Sir,—In an interesting account of Sir Phelim O’Neill and the siege of Charlemont fort in 1650 (HI 33.5, Sept./Oct. 2025, pp 20–3), Conor Robison [and apologies for an unwanted ‘n’ in the middle of his name in the article’s byline—Ed.] claims that it was ‘Ulster’s last defiant bastion’ to hold out against the Cromwellians. In this claim he appears to have overlooked Clogh Oughter Castle, Co. Cavan, a stronghold on a tiny island in Lough Oughter that only surrendered in April 1653. The castle was under the command of Colonel Philip mac Hugh O’Reilly and it only surrendered after artillery bombardment from the south shore of the lake. The articles of surrender between O’Reilly and Colonel Theophilus Jones survive, as a result of which O’Reilly and 1,000 of his men joined the Spanish army. This was the last siege in that long period of conflict in Ireland and Britain. Archaeological excavation in 1987 threw much light upon the siege and subsequent slighting of the castle and is fully published in C. Manning, Clogh Oughter Castle, Co. Cavan: archaeology, history and architecture (Dublin, 2013).—Yours etc.,
CONLETH MANNING
Dublin 8
Mr Manning is indeed correct in that there was a siege at Clogh Oughter in 1653. However, I would argue that effective resistance to the Cromwellians ended at Charlemont in 1650. The Scots had been crushed the previous December and were in no mood to fight that spring, leaving the Ulster army on its own. Once this was destroyed, Charlemont became the last bastion of real importance in Ulster, as Coote himself recognised. With Charlemont gone, Ulster was effectively Cromwellian, though indeed pockets of resistance remained.—Conor Robison.