Call to develop Aughrim battle site for tourists

The site of the country’s bloodiest battle between Catholics and Protestants should be developed as an international tourist attraction, according to Community Minister Eamon O Cuiv.

O Cuiv said the Battle of Aughrim, where more than 7,000 people were slaughtered, could also be used to secure an all-island identity.

The clash between Williamite forces and Jacobite troops in Co Galway on July 12, 1691 is still celebrated by the Orange Order as a decisive victory for Protestants that forever changed the course of Irish history.

Mr O Cuiv, the grandson of Irish republican leader Eamon de Valera, said the battlefield should be developed similar to the renovation of the Battle of Boyne site.

“I believe that Aughrim can also be a focus for national reconciliation,” he said.

“Involving unionists in the planning and other work involved would increase contacts and normalise the 32-county sense of identity, and add to the tremendous good done already by the preservation of the Battle of the Boyne site.”

Ulster loyalists used to commemorate the Aughrim victory every July 12 but these celebrations were later changed to focus on the Boyne fight in Co Meath because of a change in the calendar.

Historians regard the Co Galway battle as the decisive win for the Williamite forces in Ireland which secured British rule.

“Clearly, Aughrim is of strategic importance in our history, and it seems strange that it does not seem to have achieved the same recognition as other, less significant sites,” said Mr O Cuiv.

“It is a great cemetery. It contains the remains of the Irish who were left on the field for over a year, some of whom sank into the marsh.

“It also contains, at unknown sites, burial pits containing the remains of about 2,000 Williamites. A large number of these could well be the remains of the Ulster troops who were in the thick of the fighting.”

Mr O Cuiv said as well as providing a platform for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants, the battlefield could become a tourist attraction on a par with Culloden in Scotland.

“Aughrim is comparable to Culloden in respect of national strategic importance and its place in the national psyche, although the death toll at Aughrim was far higher,” he said.

“The tourist potential of Aughrim is substantial and the knock-on benefits to the local economy would be significant.

“Currently visitors to Culloden number well over 300,000 per annum and it makes a very important contribution to the local economy.

“Interest in military history is growing in Europe and further afield, and I believe that we have something very special here that could be an international attraction.”

Last year, then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the North’s former first minister Ian Paisley officially opened a taxpayer-funded €15m centre at the Battle of the Boyne site.