defile, and were firing at their opponents, who were in sight before
them at some distance on the road, and into the houses on each side,
when they were thrown into confusion by a storm of large stones and
pieces of rock hurled down the steep sides of the defile upon them by
assailants who had been up till then invisible.

According to the description of my mother, who was always a militant
Catholic of the most orthodox description, and a strong physical force
Irishwoman as well, the Dolly's Brae engagement must have borne some
resemblance to the battle of Limerick, as described by Thomas Davis:--

"The women fought before the men;
Each man became a match for ten;
So back they pushed the villains then
From the city of Luimneach Lionnglas".

She ought to know, for she was in the thick of the fight. The confusion
of the Orangemen was turned into a complete rout, and they fled, leaving
their banners and other trophies in the hands of the mountainy men.

For many years the Orangemen never attempted to go near the place, but,
with the connivance and active aid of the guardians of the peace, they
did at last, many years afterwards, appear on the scene again. The
Orange anniversary was celebrated at Tollymore Park, the seat of Lord
Roden, who was a sort of Orange deity at the time. Tollymore Park is
some four or five miles south-east of Dolly's Brae, which is in the
heart of the Catholic district, and, as I have said, far out of the
direct road of the Orangemen returning to their own homes.

Yet they deliberately took this route. They were a formidable body, well