Round the agent's house they threw up with great speed a wall of turf fourteen feet in height and twelve in thickness.

The space enclosed was about half an acre.

Within this rampart all the arms, the ammunition and the provisions of the settlement were collected, and several huts of thin plank were built.

When these preparations were completed, the men of Kenmare began to make vigorous reprisals on their Irish neighbours, seized robbers, recovered stolen property, and continued during some weeks to act in all things as an independent commonwealth.

The government was carried on by elective officers, to whom every member of the society swore fidelity on the Holy Gospels, [126] While the people of the small town of Kenmare were thus bestirring themselves, similar preparations for defence were made by larger communities on a larger scale.