1688–1689: JAMES II RAN WHEN WILLIAM OF ORANGE INVADED
England tore itself apart again. James II—Catholic, stubborn, authoritarian—had frightened Protestant elites into imagining he might create a French-style absolutist monarchy on English soil. When his Catholic son was born in 1688, they panicked. Whispers swept elite salons and military camps alike: A Stuart dynasty raised as Catholics—never.
In England, though there was no sitting Parliament at the time–James II had suspended it–the English Parliament invited William of Orange, leader of the Dutch Republic, to come to England. Parliamentary leaders invited him before Parliament officially assembled. In June 1688, seven leading English political figures secretly wrote to William. They asked him to go to Ireland on England’s behalf and “save” English Protestantism and the liberties of the kingdom in England and Ireland. These seven men included Earls, Bishops, and leading MPs who represented the Whig and Tory elite — the top of English political society. They promised William the support of most nobles, widespread popular backing, and told William that James II had “forfeited the nation’s trust.”
William, who ruled a Protestant confederation–the DUTCH REPUBLIC–as a Stadtholder, landed his ships full of soldiers in Ireland. He brought Dutch money and troops, as well as German and Huguenot fighters. His intervention in Ireland drove the deposed English King James out of Ireland and enforced Protestantism on the Island. William—bank-partnered, merchant-allied, militarily efficient—represented the Mardukian form of “order”: stratified, legalistic, property-centered. Ireland would soon feel the shockwave.
1689: IRELAND RALLIED TO JAMES — A CATHOLIC HOPE
Ireland had lived under a century of plantations, confiscations, and forced displacements. When James fled England, the Irish Catholic elite saw him as their one chance to reverse land loss.
James crossed to Ireland, promising restoration. Irish lords rallied behind him. Peasants cheered. The Anglo-Irish Protestant minority felt the ground tremble.
Irish farmers whispered to their children, We may get our land back.
Priests prayed, Let Ireland rise again.
Yet James carried his own contradictions—fear of decisive action, French reluctance to give full support, and English memories of Catholic absolutism. Ireland projected onto James its longing for justice, while elites in England projected onto him the fear of losing their wealth.
1689–1690: THE SIEGE OF DERRY — “NO SURRENDER!”
Derry slammed its gates against James’s Jacobite forces. The Jacobites cut Derry off from its hinterland. Outside, thousands of Jacobite troops waited. Starvation crept inside the walls; disease spread. Women begged on their knees; men dug shallow graves in dark courtyards. Ships bearing relief tried to break through the boom across the River Foyle.
From the ramparts, starving defenders chanted: No surrender!
1690: BATTLE AT THE BOYNE RIVER
The Battle of the Boyne River happened James II chose the river as his defensive barrier. James’s forces, brave but less cohesive, faced them across the river. In the midst of the morning, commanders muttered, This will decide Ireland.
William rode forward—confident, pragmatic, cold. His ethos fit the Mardukian pattern: central command, military discipline, hierarchy enforced with an accountant’s clarity. He used multiple crossings—flanking upstream and forcing the ford at Oldbridge—to break James’s line.
James hesitated, withdrew early, and effectively abandoned his Irish supporters. (In partnership frames, leaders share risk; in domination frames, expendable people are left behind. Ireland was expendable; James had only wanted Ireland as a stepping stone to England.
Once William’s army crossed the river, James fled and the Williamite victory became inevitable. When the Jacobite army broke, the Irish people cried, We are betrayed.
1691: AUGHRIM AND LIMERICK
Aughrim was brutal. Rain turned the fields to sucking mud. Irish cavalry charged with desperate courage; infantry held hedgerows until they fell in heaps. Commanders shouted, Hold the ridge—hold for Ireland! The Jacobite cause died there. Limerick held out, but the political wind was gone. The defenders negotiated with honor, expecting fair terms.
The Treaty of Limerick promised rights—religious tolerance, protection of property, fair treatment of soldiers and civilians. It was a partnership template aligned with Ninmah’s ethos. But the ink was barely dry before the domination machine revoked it.
The Williamite Parliament shredded the treaty’s guarantees. Catholic landholdings were attacked with new laws and legal fictions. Irish officers were offered exile rather than service. Tens of thousands of Irish left for France, Spain, and beyond.
At the docks, mothers cried, Will you return? Young soldiers answered, Only when Ireland is free. They would not return. Domination systems always break treaties that threaten elite control.
1695–1709: THE PENAL LAWS SHAKLED IRISH LAND, LANGUAGE, AND WORSHIP
The Protestant rulers barred Catholics from holding arms, public office, teaching, inheriting land equally, entering certain professions, or practicing their Catholicism freely. The new Protestant rulers had massive landholdings in Ireland. Irish Catholic landownership collapsed from 90% in 1600 to 5% by 1778.
A farmer whispered to his son: We work the fields our ancestors owned, yet we may not own even the soil beneath our feet.
This was Mardukian domination—control through law, debt, and rigid hierarchy.
1700s: PROTESTANT ASCENDANCY LOCKED DOWN POWER
This Ascendancy was not a democracy but a narrow domination-driven oligarchy. A small class controlled land, courts, Parliament in Dublin, rents, militia, and trade. The partnership values of Irish villagers—local autonomy, reciprocity, mutual aid—survived only in rural networks of kinship, Catholic clergy, and folk communities. Yet beneath the silence, something stored itself: memory, grievance, and hunger.
1800s (Prelude): HUNGER, RENTS, AND EVICTIONS BUILT TOWARD CATASTROPHE
By the early 19th century, Ireland hovered on a knife-edge: Absentee landlords raised rents beyond reason. Tenant families subdivided land until starvation shadowed every winter. Catholic emancipation arrived late and limited. Corn Laws controlled grain prices and crushed the poor.
A widow told a parish priest, “Each year my children eat less. He answered, Ireland cannot endure much longer.”The soil trembled toward its breaking point.
1845–1852: THE GREAT HUNGER LOOMED
Blight struck. Fields blackened. Leaves curled like burned paper. British officials debated market principles while people died in ditches.
In families across Ireland, a father would whisper: We must leave. There is nothing left for us here.
But…
500 IRISH CAVALRY DESTROYED BRITAIN’S SIEGE ARMY IN ONE NIGHT & SAVED MOST OF IRELAND FROM THE ENGLISH
A handful of brave Irish cavalrymen launched a lightning-fast night raid that obliterated Britain’s siege army — a daring move that changed the course of the conflict and saved much of Ireland from complete Protestant domination. The heroic cavalry fighters were outnumbered, out-gunned, and given little chance, yet through surprise, boldness, and gut-level resolve, they punched above their weight. Their action didn’t just win a battle — it disrupted the English plans and preserved a large part of Ireland’s population, social structure, and hopes for a Catholic future.
Our next post will take us into the catastrophe that shattered Ireland, emptied villages, filled coffin ships, and reshaped America and Australia. A hunger older than the Famine itself had been growing for centuries—and would soon erupt.
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