Episode 2

All is not lost for the Irish. Owen Roe’s kinsman, Major-General Hugh Dubh O’Neill, will now emerge from his shadow. He, also, served for many years in the continental wars, and he commands 2,000 experienced soldiers of the Ulster Catholic army. Can he stop Cromwell in his tracks?

All is not lost for the Irish. Owen Roe’s kinsman, Major-General Hugh Dubh O’Neill, will now emerge from his shadow. He, also, served for many years in the continental wars, and he commands 2,000 experienced soldiers of the Ulster Catholic army. Can he stop Cromwell in his tracks?

The second episode opens with Cromwell’s army unexpectedly beginning to founder. He fails to take two key strategic positions – Duncannon and Waterford, and reaches a low point in the teeming rain of Kilmacthomas, with his army reduced by disease and bad weather. But in the Spring of 1650 he renews his campaign in Leinster and Munster. He captures important towns like Kilkenny and Cashel, but meets his nemesis at Clonmel, where 2,000 of his troops are wiped out by Hugh Dubh O’Neill.

This is the greatest defeat Cromwell suffers in any of his campaigns in Ireland or Britain. In one day, Cromwell lost more men than in the entire English Civil War, Clonmel was the biggest setback of his entire military career. Hugh Dubh O’Neill and his highly motivated, trained and experienced Ulster troops had proved more than a match for the New Model Army. Shocked and incensed, his nose bloodied for the first time in his military career, Cromwell and his army were stopped in their tracks.

Ultimately, O’Neill’s triumph was short-lived by 1651 all but two cities Limerick and Galway have fallen to the invaders. O’Neill makes his last stand at Limerick.

Can the Irish prevail? Sadly not. We follow the campaign to its bitter end and discover the fate of O’Neill and other protagonists, and the bitter aftermath of dispossession.