Irish Rebellion of 1641

Irish Rebellion of 1641
Part of the Irish Confederate Wars
Felim O'Neill of Kinard, leader of the rebellion
Date 23 October 1641 – May 1642 (7 months) Location Ireland Result Founding of Confederate Ireland and beginning of the Irish Confederate Wars
Belligerents
Confederate Ireland	England  Ireland  Scotland
Commanders and leaders
Felim O'Neill Rory O'Moore Donough MacCarty Connor Maguire Rory Maguire Philip O'Reilly	William St Leger James Butler Charles Coote Robert Monro

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 ^[a] was an uprising in the English-controlled territory of the Kingdom of Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and return of confiscated Catholic lands. Planned as a swift coup d'état to gain control of the Protestant-dominated central government, instead it led to the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. By its end, up to 20% of the Irish population had become casualties.

Despite failing to seize Dublin Castle, rebels under Felim O'Neill quickly over-ran most of Ulster, centre of the most recent land confiscations. O'Neill then issued the Proclamation of Dungannon, a forgery claiming he had been authorised by Charles I of England to secure Ireland against his opponents in England and Scotland. Many Royalist Anglo-Irish Catholics responded by joining the uprising, and the rebellion spread throughout Ireland.

In November, rebels besieged Drogheda and defeated a government relief force at Julianstown. Especially in Ulster, thousands of Protestant settlers were expelled or massacred, and Catholics killed in retaliation. By April 1642, Royalist troops held Dublin, Cork, and large areas around them, with much of Ulster occupied by a Scottish Covenanter army and local Protestant militia. This left approximately two thirds of Ireland under rebel control.

In May 1642, Ireland's Catholic bishops met at Kilkenny, and declared the rebellion a just war. Along with members of the Catholic nobility, they created an alternative government known as Confederate Ireland. For the next ten years, the Confederacy fought a three-sided war with Irish Royalists, Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians.
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