11) rebellion a kildare, wexford
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Transcript of 11) rebellion a kildare, wexford
UNITED IRISHMEN
• 1791-4 - open reformist organisation
• Suppressed 1794 - by 1795 a secret military revolutionary organisation
UNITED IRISHMEN
• Strategies after 1795
• Infiltrate state forces - militia
• Ally with Defenders
• Propaganda campaign
• Military alliance with France - Bantry Bay expedition December 1796
STATE RESPONSE
• Purge militia
• New forces - Yeomanry 1796
• Intelligence - surveillance, informers
• Counter-insurgency, counter-terror - from late 1796 martial law, torture, houseburning
REBELLION OF 1798
2 issues
• Timing - long after French expedition
• Location - Wexford, largest rebellion - also Antrim, Down, Kildare - but north Leinster, south Ulster quiet
TIMING
• After Bantry Bay, December 1796 - surge in recruitment in United Irishmen
• Numbers doubled, even tripled in early 1797
• Most counties - 10-15,000 sworn - eg Kildare early 1798 - 12,000 (on paper)
United Irish dilemna• Wait for French - but French less
interested• Proceed with armed rebellion
State dilemna• Concentrate troops against invasion• Disperse troops against guerillas
• 1797 - mainly state counter-terror
• Disrupted United Irish organisation in east Ulster - then moved into south Ulster, then through Leinster
• Extent of disruption --> geography of risings
LOCATION OF REBELLION
• Areas of insurgency 1796, 1797 –south Ulster, West Ulster, East Munster, North Leinster – don’t rise
• Areas with longer tradition of violence – Armagh, East Munster – don’t rise
• Main rebellion - Wexford - quiet before 1798
WEST ULSTER
• Derry - radical republican presence from early 1790s
• Bastille day parades from 1790
• Rights of Man (Paine) printed 1791
• United Irishmen late 1796: Derry 8,000, Tyrone 6,500, Donegal 3,000 - rapid rise in 1797
WEST ULSTER
• Attacks through 1796-7
• Divided on strategy - leadership more cautious - merchants, some landowners
• ferocious counter-insurgency – whipping, house burning, suspension of normal law
• No rebellion
MUNSTER
• Disturbed since 1760s - Whiteboys, Rightboys
• United Irish organisation in 1790s
• Possibly 50,000 in Co. Cork 1798
MUNSTER
• Tipperary – United Irishmen organised by Catholic gentry
• Supposed commander – Hervey Moores – ex-Austrian army
• Some activity – eg Cahir March 1798 – taken over for a few hours by men in black uniforms – all guns seized
• As in Ulster – leadership divided – and counter-terror
MUNSTER
• Two short risings – late, after defeat of main rising in Wexford
• Clonakilty 19 June ‘Battle of the Big Cross’ – ambush of militia by several hundred UI – 30 or 40 UI killed
• Slievenamon July – maybe 100 killed
UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• Initially strongest in East Ulster• State terror concentrated there -
organisation seriously disrupted• Focus shifts to Leinster• Centred in Dublin• Strong presence in ring around
capital - Meath, Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow
UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• Rebellion to begin in Dublin
• Seize capital
• Surrounding counties rise and converge on Dublin
• Decision repeatedly postponed - rumours of French preparation
• March 1798 - meeting of Leinster committee to decide on rising
• Government warned - arrested entire leadership
• 30 March - martial law for entire country - houses burnt, torture, flogging, arrests
• Created fear of general massacre
• Rebellion now necessary - or annihilation
UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• 24th May
• Rebellion in Dublin
• Seizure of mailcoaches - signal to other counties
• But - Dublin flooded with troops - no success
KILDARE 24 MAY
• Naas attacked by 1,000 men - attack defeated, 100 dead
• Prosperous - successful attack - 30-50 militia killed
• Clane attacked by 300 - defeated
• Kilcullen - attack successful initially, then counterattacked - 150-300 dead
KILDARE 24 MAY
• Ballitore captured by several hundred - joined by a few thousand - army defeated, hundreds killed
• State forces withdraw to fortified towns - Naas, Athy
• Kildare town taken by 2,000 without fight
KILDARE 25 MAY
• Monasterevan attacked by 1,500 - defeated by militia
• Rathangan attacked, taken
KILDARE 26 MAY
• Rebels control South Kildare
• What next? Dublin not risen, Carlow and Meath rebellions defeated
• Victory by default - state withdrew to towns, did not always engage
• When fighting took place, artillery of state a deciding factor
KILDARE AFTER 26 MAY
• Rebels began surrendering
• Some freed, some killed
• Many did not surrender, made camps in bogs, guerilla warfare until mid-June
MEATH
• Attacks on Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne, Ratoath
• Main battle - Hill of Tara
• 4-5,000 United Irishmen on 26 May
• Good defensive position
• Rebels attacked yeomanry, defeated
• 350 rebels killed
CARLOW
• Attack on Carlow town 26 May
• Defeated
• Account in your document pack
• William Farrell - sadlier
• Written in 1830s
• By participant - but not given in court
REBELLION IN WEXFORD
• Largest rebellion
2 puzzles
• Why in Wexford? Quiet beforehand
• Why so successful? Rebels held county for 3/4 weeks
NOT TROUBLED BEFORE
• United Irishmen centred in Belfast and Dublin
• Defenders strongest in South Ulster, North Leinster
• Little agrarian protest in 18th century
• Few reports to government in 1790s
STANDARD EXPLANATION
• Catholic nationalism in late 19th and 20th centuries - Catholic rebellion - led by Fr. Murphy - responding to state provocation
• Unionist historians shared explanation
STANDARD EXPLANATION
• But - religious divide not political divide
• Protestant rebels, rebel leaders
• Catholic Church strongly anti-rebel - Bishop Caulfield of Ferns
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT
• Wexford had an unusual religious configuration
• Major English settlement in 1620s and 1630s - Protestant farming class
• North Wexford/South Wicklow - largest Protestant population outside Ulster
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT
• Surviving Catholic gentry - network of landowning families - trade - contact with France
• Overall - religious divisions in all social classes
• Catholic question explosive
• Tension at elections in 1790s
RELIGIOUS ELEMENT
• Political division on religious question - but not on religious lines
• Liberal Protestants - United Irishmen
• Conservative Catholics - sided with state
• Younger radical Catholics - United Irishmen
ECONOMIC FACTOR
• North Wexford - barley area, main producer of malt
• War - end of bounties on barley and malt
• Wartime taxation
• Severe difficulty by 1798
OUT OF THE BLUE?
• Major militia riot 1793
• Orange lodges founded from summer 1797 in North Wexford, South Wicklow
• November 1797 - 16 parishes declared to be in state of rebellion
• Counter-terror campaign - April 1798
REBELLION
• No message from Dublin
• Confused mobilisation 26-7 May
• Early success - contrast to Kildare, Carlow
• State troops not visible - scattered garrisons - few troops east of river Slaney
REBELLION
• Mobilisation without interference
• Oulart hill
• Militia attack 27th May - heavily defeated
• Encourages ‘turn out’
• State troops retreat to towns - Enniscorthy, Arklow, Wexford
REBELLION
• 28th May - rebels took Enniscorthy - army of c.6,000
• Greater success than elsewhere
• Had time to gather army - took fortified town
• Capture of Enniscorthy encourages mobilisation in west of county
REBELLION
• 30th May - capture of Wexford town• Some luck - ambushed militia force -
took cannon• Wexford garrison surrendered town• Encourages turnout in S. Wexford• Entire county under rebel control -
only one to have succeeded