page_title: Patrick D'Arcy
section_title: Darcy and Confederate Ireland 1642–1649
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick D'Arcy / Darcy and Confederate Ireland 1642–1649
caption_attribution_description: English: Side view of Kilkenny Castle from the West Polski: Zamek w Kilkenny
context_page_description: Patrick Darcy was an Irish Catholic Confederate and lawyer who wrote the constitution of Confederate Ireland.
context_section_description: The outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 put the Old English into alliance with the Gaelic Irish. Returning to Galway in February 1642, Darcy and Martyn seem to have tried at first to work out a common policy that would not lead them into outright rebellion. But events soon took a course of their own leaving Darcy and his friends no option but to lead the townspeople instead of letting chaos loose. Matters were not helped by the commander of Forthill, overlooking the town, constantly harassing the neighbourhood. Darcy and Martyn set up and led a Council of Eight which dealt with any and all emergency matters, including procuring arms and ammunition for defence. Dominick Kirwin led a force which captured a British naval vessel for just that purpose in March and thus placing Galway on the path to rebellion.
  Darcy attended a General Assembly of the Irish Catholic Confederation at Kilkenny in October 1642. He was instrumental in drawing up the constitution, and along with his nephew, Geoffrey Browne, was one of the twelve members of the Supreme Council. Liam O'Malley says of them:
  The confederate movement was essentially a conservative one, aimed at defending Catholic interests and anxious from the beginning to make a settlement which would protect their interests. Their aim from the beginning, therefore, was not to win a war but to secure a just peace. Most of them were loyal to the king, and the primary objective of the Supreme Council was to negotiate a settlement with Charles I. ... Sadly, however, the civil war, bigotry and fear made a just peace almost impossible.
  With the arrival of Oliver Cromwell in 1649, the cause began to crumble, ending with the surrender of Galway in 1652.
caption: Kilkenny Castle, capital of Confederate Ireland
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