The Brave Boys of Derry
Winter 2023
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 signaled the continuing war of Roman Catholicism against the Protestant Reformation. Therefore, French Protestants continued, as they had for decades, forsaking their homeland by multiplied thousands. The British Isles were in the wicked hands of Roman Catholic James II. His evil policies of removing Protestants from leadership in the government and in the army, replacing them with Romanists, and unfaithfulness to his coronation vows, stripped from him the confidence of the British people. Many of the leaders of Scotland, England, and Ireland had already fled to the Low Countries for asylum from James’ tyranny.
There was one man to whom all European Protestants were looking with hope: William of Orange. William was the virtual ruler of the Dutch Republic and a strong Protestant. He was asked repeatedly by the exiled British leaders to invade England, although its king was both his uncle and his father-in-law. William had married his cousin Mary, another zealous Protestant. Together they determined to use their power to preserve the Reformed faith in Europe. As wise leaders, they were in no hurry to begin a war, nor to depose their near relative. So they waited patiently until they were fully convinced that the providential hour had come, an hour when the European nations were distracted by their own pressing affairs. Then they struck the decisive blow.
On November 5, 1688, William III landed on the southern coast of England. Just as it had been in 1588, the hand of God was unmistakably revealed in “the Protestant wind.” The Almighty’s wind held the British navy in check to the north, while William and his huge fleet sailed safely into harbor at the south of England. As William’s army marched toward London, James abandoned the English people, fleeing to Roman Catholic France. Quickly, the English people rallied around their Protestant deliverer and the transition in England was virtually bloodless.
But that was not the case in Ireland. Persecution and plotting against the Ulster Protestants continued under Papist Richard Talbot, the Earl of Tyrconnell. The people of Ulster referred to him as “Lying Dick Talbot.” He was the faithful servant of his wicked master James Stuart. Although James was in France, preparations were being made for his return through “the back door” of Ireland. Tyrconnell was gathering and equipping a large army of French and Irish Roman Catholics. The Ulster people understood that the Romanists were preparing war against William. It was also rumored from village to village that the Catholics were going to massacre the Protestants on December 9, 1688, in order to take their wealth and land. Therefore, thousands of Ulster Protestants were taking refuge in Enniskillen and behind the walls of Londonderry.
W. Stanley Martin in The Brave Boys of Derry chronicles the siege of Londonderry. He records that Dick Talbot’s Londonderry emissaries held leadership, under the guise of “Protestants.” They fawningly regarded James as their rightful, God-ordained king. But the common people were not so duped as were their superiors.
When the Popish army moved toward the walled city, thirteen young apprentice boys ran to the guardhouse, grabbed the keys of the Ferry Gate, rushed to the gate and closed it in the face of the king’s officers! As they let down the portcullis, they shouted, “No surrender! No surrender!”
Since the young men had started the matter, the older men moved into action. James Morrison mounted the wall and told the king’s men to make themselves scarce. They did not immediately move away, so Morrison shouted, “Bring a great gun this way!” That settled the issue. The enemy hastily retreated to safety on the other side of the river.
Martin provides a detailed account of James III’s siege of Londonderry, with the attendant sufferings, starvation, disease and death. How happy the Protestants were when the English navy finally broke through the blockade, bringing food and supplies. Thus, thousands of Protestants were preserved to help King William win his glorious victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
How direly the church needs the zeal of the apprentice boys today!
The Brave Boys of Derry, previously published by Mourne Missionary Trust, is now available on Amazon in three formats: Kindle, Hardback, and Paperback.