|
 |
|
|
The abortive rebellion of January 1799 by the United Irishmen of County Clare has been almost forgotten in recent national commemorations. The ramifications of the French Revolution, combined with the huge sales of Tom Paine's pamphlet "The Rights of Man" throughout the country, led to the setting up in Ireland of the Society of United Irishmen in 1791 with its aim of providing religious and civil liberty for all religious denominations and the setting up of an independent Republic.
Faced with the twin-threat posed by the United Irishmen and a spate of agrarian outbreaks the government enacted the Insurrection Act in 1796, and following the suspension of the Habeus Corpus Act, additional repressive legislation was introduced. The United Irishmen sought military help from France but a fleet of ships with Wolfe Tone on board, was unable to land at Bantry Bay in December 1796 owing to a storm. In March 1798 plans for a national rebellion were frustrated following the arrest of its leaders, and a series of local uprisings in Wexford, Antrim and Down were subsequently put down with great ferocity.
In County Clare the principal organisers of the United Irishmen were the three O'Gorman brothers of Ennis whose father was a wealthy merchant in the town. James O'Gorman was the county secretary of the moderate Catholic Committee while his younger brother Nicholas Purcell, was a law student at the King's Inns in Dublin and fled back to Clare following the arrests there. And the third brother Richard was also active in the town of Ennis along with the secretary Thady Griffy. In East Clare several men were arrested in March while ten men from the area of Scariff were sentenced to terms of transportation to Prussia. In late June a further group of United Irishmen were publicly flogged in Ennis Square and subsequently transported.
The landing of a further French fleet under Gen. Humbert at Killala Bay, Co.Mayo at the end of August 1798 proved a renewed impetus to the United Irishmen along the Western Coast and plans were made to take over the towns of Ennis, Kilrush and Ennistymon. The principal organiser was schoolmaster Hugh Kildea, from Moy (between Lahinch and Miltown Malbay) and the date for the rebellion was set for 1st January 1799. Widespread recruiting took place; blacksmiths were instructed to make pike heads, trees were cut down to make handles; arms were taken from the houses of yeomen and gentlemen, and it was rumoured that the biggest landowner in the county, Sir Edward O'Brien, Dromoland Castle, would lead the rebels. The rebels (largely peasant farmers and artisans), however, were to be disappointed at the lack of leadership which emerged but despite failing to take over the three principal county towns, did manage to take over the North-west of the county, in an area which stretched from Ennis to Corofin, Kilfenora, Ennistymon and down as far as Miltown Malbay and Kildysart. A large group of rebels, with a ragbag assortment of weapons, waited outside Ennistymon on Sunday 13 January to confront the approaching army forces but dispersed at nightfall, and when the army arrived on the following day they entered Ennistymon without opposition.
Widespread arrests followed, and at the end of January, Hugh Kildea and Michael Murphy, along with Denis Kelly, Kilfenora and Anthony Healy, Tulla were sentenced to be hanged. Other rebels were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, transportation for life, and whipping which caused a further spate of agrarian attacks in East Clare and South Galway in the following months. A succession of court martials continued until September 1799 which led to further sentences of transportation. When a rebel was questioned in January in Ennistymon by a local gentleman as to why he was "out" he simply answered "Because we are oppressed", the cry of rebels down through the ages. Although the abortive rebellion in Clare was quickly put down it remained in the consciousness of the peasant population as they continued to seek economic equality and religious freedom throughout the remainder of the century and beyond.
The United Irishmen of County Clare by Kieran Sheedy is published by the Clare Education Centre, Ennis, Co. Clare. ISBN: 952523027.
Also available by Kieran Sheedy is The Clare Elections - a political history of the county, including parliamentary, Poor Law, borough and local elections.
(Bauroe Press, Cahercalla Hill, Ennis. ISBN 0 9521901 09).
See our book store for more books on this and associated topics.
|
|
|
|
|
