THE English were much distressed and uneasy at these achievements and determined to direct against O'Sullivan the greatest force they could command.
George Carew, president of the Munsters, summoned the Royalist forces to Cork and called up the Irish auxiliaries. He had with him some Anglo-Irish, the levies of Ormond's county, auxiliaries sent by various persons, and the following Munster magnates without whom he could have done little to hurt O'Sullivan—namely, Donogh O'Brien, formerly chief of Limerick and Earl of Thomond; MacCarthy Reagh, chief of Carbery; Charles MacCarthy, chief of Muskerry; Barry More, Viscount Buttevant; O'Donovan; the White Knight; Owen O'Sullivan, who, although a kinsman of O'Sullivan's, was his bitterest enemy; Dermot, brother of O'Sullivan More; Donogh and Florence, brothers of MacCarthy, and who had deserted O'Sullivan. The whole
The rest were Irish and Anglo-Irish who in the existing desperate circumstances, thought it would be very unsafe and dangerous for them to disown the Queen.
With these forces, Carew, setting out from Cork in the month of March, 1602, unexpectedly arrived in Bantry; threw a garrison of eight companies into Whiddy Island, by means of ships and boats which he had sent round beforehand; and quickly returned again to Cork. In Whiddy the Royalists fortified themselves behind a ditch and trench. O'Sullivan getting together shipping, resolved to attack this garrison. Meantime, the Royalists having remained two months in the island, cut off from assistance by O'Sullivan, and filled with alarm, abandoned the island, and under the guidance of Owen O'Sullivan, took the road to Cork.
O'Sullivan pursued and captured the baggage, but killed only a few, because the fugitives were met near Bantry by Carew and his whole army coming to their rescue. Dermot MacCarthy was ravaging the lands of the English abettors in Carbery, when, as he was driving off the prey, he met his kinsman, MacCarthy Reagh, accompanied by a few men, and having embraced one another in all friendliness they parted. Reagh having assembled a larger band of soldiers again sought out Dermot, and fired on him at a distance. Dermot, a man unsullied by crime, restraining both parties from fighting, and calling on Reagh by name, was shot by a dastardly trooper, leaving to O'Sullivan a sad loss.