STRADBALLY BRIDGE
(see here for notes on this historic event)

A golden sun is shining bright beneath an Irish sky,

The Barrow waters gurgle through the old town of Athy,

No landscape from an artist’s brush did ever look so fair

as the hills and plains and valleys of the County of Kildare.

 

While marching on to Mullaghmast three hundred men are seen,

They come from Laois and Offaly and bear a flag of green,

But history will record it before the day is past,

a cowardly massacre within, the Rath of Mullaghmast.

 

Twenty years have passed away, the sun is shining still,

And nature’s green and gold and white doth carpet every hill,

And down upon Stradbally town a host of men are led,

They fly the banner of the Pale with Cosby at their head.

 

They have come to meet O’Moore they say and banish from the town,

Each Irish lad and Irish heart that won’t obey the Crown,

The pretty town of Stradbally is now a glorious sight,

An army occupies each end preparing for the fight.

 

The chargers neigh with fierceness, their steel is keen and bright,

But streams of blood will wash the street before the coming night,

They are coming north from Timahoe and south from Vicarstown

to meet today upon the bridge, the vampires of the Crown.

 

On foot they come, on horse they come, like hunters in the chase,

Young Owney’s men are coming from the Rock of Dunamaise,

With fiery vengeance in their eyes, the butcher’s blood to spill,

With shields upraised and sabres bared they meet upon the bridge.

 

And Stradbally, brave Stradbally, this nineteenth day of May,

The massacre of Mullaghmast you must avenge today.

 

The waters gushed beneath the bridge, the battle raged above,

To hold the ground against the foe the Cosby’s vainly strove,

But the clans are fighting fiercely and the Cosby’s know it well,

Their human hounds begin to think they have met the hosts of hell.

 

They took the bridge and made the town a refuge for the Celt,

O’Moore’s bright blade in Cosby’s heart is buried to the hilt,

Upon their battlefields of yore the Romans or the Greeks,

Have never shown such splendour as the fiery clans of Laois.

 

The Cosby’s power was broken on that great and glorious day,

When father, son, and grandson, all perished in the fray,

And Stradbally, brave Stradbally, before the day was past,

You had well avenged the slaughter in the Rath of Mullaghmast..

 

Anonymous

The History of the Battle of Stradbally Bridge -- 17/18th of May 1596.

Owney MacRory O'More, chieftain of Leix, was proceeding thru the Stradbally area with his troops (which usually included men of the O'Duinn and O'Dempsey Clans) and demanded passage for his men over the Stradbally Bridge, which crosses over the river of the same name, in the middle of the village. His request, which was considered as a formal challenge to fight, was refused. 

The infamous Alexander Cosby, who had been granted by Queen Elizabeth an extremely large area -over 1300 acres plus several town lands and the Monastery of Stradbally - - of the former O'Moores territories, and at the time, was the appointed Chief of the Kerne, proceeded to defend the bridge (and his own lands), taking with him his eldest son Francis, who was married to Helena Harpoole of Shrule, by whom he had a son, William, born but nine months before. Dorchas Sydney , Alexander's wife, who would never allow herself to be called a Cosby, and her daughter-in-law, placed themselves at a window in the abbey, overlooking the bridge - where they could observe the action.

For some time they beheld their husbands bravely maintaining their ground. At length, after some furious engagements, Alexander Cosby, as he was pressing forward was shot, and and dropped down dead. Upon this his kern with melancholy outcries, began to give way. Francis Cosby, the son, apprehensive of being abandoned, endeavored to save his own life by leaping over the bridge, but at the very moment he cleared the battlements on the bridge, he was also shot, and fell dead into the river.

An interesting anecdote to this story has to do with the two Cosby wives while observing the battle. As their two husbands were killed, one of them called out of the window to the other witnesses "Remember my husband (i.e. Francis) did not fall first, consequently, the estate descended to him and is now the property of my eldest son". Thus, young William of nine months became owner of all the Cosby properties.

Notes:

This battle occurred after the infamous Massacre at Mullaghmast in 1577, and the later death of Rory Oge in 1578, after numerous successful battles against the British. In 1598, the Irish again broke out in rebellion, under the leadership of Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone - and other chiefs. The battle at Stradbally bridge was a continuance of the revenge against the perpetrators of Mullaghmast and the dishonest treatments of the Crown's government; and was followed - under Owney MacRory along with many of the O'Duinns, O'Dempseys, and the brilliant Captain Tyrrel and Captain Nugent - with numerous victories over the forces of St Leger and the Lord Deputy, including that of the battle at the "Pass of the Plumes" in 1599 with the devastating victory over the English army under the Earl of Essex.

If you have read Joe Dunne's book "Dunnes:People and Places, you might recall that Tadhg an Locha, around 1570, married Margaret O'Neil, daughter of the the then Prince of Ulster (Tyrone) -- Sean O'Neill called "Shane the Proud". Daniel O'Byrne in his "History of Queens County", refers to this Owney MacRory O'Moore ( i.e. Owney or Anthony, son of the famous rebel Chief Rory Oge O'More), as "Prince Anthony the son of Prince Rory.