Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/109

 THE CONFISCATION OF CONNAUGHT AND ORMOND

There remained of purely Irish territories untouched by confiscation or English settlement the province of Connaught less the County of Leitrim, Clare and the districts east of the Shannon in Tipperary and Limerick which had formed down to the time of Henry VIII. part of the Kingdom of Thomond, the MacCarthy lands in west Cork and south Kerry, Monaghan and some districts in Down and Antrim, and some small parts of Leinster. From time to time we hear of the possibility of further plantations in these districts; but it was left to the energetic Strafford to take any effective steps in this direction.

The main facts of Strafford's confiscation of Connaught, and of his abortive scheme for a plantation are well known.

In 1228, Henry III., after the death of Aedh King of Connaught, had treated that province as