1521
Battle of Mourne Abbey
Henry VIII believes that the Irish can be made into loyal subjects through ‘…sober ways, politic shifts and amiable persuasion’.
The MacCarthy chieftain, Cormac Oge, is seen as a model example, on whom high hopes were pinned.
In 1521, however the Desmonds act rather less than soberly and attack their old enemies, the MacCarthys. James, the head of the Fitzgeralds, overruns Munster with an army of cavalry. Cormac Oge makes a ‘rising out’ of the clan, joined by the forces of his son-in-law Cormac MacCarthy Reagh. Together, they nearly annihilate the Desmonds at the battle of Mourne Abbey.
Seven years later, Cormac attends the parliament as Lord of Muskerry.