firearms

firearms were first imported into Ireland late in the 15th century, just as their efficiency improved. Artillery (siege and field guns), belonging mostly to the state, was introduced by Gerald FitzGerald ( Gearóid Mór), 8th earl of Kildare. He battered down fortresses, beginning at Balrath Castle in Westmeath in 1488, on annual journeys across the country. Towns bought guns for defence: in 1495 Waterford sank one of Perkin Warbeck's ships in an exchange of fire. Artillery coming into Gaelic hands was used mainly against local rivals.

Despite a 1494 statute restricting possession of artillery and firearms to the lord deputy and his licensees, it was impossible to stop proliferation. The first recorded use of a handgun was in 1487 when Godfrey O'Donnell killed an O'Rourke. Garret Mór himself died from a gunshot wound gained in battle with the O'Mores. Firearms—handguns, then arquebuses, calivers, and muskets—redressed the state monopoly in artillery by aiding traditional Irish guerrilla tactics. They assisted successful ambushes of Sussex at Kiltubber, Co. Galway, in 1558 and near Armagh in 1563. By the Nine Years War ‘shot’ composed a third of the opposing forces; by the Confederate War two‐thirds of the combatants had guns.

Hiram Morgan