Events from the year 1580 in Ireland .
Second Desmond Rebellion : Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde , Sir William Pelham and Sir George Carew are sent to Munster to subdue the rebels and destroy the Desmond lands in Limerick , Cork and north Kerry .
March – Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle : English troops under Sir William Pelham take the castle from Irish and Spanish supporters of the Second Desmond Rebellion.
14 March – Miler Magrath is deposed as Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII for heresy , having for a decade simultaneously held bishoprics in the Protestant Church of Ireland .
July – Fiach McHugh O'Byrne from the Wicklow Mountains launches a new phase of the Second Desmond Rebellion in the east.
25 August – Battle of Glenmalure in the Second Desmond Rebellion: An Irish Catholic force made up of the Gaelic clans led by Fiach McHugh O'Byrne and James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass of the Pale , defeat the English Army under the Lord Deputy of Ireland , Lord Grey , at the O'Byrne's mountain stronghold of Glenmalure . Francis Cosby is among the English dead.
10 September – Italian and Spanish troops sent by Pope Gregory XIII to aid the Second Desmond Rebellion and commanded by Sebastiano di San Giuseppi land at Smerwick on the Dingle Peninsula .
7 October –10 October – Siege of Smerwick : The Papal forces are besieged at Dún an Óir by the English Army and surrender. At least 400 are massacred on Lord Grey's orders.[ 1] [ 2] Walter Ralegh is present.
William mac an Iarla Burke and his followers are hanged outside the walls of Galway by William Óge Martyn , High Sheriff of County Galway , in person, who, aware that the Mayor of Galway , Dominick Lynch , has a pardon for Burke, prevents the Mayor from arriving in time to stop the executions.[ 3]
Walter Ball (Alderman) became Mayor of Dublin. He is notorious for imprisoning his Catholic mother (who died in jail) as part of the imposition of the Reformation in Ireland.
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(October 2012 )