1795 AD
1795 AD Thomas Lewis O Beirne
was
appointed the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland Bishop of Ossory
/ Co. Kilkenny in Southern
Leinster
until 1787 AD.
January :
William Wentworth,
the second Earl Fitz William,
who was an ally of the Earl of
Portland was appointed the
British Lord Lieutenant / Viceroy in
Ireland and he began speedily to
try and bring about some further democracy
in Ireland,
although he
was given strict instructions by William Pitt - the Younger the British
Conservative Tory Prime Minster. who told not to bring forward any further
Irish
Catholic reforms,
and he was to also block any private members
Bills that attempted to bring
about any
reforms
at all in Ireland, unless they were likely to get through regardless. Being a man of
reasonable compassion and justice, with some urgency he
took the initiative in his own hands instead, and immediately dismissed members of the
ruling
Ascendancy, including
John Beresford the
Ascendancy Church
of England / Ireland Bishop in Armagh and two of
the Under - Secretaries of State who
had been
also
previously appointed and he also intended to replace the appointed
Attorney - General and the
Solicitor General with supporters
of Henry Grattan the Irish
Patriot leader
of the Opposition
who was
for
overall reform in
Ireland.
John Beresford the Ascendancy Church of England
/ Ireland Bishop in Armagh,
who was also the richest man in Ireland, then appealed to
William Pitt - the Younger, and he was supported by his "Placeman"
John
"Black Jack"
Fitz Gibbon and their
other Ascendancy
supporters, who used all of their influence for the re - instatement
to their previous Ascendancy positions.
February:
William Wentworth
/ Fitz William
the British Lord Lieutenant in Ireland was quite willing to act positively on behalf of the
majority
Catholic Irish population and
bring about reform,
and to this end despite his previous instructions he constantly urged
William Pitt - the Younger
the
British Prime Minister to bring in
further reforms, but his advice continued to fall
on death ears.
February 23rd:
William Wentworth
/ Fitz William
the British Lord Lieutenant in Ireland was immediately recalled from
Ireland by William Pitt - the Youmger after only
7
weeks on the job, and the whole
of Ireland was in
shock as he
was considered to be a man of great foresight and was by now known for carrying out good works
and the Ascendancy
well and truly under the control of the Tory "Placemen"
John "Black Jack"
Fitzgibbon had succeeded
once again in retarding any chance of further reform in
Ireland, and the British
Conservative Tory Government for good measure then created him the
English Earl of Clare for his
continuing services to their agendas. Although
his own father had converted to become an Anglo -
Irish
Catholic, "Black Jack" Fitz Gibbon had remained a zealous
opponent and hard - line anti - Catholic, and was always against any type of
Irish Catholic relief, for fear of loss
of his personal property under English Common Law and
he was to be such an embittered person, that he was to make
each of the members of
Trinity
College swear to answer all of his questions, and his harrassing attitude was to cause the
young
Robert Emmet, who already believed in the "Rights of the
Common Man," to disappear from the college and go underground also
to try and bring about further democracy in Ireland for all
of the population.
March: John Jeffreys
Pratt,
the second Earl of Camden,
was now put in to replace William Wentworth / Fitz William as the
British Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, and he was more
then willing to go along with
William Pitt - the Younger the British Conservative Prime
Minister and John "Black Jack" Fitzgibbon to resist all further
Catholic Irish
relief, and he was
therefore not well received in Ireland and all of those who were from the Ascendancy, who were previously dismissed were
reinstated,
including
John Beresford the Ascendancy Church of England /
Ireland Bishop in Armagh.
This retrograde backward step also did
not sit too well with
Thomas Pelham.
who was once
again appointed as the British Chief
Secretary to oversee
Ireland
and
Catholic Irish hopes for any
further Constitutional democratic reform were now
once again lost, and this further democratic repression pushed them once again towards the cause and aspirations of
the
United Irishmen Society
who where by now, due to the lack of any chance of gaining any further political democratic solutions,
outright
total revolutionaries.
May:
With any chance of any further reform now out of the picture
in Ireland, the
Catholic Irish Relief Bill,
that had been previously proposed by
Henry Grattan the leader of the
Irish Patriot Opposition in
Ireland in the previous
February that had also been supported by
William Wentworth / Fitz
William, was rejected outright by the
Ascendancy
Anglo - Irish Parliament, following on
from the directions of William Pitt - the Younger the Tory Conservative Prime Minister of Britain.
May: In the meantime the United Irishmen Society had been infiltrated secretly by British Imperial Government agents, and John "Black Jack" Fitzgibbon / Lord Clare the British Lord Chancellor in Ireland and their number one "Placeman" in Ireland encouraged them to go into exile, or else and by now Theobold Wolfe Tone really had total disgust and hatred for those in the Ascendancy authority in England, and their restrictions on democracy, and he too was ready to leave for America from Mac Airt's Fort on Cave Hill near Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province. This now meant that the United Irishmen Society members there were physically and mentally forced to hold their meetings underground and they decided to adopt a new Constitution and Henry Mac Cracken, Thomas Russell, Nielson, Simms, Simon Butler, and Thomas Addis Emmet who was another older brother of the young Robert Emmet, who had become their Secretary, had taken a new United Irishmen's Oath based on the principles of political and religious liberty where they vowed, "Never to rest until Ireland was free." William Jackson, a non - Catholic clergyman, was also among those arrested while he was carrying plans for an intended Irish Uprising to be carried out by the Republicans, and he stated that, "The young Presbyterians at this time were the most enlightened body in the Nation" which further emphasised what an overall education can really bring about.
June: A lone Irish Catholic youth was bashed to death, during a gathering at a cock - fighting event at a tavern in Loughgall in Co. Armagh in the east of the Ulster Province, in a region where their were few Irish Catholic tenants left there, on those particular Land Lords' Estates and to the north of there was Grangemore Hill which was a non - Catholic tenant region, and to the south - west and south - east was Faughard / Tullymore Hill, which was an Irish Catholic tenant region, where there was an old fort. The single murder of this young Irish Catholic boy was to be a catalyst to the the beginnings of the "Battle of the Diamond" in Oneilland, which was in an area on a Land Lord Estate's controlled by the non - Catholics there, who were backed up by the Ascendancy officials there, which allowed them to do whatever they liked and dominate the territory there in the south, and have control over the ferries on the River Blackwater, and the territory on the River Bann to the west.
July 1st: By now feelings were running high in the Ulster Province over the previous death of the Irish Catholic youth, which was added to also by the long running festering provocations over tenancy rights on the Land Lords Estates in that region, and the lack of "official" intervention, and another sectarian conflict was then to occur at the Loughgall Fair.
July 12th: The followers of the Ascendancy position, were now stirred up by another "siege mentality" sermon made at Drumcree by a non - Catholic rector there to commemorate William of Orange's victory over James 11 the Stuart Catholic King of England in the Battle of the Boyne over a hundred years before and as a result the Irish Catholics in the region came under more attacks, with another 2 murdered, and many more injured, and with the usual show of lack of interest on behalf of the "official" local magistrates again and the Militia, the "Defenders," who supported the Irish Catholic tenants were to be also out then to defend their position and to carry out their own retaliatory action.
September 4th: The non - Catholic "Peep - O - Day Boys" attacked the Irish Catholics at the Fair at Loughgall, and some of them were to die because of their severe injuries, and this only added more heat to the boiling pot, and their constant fear of further sectarian harassment in that region.
September 14th: "Defenders" from the north of Co. Armagh, Co. Monaghan and Co. Tyrone in the Ulster Province, and from nearby in Co. Louth in the north - east of Northern Leinster, held a meeting were they decided to take the "Peep - O - Day Boys" head on, and try and bring it all to a climax, and possibly even an end, and thousands of the "Defenders" gathered together at Annaghmore.
September 17th: Thursday. The "Peep - O - Day Boys" decided to begin their attack on the "Defenders" who were now at Annaghmore, which was their best position near the River Blackwater, where they had previously set up to be able to defend against any further "Peep - O - Day Boys" coming in from Co. Tyrone and the "Defenders" by this time had created 2 camp sites, one on Tullymore Hill, and another on Faughard Hill but James Verner, an Ascendancy "official," who was known to his cohorts as the "Prince of Orange," sealed off the River Blackwater crossings, to stop any of the other "Defenders" still on the other side of the river in Co. Tyrone, from being able to reach the scene also.
September 18th - Friday: 500 of the "Defenders" took over the gravel pit there on the hill, and hoisted a white flag, while the non - Catholics congregated on the opposing hill, but in the meantime, Mac Cann a "Defender" was to be killed in the town land of Teague / Teaguy and James Verner, the Prince of Orange, took the North Mayo Militia and went to Annaghmore were he arrested 4 of the "Defenders," while the "Peep - O Day - Boys" came down from their hill and attacked the "Defenders" and the fighting between them then began to subside. The "Peep - O - Day Boys," now feeling more then ever well in control of the situation began once again to attack and wreck the Irish Catholic cabins, plundering and harassing all of those who they came into direct contact with, and they also set alight to all of the Irish Catholic turf stacks in the region and the leader of the "Defenders" "Switcher" Donnelly agreed to a truce with Joseph Atkinson a non - Catholic official, and Father Trainor a local Catholic priest from Loughgall, while Terence Mac Keown was also there with the Catholic priest from Co. Armagh.,
September 19th - Saturday: The "Peep - O - Day Boys" continued on with their wrecking tactics on the Irish Catholic cabins, and the physical harassment of the Irish Catholic residents throughout the area, and for good measure also destroyed Robert Quigley's house and plundered all of his goods.
September 20th - Sunday: Mallon was to be the leader of the "Defender" reinforcements who had by now finally managed to make it into Co. Armagh from out of Co. Tyrone, and 17 of his men were to be killed in the ensuing conflicts.
September 21st - Monday: Captain Mac Garry from Armagh in Co. Armagh was killed along with 48 "Defenders," while trying to regain Robert Quigley's goods, with not one of the "Peep - O - Day Boys" killed and Joseph Atkinson then arrived from Charlemont Fort, and further Militia arrived from elsewhere, and this final surge of "official" interest ended the conflic with. 68 Defenders arrested, and only 2 Peep - O - Day Boys, and many of those arrested were given 3 options, they could either be pressed into the British Imperial Navy, be imprisoned, or go into exile from out of Ireland. That evening in an Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland church there, the "Orange Society / Order" was formed from a re - organized group of the "Peep - O - Day Boys" and James Sloan became their 1st Secretary at Loughgall, with James Wilson near Caledon in Co. Tyrone setting up their Lodge No.1 and William Blacker became their Grand Master, as further individual Lodges were to be set up all over Ireland. Their main aim was to retain the Ascendancy position and to stop the Catholic Irish from tendering for the tenant farms on the Land Lord's Estates, and to this end over the following 2 months 180 Irish Catholic families were driven off of the Estates in that region and forced to flee from the southern districts of the Ulster Province because of the ongoing sectarian intimidation that followed. A Committee of Elders / Orangemen now sat in judgement on the male Irish Catholic population there, who were now sent to a British Military Regiment if they could not come up with some means of bribery to stop their being sent into exile from Ireland altogether and all of this ethnic sectarian violence was a further setback to the ambitions of Theobold Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy Mac Cracken who had been hoping that the United Irishmen Society would unite all of the population of Ireland, especially the people of Ulster, and then eventually all of Ireland regardless of their ethnicity or religious beliefs. The "Peep - O - Day Boys" were to carry out further attacks over night, especially during dawn, using knee capping on the Irish Catholic tenants in the area, and the surrounding Counties over the next few months, and continually wrote on the farm walls the slogan of Oliver Cromwell, "To Hell or Connacht." By using these intimidating methods, all of the Irish Catholic tenants in Portadown alone were to be removed by the "Peep - O Day - Boys" during an all out effort, along with the support of the Orange Society / Order to completely take over the tenant farming land of the Land Lords in that region, and drive the Irish Catholic families from the Ulster region for good.
December 28th:
All of the harassment was so blatantly deliberate, that they
were to be even accused publicly by
Lord
Gosford, the
British appointed Governor in
Co.
Armagh, of actually persecuting the
Irish
Catholics there and anyone who was in any way even associated with the
Irish Catholics there fled west to
the Connacht
Province for
protection, as the local
Land Lords in the previously confiscated regions in the
Ulster Province now also openly supported the
"Orangemen" in their efforts to
totally remove the
Irish Catholic tenant
farmers, on
the Ulster
border, and replace them with non - Catholic tenants.
(Lord Donegal
was to be one of those who deliberately cleared the
Irish
Catholics from off of his Estates in
Ulster.)
The "Peep - O - Day Boys"
now
well in control of the region operated arrogantly and openly, with the support of the
Ascendancy in the British Conservative Government's
Dublin Castle authority, while the
"Orange Order" ranks were
bolstered
further
by the "Landed Gentry"
and the British Government
officials. They also wanted all of the
Irish Catholics
banned from the
Linen Industry altogether, and this further
forced the "Defenders" to
naturally become more anti -
State and anti -
British,
and the
Irish
Catholic tenants now
swelled the ranks of the "Defenders," as they were now their only
source of protection in Ireland and t
With
no chance of
Catholic Emancipation
/ Representation in sight it was once again pushed aside
in the Ascendancy Anglo
- Irish Parliament, with
the only place for any recourse now in
Ireland to be carried out in the rural areas by the
Irish people themselves
and the leaders of the
United Irishmen
Society saw that
all of this further persecution was their best opportunity now to win over the vast
majority of those tenant farmers affected, and now pushed the line throughout the rural areas that the only way to receive any rights
or reform in Ireland was
to
overthrow the
present
Ascendancy Governments and the United Irishmen Societies' ranks were now growing fast, as many more of the previous
"Defenders"
The
Irish
Catholics
were now able to, if they could afford it, attend the
University
in
Dublin,
but the Ascendancy and the
British Imperial Government's Dublin Castle
authority had a great fear of educating the non - Catholics and
the
Irish Catholics together,
while at the same
time they had to consider the fact that the
Irish Catholic youths previously were
sent
abroad to France
and
Spain, which was their
only means
of achieving any reasonable education and those Irish Catholics that received their
Holy
Orders abroad as priests might now be also subject to
the
revolutionary propaganda of "Liberty,
Equality and
Fraternity" there. If they did, they
considered they would return to Ireland and spread that particular attitude among the
common people, who then might believe that they had
a right to choose their own destinies and to try and avoid
any chance of the population in
Ireland becoming united, and still ensure that the
Irish
Catholics did not become indoctrinated with
unsettling thoughts of "Liberty, Fraternity
and the Pursuit of Happiness," they
had now been forced to allow the education of the
Irish
Catholic clergy at
St. Patrick's College, a
Catholic Institution. It was
opened on the site of the
previous older College at
Maynooth, which was originally
established there in the 16th Century
AD
by
Gerald
Fitz Gerald the
ninth
Earl of Kildare, and was close by the
Maynooth Castle, but also under the British Ascendancy Government
and
Ascendancy Anglo
- Irish
guidelines it was nevertheless to be subject to periodic
British Tory Government inspections.
It
was to be run mostly by the
Gaullist
Jesuit Professors who had been the ones who had previously taught in
France where they had been subject to
the agitation of the
revolutionaries and were now naturally
anti -
Republican and
pro - Monarchists as they had been
driven from France
by the "revolution"
and their attitudes in regard to this fact were to flow on through to the
Irish Catholic student priests for
many
generations to come.
Edmund
Burke,
the Anglo - Irish Statesman,
had the Ascendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament partially endow the
Seminary as a concession for not granting the
Irish Catholics
any rights to vote
or being represented in the
Ascendancy Anglo - Irish
Parliament, as they were now so very sure that the young
Irish Catholic priests taught there
would come under the influence of the
pro - monarchist refugee teachers from the
French revolution
as the
Professors there were also influenced by
Jansenism, which was denounced by
the Jesuits as a
Calvanistic approach,
"That man is a helplessly doomed being, who must endure punishing soul searching
and rigorous penance to prove his love of
God,
as faith an Church going are
not enough to win salvation." They were a very
Conservative group in their outlook, and attacked the
Jesuits for granting
lenient absolution for sins and not giving sufficient penance for the sins that
were confessed.
The
upper class Catholic
Irish
who on the whole had always supported those in authority in
England, as they felt
they had the most to lose, were not so impressed by it
at all, and still wanted the
right to be represented in their own
Irish Parliament, but
by now with no chance of gaining any
further rights by democratic means, they too began to see that the revolutinary stand by the
United Irishmen Society
to bring about self - determination for
Ireland was the only alternative
that was
now open to them also.
The
Catholic Committee
had since backed off due to the introduction of the previous
reforms
that they had already gained,
while the non - Catholic and
Irish Catholic tenant farmers were
now in open conflict, and the
United Irishmen
Society
was also by now not in such a good position to create
Irish Unity
for the cause of overall freedom in
Ireland
so Theobold Wolfe Tone now turned his
eyes towards France for
assistance to those in Ireland
who wanted to bring justice for all by the only
means now open to them by revolutionary means.
St. Patrick's College at Maynooth, for the education of the Irish priests, also received a contribution from John Butler who was now the English Baron of Dunboyne, who had previously been the Catholic Bishop of Cork for 23 years, and who had become a Church of England / Ireland adherent to allow him to marry the young daughter of his non - Catholic cousin, Theobold Butler from Co. Waterford in the south - east of the Munster Province, so as to continue on their family Butler male line.
Teague O Sullivan from the
Heberian Eoghanacht Chaisil Sept who was the poet "Gaedhealach," died, and was interred at Bally
Laneen.
Walter Butler became the eighthteenth Earl of Ormonde in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster until 1820 AD, who was the son of John Butler the seventeenth Earl of Ormonde.
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