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It is essential that anyone
interested in the Urell name knows a little about the history of
Ireland. Not only does the Urell name derive from the name of an
ancient province in Ireland, the History of the Urells is linked
directly to the history of Ireland. I am no historian and you will
find many websites that will give you more information but here goes
on a brief History of Ireland.
Before Year 500AD
We can see from our page on
Oirghialla and the
various named historians, that the name Urell derives from the name of that part
of Ireland where the family was settled. Niall of the Nine Hostages was High
King back then. Probably the most memorable thing he did was to take
young man called Patrick from Wales during one of his slave raids.
Patrick became a farm slave but escaped home after a number of
years. He turned to a religious life and later returned to Ireland
and began a successful conversion of the country to Christianity. He
is better known today as Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland
and founder of St Patrick's Day!
Island of Saints & Scholars
By the year 500, nearly all of
Ireland had become Christian and what followed was a long period of
religious and academic devotion. Schools grew around the monasteries
and they flourished all over Ireland. Some of these schools had
thousands of students. During this time, Irish missionaries began to
travel overseas to convert others to the Christian faith. This work
of Irish missionaries began in Scotland and spread down through
England, eventually leading to Irish monasteries all over Europe,
from Cologne, Mainz and Wurzburg in Germany, Paris, Nantes and
Cannes in France, Vienna in Austria, St Gall in Switzerland, to
Bobbio in Italy. This list is by no means complete. During these
times, Ireland was known throughout Europe for its piety and
learning. Ireland remained united in law, religion and culture until
around the year 800 AD.
The Norsemen (Vikings)
The next phase saw the arrival in
Ireland of the Vikings from Norway and Sweden. They were expert
sailors and warriors, equipped with oak galleys that were strong,
seaworthy and had a shallow draft that allowed them to sail up all
navigable rivers and attack towns and monasteries at will. After 50
years of terror, they had settlements in Ireland and were joined a
new breed of Viking, this time from Denmark. Together known in
Ireland as the Danes, they overran much of northern Europe. In
northern France, they occupied a province still known as Normandy.
Their domination of Ireland continued until their final defeat at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 by Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland.
The Normans
Across the Irish Sea, the Normans
defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and in
1169, Henry II, the Norman (French) King of England was happy to assist in
settling a feud in Ireland. Their army of battle-hardened armoured
Norman knights easily overran Irish cities, many of which were
occupied by Viking settlers, who ironically shared recent ancestors with the
Normans. The Normans succeeded in remaining in Ireland not just by
military means but through settlement, fortified castles but mainly by becoming Irish.
They spoke the Irish language, adopted Irish customs and
inter-married with the Irish. From 1263, the
name Urell begins to appear in Ireland with different spellings.
In England also, the Normans became so absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons
that by 1362, the Norman-French language
was replaced by English as the official language in the court of the
king. This change of identity in England was noticed in Ireland and from then
on, the King of England was regarded as "English" and official
policy
was highly critical of the Norman families who had settled into the Irish
way of life.
Prevent Integration
King Edward III of England brought in new laws in 1367 known
as The Statutes of Kilkenny which were designed to prevent the
integration of the Norman families. They specifically ruled that
Normans must speak English, not dress like the Irish, must use
saddles on their horses (!), must not marry Irish people, must not
allow Irish poets and musicians to come among them and must not play
Irish games -especially hurling. The Statutes
also prevented any Irishman being admitted into any cathedral or
collegiate church and insisted that disputes be settled under
English law rather than the Irish Brehon Law. The Statutes were too late
and largely ignored except in the greater Dublin area which is still
known as The Pale, where compliance with the English was greatest. A
double ditch was built around the Pale to protect it from attack and
this ditch became the outer limit of English Law. In the early 1400's, James Uriel was chief
baron of the Exchequer in Dublin.
Protestantism & Plantation
Henry the Eighth and his penchant for the
ladies caused religious division with the Pope.
It was at this time in 1540, that William Urielle was appointed a collector for the barony of
Corkaree, Co Westmeath. However, it was
Henry's son Edward VI that really progressed Protestantism and opposition to Catholics. However,
much of what he enacted was reversed when his step-sister Mary, a
catholic, became queen. She was followed by Elizabeth, a staunch
Protestant, who began the harsh suppression of Catholic faith and
the extension of English power throughout Ireland. The Pope sent an
expedition to help the Irish against Elizabeth's rule but they got
diverted to fighting the Muslims from Morocco (The Moors) who were
attacking Portugal. In 1580 The king of Spain sent a small
expedition of 800 men which landed in Dun an Oir, West Kerry. The
were massacred by the English forces. All the best lands in Munster,
as had much of Leinster, were forfeit to the Crown and "planted".
Planted refers to dividing up the land into huge estates and
offering them to the English gentry at a nominal rent on condition
that they occupy the lands and bring English tenants. This was less
than successful as many could not get English tenants to move to
Ireland and others left after a short time. Others that stayed
blended in with the Irish, defeating the whole purpose of the
exercise. In 1598, Uriell of Balromen is
listed among the principal gentlemen of Co Westmeath.
The Battle of Kinsale 1601
However, most of Ireland was in
submission to England with the most notable exception of the O'Neill and
O'Donnell Clans who ruled much of the northern part of Ireland.
Their opposition resulted in open warfare with the English for 9
years. Aid from Spain was finally sent in 1601. The Spanish forces
however, were too small (their ship which carried most of the troops and
gunpowder never came), arrived in the worst possible place (Kinsale)-
the opposite end of the country from the Irish forces and arrived in
the middle of an extremely harsh winter. The result was a disaster.
The English besieged Kinsale and the Irish forces marched the length
of Ireland in snow and ice many dying along the way. The Battle of
Kinsale wasn't much of a battle. Versions of events vary but the
Spanish stayed locked into the town and didn't participate; the
Irish forces had poor communication and their battle plan failed and
the English won the day. However, it seems the Irish could easily
have regrouped and would have had victory with the help of the
Spanish. But instead, the Irish forces returned north and the
Spanish made peace terms with the English such that they could
return home. While Kinsale was not a great battle, it was one on the
greatest turning-points in the history of Ireland as it marked the
final defeat of the last chieftains of Ireland and the beginning of
a reign of slaughter and subjugation of Ireland. The leaders of the
Irish families were forced to leave Ireland forever, their departure
known as "The Flight of the Earls". They departed mainly for Spain,
France and Italy where their names still survive. John Lynch
emigrated from Galway to Bordeaux where his son Thomas inherited an
estate which still produces wines with the Lynch brand.
The Plantation of Ulster - What still festers
today
After the northern chiefs had to leave Ireland, King James of
England issued a proclamation declaring all their lands and
possessions forfeit to the Crown. In May 1609, the land was divided
into lots of 2000, 1500 and 1000 acres. English and Scottish
colonists and to English corporate bodies such as The London City
Guilds were offered all the best lands and their tenants had to be
Protestant and not Irish. Smaller lots were allowed to take
Irish tenants but the rents were much higher on these lands. Small
holdings on the poorest lands were let to native Irish at even
higher rents. The taking of lands from the Irish continued with land
titles declared flawed in order to hand the land to English
landlords.
In 1641, Oliver Uriell is described as a proprietor in the parish of Portnashangan in the barony
of Westmeath. While the Plantation of Ulster was not a complete success
initially, it formed the basis of further colonisation in later
years resulting in a majority population in Ulster that was loyal to
the crown and determined to keep a union between England and the
area of Ireland occupied by them. This Unionist or Loyalist
population still exists in Northern Ireland today. They are often
referred to as the Protestant community and have been engaged in a
bitter sectarian battle with the Catholic minority in Northern
Ireland since the 1960's. The dissention is not based on
religion as might be interpreted from news broadcasts around the
world. The religious persuasion merely describes the racial and
political divide between Irish Nationalist and Unionist Loyalist.
Oliver Cromwell 1649 and Ireland's 9/11
In this age, everyone will remember September 11th 2001. It is a
coincidence that Ireland had its 9/11 on the very same date in 1649.
In the same way that 9/11 will be remembered in New York, that date
is still remembered in Ireland over 350 years later. In England, the
change to Protestantism was complete and a bitter hatred of
Catholics existed. Catholic Ireland was not properly under the
control of the English. It was time to change all that. Oliver
Cromwell, an utterly ruthless English leader had a bitter hatred
of Catholics and the Irish. He came to Ireland to subdue the land for
once and for all. He attacked the town of Drogheda and having
captured the town, massacred over
3,500 people including priests, men, women and children.
Any who survived were sold into slavery in the New World. He
followed this in the town of Wexford in October where another
massacre took place. 2,000 Irish troops and up to 1,500 civilians
were killed. Three hundred women were massacred while standing at
the cross in the public square. They had hoped that being near the
cross would soften the hearts of the Christian soldiers. Instead it
identified them as Catholics, and they were put to death. The
churches were then destroyed. These atrocities were typical of this
unrepentant killer. This was the hallmark of Cromwell, a name still
despised in Ireland. The
slaughter of the 1650s resulted in the death or exile of
over 600,000 people, or around one third of Ireland's
population. After Cromwell , Catholicism was banned and Catholic priests
were executed when captured. In addition, roughly 12,000
Irish people were sold into slavery under the
Commonwealth.
All Catholic-owned land was confiscated in the
Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and given to
Scottish and English settlers, the English Parliament's
financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers. In 1653,
the
remaining Catholic landowners were allocated poorer land
in Connacht. Go "To hell or to Connacht" was
the slogan. Under the Commonwealth, Catholic landownership dropped
from 60% of the total to just 8%. This left most of Ireland in the
hands of the English, who took possession of all the land, the
estates and the towns in their entirety. At this time, many debts owed to
soldiers, officers and servants of the Crown were repaid by grants
of lands in Ireland.
William of Orange 1689
For a brief period during the reign of the Catholic king James II in
England, persecution of the Irish eased, but he was soon deposed by
his son-in-law, the Dutchman, William of Orange. War against the
English oppressors broke out in Ireland. James, on being deposed had
sought help from King Louis of France, an enemy of William of
Orange. James supported the Irish rebellion as it was in his
interest to help anyone fighting William. James landed in Kinsale in
1689. The Northern Protestants were bitterly opposed to James
and many barricaded themselves into the walled towns of Derry and
Enniskillen. They survived there after a long siege. William brought
huge armies to Ireland in 1690 to face James and his Irish forces,
who were aided by a number of French troops. James was a poor
commander and no match for the sickly but capable William. James
marched against William against all advice. With a force of about
24,000 men they faced Williams army of 36,000 across the Boyne River
near Drogheda, just North of Dublin. The battle was fierce and hotly
contested. However, numbers count in battle, and James soon took
flight and escaped to France. The battle was a huge success for
William and it is still celebrated today by the Protestant "Members
of The Orange Order" (after William of Orange) on the 12th July
every year. Their sashes and bowler hats are their political
statement of defiance against the native Irish. The Irish forces
retreated westwards under Patrick Sarsfield, one of Ireland's
greatest leaders trying to establish the River Shannon as a
boundary. Sarsfield stood to defend Limerick at the mouth of
the Shannon and William's army marched against the city. They were
so confident of success, they had no artillery or siege equipment,
which was following them some distance behind. Sarsfield, showing
his bold leadership, left the city at night and circled round and
attacked William's siege train. They destroyed the guns, boats,
stores and ammunition in a huge explosion. As a result William
failed to take the city and returned to England leaving his Dutch
General Ginkel in command. More battles were fought in Aughrim and
Athlone, where the French General St Ruth commanded the Irish
forces. With the battle won, he rose in his stirrups to order the
final charge and was killed by a cannon ball. The resulting
confusion lost the day for the Irish and, with no further French
help in sight, peace was eventually agreed in Limerick. Within days,
a French fleet arrived. But Patrick Sarsfield declared "Too late.
Ireland's honour is pledged". The
list of outlaws in Galway at that time includes
John Erell who had
fought on the Jacobite (King James's) side. The Irish officers and men left
for France in huge numbers, the hope of the nation, known afterwards
as the Wild Geese. They mostly joined the Irish Brigade of the
French army and it is said that over half a million Irish died for
France in the next 100 years, including the brave Patrick Sarsfield
who died in the Battle of Landen.
The United Irishmen
For the next century, cruel Penal Laws discriminated against the
native Irish preventing them from representation, participation in
office, land ownership or the professions. Inspired by the American
Revolution, a group of Protestant liberal-minded men, led by Wolf
Tone, established the United Irishmen in 1791 with a view to having
greater independence from England and a fairer system for all
Irishmen. Seeking aid from France, who were again at war with
England, a French Army Arrived in Bantry Bay, Co Cork in December
1796. Storms and bad seamanship prevented them landing and the
planned uprising was postponed. The rising took place in 1798 but
the surprise element was lost when British spies had advanced
warning of many of the planned assemblies of men and prevented them
with large armed groups of soldiers. Nevertheless, uprising took
place all over the country and most resulted in bitter battles where
the trained and well-equipped English armies were too strong for the
peasant forces of the Irish, many of whom were armed only with farm
implements. With the help of 1,000 French troops that landed in
Mayo, one of the few successful battles was fought near Castlebar.
It became know as "The Races of Castlebar" because of the speed at
which the English ran from the battlefield. However, at the next
battle at Ballinamuck, the French surrendered on terms that allowed
them return to France and the remaining Irish were massacred. A
month later, a larger force of 3,000 French troops led by Wolf Tone,
arrived off the coast of Donegal but surrendered to the English Navy
after a 3 hour sea battle and they never landed in Ireland. 1798 is
sometimes known sarcastically in Ireland as "The Year of the
French". The atrocities committed against the rebels and catholic
priests is still the stuff of Irish ballads sung today.
The Famine - Ireland's Holocaust
The repression of the native Irish continued and was
institutionalised by design. The Irish tenant farmers were
restricted to tiny land holdings and in common with many parts of
Europe at that time, potatoes were the staple crop, being the arable
food with the best nutritional value. To pay the
English landlords at least one-third of the holding had to be devoted to growing corn, just to pay the rent. When the potato crop failed due to the
disease known as blight, the family's food disappeared. The Irish
would have survived if they hadn't to hand over the corn to the
landlord as rent. When the potato crop failed in England, as it did
throughout Europe, peasants
were allowed keep corn to feed themselves. But in Ireland, landlords
had the corn forcibly taken where necessary and hundreds of
thousands of tons were exported to England. Famine relief ships from
abroad were dismayed to see ships laden with corn leaving Irish ports.
Ireland was a net exporter of food during the five years of famine. The Sultan of
Turkey, appalled by what he heard was happening in Ireland wished to
send assistance to the value of £10,000, but was
strongly advised against it by the English ambassador
since Queen Victoria of England had only contributed £1,000. Her
Majesty had a personal income of over £2,000,000 at the time. Before
the onset of the famine, the Irish political write John Mitchel
wrote: “The Irish People are expecting
famine day by day... and they ascribe it unanimously, not so much to
the rule of heaven as to the greedy and cruel policy of England. Be
that right or wrong, that is their feeling. ... that their
starving children cannot sit down to their scanty meal but they see
the harpy claw of England in their dish. They behold their own
wretched food melting in rottenness off the face of the earth, and
they see heavy-laden ships, freighted with the yellow corn their own
hands have sown and reaped, spreading all sail for England; they see
it and with every grain of that corn goes a heavy curse. Again the
people believe—no matter whether truly or falsely— that if they
should escape the hunger and the fever their lives are not safe from
judges and juries. They do not look upon the law of the land as a
terror to evil-doers, and a praise to those who do well; they scowl
on it as an engine of foreign rule, ill-omened harbinger of doom".
The Irish died in their thousands while the wealthy English
landlords evicted large numbers from their homes. Thousands of
survivors emigrated. The estimates vary on the number of deaths but
most agree that about 2 million Irish people died. Some say it was
the Irish holocaust and some even claim it was an attempt at
genocide of the Irish Race by the English. Genocide may be an
exaggeration but it was a terrible tragedy that could have been
avoided but for the greed of English landlords and the indifference
of England as a nation to the well being of the Irish race. The
emigrants used all means to get to the United States, Canada and
Australia. They had to sell everything to pay their passage. They
often travelled in "coffin" ships which were in poor condition. The
living conditions on these ships were extremely bad, poor food and
sanitation, consequent diseases and illness and many died during the
voyage. Almost all left through Cobh (pronounced "cove")
formerly Queenstown, which is the outer
port of Cork. Mary Urell,
a widow with 7 children
emigrated from Nenagh in 1837 before the Famine hit. She entered the
U.S. at New Orleans and her family settled in Iowa.
Gen Michael Emmet Urell emigrated to the U.S. in 1855 with his parents and some
of his family (some stayed in Ireland and others were born in the
U.S.). The General's Uncle William emigrated to Illinois and his
family settled in Tioga, Pennsylvania. By 1850, the Irish
made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore (Maryland). Canada's cities became home to
thousands of Irish emigrants and the largest Famine grave site
outside of Ireland is at Grosse-Île, Quebec, an island in the St.
Lawrence River used to quarantine famine ships. The population of
Ireland was decimated by the Famine and the subsequent emigration.
From a total of about 8 million people, the number fell to under 4
million, less than half. It is only in recent years that economic
prosperity has allowed the figure to rise again by reversing the
emigration trend. To get a feel for life in those times, I recommend
reading an interesting, well-researched novel called "The Star of
The Sea" by Joseph O'Connor. If you enter the name in Amazon.com,
you can buy it on-line.
Annie
Moore was the first ever emigrant to be processed in Ellis Island
when it officially opened on 1st January 1892. Annie and her
brothers sailed from Queenstown on the SS Nevada on the 20th
December and arrived after 12 days of travelling in steerage. The
statue outside Cobh Heritage Centre was unveiled by President Mary
Robinson on the 9th February 1993. A similar statue of Annie can be
found in Ellis Island, New York which represents not only the honour
of her being the first emigrant to pass through Ellis Island but
also stands as a symbol of the many Irish who have embarked on that
very same journey.
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Present day
Cobh (formerly Queenstown) Waterfront
Little has changed in this, the last view of
civilisation for most Irish emigrants
Cobh was the last port
of call for most transatlantic ships including the Titanic on her maiden voyage.
The National Famine Monument
which is situated close to the Croagh Patrick Visitor Centre was
unveiled by Mary Robinson, the President of Ireland at the time, on
July 20th 1997. The sculpture by John Behan depicts a 'Coffin Ship'
with skeleton bodies and commemorates the anniversary of the Irish
Famine 150 years ago, when the population declined from 8 million to
4 million. The monument is the largest
bronze sculpture in Ireland. A similar sculpture was unveiled in
November, 2000, outside the United Nations building in New York
City, representing those immigrants who survived the journey to
America. The "Jeanie
Johnston" (1847-58) was the most famous of the Irish emigrant
vessels. Despite the cramped conditions, the Jeanie Johnston was a
well run ship and, unlike the infamous and disease-ridden "coffin
ships" of the period, Jeanie never lost a passenger to disease or
the sea. Built in Quebec City in 1847 (Black '47) by the Canadian
shipbuilder John Munn (1788-1859) for the Donovan family of Tralee,
she was a triple-masted barque, 123 feet long and weighed 408 tons.
She was constructed of oak and pine, and was copper-fastened. Like
the majority of the ships of the period she was a cargo cum
passenger vessel. She brought timber and foodstuffs to Ireland and
took on passengers for the return journeys to the United States and
Canada. She carried a full complement of 200 passengers and a crew
of 17. On average, the length of the
transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever
carried was 254, from Tralee to Quebec on April 17th 1852. To put
this number in perspective, the replica ship is only licensed to
carry 40 people. In 2002 the replica Jeanie Johnston sailed
from Tralee to Canada and the USA. She has taken part in the Tall
Ships Race and is currently operating as a sail training ship. |
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Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare
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Celtic Cross at Donegal Bay
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Donegal Castle
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Lough Corrib, Co Galway
Hurling
Lynch Bages - Bordeaux Wine
Oliver Cromwell
William of Orange
Wolf Tone
Famine Memorial in Dublin
Boston Famine Memorial
Beara Peninsula, West Cork
Annie Moore statue, Cobh
National Famine Monument
Jeanie Johnson
(A Replica Built in Kerry, Completed 2001)
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