More Events on This Day in Irish History - https://thisdayirishhistory.com/march-28/
Welcome back to This Day in Irish History. I'm your host, Raymond Welsh. Before we dive into today's story, if you’d like to explore other significant events that happened on this day in Irish history, visit thisdayirishhistory.com—the link is in the episode description. Now, let’s journey back to March 28, 1646, a day that marked a critical turning point in Ireland’s Confederate Wars, when a peace proposal offered by the Royalist Lord Lieutenant, James Butler, the Marquis of Ormond, fractured the fragile unity of the Irish Catholic Confederation.
To understand the significance of this split, we need to set the stage. Ireland in the 1640s was a land engulfed in a complex and brutal conflict. The Confederate Wars—part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms—saw Irish Catholics, English Royalists, and Parliamentarians all locked in a deadly struggle for control. Since 1642, the Irish Catholic Confederation, headquartered in Kilkenny, had functioned as a de facto government. It brought together a wide range of Catholic interests—noble landowners, Old English elites, and native Gaelic lords—united by a common cause: defending Catholic rights, reclaiming lands lost during previous plantations, and asserting greater autonomy from England.
But unity, as history so often reminds us, is fragile.
On March 28, 1646, Lord Ormond, representing the interests of the embattled King Charles I, issued a peace proposal to the Confederates. At first glance, this seemed like a potential breakthrough. The Royalists, reeling from defeats in England and desperate for allies, were finally offering formal recognition of some Catholic rights in return for military support against the growing power of Parliament. The Supreme Council of the Confederation, largely composed of moderate nobles and Old English elites, viewed the terms as a step in the right direction—perhaps even a lifeline for the Catholic cause.
But not everyone agreed.
The real controversy erupted over the proposal’s glaring omissions. The Ormond Peace, as it came to be known, offered very limited religious concessions. It allowed private worship but failed to provide for full public toleration of Catholicism or the repeal of anti-Catholic penal laws. Even more damning, it offered no concrete guarantees for the restoration of lands seized during previous plantations. For many in the Confederation—especially the clergy and more radical elements—this was unacceptable.
Leading the opposition was the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, who had arrived in 1645 with arms, money, and a mandate to defend Catholic interests at all costs. Backed by a strong contingent of Irish bishops and military leaders like Owen Roe O’Neill, Rinuccini condemned the peace as a betrayal. He argued that accepting such terms would sell out the very cause for which the Confederate movement had been founded.
The resulting schism was more than ideological—it was political and military. Two competing camps emerged within the Confederation. On one side stood the moderates of the Supreme Council, who supported the peace and were willing to make pragmatic compromises. On the other stood the clergy and their allies, who saw the agreement as morally and strategically disastrous. Rinuccini went so far as to excommunicate those who supported the treaty, plunging the Confederation into a constitutional and spiritual crisis.
The consequences were immediate and severe. The internal rift weakened Confederate unity at a time when external threats loomed larger than ever. The Parliamentarians, under commanders like Michael Jones and later Oliver Cromwell, were gaining ground. Meanwhile, Royalist forces were collapsing, and Charles I’s position was growing increasingly untenable. The Confederation’s inability to present a united front meant that they were ill-prepared for the challenges ahead.
By late 1646, the Ormond Peace was effectively dead, rejected by the General Assembly under pressure from Rinuccini and the clergy. Yet the damage had been done. Trust between Confederate factions had eroded. Military coordination broke down. And Ireland, already bleeding from years of war, now faced deeper instability.
This split in March 1646 marked the beginning of the end for the Irish Catholic Confederation. It exposed the tensions between idealism and pragmatism, between religious conviction and political necessity. In the years that followed, these divisions would leave Ireland vulnerable to the brutal Cromwellian conquest, which would begin in 1649 and reshape the island’s history for generations.
The events of that spring remind us that in revolutionary times, unity is not only a strength—it is a necessity. And when it fractures, even the noblest of causes can falter.
Thank you for joining me on this journey through Ireland’s rich past. Please like and subscribe, and until next time, I’m Raymond Welsh—Slán go fóill!
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