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1577 AD Elizabeth Tudor, the Welsh English Queen of England, founded Trinity College as an anti - Catholic, anti - Gaelic University for her English non - Catholic subjects on the site of the Augustinian monastery of All Hallows in Dublin in the north- east of Southern Leinster, which had been originally built by 113.Dermott Mac Murrough "na Gall" when he was the 59th King of Leinster, and had later been Confiscated and destroyed by her father, Henry VIII. - She also gave to her favourite, the English Earl of Essex, Rathfran Dominican Abbey in the north of Co. Mayo in the mid - west of the Connacht Province. - The Cathedral at Ferns in Co. Wexford in the south - east of Southern Leinster was burnt down, and 400 men from Co. Laois and Co. Offaly in the north- west of Southern Leinster were killed at the "Blood Hole" at the Rath of Mullamast in Co. Kildare, 2 mile west of Ballitore, in Central Southern Leinster.

Nicholas Walsh, became the Church of England Bishop of Ossory until 1586 AD, and introduced prayer books and catechisms in the Irish language and was the first to do so.

1578 AD Sheeda Mac Namara the son of Maccon Mac Namara the son of Sheeda Mac Namara, the Heberian Dal gCais Ui Caisin East Clan Culien Tannist (heir apparent) was slain on Slieve - Eachto while pursuing a party of kerns from the Clan Rickard who were carrying off plunder.

Sir Nicholas Malby, acting on behalf of Elizabeth 1st this year took over the Heremonian Ui Cobhthaigh Dal Cuinn Ui Briuin Roscommon Castle in Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province, that had been originally constructed there by an Anglo - Norman Baron.

1579 AD Beginning of the 2nd Desmond Rebellion. Spain and England were now at War, and their was to be another Rebellion in Ireland by the Irish Chiefs in the Munster Province, against their authority there being further curtailed by Elizabeth 1st, and also in further defence of the religious oppression being carried out by her against their Irish Catholic faith. Sir John Fitz Gerald, the Earl of Desmond's brother, killed a group that included Henry Davell the English appointed Commissioner in the Munster Province, together with the English appointed Provost Marshall, Carter, who had wanted the Irish to kill any of the Spanish sailors, who were coming to assist the Irish cause, when they arrived in Smerwick. O Healy the Irish Catholic Bishop there, and Father O Rourke were then murdered by the English Military Forces at Dingle just before Sir James Fitz Maurice Fitzgerald was to arrive back into Ireland with a force of 80 Spanish men at Smerwick / Ard na Caithne (The Height of the Arbutus) in Co. Kerry in the south - west of Munster. On landing they immediately begun to build the Fort del Oro (The Golden Fort) Dun an Oir on a rocky spur in the harbour at Smerwick Bay, under the direction of both Dr. Nicholas Sanders the Pope's Nuncio, and James Fitz Gerald. They had come to render assistance to the cause of Gerald Fitz Gerald the Anglo - Irish 16th Earl of Desmond in Southern Munster, and to this end they declared a "Holy War" against the religious oppression of Elizabeth 1st in Ireland, in what was now the beginning of the 2nd Desmond Rebellion. James Fitz Gerald had received assistance from King Phillip 11 of Spain, and Pope Gregory XIII who had also offered him men to assist his cause along with a Papal Bull / Letter that declared Elizabeth 1st / Persona Non Grata, not only in Ireland, but also in England because of her continuing ethnic and religious oppression. Despite these forward preparations, there was still no great leader left in Ireland to actually head a total Irish Uprising, and to top it all off, James Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald was to be killed, while on his way to pray for deliverance, at the Holy Cross monastery in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of Munster. Meanwhile the Irish defenders who were supporting The O Connor "Kerry" at the Carrigafoyle Castle, which was situated on the left bank of the mouth of the River Shannon, were also driven back up to the very top of the castle, by the besieging English Military Forces who then began hurling them off the parapets, and if any of them were able to survive this particular ideal, they were then hung.

November: Italian support for the Irish cause also arrived, under San Giuseppe, who had 700 men with him to strengthen the fort at Smerwick / Beal Ban on the headland in Co. Kerry in the south - west of the Munster Province, but they too were forced to surrender to the English appointed Deputy, Lord Grey / de Wilton and Sir Walter Raleigh who was the English Captain of the Guard, at Dingle, after the English Admiral Winter had already captured their ships. Lord Grey the English appointed Deputy in Ireland had previously attacked them with 800 men and cannons, and after 3 days of merciless bombardment the many defenders there, including, the Ithian Septs, the Spaniards, their English supporters and Irish women and children were to surrender, on the condition that their lives would be spared. (Just like so many English leaders before him, he reneged on his promise, and put to death 600 persons there, who were all massacred, including local Irish women.) (50 years later on, the Anglo - Irish Confederate leader, Pierce Ferriter, would win back Smerwick for the Irish, in what was to be another Irish Uprising against the everlasting English oppression.) The terrible butchery carried out by Lord Grey, on this occasion, was so repugnant an act that he was even censored for his brutality, especially for the killing of 3 innocents, Father Laurence O More, Oliver Plunkett / Pluinceid, and William Wollick who was an English Catholic. Their only crime was that they refused to acknowledge Elizabeth 1st as their Supreme Religious Head, and his sickening means of punishment was to break their arms and legs with a hammer and then hang them up to die. After this he sent Edward Denny off to report to Elizabeth 1st on the results of the massacre and she rewarded him with a Knighthood and the land of the Desmond Fitz Geralds themselves. Edmund Spenser who had accompanied Lord Grey / de Wilton to Ireland as his secretary was also given 3,000 acres of the Desmond's land and their Kilcolman Castle in the north of Mallow and south of Ballyhoura Mountains, which included Doneraile and Doneraile Court (now a Public park) on the River Awbeg in Co. Cork in Southern Munster for 15 years. (Despite this he was to continued to live in Dublin for 8 years). Eventually the Irish were to come down from the Ballyhoura Mountains to burn him out.

November: Elizabeth 1st, proclaimed Gerald Fitz Gerald, the 16th Earl of Desmond, a traitor when he personally landed with his men at Youghal in Co. Cork in the south - east of the Munster Province, in the Desmond territory, and they destroyed the town there. Thomas Butler the English Royalist 10th Earl of Ormonde who arrived a few weeks later hung the town's Mayor, Coppinger, in front of his own house, for not defending the town against them. (On this occasion the "Northern" O Nialls in the Ulster Province had not only sided with the English, but also fought against the Geraldines of Desmond). In desperation Gerald Fitzgerald who was to be the last and 16th Earl of Desmond sought refuge at Askeaton Castle in Co. Limerick near the River Deel, from where he then hid out for 4 years in the Co. Kerry hills in the south - west of the Munster Province. One positive from this particular Irish Uprising against Elizabeth 1st and her continuing ethnic and religious persecution, was that it went a long way towards welding together the very strong faith of Ireland, and the fate of Ireland, by the majority of the Irish and Anglo - Irish people, as they became even closer now both as Irish men and women in a common cause in Ireland.

Elizabeth 1st, gave the Mayor of Galway City jurisdiction over Galway Bay and the Aran Islands in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, because the "14 Foreign Tribes of Galway" as usual had stayed loyal to the English cause. - The English White Castle was constructed this year in Athy in Co. Kildare in Central Southern Leinster against the Irish Septs there, in the region where the Athys / Ataoi, who were of Anglo - Norman origins, and one of the "14 Foreign Tribes of Galway" had initially originated in Ireland in the early 14th Century AD. (Preston's Gate is still there to be seen.) - Another English castle was also built at Athgoe in Dublin this year in the north - east of Southern Leinster in The English Pale for the same purpose.

1580 AD Elizabeth 1st's appointed Lord Deputy in Ireland, Lord Grey / de Wilton besieged the Irish Septs up into Glenmalure / Maoiliura's Valley in the Co. Wicklow mountains in the the south - east of Southern Leinster, which was the territory of the "fierce" Heremonian Ui Laoghaire UI Lughaidh Cu Corb Ui Dunlainge O Byrnes and O Tooles, and he was thoroughly defeated there by Fiach mac Hugh O Byrne their Chief,

John Fitz Gerald, the son of the 16th Earl of Desmond, plundered the territory of Thomas Butler the English Royalist 10th Earl of Ormonde in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster, and Thomas Butler and Pelham ruthlessly attacked the Desmond territory in Co. Kerry in the south - west of the Munster Province and burnt it to the ground. 3,000 acres of their territory there was then Confiscated by Elizabeth 1st who was to eventually Confiscate 200,000 acres of the Desmond lands altogether in Munster. She was then to put in Church of England Planters, while giving vast tracts of land to her favourites, including Sir Walter Raleigh, who was originally from Devon in England, who had furthered her cause in Ireland, with a future grant of 42,000 acres of their lands. It was then against English Law to use Irish tenants on the land, although he is credited with eventually planting the first potatoes in Ireland at Youghal in the north - east of Co. Cork in Southern Munster. 574,000 acres of Irish land was to be Confiscated all up in the Munster Province, and after this 2nd Desmond Rebellion he also introduced Church of England Planters from Devon and Somerset in England, but despite this the Irish and Anglo - Irish eventually were to retrieve most of the land back as these particular Plantations were not to be very successful.

Strancally Castle, situated 7 miles north of Youghal, overlooking the River Backwater in Co. Cork in the south - east of the Munster Province, was among those destroyed during this particular conflict, and the ruins are still there to be seen today, while Thomas Butler the English Royalist 10th Earl of Ormonde blew up the "Murdering Hole" of the Desmonds in the rock near the Stancally Castle, while out searching for Gerald Fitz Gerald the 16th Earl of Desmond. - Glin in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of Munster, was to be held by the Fitz Geralds for 700 years until their Glin Castle on the River Shannon was to be taken over by another of Elizabeth 1st's commanders, Sir George Carew.. - "The Mac Carthy "Mor," the Heberian Eoghanacht Chaisil Chieftain, from the Blarney Castle in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, introduced a new word into the English language when he kept postponing handing over his particular castle also in Co. Cork to Sir George Carew with continuing excuses, when Elizabeth 1st said she had endured enough of that "Blarney." Elizabeth 1st also had Sir George Carew Confiscate all the Irish Manuscripts in Ireland that he could find, of all their ancient Irish glory and Irish heritage to try and obliterate all of their Irish memory of their Celtic Gaelic Milesian origins and descent, decreeing that "No Irish man was ever to know his grandfather." - During this period Lady Elle Mac Carthy of Pallas went to Mass at midnight at the Church of Killalee in Co. Kerry in the south - west of Munster, before she married Florence Mac Carthy in the ruined Muckross Catholic church, and Elizabeth 1st had her put in the Tower of London and cut off her head.

Conor O Brien the English appointed 3rd Earl of Thomond, died this year.

Donough O Grady the Heberian Dal gCais Chieftain at this period in time held Clooney Castle in Clooney - Quin in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province. - Dangan and Danganbrach Castles were owned by John Mac Namara the Heberian Dal gCais Ui Caisin Chief of West Clan Culien "Fionn." - Knoppogue Castle was owned by Turlough O Brien, Quin Castle by Cumeadha Mac Namara, - Creganeowen Castle and Cullane Castle by Cumeadha Mac Namara the son of John Mac Namara, - Ballymarkahan Castle by John Mac Namara. - The castle at Toonagh in Clooney in Co. Clare was owned by one of the Mac Namaras. - Castletown Castle in Clooney was owned by Bryan O Brien. - Corbally Castle there belonged to Shane Mac Namara the son of Mahon Mac Namara.

Sean Walsh / Mac Bhaiteir Breathnach was born this year in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster, who was to become one of the most important and powerful Anglo - Irish poets of his age.

+On to 1581 AD - 1585 AD

Situated on the western bank of the Hunter River, midway between Muswellbrook and Denman the doorway to the Heart of Australia's "Horse Capital" in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales., Australia.

John & Sue Markham

RAINBOW FARMS 603 Roxburgh Road., Muswellbrook., 2333.

02 65 479 100 - Fax: 02 65 479 102 E - Mail: www.rainbowfarms@bigpond.com