School: Béal Átha na Sluagh (Buachaillí)

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1. The Battle of Aughrim (continued)

   

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   men and the Irish had 20,000 men this left the English with a advantage of 10,000 men. The English were better equipped and had good training compared with the Irish which were poorly equipped and most of them were only recruits. A sad thing happened when the Irish had the battle in grasp when St Ruth was killed.

   A day or two before the battle some of the Irish soldiers stole some sheep from a man named Kelly. The next day Kelly went up and told St Ruth what had happened. Then St Ruth said to him "if we lose the battle to-morrow you will lose all your land and sheep and all you have belong to you", and Kelly went of grumbling. After this Kelly and his herd Mullen came up and asked St Ruth for the skins and St Ruth knew well that his soldiers wanted them to sleep on. St Ruth said to them "if they didn't get out he would shoot the pair of them", and when they were going out Kelly said to Mullen "mark him well". After this Kelly went up and asked the English what would they give him if he told them the colour of the horse that St Ruth would be riding after

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Robert Cummins

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Béal Átha na Sluaighe, Co. na Gaillimhe