Madam, - Two previous correspondents to your newspaper are taken to task by Valerie Bary (Letters, Oct 5th) for inaccuracies in relation to the November 1580 massacre at Smerwick. Her account, however, seems open to question.
Inter alia, she claims that "There were no women massacred at Smerwick, as there were none present". However, the official report from Smerwick, sent to Secretary of State, Walsyngham, on November 11th, 1580, states that "The morrowe after. . . the ffortes were yeelded, all the Irish men and women hanged". This report from the State Papers is printed in Sir John Pope Hennessy's Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland (London: 1883), p. 207. (cf. Calendar of State Papers Ireland 1574-85, vol. LXXVIII, no. 27).
Chiefly, Ms Bary asserts that Sir Walter Raleigh was not present at Smerwick, having been "left behind in the army's main camp at Rathkeale, Co Limerick..." by Lord Deputy Grey. John Hooker's The Chronicles of Ireland, (which, incidentally, he dedicated to "the honorable Sir Walter Ralegh" with an accompanying "epistle dedicatorie") appears to clarify this matter. Hooker writes that Grey "had now in his companie about eight hundred men. . . under the leadings of capteine Zouch, capteine Walter Raleigh, capteine Denie. . . capteine Macworth, capteine Achin, and others: and then he marched towardd the fort (Dún an Óir, Smerwick) where the Spaniards and Romans were setled". He continues "Capteine Raleigh, notwithstanding that the lord deputie had raised his campe at Rekell, (Rathkeale, Co Limerick) and was gone towards the fort, yet he taried and staied behind, minding to practise some exploit...".
However, Raleigh, subsequently, seems to have formed part of Grey's forces at Smerwick and following a description of the English preparations for their assault on the fort, Hooker states that "This first daie of batterie was capteine Raleighs ward daie. . . The fourth daie was capteine Zouches ward daie. . . When the (Spanish) capteine had yeelded himselfe, and the fort appointed to be surrendered, capteine Raleigh together with capteine Macworth. . . entered into the castell, and made a great slaughter, manie or the most part of them being put to the sword": Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. 1 (which incorporates John Hooker's supplement, The Chronicles of Ireland), relevant pagination, fs. 170r, 171r, printed 1587. - Yours, etc,
ANNETTE LYNE, Ballymount, Dublin 24.