Monday, May 05, 2008

The Persecutor at Carrickfergus

On 4th April 1644 at Carrickfergus, the Scottish ministers arrived on the instructions of the English Parliament, to administer the Solemn League and Covenant to "...all the officers, soldiers and Protestants of their nation in Ireland..." (J S Reid, p 25).

Among the Scottish officers gathered at Carrickfergus Castle that day was the 29 year old Major Thomas Dalyell. As a portent of what was to come, in the face of about 1400 soldiers and 400 civilians who signed or swore the Covenant that day, Dalyell refused.

22 years on, at the Pentland Rising, also known as the Battle of Rullion Green on 28 November 1666, it was the same Dalyell who led a murderous force of 2000 soldiers and 600 horse, he cut down a band of about 900 Covenanters at Turnhouse Hill, near what is today Flotterstone visitor centre in the Pentland Hills Regional Park.

Which inspires a few "what if" questions - what if his senior, Major General Robert Munro, had disciplined him for his refusal, court martialled him, or even executed him? What if he HAD taken the Covenant? What if he had never led the charge against the Covenanters at Rullion Green, and what if they had succeeded?

It's interesting to think of how history might have been different, if that spring day in Carrickfergus had worked out differently.