of St. Seanchan. Conor next morning went upon the hill adjacent to the church, and Niall and his people sallied forth from the church against him. When Conor saw them approaching him, he ran away to avoid them, as he had with him only a few and these persons unfit to bear arms, and he proceeded alone down across the strand of Loughros. Niall pursued him as quickly as he was able, and he outran his own people in his eagerness to catch Conor; he overtook him, and they engaged each other vigorously and ferociously, forgetful of friendship and relationship. Conor gave Niall a blow on the top of the head, and prostrated him on the ground, and then fled away, severely wounded. His people came up to Niall, who told them to pursue Conor, and that he himself was not in danger of death on that occasion. They did so at his request, and overtook Conor on the borders of a neighbouring lake; and they did not dare to come to blows with him, until they had first knocked him down with the stones which were on the strand of the lake; and when he was prostrated, they struck at him with weapons. And on their return they found Niall dead. There had not been of their tribe, for some time, two of the same ages who were more generally lamented than these two who were slain by each other.
Captain de Cuellar's description of the Savages
A shipwrecked survivor of the Spanish Armada, Francisco de Cuellar spent some months in 1588 'on the run' in Ireland, mostly under the protection of the O'Rourkes of Breifne (now Leitrim). He wrote a remarkable account of his adventures, including observations of the customs of the native Irish, which could equally apply to the O'Boyles whose territory was not far from the O'Rourkes. His narrative is worth reading and is available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52472
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De Cuellar has no qualms about referring to the natives as 'savages'. As an aristocratic Spaniard, anyone who did not conform to the customs and behaviour of the Spanish nobility and gentry would be thought of as savage, in the sense of uncivilized and unrefined (rather than brutal and violent, though he was savagely beaten by some of those he met on his way). Here is what he observed:
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"The custom of these savages is to live as the brute beasts among the mountains, which are very rugged in that part of Ireland where we lost ourselves. They live in huts made of straw. The men are all large bodied, and of handsome features and limbs; and as active as the roe-deer. They do not eat oftener than once a day, and this is at night; and that which they usually eat is butter with oaten bread. They drink sour milk, for they have no other drink; they don't drink water, although it is the best in the world. On feast days they eat some flesh half-cooked, without bread or salt, as that is their custom.
They clothe themselves, according to their habit, with tight trousers and short loose coats of very coarse goat's hair. They cover themselves with blankets, and wear their hair down to their eyes. ( This refers to the mantle, or Irish cloak and a hairstyle know as a 'glib' where the hair at the back and side of the head was trimmed short, while at the front and top it was allowed to grow long, resulting in a large fringe, which fell down over the face - a style that has unfortunately come back into fashion recently . Examples of these can be seen in the illustrations here and here)
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They are great walkers, and inured to toil. They carry on perpetual war with the English, who here keep garrison for the Queen, from whom they defend themselves, and do not let them enter their territory, which is subject to inundation, and marshy... The chief inclination of these people is to be robbers, and to plunder each other; so that no day passes without a call to arms among them. For the people in one village becoming aware that in another there are cattle, or other effects, they immediately come armed in the night, and "go Santiago" [attack], and kill one another; and the English from the garrisons, getting to know who had taken, and robbed, most cattle, then come down upon them, and carry away the plunder.
O'Rourkes Castle at Lough Gill, where de Cuellar sheltered.
By Digital Eye - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42836532
They have, therefore, no other remedy but to withdraw themselves to the mountains, with their women and cattle; for they possess no other property, nor more moveables nor clothing. They sleep upon the ground, on rushes, newly cut and full of water and ice.
The most of the women are very beautiful, but badly dressed [got up]. They do not wear more than a chemise, and a blanket, with which they cover themselves, and a linen cloth, much doubled, over the head, and tied in front. They are great workers and housekeepers, after their fashion. These people call themselves Christians. Mass is said among them, and regulated according to the orders of the Church of Rome. The great majority of their churches, monasteries, and hermitages, have been demolished by the hands of the English, who are in garrison, and of those natives who have joined them, and are as bad as they. In short, in this kingdom there is neither justice nor right, and everyone does what he pleases."
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