The O'Sullivan March

March into Oblivion by Michael J. Carroll

Not many people are aware of this particular event in Irish history, unless of course you are Irish. I first became aware of this particular event when I came upon a novel by Morgan Llywelyn, entitled "The Last Prince of Ireland". The last prince refers to Donal Cam O'Sullivan.
(So you can understand what enticed me to read this novel about ten years ago).

Our recent trip to Ireland last summer and a stop in Kinsale, County Cork, resurrected this story for me. The story of The O'Sullivan's last march is directly tied to the Battle of Kinsale. Donal Cam brought his forces from the west coast area of Bantry Bay down to the southern coast at Kinsale to join with the northern clans who marched the length of Ireland to join up with the Spanish troops, pinned down at Kinsale by the English. The Irish clans saw this as a perfect opportunity to join their forces with the Spanish in an effort to defeat the English.

The history of Ireland has its share of tragedies, but none is more poignant, or more decisive, than the battle of Kinsale. It was at Kinsale that the Gaelic nobility was resolutely crushed by the English invaders. This defeat led to nearly four hundred years of English domination.

Donal Cam, determined after the battle not to surrender his homeland, flees with his clan to the Ulster Province in the north of Ireland to join forces with the clans of Red Hugh O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell, with whom he fought beside at Kinsale. This is a considerably shorter novel than Llywelyn's "Last Prince of Ireland", but equally and as meticulously based on documented historical data.