Kinsale and Cobh - Ireland 2014 - page 268

timepowerssuchasEnglandwereignoringthepope'sgrant.Thiswasimportantbe-
cause trade with the New World and Asia brought huge wealth in spices (necessary
for curing meat), gold, and silver. England threatened Spain's New World piñata,
and Ireland was Catholic. Spain had an economic and a religious reason to defend
the pope and Catholicism. The showdown between Spain and England for mastery
of the seas (and control of all that trade) was in Ireland. The excuse: to rescue the
dear Catholics of Ireland from the terrible treachery of Protestant England.
So the Irish disaster unfolded. The powerful Ulster chieftains Hugh O'Neill and
Red Hugh O'Donnell and their clans had been on a roll in their battle against the
English. With Spanish aid, they figured they could actually drive the English out
of Ireland. In 1601, a Spanish fleet dropped off 3,000 soldiers, who established
a beachhead in Kinsale. After the ships left, the Spaniards were pinned down in
Kinsale by the English commander (who, breaking with martial etiquette, actually
fought in the winter). In harsh winter conditions, virtually the entire Irish clan fight-
ing force left the north and marched to the south coast, thinking they could liberate
their Spanish allies and win freedom from England.
Thenumbersseemedreasonable(8,000Englishmenversus3,000Spaniardswith
7,000 Irish clansmen approaching). The Irish attacked on Christmas Eve in 1601.
But, holding the high ground around fortified and Spanish-occupied Kinsale, a re-
latively small English force kept the Spaniards hemmed in, leaving the bulk of the
English troops to rout the fighting Irish, who were adept at guerilla ambushes but
not at open-field warfare. (Today's visitors will be reminded of this crucial battle as
they wander past pubs with names like “The 1601” and “The Spaniard”—see pub
sign.)
The Irish resistance was broken, and its leaders fled to Europe (the “flight of the
Earls”). England made peace with Spain and began the “plantation” of mostly Scot-
tish Protestants in Ireland (the seeds of today's Troubles in Ulster). England ruled
the waves, and it ruled Ireland. The lesson: Kinsale is key. England eventually built
twohuge,star-shapedfortressestoensurecontrolofthenarrowwaterway,astrategy
it would further develop in later fortifications built at Gibraltar and Singapore.
Kinsale's maritime history continued. Daniel Defoe used the real-life experience
ofScottishprivateerAlexanderSelkirk,whodepartedfromKinsalein1703andwas
later marooned alone on a desert island, as the basis for his book Robinson Crusoe .
(Selkirk was lucky to have been marooned when he was—his ship and all aboard
later perished in a hurricane off Costa Rica.)
It was just 10 miles offshore from Old Kinsale Head that the passenger liner Lus-
itania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. At the time, the liner was the
fastest vessel on the seas (with a top speed of 25 knots). The primitive U-boats of
the day were much slower (8 knots), giving Lusitania 's crew a false sense of secur-
ity. Because World War I was the first conflict to employ submarine warfare, eva-
sion tactics were largely untested. As the Lusitania sank, nearly 1,200 people were
killed, sparking America's eventual entry into the war.