parish priest of Donoughmore, father Michael Murphy, of Ballycanew, father Michael Lacy, off Kilmuckridge. He informed them of his having received certain intelligence, that fecret meetings of the people had been frequently held, in which treafonable oaths had been adminiftered, and that great quantities of pikes had been made in their parishes, and in all the adjacent country; and he preffed them to use their utmoft exertions, by exhortations from the altar, to check their deluded congregations, in their career to deftruction; but they and their parifhioners, declared in the most folemn manner, that they were pofitively ignorant of the alarming circumstances which he ftated, and that they had never feen a pike; though Mr. White had pofitive information, that some of the farmers who had made fuch declarations of their innocence, were poffeffed of confiderable quantities of thofe weapons. They all departed, making ftrong profeffions of loyalty, and exprefling great furprife and concern at what they had heard. Next day these priests exhorted their flocks from the altar, to conduct themfelves peaceably, and to act with fidelity towards the government; and they, as if deeply impreffed with the admonitions of their fpiritual paftors, continued the entire week to furrender pikes, and to fwear oaths of allegiance before magiftrates, and to receive protections. Though the mafs of the people gave fuch unequivocal testimonies of their fincere intention to preferve focial order, the following circumstance raised inany ominous doubts and conjectures in the minds of his majesty's loyal fubjects: That the popish multitude reforted to their chapels, much oftener than ufual, for fome weeks before the rebellion broke out, to exercife their devotions, and to confefs to their refpective parish priests, not only in the county VOL. I. Plate II. 6. D d † Ibid. III. 2. of Mr. White had undoubted information at that time, that these priests were deeply and actively engaged in the caufe of the union, Michael Murphy was killed at the battle of Arklow, of Wexford, but in many other parts of the province of Leinster. For fome months previous to it, doctor Caulfield, the popish bishop, and a number of priests, used frequently to meet, and dine at the house of Peter Redmond, at Ennifcorthy, where they held fecret conferences. By fuch profound diffimulation, covered over with the broad mantle of religion, the priests and their congregations lulled the government, and the magisrates, into a state of fupine and fatal fecurity; and prevented them from adopting fuch vigorous meafures, and falutary precautions, as were neceffary to prevent the execution of their nefarious defigns. They therefore formed their deftructive plans, with the filence and fecrefy of moles, and started forth, fuddenly, with the fury and fiercenefs of tygers. The delufive ftillness that preceded the infurrection in the county of Wexford, refembled a calm in one of the tropical regions, which is fuddenly fucceeded by a hurricane, that spreads univerfal defolation. When this dreadful volcano burst forth, which has brought irreparable calamities, and indelible difgrace on that once-happy and opulent portion of the kingdom of Ireland, there were no other troops in the county of Wexford, but the North Cork militia, confifting of but three hundred men; and they did not arrive there till the twenty-fixth of April. Their head-quarters were in Wexford, where three companies of them were ftationed; the remainder were quartered at Gorey, Ennifcorthy, and Ferns. † Two thousand troops, properly cantoned in it, would have awed the rebels into obedience, and have prevented the poflibility of a rifing; but the folemnity and facredness of oaths, and the earneftness of proteftations, But, as we often fee, against some storm, + Plate II 4. tions, banifhed all fufpicion on the part of the government, the magiftrates, and the loyal fubjects; though the fubverfion of the former, and the extirpation of the latter, had been fome months concerted. 1 The following reason is to be affigned for the zeal which the leaders of rebellion in the county of Wexford displayed in organizing and arming the people, and in practising the arts of deception on the government: lord Edward Fitzgerald had laid a plan, that a few faft-failing French frigates, fhould come to Wexford, filled with arms and ammunition, with officers and Irishmen, and perfons capable of drilling men. * In confequence of this, their expectations of their arrival were fuch, that the Wexford rebels mistook our frigates for French, when they appeared on their coaft. It was the intention of the Irish directory, that the infurrection fhould take place at one and the fame time, all over Ireland; but the following circumftances difconcerted their scheme, and prevented the accomplishment of it: The arreft of the representatives for the province of Leinster, at Oliver Bond's, and afterwards of lord Edward Fitzgerald, the two Sheares, Neilfon, and fome other leaders; and as their fucceffors difagreed about the time of rifing, it is certain that it was not determined on till a fhort time before it was to take place in Dublin and its vicinity. It was not communicated to the Wexford leaders till the twenty-fifth of May, and it required fome time to apprize the different captains of it, that they might prepare their corps to act in concert. For these reasons, the general infurrection in that county did not take place till Whitfunday, the twentyfeventh of May, 1798. But the zeal of father John Murphy, † of Boulavogue chapel, in the parish of Kilcormcuk, was fo intemperate, Dd 2 * Report of the fecret committee, Appendix, No. XVI. page 136. See the oath of allegiance which he took, and his addrefs to lord Mountnorris, with other priefts, Appendix, No. XVII. intemperate, that he began his military career at fix o'clock on Saturday evening the twenty-fixth of May; and confidering the time of its duration, and the limits to which it was confined, we muft allow that it was as deftructive as that of Attila, Gengis Kan, or Tamerlane. His father was a petty farmer at Tincurry, in the parifh of Ferns, where he was educated at a hedge-fchool, kept by a man of the name of Gun. It appears by his teftimonium and diploma, * that he received holy orders at Seville in Spain, in the year 1785; and, I prefume, that he graduated there as a doctor of divinity, as he affumes that title in his journal, which he dropped in his retreat from Vinegar-hill, and which was found by captain Hugh Moore of the 5th dragoons, aid-de-camp to general. Needham. As one Webster, a proteftant neighbour of doctor Murphy, was returning from Gorey, he met him near Boulavogue, about four o'clock on Saturday the twenty-fixth of May, and was faluted by him with great cordiality; and yet, in about three hours after, the doctor was at the head of a numerous party of rebels, who burned the houfes of Webfter, † and his brother, and many of his proteftant neighbours. The doctor collected his forces by lighting a fire on a hill called Corrigrua, § which fignal was anfwered by another fire on an eminence contiguous to his own house, at Boulavogue; foon after which father Murphy fet out on his crufade, at the head of a numerous band of followers. I Thefe outrages, the firft fymptoms of open rebellion, were communicated to the garrifon of Ennifcorthy, in the following manner: A party of thefe rebels attacked the houfe of the widow Piper, at Tincurry, four miles from that town, wounded her in a defperate manner, murdered her nephew, a young + Ibid. Appendix, No. XVIII. 1. #Ibid. No. XVIII. 2. the affidavit of Samuel Whealey. $ Plate II. 7. | Ibid. • Plate III. 2. young man of the name of Candy, and wounded her daughter, a married woman far gone with child, having broke her arm. * Her other daughter, having narrowly escaped by leaping out of a window, mounted a horse, galloped off to Enniscorthy, and informed the garrifon quartered there of thefe atrocities, at feven o'clock in the evening. About the hour of eleven o'clock that night, the Enniscorthy and Healthfield yeomen cavalry, commanded by captain Richards and captain Grogan, proceeded to Tincurry, to difperfe the rebels; and on their arrival there, found all the circumstances of atrocity related by the poor female fugitive to be ftrictly true; and they were alfo informed by her mother, that the affaffins principally concerned in them, were one Fitzpatrick, and the Bulgers, a popifh family, her near neighbours, with whom the had always lived in the clofeft friendship; and that their enmity could have arifen from no other motive, but because the was of the proteftant religion, and that her two fons were in the fervice as yeomen. Soon after the yeomanry returned to Enniscorthy, they were alarmned a fecond time, by the arrival of a young man of the name of Webfter, who informed them that his father's houfe at Garrybrit, about five miles off, had been fet on fire by a party of rebels, and that he made his efcape after having rushed through the flames. On this intelligence, captains Richards and Grogan fet out a fecond time with their corps of cavalry, in purfuit of the rebels; and on their arrival at Garrybrit, found the house of the two Websters, brothers, John and Robert, in flames, and the two daughters of one of them, both handfome and young, having narrowly efcaped, were fitting in their fhifts, in an orchard near the house, fhivering with cold. Their father, a man of confiderable Thefe atrocities were proved at the fpring affizes of Wexford in 1801, on the trial of Patrick Bulger, one of the aflaffins that perpetrated them; and, having been convicted of them, he was condemned to be hanged, and his body was ordered to be hung in chains on Vinegar-hill. |