School: Béal Átha na Sluagh (Buachaillí)

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1. Local Happenings (continued)

   

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   The hill is partly surrounded by a marsh and that was bad for the attackers and there were only two passes to it which were heavily guarded by the Irish. The battle started with everything in favour of the Irish victory, although the English army were superior in numbers by about 8 thousand men who were better trained and equipped soldiers than the Irish.

   Ginkle picked out a thousand of his best hand to hand fighters for an attach one one of the passes. The Irish guarding the pass got orders to retreat when the English attacked. The Irish did this and were retreating when all of a sudden they disappeared and the English were all shot down. This is what happened. There was a trench dug behind the pass and when the Irish were retreating they all went down into the trench leaving the way clear for the snipers. That place is now called Meelihan which means a thousand heads. The real name is Mile Ceann.

   The battle continued with the Irish winning when a thing that caused the English win happened that is the killing of San Ruth. There

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. place-space-environment
      1. local lore, place-lore (~10,595)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Frank Donoghue

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Dunlo Street, Co. Galway