‘Crosses of the Fallen’
Courtesy of Fionbarr Moore, National Monuments Services. Facebook 2017.
In the 16th century, the Spanish monarchy, part of the Habsburg Empire, largely Catholic, with its spiritual leader in Rome, assembled the largest naval and military invasion force ever seen in Europe at the time. Its purpose was to sail to England, invade, occupy and wipe out Protestant opposition to Rome, in the name of God, the Catholic one. At the same time, settling accounts of British ‘piracy’ against Spain’s valuable shipping and foreign interests.
Spain assembled naval and military forces from a number of European countries, until a mighty Armada of 130 ships, consisting of variable estimates in excess of 20,000 sailors and troops. The widely disparate fleet, carrying career military, noblemen and adventurers, were packed into often unsuitable vessels, along with an enormous inventory of stores and equipment, in order to overthrow the Elizabethan throne, and to remain on it.
The Armada sailed northward from Lisbon in May, and reached the English Channel in July, 1588. The long expected naval battle commenced. The wind became contrary and blew in favor of the British. Without the failure of its key element, the invasion force of another 20,000 men, assembled with landing barges under the Duke of Parma at Dunkirk in the Spanish Netherlands, waiting to join the affray, confidence for victory evaporated. The sea battle was lost by Spain, and the Armada was routed.
Its failure lay in the Devil’s detail though. An earlier doubter of the adventure, Parma, was accused of getting cold feet. Citing various problems with the quality of his barges, blockading, guerilla tactics by enemy fly boats etc., the expedition fell flat. Observing the antics of his Grand worshipers, God remained undecided for a time, blowing hot and cold. And then, after Parma was observed to have kept his powder too dry, the wind was summoned up against King Phillip’s invincible navy.
After contrary westerly winds blew hard, the Great Armada was finally wrong footed, and scattered the pride of Spain.
The loss of ships was not as heavy as first believed, even described as ‘light’. The majority of the mighty fleet took the not unplanned for, but a last ditch and dangerous course, of sailing into the North Sea with the intention of proceeding north about Scotland, and returning southwards to Spain, via the Atlantic, all the while, mindful of prior warnings: To be careful not to fall on the coast of Ireland.
“Take great care not to fall upon the coast of Ireland, because of the harm that may come to you there.”
Sadly, even though the warning was prophetic, the magnitude of the suffering and loss experienced by the wildly buffeted ships, crews and soldiers, could never have been imagined. The scale of the suffering and death during Atlantic storms, offshore, on the jagged rocks and beaches around the coast of Scotland and Ireland was even more incomprehensible.
For those who were lucky to be washed or wrecked ashore and captured, the orgy of slaughter that ensued against these helpless surrendered men on the shores of Ireland was horrific. Surely there can be little temptation to adapt a sympathetic understanding towards most of their executioners in historic hindsight, or to summon in defence, that well worn and often cowardly phrase, ’sure it was the times that were in it’.
Despite varied statistics in archives and across numerous publications, some stark realities cannot be denied. Of the 130 ships that set out to conquer England, approx 50+ were lost, mainly during their return voyage to Spain. Of these, 24/5, along with 7000+ men, were lost on or off the coast of Ireland. Of these, 2000+? clamored ashore on the Irish coast and were brutally slain by, either Scotch or Irish mercenaries, local inhabitants, or British troops.
Even in death though, there was privilege. If noblemen could be identified, they were kept for ransom, but not in all cases. These were catholic mariners from catholic Spain and beyond, with the same God as some of the Catholics that slew them, and not a single stone was erected to mark their murder or death, in all of Ireland.
It was, and had not been a time, when the fallen were not respectfully buried and their final resting place marked. The custom had been age old, but Europe was entering a period of such religious animosity and hatred, that religious wars would leave bodies to rot where they fell across Europe.
Nevertheless, one might have expected, given that Spaniards and Portuguese, who had been trading with the west of Ireland for centuries, and were known to be mainly catholic and good trading partners, would have received more respectful treatment in death. Even academically, Ireland’s high status families were educating their children with the catholic aristocracy, not only at home, but in Spain and across Europe, and so, their actions are even harder to explain in this context.
The explanations are consistent though, and must be taken into account. The Irish, both serfs and Lords, were so afraid of retribution from the English, that they dared not help the stranded Spaniards, for fear their own neck might end up in the noose. And if they dared erect a stone, or a cross to mark the death of a catholic Spaniard, whose intention it had been to overthrow the Protestant English Crown, how long might it have survived?
During what would prove to be a protracted legal battle between the Irish State and a team of English divers who discovered the remains of the three Spanish Armada shipwrecks at Streedagh Strand, this very fine calendar was produced in 1988 by Tara Mines, Navan. It commemorated the 400th anniversary of the Spanish Armada, and Ireland’s part in it. It was designed by Holden Communications, with contributions by the the Ulster Museum, the Maritime Museum at Greenwich, Museo Naval, Madrid, Magdalene College, and Cambridge & Plymouth City Museum. Images were by Robert Vance.
Until 1988, the 400th anniversary of the event, and apart from lore and some studies, the magnitude or any evidence of the mass executions and murders had been obliterated. No Stone, No Marking Place, No Names, and No Shame, in the whole of Ireland.
All that the centuries could show, were mounds and piles of stones that local people would call, Tuama na Spaineach, (Spaniards Grave), essentially, mass burial places. Not unlike the hundreds of Cillíns, similar mounds littered around catholic Ireland, that mind the remains of the unholy children and their unwed mothers in unconsecrated and unkept common ground. Also common, but unlucky to die before being baptized by a local priest, they too were left with No Stone, No Shame.
Notwithstanding, it nevertheless defies a reasonable explanation as to why, in times more calm, in subsequent or even later in the same generation, that good baptized catholic Spaniards were not remembered.
The Armada Tree
This Spanish Chestnut tree marks the grave of an Armada shipwrecked sailor, situated in the graveyard of St Patrick’s Anglican Church in Cairncastle NI. The sailor supposedly had some seeds in a pouch when he was buried, from which the tree sprouted. The date of the tree has been determined, and it is of the period. It is the only known grave marker attributed to a Spanish sailor from the Armada in Ireland. (Photograph is not credited on the internet site, Atlas Obscura.)
Confirming lore, it might seem quite a simple operation, to excavate the various sites where it has placed the mass graves of the Spanish victims, but gaining permission for such archaeological excavations, easily branded, ghoulish curiosity, can be tricky. What they might turn up, might be even more tricky.
After the commemorations in 1988, the remembering mood in Ireland and Spain changed. Many recognized that this was a remarkable period in history and only the beginning of an attempt to right previous neglect. As one Spanish archivist put it, ‘research and recording of the Great Armada has not been as rigorous as it should have been’.
One particular group, ‘Spanish Armada Ireland’, at the interpretive centre, Grange, in county Sligo, where three of the Spanish ships were wrecked trying to get home, has been particularly active in remembering. The title photograph marks the event, when and where 1100 unknown sailors and soldiers died on Streedagh Strand, county Sligo. The crosses represent their last moments clamoring for refuge in Ireland, after their ships had wrecked so close to what they might have presumed to be a safe haven.
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