Editing Irish Confederate Wars (section)

==The Cromwellian War, 1649–1653==
{{main|Cromwellian conquest of Ireland}}
[[File:Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Cromwell]] landed in Ireland in 1649 to re-conquer the country on behalf of the English Parliament. He left in 1650, having taken eastern and southern Ireland – passing his command to [[Henry Ireton]].]]
The Confederate/Royalist coalition wasted valuable months fighting with [[Owen Roe O'Neill]] and other former Confederates instead of preparing to resist the impending Parliamentarian invasion of Ireland. O'Neill later re-joined the Confederate side. Belatedly, in summer 1649, Ormonde [[Siege of Dublin (1649)|tried to take Dublin]] from the Parliamentarians, and was routed by Michael Jones at the [[battle of Rathmines]].

[[Oliver Cromwell]] landed shortly afterwards with the [[New Model Army]]. Whereas the Confederates had failed to defeat their enemies in eight years of fighting, Cromwell was able to succeed in three years in conquering the entire island of Ireland, because his troops were well supplied, well equipped (especially with artillery), and well trained. Moreover, he had a huge supply of men, money and logistics to fund the campaign.

===The Cromwellian Conquest===
His first action was to secure the east coast of Ireland for supplies of men and logistics from England. To this end, he [[siege of Drogheda|took Drogheda]] and [[Sack of Wexford|Wexford]], perpetrating massacres of the defenders of both towns.<ref name="autogenerated2">Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p. 98.</ref><ref>Fraser, Antonia (1973). ''Cromwell, Our Chief of Men,'' and ''Cromwell: the Lord Protector'' (Phoenix Press), {{ISBN|0-7538-1331-9}} pp. 344–46.</ref> He also sent a force to the north to link up with the British settler army there. Those settlers who supported the Scots and Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians at the [[battle of Lisnagarvey]].

Ormonde signally failed to mount a military defence of southern Ireland. He based his defences upon walled towns, which Cromwell systematically took one after the other with his ample supply of siege artillery. The Irish and Royalist field armies did not hold any strategic line of defence and instead were demoralised by a constant stream of defeats and withdrawals. Only at the [[siege of Clonmel]] did Cromwell suffer significant casualties (although disease also took a very heavy toll on his men). His losses were made good by the defection of the Royalist garrison of Cork, who had been Parliamentarians up to 1648, back to the Parliament side. Cromwell returned to England in 1650, passing his command to [[Henry Ireton]].

In the north, the Parliamentarian/settler army met the Irish Ulster army at the [[battle of Scarrifholis]] and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and fled for France, to be replaced by Ulick Burke, Earl of [[Clanricarde]]. By 1651, the remaining Royalist/Irish forces were hemmed into an area west of the [[River Shannon]], holding only the fortified cities of [[Limerick]] and [[Galway]] and an enclave in [[County Kerry]], under [[Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry]].

Ireton [[Siege of Limerick (1650–51)|besieged Limerick]] while the northern Parliamentarian army under [[Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath|Charles Coote]] [[Siege of Galway|besieged Galway]]. Muskerry made an attempt to relieve Limerick, marching north from Kerry, and was routed by [[Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery|Roger Boyle]] at the [[battle of Knocknaclashy]]. Limerick and Galway were too well defended to be taken by storm, and were blockaded until hunger and disease forced them to surrender, Limerick in 1651, Galway in 1652. [[Waterford]] and [[Duncannon]] also surrendered in 1651.

===Guerrilla War===
[[Image:Old-Galway.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Galway]]; the last Irish town to fall to the Parliamentarians, in 1652.]]
While formal resistance ended, the harsh surrender terms resulted in a period of [[guerrilla warfare]] by bands of former soldiers, known as [[Tóraidhe]] or 'Tories.' These operated from rugged areas such as the [[Wicklow Mountains]], looting supplies and attacking Parliamentary patrols, who responded with forced evictions and the destruction of crops. The result was widespread famine, aggravated by an outbreak of [[bubonic plague]].

The last organised Irish force surrendered in [[Cavan]] in April 1653 and given passage to France to either serve in the French army or with the [[Cavalier|English Royalist]] Court in exile. Those captured after this point were executed or transported to penal colonies in the [[West Indies]].

Ireland was plagued with small scale violence for the remainder of the 1650s, partly due to the 1652 [[Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652|Act for the Settlement of Ireland]]. This created a class of landless former farmers and dramatically altered patterns of Irish land holding, the percentage owned by Protestants increasing from 41% to 78% over the period 1641 to 1660.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bottigheimer |first1=Karl |title=English Money and Irish Land: The 'Adventurers' in the Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=November 1967 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=12–27 |jstor=175378 |doi=10.1086/385542 }}</ref>