On the 23 September 1641 a great rebellion of the native Irish began all over Ireland. However it was in Ulster that the full wrath of the rebellion was felt. Those areas such as Antrim, Down and Armagh that had been extensively settled by Scots were the subject of a tide of violence brought on by years of resentment and bitterness.

The Scots had not only displaced the native Irish but their mainly Presbyterian beliefs were contrary to the Roman Catholic Irish. Added to this was the fact that they were seen as identifying with the growing puritan, anti-royalist and anti-Roman Catholic movement in England.

Against this background the rebellion was to yield stories of terrible violence, the most famous of which was the slaughter of a large number of protestant families at Portadown. Although some of the stories told of such incidents have been dismissed as exaggeration, there is little doubt from the extensive records of the time that the rebellion was a bloody one and some scholars have put the death toll amongst the settlers at over 10,000.

The rebellion of 1641 was to be the first bloody landmark of the Scots-Irish and it was to leave an indelible mark on their attitudes and beliefs which remain even to the present day. For many Scots-Irish today the bloody days of 1641 are as vivid as if they were yesterday.

In the years to follow the Scots settlers would attempt to redress the losses of 1641 although initially this would end in failure at the battle of Benburb. The arrival of Cromwell in 1649 would see the delivery of a terrible and crushing blow against the native Irish and at least allow the settlers to begin to expand once again. However it would see the emergence of a new era and a new adversary in the form of the throne of England and an attack on their rights and religious beliefs.

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