Qualla: Siege of Bunratty https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Bunratty https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty Siege of Bunratty: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Clemensfranz, CC BY 2.5. Cardinal Rinuccini, the papal nuncio sent to bolster Catholic Ireland's war effort, called Bunratty Castle 'the loveliest of any place of any kind that I have yet seen in Ireland, worthy of a king, with gardens the likes of which put Italy's to shame.' He was not exaggerating to flatter his hosts. In 1646 the Norman tower that still stands on the Shannon Estuary was surrounded by formal gardens, salt marsh, and ornamental ponds, and held by one of the wealthiest men in Ireland. Within months of Rinuccini's admiring note, the same gardens would be cratered by demi-culverin fire, the same castle bristling with English Parliamentary musketeers, and a Confederate Catholic army of thousands camped on the hill above. The siege of Bunratty turned a private paradise into a battlefield of the Irish Confederate Wars - and reshaped, briefly, the strategic calculus of the entire Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

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Image: Clemensfranz | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Bunratty: An Earl Caught in the Middle https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Nils E., Public domain. Sir Barnabas O'Brien, 6th Earl of Thomond, owned Bunratty in 1646 and held more than 120,000 acres besides. Educated at Oxford, raised under the eye of Queen Elizabeth I, married to an English noblewoman, he was a Protestant in a Catholic country and an Irish lord in an English c...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-an-earl-caught-in-the-middle.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Bunratty: Penn's Fleet on the Estuary https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Nils E., Public domain. On 11 March 1646, seven English Parliamentary frigates and a heavy barge anchored in the Shannon Estuary off Bunratty. They carried 700 soldiers and were commanded at sea by William Penn - father of the William Penn who would later found Pennsylvania - and on land by Colonel John...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-penns-fleet-on-the-estuary.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Bunratty: Spring and Early Summer https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Nils E., Public domain. The Confederate response came quickly and clumsily. On 1 April 1646 the Earl of Glamorgan's forces - 120 horse, 300 foot - rode up to Bunratty, set fire to some houses on the edge of the village, and were promptly routed by an English cavalry sortie under Captain Vauclier. Eighty...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-spring-and-early-summer.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Bunratty: The Summer the Walls Closed In https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Nils E., Public domain. Through June the siege tightened. The level ground north of the castle initially favored the English cavalry, and Muskerry, short of money, came close to dispersing his army. But the relief operations that were supposed to break the siege failed one by one. Sir Charles Coote atte...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-the-summer-the-walls-closed-in.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Bunratty: The Surrender https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Nils E., Public domain. By mid-July the geometry had changed. Irish cannon, now firing from the shore, were striking the English ships at anchor. Penn's flagship was holed. The fleet had to drop down the estuary, beyond cannon range - and once the fleet went, the castle could not hold. Inside the walls ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-the-surrender.mp3 0:06 6 full Siege of Bunratty: What Remained https://qualla.com/siege-of-bunratty/ Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. The siege was a Confederate Catholic victory, but the war that contained it was already turning against them. Within four years Cromwell's New Model Army would be in Ireland, and the cycle of Irish dispossession would reach a new and terrible peak. Bunratty Castle survived, fell ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/e/siege-of-bunratty-wp/gc3e-siege-of-bunratty-what-remained.mp3 0:06 7 full