Harsh Methods Used to Quell Uprising

It was a war of armed Protestants, backed by a military force, waged with a Catholic peasantry, half maddened by wrong.

Continuing Ireland Joined to United Kingdom,
our selection from Ireland 1494-1898 by William O’Connor Morris published in 1898. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Ireland Joined to United Kingdom.

Time: 1800

This state of things in Ireland was perilous in the extreme; affairs in Europe, and even in England, increased the peril. Notwithstanding the failure of 1796, a great French fleet had assembled at Brest, and a Dutch fleet was at anchor near the Texel, in order to renew a descent on Ireland — Tone had indefatigably pressed on the enterprise; France had already nearly mastered the Continent; the very naval power of Great Britain had been shaken, especially by symptoms of disaffection in the fleet. The Irish Government was perfectly justified in resolving to crush out rebellion in time; Clare, its master spirit, deserves credit for a resolution and daring worthy of Strafford. But it was more unfortunate that it had not the support of a regular and well-organized military force. The army in Ireland was only a few thousand men; the militia had become deeply tainted; the men at the “Castle” had largely to rely on the yeomanry, a numerous volunteer levy, raised to a great extent by the local point of attack; the leaders of the conspiracy were arrested; the incendiary press was scattered to the winds; a general process of seizing and collecting arms was enforced in the Province without scruple or mercy. Houses were burned down whole-sale to compel the surrender of weapons; bands of yeomen harried the Catholic districts; confessions were extorted by atrocious methods; wherever an attempt at resistance was made, it was repressed by wild and relentless cruelties. In a word, a kind of savage guerilla warfare not unlike that of the Desmond conflict, and aggravated by a furious strife of race and creed, raged for a time in many parts of Ulster; and hundreds of captives were hurried 0H, and put on board the fleet — an event ominously connected with the Mutiny at the Note. The head of the rebellion was broken; it should be added that, ruthless as the means were, they had been sanctioned by the Irish Parliament. The Government, after a pause of a few weeks, turned against the conspiracy in the capital. It must be borne in mind that though a French invasion had been stopped by the great fight of Camperdown, the warrior of Italy was at this very moment on the French coasts, planning a descent on England. Spies and informers had kept Camden, Clare, and the Council apprised of all that was going on; the members of the Directory were made prisoners; and the arrest and subsequent death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald deprived the leaders of the intended rising of a head in whom they placed extraordinary trust, though there was little to recommend him except a name, still a spell of power among the peasantry of the South.

If excesses had already occurred, the Irish Government, up to this point of time, recollecting the situation, can be hardly blamed. The brain of the conspiracy had, so to speak, been smitten; but the paralyzed members still stirred with life; all prospects of a rising had not disappeared. Fitzgibbon knew that the plan of the leaders was not to move until the French had landed; he seems, like Claverhouse, to have deliberately resolved to force insurrection into premature being and to stifle it before it could obtain aid from abroad. By his counsels more than by those of any other personage, the system which had succeeded in the North was carried out in parts of the Southern provinces. This policy, which, be it observed, was denounced by Abercromby, the commander-in-chief of the regular army, and a true soldier, had the result expected from it. It became impossible to await the coming of the French; the people in several counties were driven into revolt; and the sanguinary rebellion of 1798 broke out on May 23rd in that year.

The rising was confined to a part of Leinster; it was generally feeble and ill-combined, it became formidable in a nook of the province only. An attempt to attack Dublin from without, connected with an insurrection within, was easily quelled by the armed force on the spot, and though deeds of blood were done, Kildare, Carlow, and Meath were quickly subdued. The rising, however, was universal and fierce in the two beautiful counties of Wicklow and Wexford, the fairest part of the southeastern tract of Ireland. In this prosperous region, the strife between the Orangemen and Defenders had raged for some months, and the efforts of the Government to bring rebellion to a head had been marked with peculiar cruelties. The conflict from the first was a savage war of religion; it was also to some extent a struggle of race; but, in this instance, the double lines of distinction in Ireland did not coincide, the rebels were for the most part of Anglo-Norman or English descent; it was a war of armed Protestants, backed by a military force, waged with a Catholic peasantry, half maddened by wrong. For nearly a month the issue of the contest was very doubtful; it assumed a terrible and hideous aspect; it is impossible to adjust the balance of evil deeds done on either side. The horrors of the scene are relieved by the proofs of devoted courage that were shown; the Protestants fought with the reckless pride characteristic of a dominant race; the Catholics exhibited heroic daring, at Vinegar Hill, Oulart, and New Ross; the fowling-piece and the long pike had great effect in brave and resolute hands; and one of the rebel leaders displayed a capacity worthy of a born general. After many efforts the rising was at last quenched, in ashes and blood; but the Catholics had occupied the town of Wexford for a time, and, had the march of the Catholics on Arklow proved successful, the capital would have been probably taken.

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