1798 AD - 1 (January - June)
1798 AD James Meany, a United Irishman, who was known as the "Bold Captain," was one of those who were now on the run from the British Imperial Government's Dublin Castle authorities, and he hid out in the Mac Egans / Ui Aodhagain castle, where he was to be eventually betrayed to the British Government's Dublin Castle authorities. (A Mac Egan family member has since purchased the castle in more modern times in anticipation of restoring it.)
In anticipation of the French coming into Ireland
to assist the Irish population in their struggle against the
continuing British Imperial Governmant's ethnic and religious oppression, the Keelogue Batteries were
constructed at this time on Incherky, and also a Martello Tower later on in the
River Shannon near
Meelick in
Co. Galway in
Southern Connacht in case they should sail up the River
Shannon.
There was a conflict this year at Goresbridge and the capture of Castlecomer in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster.
Ireland
over the Centuries had been deprived of most of her leaders one way
or another by the English / British Governments, and especially
her individual
fighting men during the constant oppression carried out by
those in authority in the British
Government in England and those they put in authority in the Dublin Castle (The
Devil's 1/2 acre)in Ireland
as these leaders had been, either
systematically eliminated, or forced into
exile to fight other wars in other
places against the English Imperial forces, and by this
time many thousands of
Irish men had
already perished
fighting against ongoing English
Imperialism, in
either America,
England, France,
Scotland or
Spain.
Napoleon Bonaparte was at this time preparing to invade England, but he had spread his military forces too far, and due to the ongoing crisis in Egypt he had been forced to change his plans and go there instead, but Theobold Wolfe Tone the dedicated Irish Republican was not one to be put off, so Napoleon finally agreed to send a small force of men to Ireland to support the United Irishmen who were now unde great repression by the British Imperial Tory Government as he was also well aware that this would create a diversion and in the meantime the population in Ireland under seige was to only be able to rebel against the immediate oppression in sequence. As a result the insurgency in the Ulster Province for instance was to only last for 3 days, until it was to be put down by General Cornwallis, who had since replaced Jeffreys Pratt / Lord Camden, as the new British Tory Conservative Government Viceroy in Ireland.
March:
Thomas Pelham
was still the British Chief
Secretary in
Ireland,
but he was too ill to carry out his official duties and these were now carried out by
Robert Stewart
/ Lord Castlereagh,
who had gone over to the other side and nearly all of the remaininf United Irishmen
Society
leaders
who were
in Dublin were
arrested, except
for
Lord
Edward Fitz Gerald who
had managed to escape, and was able to hide out for a further 2
months while the
United Irishmen Society leaders who had
recently also been taken, had been surprised during a
meeting held to discuss their options, by the R.I.C. police in
Bridge Street near the
River Liffey in Dublin and their records
were also confiscated. The British
Government's Dublin Castle authorities now imposed Martial Law
on the Irish population with burnings, and floggings
of 500 to
999 lashes
being carried
out individually, indiscriminately and randomly
by the British Military forces, on any
one that they unfortunately run into
with
Pitch Capping also used as another of the tortures, by placing a paper bag full of pitch on their
heads, and then setting it on fire, along with another
gruesome torture known as
half - hanging, where they used a rope, which
was eventually only released when the ill-fated victim became unconscious.
The British Imperial Government's
Dublin Castle
authorities
had
by this period in time been carrying out this particular terror campaign since
1796 AD for what purpose ? and by now the general population of
Ireland
had no where to turn for any protection
or justice, and they
were naturally in a total panic and this was to cause
further local individual risings
in
Co. Antrim
and in Co.
Down in the east of the
Ulster Province, in
Co. Waterford in the south - east
of the
Munster Province, and also nearby in
Co. Wexford
in the south - east of
Southern Leinster.
At
Hackets Town
to the
north - east of the
Wicklow
Mountains just over the
Co. Carlow
border
in Southern Leinster, 2
battles
were to occur there as the Irish population in that region tried to stave off an
assault by the British Government's
Dublin Castle Military forces and the
United Irishmen
leaders who were now left to carry on, realized that they could no longer wait
for assistance
from France,
and that they would
have to make their own moves, or there would be no one left among them at all to
defend
the Irish population.
April:
Sir
Ralph Abercromby
who had shown a spark of humanity towards the Irish population, was
now replaced by William Pitt - the Younger as the British Commander -
in - Chief by the notorious
General
Lake, who had already shown his
willingness and ferocity to carry out the British Conservative Tory Government's
policies towards the Irish population in the Ulster
Province and within one month due to his
vicious
appalling conduct he was to ensure that there were now
to be rebellions breaking out throughout
the whole of Ireland, by the
growing
number of killings, the cruelties,
the terror and the use of British Martial Law that he
was to impose on the general Irish population.
April:
Fate had by this time also
previously intervened
in the British Conservative Government's ongoing oppression in
Ireland, allowing the Catholic
Irish
to become lawyers, and
Daniel O Connell
who would become known as
" The
Liberator," who was now an
Irish Catholic lawyer, was
this month admitted to the
Irish Bar due to the previous small reforms that
had been brought in under the duress of the American and French Revolution and
he was now personally to have a great impact on the future situation of the
majority of the population in
Ireland
and while
May 19th:
Lord Edward Fitzgerald
the United Irishman leader had put together a
National Directory
of all the members of
the
United Irishmen Society,
including those in the
Connacht Province,
and those in
Co. Cork
in Southern Munster, where
there where
90,000 members alone,
but he was to be betrayed by
Francis Higgins - the
Sham Squire who
when he later died and was buried at
Kilbarrack Church
/
Cill Bearog
in
Dublin the people on later learning
of his previous betrayal were to totally destroy his grave.
Lord
Edward Fitz Gerald
had previously been able to escape from the British Imperial Government's Dublin Castle
authorities, but
on this date he was to be killed while they were trying to arrest him at
Oliver Bond's house in
Dublin, and his body was later interred in
St. Werburgh's
Church in
Dublin.
The
remaining
United Irishmen
Society members
who were among his group were then arrested, including
Thomas Addis Emmet their
Secretary, and
Arthur O Connor who was at this time in
England.
Oliver Bond, who was also one of
the leaders of the
United Irishman
Society, would eventually die in prison while waiting to be hung, and together with
his
two
compratiots the Sheares brothersthey
were to be interred in St. Michan's
Church in
Dublin.
May 23rd:
This had been the original date set aside for the
United Irishmen Societies' scheduled uprising against
the British Imperial Government authorities in Ireland, and
with no other options left to halt the ongoing oppression against the
Irish population, those
among them,
who were now left, decided to push on with the
Irish
Uprising, regardless of the fact that they now had no
real well known leaders left among them and there were now to be concurrent
Irish risings carried out over the next
8 weeks in
Co. Antrim
and Co. Down
in the east of the Ulster
Province,
and
Co. Carlow, Co. Dublin, Co. Kildare
and Co. Meath
and in the east of
Co. Wexford
in the Leinster Province,
which were then to continue on for another
6 months.
May 26th:
The intermittent Irish uprisings in the east of
Co.
Wexford
in the south - east of Southern
Leinster was now handed
over to the local
Land Lord's
personal Yeomanry to
deal with as well as the
British
Imperial Military
forces and this was to create even more devestating atrociates on the
Irish population in that area once again.
May 27th:
Father
John Murphy, a Catholic
priest in Co. Wexford decided that he just could not sit back and
allow the surrounding Irish population there to take any more of the
never - ending terror that was being handed out by the British Imperial Government
forces and especially the Land Lords'private Yeomanry, especially those who were from
North Cork
in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, and so the
Irish population there pushed to as much as they
could bear finally turned on their aggressors and openly declared the
Republican Government of Ireland.
Father Murphy was now hoping that the rest of the aggrieved
population in
Ireland
would also join in
against the terrible things that were being done to them as a whole. He also had the
further belief
that there would be assistance forthcoming from
France so he rallied the people throughout the region who then hung out the
Green Flag
of
Ireland and
as a combined group they rallied around and were then able to defeat the British Militia
from North
Cork, and they also not only gained a victory on
Oulart Hill
at the crossroads there in
Co. Wexford,
but also
gained control over the
City of
Wexford itself, and they continued on
then to
also
gain control at
Enniscorthy.
June:
Whether the original turnabout as to the
refusal to grant any further reform in Ireland initially to the
Irish Catholics was in reality all about the agenda of William Pitt
- the Younger the Conservative
Tory British Prime
Minister
or not, he now began in earnest his moves to bring on the
Immoral
Union of both the
parliaments in
England and
Ireland and along with
General
Cornwallis and
Robert Stewart he consdrered that the
time was now ripe to play his ace card and offer
the Catholic Emancipation
in Ireland to "encourage" them
to accept his proposal to bring about the Immoral
Union, who were by now totally under "bloody all out siege"" in their own Country.
Once again
John "Black Jack" Fitz Gibbon,
his main Ascendancy "Placeman," in Ireland who led
the Ascendancy in Ireland,
although he also personally supported the Immoral
Union,
would not ware any
Irish Catholic representation in the Parliament especially in his own
finacial interests while
the other
members of the
Ascendancy in
Ireland,
such as
John Beresford the Ascendancy Church of England
/
Ireland Bishop in Armagh who was the richest man in
Ireland, Parnell the
Chancellor of the Exchequer
and
Foster the
Speaker in the
Anglo - Irish Ascendancy House of Commons were
at this time
against the Immoral
Union
in any form with England.
June 5th:
Beauchamp
Bagenal Harvey
an Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland
Land Lord who was also a
United Irishman,
who operated his Estate from
out of
Bargy
Castle at
Rosslare in
Co. Wexford
in the south - east of Southern Leinster,
had now taken over the command of the
20,000
Irish people there
who had joined in against the ongoing terror being inflicted by the British
Militia and the Yeomany and
he had laid siege to
Wexford City, which he captured
and they then moved on to
New Ross, also in
Co. Wexford,
on the way up to
Dublin, were the battle was to last for
10 hours against
1,400 well
armed British Imperial Military forces, until his group was
defeated and 1,000 of his
Irish supporters were killed,
including Father
Murphy. Further
British Imperial Government troops were
now sent over from England to take on the
Irish
population, while other local
individual Irish groups
now rose up in the middle of
Ireland
to try and also defend themselves against the ongoing terrorizing acts
that were being carried
out in their areas, but as they had no eal leaders and were not able to combine
their forces, they too were also to be defeated.
June 7th:
Henry Joy Mac Cracken,
who was
a Presbyterian
United Irishman
from Belfast in
Co. Antrim in the north - east of the
Ulster Province, who had also been involved
in the rebellion in
Co. Wexford
in the south - east of Southern
Leinster was now to carry it
on back up in to
Ulster were he was to lead
3,000
United Irishmen there who
were on this day attempting to
lay siege to
Antrim,
but they too were to be defeated by General
Nugent acting for
the British Imperial Government and were driven off and he was later captured and hung from the belfry in the front of
the old
Market House
in Belfast
after he too was to be betrayed, while
June 13th: The United Irishmen Society forces on this date defeated the British Imperial Government forces at Saintfield / Tamhnach Naomh (The Field of Saints) just out of Belfast in Co. Antrim in the Ulster Province, under Henry Monroe, who then tried to take Ballynahinch in Co. Down in the south - east of Ulster, as the numbers in his group had since grown to 7,000, but he too was captured and then executed at Lisburn, along with many of the other United Irishmen leaders there who were all mostly non - Catholic who really only believed in a better way of life for all of the population in Ireland while the Rev. James Porter who was another non - Catholic minister was also hung in Co. Down, and detention and sentencing became the order of the day, with William Orr another United Irishman leader also hung at Carrickfergus in Co. Antrim.
June 21st:
Meanwhile in
Co. Wexford in the south - east of
Southern Leinster the
Battle of Vinegar Hill
occurred that was
was now bought
on by the bloody massacre of captured
Irish
prisoners there,
where
15,000
Irish
men,
women and children had fled for
protection,
for even
though the Wexford
area had not originally been a stronghold of the
United Irishmen Society,
the British Imperial Government
Militia
had carried out floggings there anyway and all
those there who were now subject also to the ongoing reign of terror in that
particular region had gathered together on the hill to escape the intermittent
violence and cruelties being inflicted by them
and
4,000 of
the Irish population to be slain there.
Thomas "Fireball"
Mac Namara from
Co. Clare in the north - west of the
Munster Province the renowned duelist had
also joined in with the Irish population there, but was
to survive there and be later severely wounded at
Arklow
in
Co. Wicklow,
also in the south - east of Southern Leinster
where a
monument has now been erected to all of those innocent people who died there. The town of
Tinahely
was also destroyed
there. (A statue
of
Billy Byrne
of Heremonian Cu Corb descent, the
leader of
the insurgents there, has since also been erected in
Wicklow in the market place containing the names also of the other
Irish leaders).
Thomas Moore who was the
Irish Rebel
President of
Connacht was interred near what is
now the monument to the
United Irishmen
at
Castlebar, which is the main town in
Co. Mayo
in the mid - west
of the
Connacht Province.
The "Orange
Society / Order"
had by now grown quite strong and was also quite capable of reinforcing their strong
"sectarian views" further against the
Catholic Irish in Ireland.
Dunmoe Castle
at Navan
/ An
Naimh (The Cave) in
Co. Meath
in the south - east of Northern Leinster was burnt down, which saw the
Scottish
United Irishmen
there and the
Irish
Catholics combine to fight
the Land Lords' private armies of Yeomanry
who were mostly non -
Catholics who had been originally set up
by an Officer Land Lord who held
40,000 acres
there
in his own right.
Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey
the
United Irishman leader, together with his deputy,
John Colclough had
escaped the wrath of the British Imperial Militia in Co.
Wexford and the terrible atrocities that were still being carried out
there and taken refuge in a cave on the
Saltee
Islands also part of
Co. Wexford
in the south - east of Southern Leinster,
which was
5 mile
off of the south coast beyond
Ballytiegue Bay
and
Forlorn Point, but he too
was to be arrested there, and taken into
Wexford, were he was hung on the
Wexford Bridge
and then beheaded, and his head was put on display at the
Sessions House. His body had also been thrown into the
River, where it was
recovered by the
local population there, who later interred it at
Mayglass Church in
Co. Wexford.
The insatiably ferocious
British Imperial Government's General Lake
had retaliated with even further great cruelty, and
even
Sir
Edward Crosbie a
Land Lord and
M.P. was to be hung as a
traitor and the
United Irishmen Societies'
rebellion was by now slowly coming to an end as nearly 50,000
Irish
men, women
and
children were to be slaughtered all up by the
British Imperial Government forces
and the Land Lords's Yeomanry,
while at
Carlow in
Co. Carlow in
Southern Leinster the streets
had run red with the blood of the Irish population
there.
June: General Cornwallis was now the British Viceroy in Ireland and also their British Military Commander - in - Chief.
The non - Catholic emigration of all the other religious sects and non - Conformists, except for the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland, was to increase substantially from now on due to the continuing overiding Ascendancy persecution of individual religious freedoms and the economic oppression carried out by the British Imperial Conservative Ascendancy Tory Government on the whole population of Ireland regardless.
The Catholic Irish majority who were originally the Mere Irish with their history of a different Celtic Culture with nearly 4,000 years of previous commitment to their individual territories, found it much harder to leave the shores of Ireland, as it was for them really going into exile, that was second only to death.