"The Battle of Benburb" is an Irish song commemorating the 1646

Battle of Benburb The Battle of Benburb took place on 5 June 1646 during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was fought between the Irish Confederation under Owen Roe O'Neill, and a Scottish Covenanter and Anglo-I ...

. The tune was composed by

Tommy Makem Thomas Makem (4 November 1932 – 1 August 2007) was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banj ...

, with the lyrics drawn from a nineteenth century poem by Robert Dwyer Joyce.Manganiello p.54 On 5 June 1646

Owen Roe O'Neill Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: ''Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill;'' – 1649) was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster. O'Neill left Ireland at a young age and spent most of his life as a mercenary in the Spanish ...

, the leader of the

Ulster Army The Laggan Army, sometimes referred to as Lagan Army, was a militia formed by Protestant settlers in the fertile Laggan Valley of County Donegal, Ulster, during the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Background Following the defeat of ...

of the

Irish Confederates Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...

, won a major victory over the Scottish Covenanter Army in Ireland at

Benburb Benburb ()) is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies 7.5 miles from Armagh and 8 miles from Dungannon. The River Blackwater runs alongside the village as does the Ulster Canal. History It is best known, in ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

. The fighting took place as part of the

War of Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bis ...

, with both sides pledging allegiance to

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

while advancing distinctively Catholic and Protestants agendas in Ireland. O'Neill's troops defeated the Scots and pursued fugitives for miles, killing many of them and taking very few prisoners. This severely weakened the strength of the Scottish forces in Ulster, but O'Neill was unable to follow up his victory by attacking

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest ...

as much of his army dispersed with their plunder. In the mid-nineteenth century O'Neill was revived as a hero by Irish Nationalists and it was in the context of this that Joyce wrote his poem. It draws on the

romantic nationalist Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...

tradition, popular across Europe at the time, and portrays Benburb as a gathering of the

clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

from across North and Western Ireland - referring to the various

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

commanders serving under O'Neill. Another song commemorating Owen Roe O'Neill " The Lament for Owen Roe" also dates from the mid-nineteenth century.

References

Bibliography

Stephen C. Manganiello. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660''. Scarecrow Press, 2004. Irish songs Year of song unknown {{song-stub