Smerwick, a peninsula and bay in County Kerry, Ireland, where in July 1579 Sir James Fitzmaurice landed, by authority of the pope, with a number of Italian and Spanish soldiers. They entrenched themselves within a fort, but in November were overpowered and put to the sword, to the number of six hundred, by Lord-deputy Grey and young Walter Raleigh. This gruesome story is introduced into Kingsley's Westward Ho!
Smerwick
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 9: Bound to Swansea, p. 515
Source scan(s): p. 0528