Qualla: Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle 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/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Arcaist, CC BY-SA 3.0. It was Holy Week 1580 when the largest army Ireland had ever seen in its west camped at the foot of a small fortress on the Shannon estuary. Carrigafoyle Castle - 'the rock of the hole', in Irish - was known as the guardian of the Shannon, the tower that controlled the shipping lanes feeding Limerick twenty miles upriver. It was held that Easter by fifty Irish soldiers, sixteen Spanish halberdiers, an Italian engineer named Julian who was still finishing the defences, and an unspecified number of women and children sheltering inside its walls. Two days of bombardment later, almost none of them were alive. The siege of Carrigafoyle is remembered today as one of the most brutal episodes of a brutal war, and the ruins of the tower - smashed open on its west side as if struck by lightning - still stand on the bay where they fell.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: The Tower https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. Conor Liath O'Connor-Kerry built Carrigafoyle in the 1490s and it was, for its time, an extraordinary piece of military engineering. The tower-keep stood 86 feet high on a rock in a small bay shielded from the Shannon estuary by a wooded island. The castle was surrounded by a dou...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-the-tower.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: Why Easter 1580 https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. Carrigafoyle was held for Gerald FitzGerald, the 14th Earl of Desmond - the man whose rebellion against Elizabeth I had set Munster on fire. The Second Desmond Rebellion was a Catholic uprising against the Protestant English crown, supported by Spain and the Pope. In 1579, a smal...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-why-easter-1580.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: The Largest Army https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sir William Pelham, the English Lord Justice of Ireland, marched into Munster with Sir George Carew and an army that grew, by the time it reached Carrigafoyle, to roughly 700 men - the largest force the west of Ireland had ever seen. Sir William Winter, the Tudor naval commander,...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-the-largest-army.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: Palm Sunday https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bombardment began on Palm Sunday and continued for six hours. The Spanish halberdiers - professional infantry from continental Europe, named for the polearm they carried - held the walls. When Pelham ordered an assault party against the sea-wall, the attackers were pinned dow...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-palm-sunday.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: The Wall Falls https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. On Easter Monday, Pelham reinforced his troops with men from Winter's ships and ordered a final assault against the part of the tower furthest from the cannon, where the surviving defenders had retreated. After two or three more shots, the great west wall of Carrigafoyle cracked ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-the-wall-falls.mp3 0:06 6 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: The Castles That Surrendered Themselves https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. Word of Carrigafoyle travelled at the speed of horses, and the speed of horses was fast enough. The Desmond castle at Askeaton was abandoned within days; its Spanish defenders blew up the walls rather than face Pelham's guns. The garrisons at Newcastle West, Balliloghan, Rathkeal...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-the-castles-that-surrendered-themselves.mp3 0:06 7 full Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle: What Remains https://qualla.com/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle/ Photo credit Borvan53, CC BY-SA 3.0. Carrigafoyle Castle was never repaired. The English saw no reason to rebuild what they had spent so much effort to destroy; the Irish had no Earl of Desmond left to spend resources on it. The tower stood through four hundred years of weather and indifference, the gash in its west...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/5/siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-wp/gc35-siege-of-carrigafoyle-castle-what-remains.mp3 0:06 8 full