A town changes hands

The story

Dundalk’s experience of 1649 was a sequence of changing alliances and control. The Royal Irish Academy’s biography of Marcus Trevor describes his part in the royalist advance and the surrender of George Monck’s garrison. O’Neill’s Catholic army, the royalists and parliamentarian commanders were pursuing different priorities. This shifting situation cannot be explained as two permanently united sides facing one another throughout the year.↗1

After Cromwell’s capture of Drogheda, Robert Venables led a parliamentary detachment north. Dundalk, Carlingford and Newry surrendered without a fight, according to the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dundalk’s surrender should therefore be distinguished from the storming and killings at Drogheda. The political consequences nevertheless reached deeply into local life: the subsequent settlement redistributed property, while disputes over the corporation’s holdings continued after the monarchy’s restoration.↗1↗2