[Sidenote: The Shrule massacre, Feb. 1641-2.]
According to the Rev. John Goldsmith, there were about 1000 English and Scotch Protestants in Mayo, many of whom tried to save themselves by going to mass. He had a brother a priest, and it was owing to the Jesuit Malone and an unnamed friar that he escaped with his life. Several Protestants, including one Buchanan of Strade, and John Maxwell, Bishop of Killala, sought the protection of Sir Henry Bingham at Castlebar, but he refused to admit Goldsmith, who was a convert from Rome, lest his presence should increase the animosity of the Irish. Lord Mayo promised to convoy the whole party safely to Galway fort, and they set out on February 13, Malachy O'Queely, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, 'faithfully promising the Lord of Mayo to accompany them with his lordship and several priests and friars, to see them safely conveyed and delivered in Galway, or at the Fort of Galway.' The first night was spent at Ballycarra, the second at Ballinrobe, the third at the Neale, and the fourth at Shrule, where a bridge joins the counties of Mayo and Galway. Lord Mayo seems to have declined all responsibility outside of his own county, and on Sunday the 17th he dismissed his followers except one company commanded by Edmund Burke, who proposed to go with them a few miles, and hand them over to an escort of the county Galway. Burke's men began to plunder the unarmed fugitives before they were out of Lord Mayo's sight, and he sent his son Sir Theobald to keep order; according to Theobald's own account he ran over the bridge with his sword drawn to help the English, but was fired at and afterwards 'conveyed away for the safety of his life.' The promised escort, consisting of two companies of the O'Flahertys, then came up and joined the Mayo people in an indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and children. The Bishop of Killala and a few others were saved by the exertions of Ulick Burke, of Castle Hacket, but those killed were not far short of a hundred, including Dean Forgie of Killala and five other clergymen, of whom John Corbet was one. Thomas Johnson, vicar of Turlough, escaped to the house of Walter Burke, who treated him kindly and defended him. Young priests and friars asked Stephen Lynch, prior of Strade, in his presence whether it was not lawful to kill him as a heretic, and Lynch answered that it was as lawful as to kill a sheep or a dog. The insurgents threatening to burn Burke's house if he kept Johnson any longer, he managed to convey him to Clanricarde's castle at Loughrea, and he 'ever after that time lived by the noble and free charity of that good earl, until of late his lordship sent him and divers other Protestants away with a convoy.'[6]