Comment:
It is hard to write about events in
Londonderry/Derry in a way which does not give precedence to one side or
the other. The difficult choice referring to the city as 'Derry'
pr 'Londonderry' typifies the issue. This article is provided as
is
The ‘Siege of Derry’ ran from 1688 - 1689 and was part of the wider
Williamite War waged between the Protestant William of Orange and the
Catholic King James II.
It has often been argued, on the basis of
military technicalities, that the ‘Siege of Derry’ was not in fact a
siege.
No real attempt was made to storm the city walls although
there were a few hand-to-hand skirmishes. The ‘besiegers’, positioned on
the hills all around the city, were badly armed and equipped. For the
most part they relied on their blockade to starve those inside the city
into surrender. Most of those who died during the siege did so from
hunger and disease, although the besiegers did fire mortar bombs high
into the air which fell onto the roofs of houses, injuring and killing
some of the occupants.
James had given orders for humanitarian
conduct during the campaign, but at the beginning of June a Lithuanian
named Conrad de Rosen, who was a Marshal General in the French army,
arrived in support of James and began to operate a much tougher policy.
According to the Reverend George Walker, who at the time was a
governor inside the city, de Rosen: swore by the belly of God, he would
demolish our town and bury us in its ashes putting all to the sword,
without consideration of age or sex and would study the most exquisite
torments to lengthen the misery and pain of all he found obstinate, or
active in opposing his commands and pleasure.
Shortly before
Rosen’s arrival the French Chief of Artillery, Jean-Bernard Desjeans,
Sieur de Pointis, had constructed a ‘boom’ or floating barricade across
the River Foyle (just to the north of the location of the present Foyle
Bridge), to prevent any relief ships reaching Derry.
Some ships
did arrive from England in the second week of June but they did not
attempt to get past the boom. Instead they withdrew and sailed around
the coast into nearby Lough Swilly where communications were established
with those inside the beleaguered city.
Inside the city
conditions were atrocious but by all accounts they were not much better
for the besiegers outside the walls. Towards the end of July the relief
ships in Lough Swilly were ordered to return to Lough Foyle to try to
break through the boom.
On the evening of 28 July an attempt was
launched. Amid gunfire from the shore those on board a small boat, the
Swallow, which preceded the ships, attacked the boom with axes to weaken
it. The Mountjoy, a local Derry ship, followed, crashing into the boom.
After a number of mishaps the barrier was breached and the relief ships
sailed upriver to the stricken city.
Andrew Douglas (d. 1725), a
naval officer
born in Glasgow who became domiciled in Ulster, was master of one of the
merchant ships, Phoenix,
which was laden with provisions and stores.
There were tremendous
celebrations despite the fact that the besieging Jacobites kept firing
at the city. However, after 105 days the siege had effectively been
ended. Three days later the besieging troops conceded defeat and moved
away from Derry.
Within weeks of the ‘relief of Derry’ George
Walker had published his famous account of the siege. This version was
subsequently challenged by the presbyterian minister, the Reverend John
Mackenzie and a lively pamphlet debate continued for some time.
In 1788-9, one hundred years after the momentous events, the prevailing
atmosphere of the Enlightenment allowed a popular and ecumenical civic
celebration to take place. In 1814, the Apprentice Boys of Derry Club
was formed. This organisation has continued to grow and spread since
then, often becoming involved in the controversies associated with the
annual celebrations of ‘the shutting of the gates’ in December and the
‘relief of Derry’ in August.
A key element of the December march
is the burning of an effigy of Colonel Robert Lundy, universally known
as ‘Lundy’. Lundy was the Governor of Derry immediately prior to the
Siege, before Walker took over the post.
As tension spread
through the Protestant population of Ireland and the Siege began to
appear inevitable Lundy appeared to advocate a surrender of the Walled
City and capitulation to the Jacobite forces. The citizens of Derry
would not countenance such a move and Lundy was smuggled out of the City
in disguise with ‘a load of match on his back’.
The legend of
Lundy lives on today and he has been held up through time as an example
of the folly of doubting the Protestant cause. He is burned in effigy
today as a reminder to all of the result of betrayal.
In modern
times these commemorations have been confined to one section of the
population. Over 300 years later, it is surely time to absorb the Siege
of Derry into a common history.
Notes:
1. When they
saw the enemy make an approach towards the city, they would run out with
ten or twelve men and skirmish a while with them. When the besieged, who
watched them closely from the walls, saw them too closely engaged, or in
danger of being overpowered, they rushed out in great force to their
relief, and always came off with great execution on the enemy, and with
very little loss to themselves. On one of these occasions, however;
Lieutenant Douglass was taken prisoner and murdered, after quarter had
been promised to him. |
