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| KINSALE, CO. CORK.- There are few places in Ireland associated with more mournful memories than the above olden town, situated at the head of its land-locked harbor, where the Bandon river expands to an estuary. It is connected by rail with Cork, which is only fourteen miles distant. The harbor is two miles long by half a mile wide and is capable of accommodating about 300 ships. The name is derived from the Gaelic Ceannsaile-signifying the "Head of the Tide," or brine. It is a fishing station of considerable importance and has a population estimated at 5,000 souls. Sir John de Courcy founded a castle at the old Head of Kinsale-a short distance from the town-in the twelfth century. Several naval battles, between the English and French or Spaniards, have been fought in the bay. It is memorable, also, as the landing place of the Spaniards, under Don Juan Aquila, in 1601. On Christmas eve of that year the combined forces of Hugh O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell, while endeavoring to surprise the English beleaguring force, under the Earl of Mountjoy, were themselves surprised and disastrously routed-the first great battle lost by the Irish army in the nine years' war following "the rebellion of the Earls." It was the most complete of Ireland's defeats in the field, and let to her final subjugation by Elizabeth. In 1689 Kinsale was seized and garrisoned by French and Irish troops, and James II. landed there when he came from France to Ireland. It was besieged and taken in the following year by Gen. John Churchill, subsequently the Great Duke of Marlborough. |
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