The brave young Felim was slain, with 11,000 of his followers; and the Irish cause was irretrievably injured, perhaps more by the death of the leader than by the loss of the men.  This disaster took place on the 10th of August, 1316.

Still the Irish were not daunted.  The O’Tooles and O’Byrnes rose in Wicklow, the O’Mores in Leix.  Robert Bruce came over to Ireland.  The Franciscan friars, always devoted to their country, made themselves specially obnoxious by encouraging their countrymen to die in defence of their country.  They were threatened and cajoled by turns, but with little effect.[346] Edward Bruce again appeared before Carrickfergus.  The siege was protracted until September, when Robert Bruce arrived, and found the English so hard pressed, that they ate hides, and fed on the bodies of eight Scots whom they had made prisoners.[347] In the year 1317, the Scottish army was computed at 20,000 men, besides their Irish auxiliaries.  After Shrovetide, King Robert and his brother crossed the Boyne, and marched to Castleknock, near Dublin, where they took Hugh Tyrrell prisoner, and obtained possession of the fortress.  There was no little fear in Dublin Castle thereupon, for the Anglo-Normans distrusted each other.  And well they might.  The De Lacys had solemnly pledged their fidelity, yet they were now found under the standard of Bruce.  Even De Burgo was suspected; for his daughter, Elizabeth, was the wife of the Scottish King.  When the invading army approached Dublin, he was seized and confined in the Castle.  It will be remembered that Dublin had been more than once peopled by the citizens of Bristol.  They were naturally in the English interest, and disposed to offer every resistance.  They fortified Dublin so strongly, even at the expense of burning the suburbs and pulling down churches, that Bruce deemed it more prudent to avoid an encounter, and withdrew towards the Salmon Leap; from whence he led his forces southward as far as Limerick, without encountering any serious opposition.

But a reverse was even then at hand.  An Anglo-Irish army was formed, headed by the Earl of Kildare; famine added its dangers; and on the 1st of May Robert Bruce returned to Scotland, leaving his brother, Edward, with the Earl of Moray, to contend, as best they could, against the twofold enemy.  In 1318 a good harvest relieved the country in some measure from one danger; two Cardinals were despatched from Rome to attempt to release it from the other.  On the 14th October, in the same year, the question was finally decided.  An engagement took place at Faughard, near Dundalk.  On the one side was the Scotch army, headed by Bruce, and assisted (from what motive it is difficult to determine) by the De Lacys and other Anglo-Norman lords; on the other side, the English army, commanded by Lord John Bermingham.  The numbers on each side have been differently estimated; but it is probable the death of Edward Bruce was the turning point of the conflict.