Sack of Cashel The Sack of Cashel ( also known as the Massacre of Cashel ) was a notorious atrocity which occurred in the Irish County of Tipperary in the year 1647 , during the Irish Confederate Wars , part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . The town of Cashel was held by the Irish Catholic Confederate ' s Munster army and was besieged and taken by an English Protestant Parliamentarian army under Murrough O ' Brien the Baron of Inchiquin . The attack and subsequent sack of Cashel was one of the more brutal incidents of the wars of the 1640s in Ireland . The Munster Mutiny . The Sack of Cashel occurred against the background of a complex conflict in the south of Ireland . In 1642 , most the province of Munster had fallen to Irish Catholic rebels with the exception of Cork city and a few towns along the south coast , which remained in the hands of Protestant , largely English settlers . Since then , the province had been fought over by the Catholics , organised in the Catholic Confederation , and the Protestants , led by the Earl of Inchiquin . The political and military situation was further fragmented by the English Civil War , in which the Catholics gave their support to King Charles I , and the Protestants , since 1643 , to the English Parliament . What was more , the Confederate Catholics were themselves split over the terms on which they should sign a peace deal with the King . A deep rift developed within their ranks in 1647 between those who were prepared to accept a mere toleration of Catholicism in return for an alliance with the English Royalists and those who in effect wanted Ireland to be Catholic kingdom , albeit under sovereignty of the Stuart monarchy . This infighting was to fatally hamper the war effort of the Confederates in Munster and make possible the Protestant sack of Cashel . On the 12th of June in 1647 , Donough MacCarthy , the Viscount of Muskerry entered the camp of the Irish Confederate Munster army . The Viscount Muskerry was probably the most powerful Confederate leader in Munster and was known to be sympathetic to the powerful Irish Royalist Ormonde . At that time , the Munster army was commanded by the Earl of Glamorgan , an English Catholic nobleman who had been granted command of the army by the Confederate Supreme council for reasons of political expediency , being aligned neither to the Royalist nor clerical faction . Glamorgan was not popular , partly because he was English but also because he lacked money to regularly pay the soldiers . Muskerry was unsatisfied with the direction the Irish Confederate Supreme Council was headed under the influence of Rinuccinni and realised that he was in a position to influence the army of Munster and thereby strengthen his hand . He won the army over within an hour . A ceremony was afterwards arranged in which Glamorgan handed over command to Muskerry but this was merely to save face . Muskerry desired to turn his full attention to the politics of the Irish Confederations supreme council , and so immediately after the ceremony , Muskerry resigned in favour of Theobald Taaffe , a nobleman who had joined the Irish Confederates but who was known to be sympathetic to Royalism . Unfortunately for the Confederates , Lord Taaffe would subsequently prove to be one of the most incompetent leaders to command an Irish army during the 1640s . Even worse , while the Munster Army was paralysed by the intrigues of its commanders , Inchiquin ' s Protestant forces had embarked on a highly destructive campaign in Confederate held territory . Inchiquin ' s Offensive . In the summer of 1647 the Baron of Inchiquin , the Irish Protestant commander of the Protestant army of Cork , commenced a campaign against the Irish Catholic strongholds in Munster . The counties of Limerick and Clare were raided and he soon turned his attention to the bountiful eastern counties of Munster . In early September , his forces quickly took the Castle of Cahir in Tipperary . This strong castle was well positioned to become a base for the Cork Protestant army , and it was used to raid and devastate the surrounding countryside . The Munster army under Lord Taaffe did not make any serious effort to oppose Inchiquin , probably the result of the political scheming of Muskerry and other powerful Irish lords who hoped to keep the Munster army intact for their own ends . As such , Inchiquin was allowed to make a major push towards the town and ecclesiastical centre of Cashel . The Attack . Inchiquin had already launched two minor raids against Cashel , and he now had the opportunity to launch a major assault . The Parliamentarian forces first stormed nearby Roche Castle , putting fifty warders to the sword . This attack terrified the local inhabitants of the region , some of whom fled to hiding places , while hundreds of others fled promptly to the Rock of Cashel , a stronger place than the town itself . Lord Taaffe had placed six companies in the fortified churchyard that sat upon the rock , and considered the place defensible , though he himself did not stay to put it to the test , leaving command to the Governor Lieutenant - Colonel Butler . Arriving with his army at the Rock , Inchiquin called for surrender within an hour . The defenders of the churchyard offered to negotiate , but that was refused , and on the afternoon of the 15th of September the assault commenced . The Parliamentarians were first reminded of earlier atrocities against Protestants , and then began to deploy . The attack was led by around 150 dismounted horse officers ( who wore more armour than the foot ) with the remainder of the infantry following ; troops of horse rode along the flanks of the advancing force to encourage the infantry . The Irish soldiers attempted to drive off the attackers with pikes while the civilians inside hurled rocks down from the walls : in turn the attackers hurled firebrand s into the compound , setting some of the buildings inside on fire . Although many were wounded , the Parliamentarians gradually fought their way over the walls , pushing the garrison into the church . Initially , the Irish defenders managed to protect the Church , holding off the attackers trying to get through the doors , but the Parliamentarians then placed numerous ladders against the many windows in the church and swarmed the building . For another half an hour fighting raged inside the church , until the depleted defenders retreated up the bell tower . Only sixty soldiers of the garrison remained at this point , and they thus accepted a call to surrender . However , after they had descended the tower and thrown their swords away , all were killed . The Sack . In the end all the soldiers ( save a single major ) and most of the civilians on the Rock were killed by the attackers . The Bishop and Mayor of Cashel along with a few others survived by taking shelter in a secret hiding place . Apart from these a few women were spared , after being stripped of their clothes , and a small number of wealthy civilians were taken prisoner , but these were the exceptions . Overall , close to 1 , 000 were killed , amongst them Lieutenant - Colonel Butler and catholic scholar Theobald Stapleton . The bodies in the churchyard were described by a witness as being five or six deep . The slaughter was followed by extensive plunder . There was much of value inside , for apart from pictures , chalice s and vestment s of the church , many of the slain civilians had also brought their valuables with them . The sword and mace of the mayor of Cashel , as well as the coach of the bishop were captured . The plunder was accompanied by acts of iconoclasm , with statues smashed and pictures defaced . The deserted town of Cashel was also torched . Aftermath . The atrocity at Cashel caused a deep impact in Ireland , as it was the worst single atrocity committed in Ireland since the start of fighting in 1641 . Previously , the most infamous massacre amongst the Catholic population was that at Timolin in 1643 , when 200 civilians were killed by Ormonde ' s English Royalist army , but many more than this were killed at Cashel , and the Rock of Cashel was one of the chief holy places of Ireland . The slaughter of the garrison at Cashel and the subsequent devastation of Catholic held Munster earned Inchiquin the Irish nickname , " Murchadh na Dóiteáin " or " Murrough of the Burnings " . Despite the massacre Inchiquin converted to Roman Catholicism in 1656 without any problem . The political ramifications in the Irish confederation were also profound , serving to exacerbate the split between the Catholic party headed by Giovanni Battista Rinuccini and those sympathetic to the Royalist lord Ormonde . The former were enraged by the attack , and desired retribution against Inchiquin and his army , but the Ormondist faction saw the Sack of Cashel and a subsequent raid by Inchiquin ' s men into County Kilkenny as evidence of the futility of defending Ireland without Royalist support . In the short term , Lord Taffe came under intense pressure from the Confederate leadership to engage Inchiquin . When he did so in November , the politically divided and badly led Munster army was routed and destroyed at the Battle of Knocknanuss . This was the second Confederate army to be destroyed in less than six months , the Leinster Army having been annihilated at the battle of Dungans Hill in August . In consequence , the Confederates had no option but to sign a truce with Inchiquin , an act which deeply alienated many Confederates and Catholic clergy , who had been appalled at Inchiquin ' s brutal tactics in Munster . These divisions would lead to the brief but bloody Irish Confederate Civil War in 1648 . Inchiquin withdrew his support for the English Parliament in the same year and entered with the Confederates into a Royalist alliance .