page_title: Shrule
section_title: 1642 Massacre of Protestant refugees
hierarchical_section_title: Shrule / History / 1642 Massacre of Protestant refugees
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of Shrule (Shruel) from the February 9, 1833 edition of the Dublin Penny Journal. Obtained from Library Ireland.
context_page_description: Shrule is a village on the N84 road in County Mayo in Ireland. The county boundary between Mayo and County Galway follows the course of the Black River on the south side of the village.
  The ruin of Shrule Castle, a fortification built by the Norman de Burgo family, dominates the view of the village as approached from the Galway side. The ruin is unsafe and closed to the public.
context_section_description: On 18 February 1642, during the Confederate War that followed the 1641 uprising, a number of English settlers, including a Dr. John Maxwell, the Protestant bishop of Killala, surrendered to Irish authorities at Castlebar, in the hope of saving their lives.
  After staying at Shrule Castle in the company of Miles Bourke, 2nd Viscount Mayo, Sheriff of County Mayo, for more than a week, the group was given an escort with orders to take them 14 miles toward the border of County Mayo and County Galway, where other forces would assume the escort duty and take them on to the Galway fort. After provisioning the Maxwell family with horses, Lord Mayo set out for Cong. Mayo handed over his prisoners at Shrule, on the border, as his authority only existed in County Mayo. Edmond Bourke, an Irish soldier who led the escort duty, and a cousin of Lord Mayo, then directed his men to begin killing their settler charges. Estimates of the dead ranged from less than 30 to as many as 65. Survivors were taken to Headford by monks from Ross Errilly. Though Mayo's son Theobald (later 3rd viscount Mayo) tried to save some prisoners, and had to be driven away, he was executed in 1653 by an English Cromwellian inquiry for complicity in the killings that was held after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
caption: A depiction of Shrule from 9 February 1833 edition of the Dublin Penny Journal.
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