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1798 REBELLION

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Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostFri Aug 01, 2014 10:07 pm

Believing it impossible to bring about reform of any kind by peaceable means, the United Irish leaders, in an evil hour, determined on open rebellion; but the government were kept well informed by spies of their secret proceedings and bided their time till things were ripe for a swoop. They knew that the 23rd of May had been been fixed as the day of rising. On the 12th of March 1798, major Swan, a magistrate, acting on the information of Thomas Reynolds, arrested Oliver Bond and fourteen other delegates assembled in Bond's house in Bridge-street, Dublin, arranging the plan of rebellion, and seized all their papers. On the same day several other leaders were arrested in their homes.
A reward of £1000 was offered for the apprehension of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the moving spirit of the confederacy. After some time the authorities received information from Francis Higgins - commonly known as the "Sham Squire" - that he was concealed in the house of Nicholas Murphy, a feather merchant of Thomas-street, Dublin. Lord Edward was lying ill in bed, when major Swan, yeomanry captain Ryan and a soldier entered the room; but he drew a dagger and struggled desperately, wounding Swan and Ryan. Major Sirr, who had accompanied the party now rushed in with half-a-dozen soldiers, and taking aim, shot Lord Edward in the shoulder, who was then overpowered and taken prisoner. But on the 4th of June he died of his wound while in prison, at the age of thirty-two. On the 21st of May two brothers, Henry and John Sheares, barristers, members of the Dublin directory of the United Irishmen, were arrested. They were convicted and hanged two days afterwards. A reprieve for Henry came too late-five minutes after the execution.
The rising took place on the 24th of May. It was only partial; confined chiefly to the counties of Kildare, Wicklow and Wexford; and there were some slight attempts in Carlow, Queen's Co., Meath and county Dublin. But Dublin city did not rise, for it had been placed under martial law, and almost the whole of the leaders had been arrested. The insurrection was quite premature; and the people were almost without arms, without discipline, plan or leaders. On the 26th of May a body of 4000 insurgents were defeated on the hill of Tara. On Whitsunday the 27th, the rising broke out in Wexford. There, as well as in some of the neighbouring counties, the rebellion assumed a sectarian character which it had not elsewhere; the rebels were nearly all Roman Catholics, though many of their leaders were Protestants. This Wexford rising was not the result of premeditation or of any concert with the Dublin directory of the United Irishmen; for the society had not made much headway among the quiet industrious peasants of that county, who were chiefly descendants of the English colonists. Though there was a good deal of disaffection among them, chiefly caused by alarming rumours of intended massacres, they did not want to rise. They were drive to rebellion simply by the terrible barbarities of the military, the yeomen and more especially by the North Cork Militia; they rose in desperation without any plan or any idea of what they were to do; and in their vengeful fury they committed many terrible outrages on the Protestant loyalist inhabitants, in blind retaliation for the far worse excesses of the militia.
Father John Murphy, parish priest of Kilcormick near Ferns, finding his little chapel of Boleyvogue burned by the yeomen, took the lead of the rebels, with another priest, Father Michael Murphy, whose chapel had also been burned; but although these and one or two other priests were among the insurgents of Ninety-eight, the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities were entirely opposed to the rebellion. On the 27th of May the peasantry, led by Father John Murphy, defeated and annihilated a large party of the North Cork militia on the Hill of Oulart, near Enniscorthy. Having captured 800 stand of arms, they marched next on Enniscorthy; and by the stratagem of driving a herd of bollocks before them to break the ranks of the military, they took the town after a struggle of four hours; on which the garrison and the Protestant inhabitants fled to Wexford -fifteen miles off. About the same time Gorey was abandoned by its garrison, who retreated to Arklow.
At the end of May the insurgents fixed their chief encampment on Vinegar Hill, an eminence rising over Enniscorthy, at the opposite side of the Slaney. While the camp lay here, a number of Protestants, brought in from the surrounding country, were confined in an old windmill on the summit of the hill, many of whom, after being subjected day by day to some sort of trial were put to death. On the 30th of May a detachment of military was attacked and destroyed at the Three Rocks, four miles from the town of Wexford. The insurgents now advanced towards Wexford; but the garrison, consisting chiefly of the North Cork militia, did not wait to be attacked; they marched away; and while retreating they burned and pillaged the houses and shot the peasantry wherever they met them. The exultant rebels having taken possession of Wexford, drank and feasted and plundered; but beyond this there was little outrage; with one notable exception. While they occupied the town, a fellow named Dixon on the rebel side, the captain of a small coasting vessel, who had never taken part in any of the real fighting - one of those cruel cowardly natures sure to turn up on such occasions - collected a rabble, not of the townspeople, but of others who were there from the surrounding districts, and plying them with whiskey, broke open the jail where many of the Protestant gentry and others were confined. In spite of the expostulations of the more respectable leaders, the mob brought a number of the prisoners to the bridge, and after a mock trial began to kill them one by one. A number, variously stated from forty to ninety, had been murdered, and another batch were brought out, when, according to contemporary accounts, a young priest, Father Corrin, returning to some parochial duties, and seeing how things stood, rushed in at the risk of his life and commanded the executioners to their knees. Down the knelt instinctively, when in a loud voice he dictated a prayer which they repeated after him - that God might show to them the same mercy that they were about to show to the prisoners; which so awed and terrified them that they immediately stopped the executions. Forty years afterwards, Captain Kellett of Clonard, near Wexford, one of the Protestant gentlemen he had saved, followed, with sorrow and reverence, the remains of that good priest to the grave. Dixon probably escaped arrest, for he is not heard of again. All this time the Protestants of the town were in terror of their lives, and a great many of them sought and obtained the protection of the Catholic priests, who everywhere exerted themselves, and with success, to prevent outrage. A Protestant gentleman named Bagenal Harvey who had been seized by government on suspicion and imprisoned in Wexford jail, was released by the insurgent peasantry and made their general.
Besides the principal encampment on Vinegar Hill, the rebels had two others; one on Carrickbyrne Hill, between New Ross and Wexford; the other on Carrigroe Hill, near Ferns. From Carriggoe, on the 1st of June, a large body of them marched on Gorey; but they were routed just as they approached the town, by a party of yeomen under lieutenant Elliott. They fared better however in the next encounter. General Loftus with 1500 men marched from Gorey in two divisions to attack Garrigoe. One of these under colonel Walpole was surprised on the 4th June at Tobernierin near Gorey and defeated with great loss; Walpole himself being killed and three cannons left with insurgents. This placed Gorey in their hands.
From Vinegar Hill they marched on Newtownbarry, on the 2nd of June and took the town; but dispersing to drink and to plunder, they were attacked in turn by the soldiers they had driven out, and routed with a loss of 400. The same thin, but on a much larger scale, happened at New Ross, on the 5th of June. The rebels marched from Carrickbyrne, and attacking the town with great bravery in the early morning, drove the military under general Johnson from the streets, out over the bridge. But there was no discipline; they fell to drink; and the soldiers returned twice and twice they were repulsed. But still the drinking went on; and late in the evening the military returned once more, and this time succeeded in expelling the rebels. The fighting had continued with little intermission for ten hours, during which the troops lost 300 killed, among whom was Lord Mountjoy, colonel of the Dublin militia, better known in this book as Luke Gardiner (p. 419); while the loss of the peasantry was two or three thousand. Although the rebels ultimately lost the day at New Ross, through drink and disorder, the conspicuous bravery and determination they had shown caused great apprehension among the authorities in Dublin and produced a feeling of grave doubt as to the ultimate result in case the rebellion should spread.
In the evening of the day of the battle of New Ross, some fugitive rebels from the town broke into Scullabogue House at the foot of Carrickbyrne Hill, where a crowd of loyalist prisoners, nearly all Protestants, but with some few Catholics, were confined, and pretending they had orders from Harvey, which they had not, brought forth thirty-seven of the prisoners and murdered them. Then setting fire to a barn in which the others were locked up- between one and two hundred - they burned them all to death. No recognised leader was present at this barbarous massacre; it was the work of an irresponsible rabble.
The rebels now prepared to march on Dublin; but major-general Needham with 1600 men garrisoned Arklow on the coast, through which the insurgent army would have to pass. On the 9th of June they attacked the town with great determination, and there was a desperate fight, in which the cavalry were at first driven back; so that Needham would have retreated but for the bravery and firmness of one of his officers, colonel Skerrett. Late in the evening, the death of Father Michael Murphy, who was killed by a cannon ball, so disheartened his men that they gave way and abandoned the march to Dublin.
The encampment on Vinegar Hill was no the chief rebel station, and general Lake, the commander in chief of the military, organised an attack on it with 20,000 men, who were to approach simultaneously in several divisions from different points. All the divisions arrived in proper time on the morning of the 21st of June, except that of general Needham, which for some reason did not come up till the fighting was all over. A heavy fire of grape and musketry did great execution on the insurgent army, who though almost without ammunition, maintained the fight for an hour and a-half, when they had to give way. The space intended for general Needham's division lay open to the south, and through this opening - "Needham's Gap" as they called it - they escaped with comparatively trifling loss, and made their way to Wexford.
This was the last considerable action of the Wexford rebellion; in face of the overwhelming odds against them the rebels lost heart and there was very little more fighting. Wexford had evacuated and was at once occupied by general Lake. Many of the leaders were now arrested, tried by court-martial and hanged, among them Bagenal Harvey, Mr. Grogan of Johnstown, Matthew Keogh, and Father John Murphy, though Lake had been made aware that several of them had successfully exerted themselves to prevent outrage. The rebellion here was practically at an end; and the whole country was now at the mercy of the yeomanry and the militia, who, without any attempt being made to stop them by their leaders, perpetrated dreadful atrocities on the peasantry. They made hardly any distinction, killing every one they met; guilty and innocent, rebel and loyalist, men and women, all alike were consigned to the same fate; while on the other side, struggling bands of rebels traversed the country free of all restraint, and committed many outrages in retaliation for those of the yeomanry. Within about two years, while the disturbances continued, sixty-five Catholic chapels and one Protestant church were burned or destroyed in Leinster, besides the countless dwelling-houses.
By some misunderstanding the outbreak of the rebellion in the north was delayed. The Antrim insurgents under Henry Joy M'Cracken attacked and took the town of Antrim on the 7th June; but the military returning with reinforcements, recovered the town after a stubborn fight. M'Cracken was taken and hanged on the 17th of the same month. In Down, the rebels, under Henry Munro, captured Saintfield and encamped in Lord Moira's demesne near Ballynahinch; but on the 14th of June they were attacked by generals Nugent and Barber, and defeated after a very obstinate fight - commonly known as the battle of Ballynahinch. Munro escaped, but was soon after captured, convicted in a court-martial, and hanged at his own door.
Lord Cornwallis, a humane and distinguished man, was appointed lord lieutenant on the 21st of June, with supreme military command. He endeavoured to restore quiet; and his first step was an attempt to stop the dreadful cruelties now committed by the soldiers and militia all over the country; but in spite of everything he could do these outrages continued for several months. Had he been in command from the beginning, instead of the harsh and injudicious general Lake, it is probable that the rebellion would have been suppressed with not a tithe of the bloodshed on either side.
After the rebellion had been crushed, a small French force of about a thousand men under general Humbert landed at Killala in Mayo on the 22nd of August 1798, and took possession of the town. Two Irishmen accompanied Humbert, Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew Tone, brother of Theobald Wolfe Tone. But as there was no sign of a popular rising, this little force, having first defeated the militia, and after some further skirmishing against vastly superior numbers, surrendered to Lord Cornwallis, and were sent back to France, all except Tone and Teeling who were tried and hanged. This partial expedition was followed by another under admiral Bompart: - One 74 gun ship named "Hoche" with eight frigates and 300 men under general Hardi, among whom was Theobald Wolfe Tone, sailed from Brest on the 20th of September. The "Hoche" and three others arrived off Lough Swilly, where they were encountered by a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren. There was a terrible fight of six hours, during which the "Hoche" sustained the chief force of the attack till she became a helpless wreck and had to surrender. Tone fought with desperation; courting but escaping death. After the surrender, he was recognised and sent in irons to Dublin, where he was tried by courtmartial and condemned to be hanged. He earnestly begged to be shot, not hanged, on the plea that he was a French officer; but his petition was rejected. On the morning fixed for the execution he cut his throat with a penknife. Meantime Curran in a masterly speech, succeeded on legal grounds in staying the execution for further argument; but Tone died from his self-inflicted wound on the 19th of November, 1798. In the numerous trials during and after the rebellion, Curran was always engaged on the side of the prisoners; and though he did not often succeed in having them released, his brilliant and fearless speeches were wonderful efforts of genius.

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Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostMon Aug 25, 2014 6:21 pm

1801
The Speech from the Dock
Robert Emmet's speech on the eve of his execution.

My Lords:

What have I to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me according to law? I have nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, nor that it will become me to say with any view to the mitigation of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and I must abide by. But I have that to say which interests me more than life, and which you have labored (as was necessarily your office in the present circumstances of this oppressed country) to destroy. I have much to say why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped upon it. I do not imagine that, seated where you are, your minds can be so free from impurity as to receive the least impression from what I am going to utter--I have no hopes that I can anchor my character in the breast of a court constituted and trammeled as this is--I only wish, and it is the utmost I expect, that your lordships may suffer it to float down your memories untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some more hospitable harbor to shelter it from the storm by which it is at present buffeted.

Was I only to suffer death after being adjudged guilty by your tribunal, I should bow in silence and meet the fate that awaits me without a murmur; but the sentence of law which delivers my body to the executioner will, through the ministry of that law, labor in its own vindication to consign my character to obloquy--for there must be guilt somewhere: whether in the sentence of the court in the catastrophe, posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my lords, has not only to encounter the difficulties of fortune. and the force of power over minds which it has corrupted or subjugated. but the difficulties of established prejudice: the man dies, but his memory lives. That mine may not perish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the charges alleged against me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port; when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field, in defense of their country and of virtue. this is my hope: I wish that my memory and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruction of that perfidious government which upholds its domination by blasphemy of the Most High-which displays its power over man as over the beasts of the forest-which sets man upon his brother, and lifts his hand in the name of God against the throat of his fellow who believes or doubts a little more or a little less than the government standard--a government which is steeled to barbarity by the cries of the orphans and the tears of the widows which it has made.

[Interruption by the court.]

I appeal to the immaculate God--I swear by the throne of heaven, before which I must shortly appear--by the blood of the murdered patriots who have gone before me that my conduct has been through all this peril and all my purposes governed only by the convictions which I have uttered, and by no other view than that of their cure, and the emancipation of my country from the superinhuman oppression under which she has so long and too patiently travailed; and that I confidently and assuredly hope that, wild and chimerical as it may appear, there is still union and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noble enterprise. of this I speak with the confidence of intimate knowledge, and with the consolation that appertains to that confidence. Think not, my lords, I say this for the petty gratification of giving you a transitory uneasiness; a man who never yet raised his voice to assert a lie will not hazard his character with posterity by asserting a falsehood on a subject so important to his country, and on an occasion like this. Yes. my lords. a man who does not wish to have his epitaph written until his country is liberated will not leave a weapon in the power of envy, nor a pretense to impeach the probity which he means to preserve even in the grave to which tyranny consigns him.

[Interruption by the court.]

Again I say, that what I have spoken was not intended for your lordship, whose situation I commiserate rather than envy-my expressions were for my countrymen; if there is a true Irishman present. let my last words cheer him in the hour of his affliction.

[Interruption by the court.]

I have always understood it to be the duty of a judge. when a prisoner has been convicted, to pronounce the sentence of the law; I have also understood that judges sometimes think it their duty to hear with patience and to speak with humanity. to exhort the victim of the laws. and to offer with tender benignity his opinions of the motives by which he was actuated in the crime, of which he had been adjudged guilty: that a judge has thought it his duty so to have done. I have no doubt--but where is the boasted freedom of your institutions. where is the vaunted impartiality, clemency. and mildness of your courts of justice, if an unfortunate prisoner, whom your policy, and not pure justice. is about to deliver into the hands of the executioner. is not suffered to explain his motives sincerely and truly. and to vindicate the principles by which he was actuated?

My lords, it may be a part of the system of angry justice, to bow a man's mind by humiliation to the purposed ignominy of the scaffold; but worse to me than the purposed shame, or the scaffold's terrors, would be the shame of such unfounded imputations as have been laid against me in this court: you, my lord [Lord Norbury], are a judge. I am the supposed culprit; I am a man, you are a man also; by a revolution of power, we might change places, though we never could change characters; if I stand at the bar of this court and dare not vindicate my character, what a farce is your justice? If I stand at this bar and dare not vindicate my character. flow dare you calumniate it? Does the sentence of death which your unhallowed policy inflicts on my body also condemn my tongue to silence and my reputation to reproach? Your executioner may abridge the period of my existence. but while I exist I shall not forbear to vindicate my character and motives from your aspersions: and as a man to whom fame is dearer than life, I will make the last use of that life in doing justice to that reputation which is to live after me, and which is the only legacy I can leave to those I honor and love, and for whom I am proud to perish. As men, my lord, we must appear at the great day at one common tribunal. and it will then remain for the searcher of all hearts to show a collective universe who was engaged in the most virtuous actions. or actuated by the purest motives-my country's oppressors or--

[Interruption by the court.]

My lord, will a dying man be denied the legal privilege of exculpating himself, in the eyes of the community, of an undeserved reproach thrown upon him during his trial, by charging him with ambition and attempting to cast away, for a paltry consideration. the liberties of his country? Why did your lordship insult me? or rather why insult justice. in demanding of me why sentence of death should not be pronounced? I know, my lord, that form prescribes that you should ask the question; the form also presumes a right of answering. This no doubt may be dispensed with--and so might the whole ceremony of trial, since sentence was already pronounced at the castle, before your jury was impaneled; your lordships are but the priests of the oracle, and I submit; but I insist on the whole of the forms.

I am charged with being an emissary of France An emissary of France? And for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell the independence of my country? And for what end? Was this the object of my ambition? And is this the mode by which a tribunal of justice reconciles contradictions? No, I am no emissary; and my ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country--not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory of the achievement!...

Connection with Prance was indeed intended, but only as far as mutual interest would sanction or require. Were they to assume any authority inconsistent with the purest independence. it would be the signal for their destruction: we sought aid, and we sought it, as we had assurances we should obtain it--as auxiliaries in war and allies in peace...

I wished to procure for my country the guarantee which Washington procured for America. To procure an aid, which, by its example, would be as important as its valor, disciplined. gallant, pregnant with science and experience; which would perceive the good and polish the rough points of our character. They would come to us as strangers and leave us as friends, after sharing in our perils and elevating our destiny. These were my objects--not to receive new taskmasters hilt to expel old tyrants: these were my views. and these only became Irishmen. It was for these ends I sought aid from France; because France, even as an enemy. could not he more implacable than the enemy already in the bosom of my country.

[Interruption by the court.]

I have been charged with that importance in the efforts to emancipate my country. as to be considered the keystone of the combination of Irishmen; or, as Your Lordship expressed it, "the life and blood of conspiracy." You do me honor overmuch. You have given to the subaltern all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged in this conspiracy, who are not only superior to me but even to your own conceptions of yourself, my lord; men, before the splendor of whose genius and virtues, I should bow with respectful deference, and who would think themselves dishonored to be called your friend--who would not disgrace themselves by shaking your bloodstained hand--

[Interruption by the court]

What, my lord, shall you tell me, on the passage to that scaffold. Which that tyranny. of which you are only the intermediary executioner. Has erected for my murder. that I am accountable for all the blood that has and will be shed in this struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor?--shall you tell me this--and must I be so very a slave as not to repel it?

I do not fear to approach the omnipotent Judge, to answer for the conduct of my whole life; and am I to be appalled and falsified by a mere remnant of mortality here? By you. too. who, if it were possible to collect all the innocent blood that you have shed in your unhallowed ministry, in one great reservoir. Your Lordship might swim in it.

[Interruption by the court.]

Let no man dare, when I am dead. to charge me with dishonor; let no man attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence, or that I could have become the pliant minion of power in the oppression or the miseries of my countrymen. The proclamation of the provisional government speaks for our views; no inference can he tortured from it to countenance barbarity or debasement at home, or subjection. humiliation. or treachery from abroad; I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor for the same reason that I would resist the foreign and domestic oppressor: in the dignity of freedom I would have fought upon the threshold of my country, and its enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am I, who lived but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the dangers of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and the bondage of the grave, only to give my countrymen their rights, and my country her independence, and am I to be loaded with calumny and not suffered to resent or repel it--no, God forbid!

If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns and cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory life--oh, ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father. look down with scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son; and see if I have even for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instill into my youthful mind, and for which I am now to offer up my life!

My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice-the blood which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God created for noble purposes. but which you are bent to destroy. for purposes so grievous. that they cry to heaven. Be yet patient! I have but a few words more to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave: my lamp of life is nearly e4inguished: my race is run: the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world--it is the charity of its silence! Let no man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them. let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.

unitedblogs

Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostFri Nov 14, 2014 10:22 am

Belfast new letter 1880

26 April 1800


Dublin, April 22.
Napper Tandy is to be tried on Monday fe'nnight. :cry: :evil: :twisted:


Lloyd's List of the 11th says that the Inflexible, Wassenaar, Stately, and Alkmaar, men of war ; Romulas, Expedition, Pallas, Charon, Hebe, and Vestal frigates, and Serapis storeship, with troops on board, are bound to Waterford.
In the county of Wicklow near the Glen of Imauel, Captain Dwyer's gang surprised and disarmed some soldiers, sending them not only empty but naked away.
In the county Kildare, a little beyond Ballytore, last Wednesday the Post-boy was stopped and robbed by three men armed with blunderbusses.
Yesterday morning, between six and seven o'clock, a Gentleman was robbed on the public road at Baggotrath, close to Dublin, by five armed men.
Lifford Assizes ended on Wednesday last, and proved a maiden one, there not having been a single conviction of any kind for and offence whatever, which proves the happy state of tranquillity and industry of the county of Donegall. This circumstance intitles [sic] the Judge to a pair of gold fringe gloves from the Sheriff.
Henry Stokes and Patrick Sheehan, found guilty by a General Court Martial at Limerick, of the murder of Messrs. Boland, were on Monday morning last taken form the new Barrack, under an escort of the Lancashire dragoons, to the hill of Fedamore, where they were hanged, after which their bodies were brought to Limerick and thrown into Croppies'-hole at the new gaol.
Sheehan, on the morning of his execution, informed a gentleman, that if he would give him his oath that his (Sheehan's) life would be saved, he would give the most useful information, not only of nocturnal rebel-meetings, and of the vast number of arms in their possession, but of their intended robberies and assassination.
Same day Moriarty, for prevarication on the trial of the above convicts, received 100 lashes at the foot of the gallows, in part of his sentence.
Among the spectators who attended at the execution of the murderers at Fedamore, on Monday last, a man of the name of Patrick Haneen was recognized and brought to the county gaol, against whom we are assured, there is positive proof of his being the first person who set fire to the murdered and much lamented Mr. J. Boland's house at Manister.
Saturday fe'nnight John Brien, lately tried by a Court-Martial for the murder of Nathaniel Brien, was hanged at Clonlawrence, near Beerhaven, county of Cork, pursuant to the sentence of the Court.

unitedblogs

Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostFri Nov 14, 2014 10:30 am

signed by over 3 thousand business men of repute

The Belfast News-Letter, 6 December 1799



County Tyrone
In consequence of efforts that have been made, and misrepresentations that have been resorted to, we whose names are undersigned, and whose stake and interest in the prosperity, the happiness, and the independence of Ireland, our names will ascertain, think it right to declare to our country, our sentiments upon the great subject that has for some time occupied and agitated the public mind; and we prefer this temperate and considerate mode of declaring our sentiments to any other, which might disturb the peace and harmony of the county by contention and irritation.
Those who think as we do, may upon consideration sign their assent. Those who think differently may sign different opinions, and it will be for our countrymen to make their own comparisons.
To the principle of a national Union between this country and Great Britain consistent with the honor, the dignity, and the essential interest of both countries, we cannot conceive any rational objection upon public and national grounds.
The terms and detail of such an Union are indeed objects of the most serious, well weighed and cautious consideration, and to direct and endure such consideration, not to prevent and interrupt it by premature clamour and prejudice, as it is the duty, so we think should be the wish and effort of every disintered [sic] Irishman.
Without presuming to enter now into those terms or that detail, we do not hesitate simply to express our opinion and conviction, that upon the basis of the national independance [sic] and equality of Ireland, and the security of Ireland against all the burthens, whether immediate or future, beyond the fair proportion of her present and actual circumstances and situation to those of Great Britain, with particular care that principle shall never be infringed by such future sweeping taxes upon property and income as would tend to level and destroy that fair proportion.
There can be no remaining difficulties of magnitude sufficient to discourage the prosecution of a measure beneficial in every political and national point of view to the Empire at large, and evidently most advantageous to the trade, commerce, wealth, prosperity and security of Ireland.

Names of the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Freeholders of the County of Tyrone, who have signed the Declaration in favour of an Union.

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Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostThu Jan 22, 2015 10:33 am

TADHG AN ASNA



TADHG AN ASNA


It was in troubled '98,
When Ireland's agonies were great;
That many a brave man met his fate,
As did brave Tadhg an Asna.

From Clonakilty's olden town,
Came forth the minions of the crown,
To glut their ire by hunting down,
The fearless Tadhg an Asna.

He was a rebel brave and bold,
Of knightly step and giant mould;
At manly feats, no man could hold,
His own against Tadhg an Asna!

But manly feats will not avail,
When leaden bullets fall like hail;
As they did there at Shannonvale,
That day against Tadhg an Asna.

Where Argideen's waters flow,
At Shannon vale he was laid low;
But many there got their death blow,
That day from Tadhg an Asna.

Now in the strife of latter days,
It's mine the task to sing the praise,
Of men like Tadhg an Asna.

May Erin's sons from sea to sea,
To right her wrongs, united be;
To fight, if needs be, her to free,
As did brave Tadhg an Asna.






In the 1980's the pike was stolen from the statue and the thieves broke part of the hand holding it. The pike was found a few years later and reattached but the act was repeated. It is back again but now we see people defacing the base with graffiti. This photograph was taken in 2002. This is an article from the Southern Star from July 28, 2000.




The statue of local 1798 leader, Tadhg an Astna in Clonakilty's town centre is back in full splendour after its unofficial decommissioning in late May! Last week, the right arm and Croppy Pike were returned to their rightful place after an absence of nearly seven weeks. During that time, the 202nd anniversary of the Battle of the Big Cross in which Tadhg an Astna and over one hundred other locals died on June 19, 1798 occurred. Apparently, members of a "stag party" became rebellious in the lead- up to the June bank holiday weekend and climbed the plinth, breaking off part of the arm holding the pike. This is the second time in the last few years that this type of vandalism of the monument has taken place and, previous to that, the Croppy Pike had been stolen.
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Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostWed Feb 11, 2015 12:33 pm

the french connection

French Invasion of Ireland 1798


The Rebellion of 1798 originated from the revolutionary ideas of the Society of United Irishmen, established in Belfast in 1791 by a group including the young Dublin lawyer, Theobald Wolfe Tone. Their radicalism fused the ideas of modern democracy and ideals of equality and liberty, inspired by the Americans and French, with Irish patriotism. Uprisings first took place in Ulster and Leinster, although they were widely separated by distance and context. Both were savagely repressed by the military before an outbreak of hostilities occurred in Mayo.

On 22 August 1798, a French expedition of 1,000 men under the leadership of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (b.1767) landed at Kilcummin, north of Killala. Matthew Tone, brother of Wolfe Tone, was on board General Humbert’s ship when it sailed into Killala Bay. After landing, the French took over the residence of Bishop Stock, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Killala, as a temporary headquarters, before making their way to Ballina and thence cross country to Castlebar.

The French were surprised by the lack of military training among the Irish who supported them. Nonetheless, over 3.000 Irish recruits joined their ranks on the march to Castlebar, many armed only with pikes and pitchforks. This Franco-Irish force marched along the remote west shore of Lough Conn over rough uneven ground. They passed Barnageeha (the Windy Gap) and arrived at Castlebar to face a startled British garrison under the command of General Lake. They broke through the Crown forces and moved from Staball Hill down Thomas Street to what was then the market place. From here, they took Castlebar Bridge, under the command of General Fontaine. With the rebels in pursuit, the Crown forces broke and fled in what became known as the ‘Races of Castlebar’.

But then their fortunes turned. The Franco-Irish forces were finally surrounded by English troops on 8 September 1798 at Ballinamuck in Co. Longford. Here, the French surrender was accepted, but some 2.000 Irish were massacred. Father Andrew Conroy, parish priest of Addergoole (Lahardane) and Father Manus Sweeney of Newport were hanged for their support of the French.

John Moore (1767-99) of Moore Hall, Lough Carra, joined the 1798 rebellion while a student of law in Dublin. He later became the first President of the newly declared Republic of Connaught. However, the republic was short lived and Moore was imprisoned for over a year, dying in 1799 in a Waterford gaol while awaiting trial. He was buried in Ballygunner Cemetery in Waterford. In August 1961, his body was brought home to Mayo and re-interred in Castlebar on The Mall, where a memorial gravestone was erected.

The Rebellion of 1798 remained a potent event around which Republicans rallied for many generations. The ‘Maid of Erin’ monument, sculpted by T.H. Denning, was unveiled in Ballina for the centennial commemoration of the rebellion in 1898 by Maud Gonne MacBride.

The inscription on the monument reads:

Well they fought for poor old Ireland
And full bitter was their fate
Oh! What glorious pride and sorrow
Fill the name of ninety eight
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Tricia

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Re: 1798 REBELLION

PostWed Feb 11, 2015 2:30 pm

Sone history in all these posts everybody should learn it
My ipad controls my spellings not me so apologies from it in advance :) lol

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