Qualla: Siege of Smerwick https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Siege of Smerwick https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick Siege of Smerwick: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ They had surrendered. That is the central fact, the one that turned a battle into a massacre. Roughly 600 soldiers — most of them Italians and Spaniards sent by the Pope to support the Catholic Desmond Rebellion, alongside Irish allies — had been pinned inside the small earthen fort of Dún an Óir on Smerwick Harbour at the western edge of the Dingle Peninsula. After three days of bombardment by Lord Grey de Wilton's English forces in November 1580, they laid down their arms. What happened next remains one of the more difficult chapters in Anglo-Irish history. The garrison was disarmed, marched out, and killed. Many of the killers were ordinary English soldiers. One of them was a young captain named Walter Raleigh.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Smerwick: Who They Were https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ The Catholic expeditionary force at Dún an Óir was a mixed body of men who had come a long way to die on this Irish headland. The bulk were Italian and Spanish soldiers raised by Pope Gregory XIII, who saw the Desmond Rebellion as part of a Catholic counter-offensive against Prot...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-who-they-were.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Smerwick: The Surrender https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ After heavy bombardment from sea and shore, the garrison hung out a white flag. The negotiations that followed are still debated. The English afterward claimed the surrender was unconditional — that the defenders had thrown themselves on Lord Grey's mercy. The Italian and Spanish...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-the-surrender.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Smerwick: Worse Than Death https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ Cusack's account adds a detail that historians return to with reluctance. A small number of prisoners were spared the immediate massacre and offered their lives if they would renounce their Catholic faith. When they refused, an English ironsmith broke their arms and legs in three...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-worse-than-death.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Smerwick: Raleigh and Spenser https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ Walter Raleigh, then a 26-year-old captain, led one of the killing parties. The poet Edmund Spenser, secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, was almost certainly present; later he defended the massacre in writing as a regrettable necessity of war. Richard Bingham, who would go o...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-raleigh-and-spenser.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Smerwick: The Sand at Gort a' Ghearradh https://qualla.com/siege-of-smerwick/ The field where the killings happened is called Gort a' Ghearradh — the field of the cutting — and lies near the small headland of Dún an Óir, the Golden Fort. The fort itself has been worn down by four centuries of weather; the earthworks are still visible if you know what you a...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/8/siege-of-smerwick-wp/gc28-siege-of-smerwick-the-sand-at-gort-a-ghearradh.mp3 0:06 6 full