Enniskillen Castle
Posted on 11/02/2014 7:16:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In 1594, soldiers loyal to Queen Elizabeth I, sent to relieve a garrison besieged by Irish chieftain Hugh Maguire in Enniskillen Castle, were ambushed as they crossed the Arney River... and their supplies were thrown into the river.
It became known as the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits.
According to the history books it took place near Drumane Bridge, close to the modern main road between Enniskillen and Dublin... Local people, like farmer Maurice Owens, thought they knew otherwise from the stories passed down through the generations.
"We were always told that the battle took place down here on the ford in the river, that the English camped over on the far side which was woodland at that time, that Maguire was aware that they were there.
"He waited on this side of the river until the English came in to the river and then he slaughtered many of their soldiers in the river, that's the story we were told.
"They marched across the fields, over to fields called red meadow, and a lot of blood was supposed to have been spilt there."
...Paul Logue said: "We're in this field because the owner Maurice at the start of the project he took me here and he said 'Look Paul, I've always been told the Ford of the biscuits was here' so we started looking in this field and two minutes later we started finding exactly what we were looking for.
"Up until right now, for hundreds of years, the battle was meant to be behind us about a mile and a half at Drumane and that's what I believed as well.
"We'd sort of been blinded in the past, we thought that the modern roadway across at Drumane always descended from an ancient roadway to the ford there.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Enniskillen Castle
Cool castle!
Hmmm... think I recognized some of the names. Guess it is time to look at the family tree again.
I am betting the locals are smiling broadly after having had their oral history beat the historians’ version.
(OTOH, though, whoever taught English composition to the writer of this piece is surely weeping.)
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