Portadown massacre

The Irish rebellion had broken out in Ulster on 23 October 1641. It began as an attempted ''coup d'état'' by Catholic gentry and military officers, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland. They wanted to force King Charles I to negotiate an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, and greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantations of Ireland. Many of those involved in the rebellion had lost their ancestral lands over the past thirty years in the plantation of Ulster. Most of the land at Portadown had belonged to the McCanns (Mac Cana), a Gaelic clan. As part of the plantation, this land was confiscated by the English Crown and colonized by English and Scottish Protestant settlers. Rebels, including the McCanns, Some of the rebels began attacking and robbing Protestant settlers, although rebel leaders tried to stop this. ==Massacre==

Twenty-eight people made statements about the incident, but only one of them witnessed it. The others related what they had heard about it, including possibly from some of the rebels themselves. William Clarke, the only survivor, stated that he had been held in a prison camp at Loughgall, where many of the prisoners were mistreated and some subjected to half-hangings. Clarke states that he and about 100 other prisoners were marched six miles to the bridge over the River Bann at Portadown. ==Aftermath==

As word of the massacre spread, "elements of what happened were exaggerated, tweaked and fabricated". People who heard about the massacre gave a range of death tolls, from 68 to 196. As Clarke was a witness of the massacre his figure of 100 is taken as being the most credible. Nevertheless, the Portadown massacre was one of the bloodiest in Ireland during the Irish Confederate Wars. In County Tyrone, modern research has identified three blackspots for the killing of settlers, with the worst being near Kinard, "where most of the British families planted ... were ultimately murdered". There were also massacres of local Catholics, such as at Islandmagee in County Antrim, and on Rathlin Island by Scottish Covenanter soldiers. Though a supporter of British rule in Ireland, 19th-century historian William Lecky wrote "it is far from clear on which side the balance of cruelty rests". The massacre terrified Protestant settlers and was used to support the view that the rebellion was a Catholic conspiracy to massacre all Protestants in Ireland, Accounts of the massacre strengthened the resolve of many Parliamentarians to re-conquer Ireland, which they did in 1649–52. Massacres were committed by Oliver Cromwell's army during this conquest, and it resulted in the confiscation of most Catholic-owned land and mass deportations. Temple's work was published at least ten times between 1646 and 1812. The graphic massacres depicted therein were used to lobby against granting more rights to Catholics. After the massacre, stories spread of ghosts appearing in the river at Portadown, screeching and crying out for revenge. These stories were said to have struck fear into the locals. One woman stated that Irish Confederate commander Owen Roe O'Neill went to the site of the massacre when he returned to Ireland in 1642. She stated that a female ghost appeared, crying for revenge. O'Neill sent for a priest to speak to the ghost, but it would only speak to a Protestant cleric from an English regiment. Toole McCann was later captured by English forces. He was questioned and made a statement in May 1653, saying he had not authorised nor seen the massacre, but had only heard of it. He was executed shortly after. ==References==