The 1638-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms caused huge dislocation and damage throughout the British Isles; in 1641, the Scottish Covenanter government sending an expeditionary force that joined the vicious and bloody Irish Rebellion. All sides committed atrocities, leading to a series of tit for tat responses, exacerbated by long-standing animosities; in 1642 on Rathlin Island, soldiers from a predominantly Clan Campbell-recruited unit led by Sir Duncan Campbell threw scores of MacDonnell women over the cliffs to their deaths on rocks below.