[Sidenote: A successor to Owen Roe O'Neill.]
[Sidenote: Bishop Macmahon appointed, April 1.]
By the fourth article of his agreement with Owen Roe O'Neill, Ormonde was bound to give the command in Ulster to the person nominated by the nobility and gentry of that province, who assembled for that purpose at Belturbet in March, under the presidency of Eugene Swiney, who had been Bishop of Kilmore since 1628. Antrim, who had already been in communication with Cromwell and was soon to be in alliance with Ireton, was a candidate, and had many supporters among the officers. It was thought that Sir George Monro and his Scots might follow him, though they would dislike an Irish and especially a clerical general. Hugh O'Neill, who would have been by far the fittest man, was absent in Munster; and Daniel O'Neill was practically disqualified by being a Protestant. The other candidates were Sir Phelim O'Neill, who had never shone as a soldier, Owen Roe's son Henry, General Ferrall, and Bishop Macmahon of Clogher. The bishop professed no great anxiety for the post, but there seems little doubt that he left no stone unturned. These intrigues were successful, and Ormonde signed his commission on April 1. He was, says the 'British Officer,' 'a great politician, but no more a soldier fit to be a general than one of Rome's cardinals.'
[Sidenote: Englishmen turned out of the army.]
Before the end of April, Monro surrendered Enniskillen to Coote 'for 500_l._ and other trivial things.' At the beginning of May the Bishop began his active campaign. Toome, at the foot of Lough Neagh, was surprised, and, though it was retaken not long after, this prevented Coote from besieging Charlemont; and the Irish army got between his garrison at Londonderry and that of Venables at Coleraine. A council of war was held at Loughgall in Armagh to decide whether the attack should be on the Belfast district or on Londonderry. According to the 'British Officer,' the latter course was taken owing to the secret practices of Sir George Rawdon, who wished to keep the war away from his own country. Macmahon summoned Dungiven, which was defended by Colonel Beresford with about sixty men, to whom he wrote, 'if you shed one drop of my soldiers' blood, I will not spare to put man, woman, and child to the sword.' The place was taken by assault, the soldiers mounting the ramparts by means of short sticks thrust into the sods, and all found in arms were killed, except Beresford himself, who was sent wounded to Charlemont, where he recovered. The women, among whom, according to the 'British Officer,' were Lady Coote and Mrs. Beresford, were sent safely to Limavady, which was maintained by the successor of Sir Thomas Phillips. The Bishop hoped that some Scots would join him on Royalist grounds; but he got rid of all Englishmen, and a declaration was published by himself and the Bishop of Down, which was signed by twenty-nine officers, every one of them with Celtic names.[180]