ght
of O'Neill and O'Donnell. The religious controversies of Scotland were
thereby introduced into Ireland, so that there were three parties now in
conflict--the old indigenous church, dispossessed of revenues and
buildings, and even of civil rights; the Anglicans who had received
these revenues and buildings, and, lastly, the Dissenters--Presbyterians
and Puritans--equally opposed to both the former.

The struggle between the king and Parliament of England now found an
echo in Ireland, the Anglican party representing the king, while the
Scottish and English newcomers sympathized with the Parliament. A
cross-fire of interests and animosities was thus aroused, which greatly
complicated the first elements of strife. The Parliament at Dublin was
in the hands of the Puritan party, and was in no sense representative of
the other elements of the country. There was a Puritan army of about ten
thousand, as a garrison of defence for the Puritan newcomers in Ulster,
and there were abundant materials of an opposing national army in the
tribal warriors both at home and on the Continent.

These national materials were presently drawn together by the head of
the O'Neills, known to history as Owen Roe, an admirable leader and a
most accomplished man, who wrote and spoke Latin, Spanish, French and
English, as well as his mother-tongue. Owen Roe O'Neill had won renown
on many continental battlefields, and was admirably fitted by genius and
training to lead a national party, not only in council but in the field.
The nucleus of his army he established in Tyrone, gaining numbers of
recruits whom he rapidly turned into excellent soldiers.

This took place at the end of 1641 and the beginning of 1642, and the
other forces of the country were organized about the same time. The
lines of difference between the Anglican and Catholic parties were at
this time very lightly drawn, and the Norman lords found themselves able
to co-operate with the Catholic bishops in forming a General Assembly at
Kells, which straightway set itself to frame a Constitution for
the country.

The Norman lords had meanwhile assembled and organized their retainers,
so that there were now three armies in Ireland: the garrison of the
Scottish settlers under Monroe, strongly in sympathy with the Puritans;
the tribal army under Owen Roe O'Neill; and the army of the Norman
lords. The General Assembly outlined a system of parliamentary
representation in which the Lords and