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Republicanism, agrarianism and banditry in the west of Ireland, 1798–1803

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

James G. Patterson
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Extract

On 22 August 1798 the United Irishmen’s long-term efforts to obtain French support finally came to fruition with the appearance of three frigates in Killala Bay on the coast of Mayo. Unfortunately for them, their allies had come too late, for the rebellion of 1798 had been suppressed several weeks earlier. Moreover, the French landing force numbered barely a thousand men. Nonetheless, this belated and undersized army was joined by thousands of Irish volunteers and scored several local victories before being overwhelmed at Ballinamuck in County Longford on 8 September.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 137 , May 2006 , pp. 17 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2006

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References

1 For the French invasion see Hayes, Richard, The last invasion of Ireland: when Connacht rose (Dublin, 1937)Google Scholar; Pakenham, Thomas, The year of liberty: the history of the great Irish rebellion of 1798 (New York, 1969), pp 278–335Google Scholar; Elliott, Marianne, Partners in revolution: the United Irishmen and France (New Haven, 1982), pp 214–40Google Scholar; Murtagh, Harman, ‘General Humbert’s campaign in the west’ in Póirtéir, Cathal (ed.), The great Irish rebellion of 1798 (Dublin, 1998), pp 115–24Google Scholar; idem, ‘General Humbert’s futile campaign’ in Bartlett, Thomas, Dickson, David, Keogh, Dáire and Whelan, Kevin (eds), 1798: a bicentenary perspective (Dublin, 2003), pp 174–87Google Scholar.

2 Estimates as to how many Irish actually joined the French, unsurprisingly, vary extensively. Marianne Elliott says the number ‘never exceeded 3,000’, while Harman Murtagh’s figures approach 4,200. At the extreme, Kevin Whelan states that ‘over 10,000 Irish volunteers joined this tiny raiding party’. See Elliott, Partners in revolution, p. 231; Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s futile campaign’, p. 180; Kevin Whelan, ‘Introduction to Section II’ in Bartlett, Dickson, Keogh & Whelan (eds), 1798, p. 101.

3 Pakenham, Year of liberty, pp 334–5; Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s campaign in the west’, pp 115–24.

4 For examples of Stock’s continuing influence on the historiography of the western rising and the use of this specific quotation see Pakenham, Year of liberty, p. 306; Elliott, Partners in revolution, p. 224; Connolly, S.J., Religion, law, and power: the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660–1760 (Oxford, 1992), pp 248–9Google Scholar; Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s futile campaign’, p. 180.

5 ‘Quoted in Kelly, Liam, A flame now quenched: Leitrim in the 1790s (Dublin, 1998), pp 77–8Google Scholar.

6 Elliott, Partners in revolution, pp 224—5; Connolly, Religion, law, & power, pp 248–9. Alternatively, Dáire Keogh has argued that ‘the substantial evidence of priests swearing and marshalling their flocks behind the French and the distances some travelled to join with Humbert’s army indicates principled motivation’. Moreover, he cites ‘Miles Byrne’s account of the close ties between the former rebels and clerical exiles in Paris’ as ‘further testimony of their sympathies for the United Irish cause’ (Keogh, Dáire, The French disease: the Catholic Church and radicalism in Ireland, 1790–1800 (Dublin, 1993), pp 182–6Google Scholar).

7 For a recent work on the Catholic gentry of County Galway in the eighteenth century — their continental ties as well as the centrality of mercantile activity in their ability to remain solvent — see Harvey, Karen, The Bellews of Mount Bellew : a Catholic gentry family in eighteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 1998), esp. pp 144–81Google Scholar.

8 For MacDonnell see Smyth, Jim, The men of no property: Irish radicals and popular politics in the late eighteenth century (New York, 1992), pp 60, 75–6Google Scholar; Pakenham, Year of liberty, pp 298, 335; Hayes, Richard, The last invasion of Ireland (Dublin, 1937), pp 275–80Google Scholar.

9 Gibbons, Luke, ‘Republicanism and radical memory: the O’Conors, O’Carolan and the United Irishmen’ in Smyth, Jim (ed.), Revolution, counter-revolution and union (Cambridge, 1998), pp 211–37Google Scholar.

10 Hayes, Last invasion, p. 186.

11 Ibid., pp 62, 186–8.

12 For John Gibbons, sr, see Lord Sligo, 18 Sept. [?] (N.A.I., Rebellion papers (henceforth R.P.) 620/18A/7); Sligo to Alexander Marsden, 23 June 1802 (ibid., State of the Country papers (henceforth S.C.P.) 1021/21); government proclamation, County Galway, 22 Sept. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/7/76/7); secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/1).

13 Hayes, Last invasion, pp 61, 182, 276, 302–3.

14 Gen. Trench to Edward Cooke, 3 Mar. 1800 (N.L.I., Kilmainham papers, MS 1200); government proclamation, County Galway, 22 Sept. 1799 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/7/76/7).

15 Lord Sligo, 18 Sept. [?] (N.A.I., R.P. 620/18A/7); Sligo to Marsden, 23 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/21); government proclamation, County Galway, 22 Sept. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/7/76/7); secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/1).

16 Hayes, Last invasion, p. 182.

17 For Thomas Gibbons see Denis Browne, 26 Oct. [? ] (N.A.I., R.P. 620/12/141/33); Sligo, 5 July 1802 (ibid., R.P. 620/18A/7); Sligo to Marsden, 13 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/20); 18 Oct 1799 (ibid., State Prisoners’ Petition 600). See also Landreth, Helen, The pursuit of Robert Emmet (New York, 1948), p. 226Google Scholar.

18 Secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/189/1); secret information, Galway city, 30 Apr. 1805 (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/3).

19 For Austin O’Malley see Hayes, Last invasion, pp 32, 62, 146, 263–5.

20 Connolly, Religion, law, & power, pp 211–12; see also Suibhne, Breandán Mac (ed.), The outer edge of Ulster: a memoir of social life in nineteenth-century Donegal (Dublin, 200)Google Scholar, Introduction.

21 Quoted in Connolly, Religion, law, & power, p. 212.

22 Ibid., pp 213–14.

23 Whelan, Kevin, The Tree of Liberty: radicalism, Catholicism and the construction of Irish identity, 1760–1830 (Cork, 1996), pp 12–22Google Scholar.

24 Richard Martin to earl of Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3493).

25 Denis Browne, 30 Oct. 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 1023/5).

26 Denis Browne to Lt-Col. Littlehales, [July?] 1803 (ibid., R.P. 620/64/30).

27 Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 3493).

28 Richard Martin to Littlehales, [July?] 1803 (ibid., R.P. 620/64/30). For Coneys’s and Russell’s involvement as smugglers see also Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 3493).

29 For letters from MacDonnell see William Wickham to John King, 18 Oct. 1803 (P.R.O., HO 100/114/85); Richard Martin, 30 Aug. 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 1023/4). For John Gibbons, sr’s communications to both his son John and nephew Austin see secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/1). For MacDonnell’s escape see anonymous informer to [McGucken?], 21 Dec. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/48/31). For other rebels see Richard Martin, 14 July 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 1023/2).

30 Col. Robinson to William Cummins, 4 Aug. 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 1023/2); Richard Martin, [Aug. 1803] (ibid., R.P. 620/66/197); information relative to the organisation of the people of Connemara by Prendergast (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/1); secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (ibid.); Denis Browne to Wickham, 28 Jan. 1803 (ibid., R.P. 620/64/117).

31 Quoted in Smyth, Men of no property, p. 103; see also Whelan, Tree of Liberty, p. 64.

32 Elliott, Partners in revolution, p. 108.

33 Curtin, Nancy J., The United Irishmen: popular politics in Ulster and Dublin, 1791–1798 (Oxford, 1994), pp 178–9Google Scholar.

34 Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3493); Hayes, Last invasion, p. 32; Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s campaign in the west’, p. 117.

35 For the Armagh expulsions see Miller, David, ‘The Armagh troubles’ in Clark, Samuel and Donnelly, James S. Jr (eds), Irish peasants: violence and political unrest, 1780–1914 (Madison, 1983), pp 155–91Google Scholar; idem, ‘The origins of the Orange Order in County Armagh’ in Hughes, A.J. and Nolan, William (eds), Armagh: history and society (Dublin, 2001), pp 583–608Google Scholar; Kelly, Flame now quenched, pp 47–55; Smyth, Men of no property, pp 110–12; Farrell, Séan, Rituals and riots: sectarian violence and political culture in Ulster, 1784–1886 (Lexington, 2000) esp. ch. 2Google Scholar.

36 For the close association of the original Orange societies with members of the established church rather than with Presbyterians see Miller, ‘Origins of the Orange Order’.

37 Curtin, United Irishmen, p. 156.

38 For varying estimates of the number of Ulster refugees, ranging between 4,000 and 10,000, see ibid., pp 156–7; Smyth, Men of no property, pp 110–12; Kelly, Flame now quenched, p. 50; Farrell, Rituals & riots, pp 26–7.

39 Farrell, Rituals & riots, pp 10–11, 26–7. Similarly, in his examination of Leitrim in the 1790s, Liam Kelly observes of the Ulster exiles: ‘They brought with them a detailed knowledge of the workings of such secret societies as the Defenders and United Irishmen, and a determination to combine once more in these secret societies in their new location’ (Kelly, Flame now quenched, p. 50).

40 Curtin, United Irishmen, p. 156.

41 Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s futile campaign’, p. 80; idem, ‘Humbert’s campaign in the west’, p. 117.

42 Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3493).

43 Ibid.; Hayes, Last invasion, p. 32; Murtagh, ‘Humbert’s campaign in the west’, p. 117.

44 Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3493).

45 Curtin, United Irishmen, p. 157.

46 Ibid., p. 165.

47 Capt. Roxburgh to Trench, 11 Jan. 1799 (P.R.O., HO 100/85/93).

48 Trench to Littlehales, 12 Jan. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/91).

49 Roxburgh to Trench, 11 Jan. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/93).

50 Trench, 30 Mar. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/246–8).

51 Trench, 3 Apr. 1799 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/46/112); Trench, 3 Apr. 1799 (P.R.O., HO 100/86/272-4). For Timlin see also Littlehales to Trench, 7 Apr. 1799 (N.L.I., MS 1199, f. 17).

52 Castlereagh to Trench, 28 May 1799 (N.L.I., MS 1199, ff 194–6). For McGuire see also Hayes, Last invasion, pp 22, 181, 188–9, 302.

53 Trench, 24 Apr. 1799 (P.R.O., HO 100/86/354).

54 For the houghers of the early eighteenth century see Connolly, Religion, law, & power, pp 130, 198–262.

55 Taylor to Capt. Richard Martin, 13 Dec. 1798 (N.L.I., MS 1206, f. 44); Taylor to Denis Bingham, 7 Dec. 1798 (ibid., MS 1202, f. 21).

56 Memorial of Malachy Tahey of Dalgin, County Mayo, 18 June 1800 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/57/102).

57 St George Daly to Castlereagh, 9 Feb. 1799 (extract) (P.R.O., HO 100/85/237). For Daly see also Hayes, Last invasion, pp 272–3.

58 Cornwallis to Portland, 14 Feb. 1799 (Memoirs and correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, ed. Marquess, of Londonderry (4 vols, London, 1848–9), ii, 174Google Scholar).

59 Memorial of the grand jury of County Galway, 20 Apr. 1799 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/46). For damage caused by the rebellion in Down see Pakenham, Year of liberty, pp 342–3.

60 For the objectives of the houghers see St George Daly to Castlereagh, 9 Feb. 1799 (extract) (P.R.O., HO 100/85/237); Cornwallis, 23 Feb. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/259).

61 St George Daly to Castlereagh, 9 Feb. 1799 (extract) (P.R.O., HO 100/85/237).

62 Buckingham to Lord Grenville, 11 Mar. 1799 (H.M.C., Fortescue, iv, 496–8).

63 Cornwallis, 23 Feb. 1799 (P.R.O., HO 100/85/259).

64 Cooke to William Wickham, 28 Feb. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/287). For the anticipation of French assistance see also Buckingham to Grenville, 11 Mar. 1799 (H.M.C., Fortescue, iv, 496–8).

65 Report from Browne, Mar. 1799 (extract) (P.R.O., HO 100/86/272-4).

66 St George Daly to Castlereagh, 9 Feb. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/237); Browne, Mar. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/272-4).

67 Gen. George Hewitt to Gen. John Moore, 20 Feb. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/261); Cornwallis, 23 Feb. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/85/259).

68 Castlereagh to Portland, 11 Mar. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/137-8); Altamont, 24 Apr. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/351).

69 Altamont, 24 Apr. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/86/351).

70 Court martial reports (N.L.I., Kilmainham papers, MS 1199, ff 52–121).

71 Ibid., MSS 1199–1200.

72 Curtin, United Irishmen, p. 165.

73 Kelly, Flame now quenched, pp 56–8. The phrase ‘refugee trail’ is Kelly’s.

74 For the national structure and communication networks of the Defenders see Smyth, Men of no property, pp 8–9, 140.

75 Ibid., pp 8–9, 45.

76 Anonymous informer, Loughrea, to Cooke, 25 Jan. 1799 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/46/18).

77 McGucken, 2, 7 Feb. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/7/74/6, 8).

78 McGucken to Pollock, 19 Feb. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/7/74/15).

79 McGucken, 15 Feb. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/7/74/11).

80 Mahon, 7 Sept. 1799 (P.R.O., HO 100/87/162).

81 Cornwallis to Portland, 9 Sept. 1799 (ibid., HO 100/87/138).

82 Altamont, 25 Oct., 15 Nov. 1800 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/9/104/3).

83 Richard Martin, 30 Aug. 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 1023).

84 Anonymous informer, Loughrea, to Cooke, 25 Jan. 1799 (ibid., R.P. 620/46/18).

85 MacDonnell had, in reality, escaped to France shortly after the débâcle at Ballinamuck, yet rumours of his return to the west were to persist for years, and local loyalists saw his hand in every outrage. For government plans to capture MacDonnell in the spring of 1799 see Littlehales to Manus O’Donnell, 6 Mar. 1799 (N.L.I., MS 1206, f. 241).

86 Sligo to Marsden, 1 Aug. 1803 (MacDonagh, Michael (ed.), The viceroy’s post-bag: the correspondence hitherto unpublished of the earl of Hardwicke … (London, 1904), pp 315–17Google Scholar).

87 Quoted in Hayes, Last invasion, p. 193.

88 Sligo, 11 June 1803 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/18A/7).

89 Hayes, Last invasion, p. 192.

90 Myles Prendergast to Brigade-Maj. Marshall, Apr. 1806 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3732/2), enclosed in Marshall to Marsden, 20 Apr. 1806 (ibid., S.C.P. 3732/1).

91 Keogh, French disease, p. 186.

92 For Crump and Jordan see Hayes, Last invasion, pp 62, 186–8.

93 Ibid., p. 61.

94 Ibid., pp 303–4.

95 Edward Blake, 25 July 1800 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3415/5).

96 Gen. Meyrick to Trench, 26 July 1800 (ibid., S.C.P. 3415/2,4); Edward Blake, 25 July 1800 (ibid., S.C.P. 3415/5).

97 Castlereagh to Trench, 28 June 1800 (N.L.I., MS 1201, ff 19–21).

98 Altamont, 25 Oct. 1800 (N.A.I., R.P 620/9/104/3).

99 Sligo to Marsden, 13 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/20).

100 Information of Patrick McCabe, 12 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/20); Sligo to Marsden, 23 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/21).

101 For Prendergasťs involvement in smuggling in 1808 see anonymous informer’s report, 21 Dec. 1808 (ibid., S.C.P., box 159).

102 Sligo to Marsden, 13 June 1802 (ibid., S.C.P. 1021/20).

103 Ibid.

104 Browne, 1 May 1805 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/14/189/5).

105 Sligo, 11 June 1803 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/18A/7).

106 Ibid.; Sligo, 18 Sept. [?] (ibid.).

107 Richard Martin to Hardwicke, 23 July 1803 (N.A.I., S.C.P. 3493).

108 Sligo to Marsden, 1 Aug. 1803 (MacDonagh (ed.), Viceroy’s post-bag, pp 315–17).

109 Secret information, Col. Martin’s estate, 14 Apr. 1805 (N.A.I., R.P 620/14/189/1).

110 Sligo, 14 Oct. 1803 (ibid., R.P. 620/67/76).

111 Browne, 30 Oct. 1803 (ibid., S.C.P. 1023/5).

112 Gen. Hill to Wickham, 1 Jan. 1804 (ibid., R.P. 620/50/46).

113 Col. Beckwith to Littlehales, 18 Feb. 1804 (N.L.I., MS 1018, f. 475).

114 Secret information, Galway, 30 Apr. 1805 (N.A.I., R.P. 620/14/189/3).

115 Ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/4.

116 Browne, 1 May 1805 (ibid., R.P. 620/14/189/5).

117 Brigade-Maj. Marshall to Marsden, Apr. 1806, 20 Apr. 1806 (ibid., S.C.P. 3732/1).

118 Myles Prendergast to Marshall (ibid., S.C.P. 3732/2), enclosed in Marshall to Marsden, 20 Apr. 1806 (ibid., S.C.P. 3732/1).

119 Keogh, French disease, p. 184.

120 Anonymous informer’s report, 21 Dec. 1808 (N.A.I., S.C.P., box 159).

121 Landreth, Pursuit of Robert Emmet, p. 226; Hayes, Last invasion, p. 183.

122 Elliott, Partners in revolution, p. 224.

123 I should like to thank Breandán Mac Suibhne for his thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this article.