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out sufficient means to enforce obedience, appears to have been an unfortunate mistake, as was also that of the institution of yeomen cavalry instead of infantry.

Whether any insurrection would in the then existing state of the kingdom have taken place in the county of Wexford, or, in case of its eruption, how much less formidable and sanguinary it would have been, if no acts of severity had been committed by the soldiery, the yeomen, or their supplementary associates, though without the direct authority of their superiors, or command of the magistrates, is a question which no man can positively answer. In the neighbourhood of Gorey, the terror of the whippings was in particular so great, that the people would have been extremely glad to renounce for ever all notions of opposition to government, if they could have been assured of permission to remain in a state of quietness.

The insurrection in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford assumed an appearance unusually ferocious. In the county of Wexford there had long subsisted a rivalry bordering on rancour, between the Protestants and Catholics. The public peace in that country had notwithstanding often been interrupted by those

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The reverend author here, with manly and honourable candor, gives an instance of the violent effect which this system of terrorism produced under his own eye. The physical effects of extreme fear and horror are often different, always violent. (Gordon, p. 88.) "As an instance of this terror I shall "relate the following fact. On the morning of the 23d of May, a labouring "man, named Dennis M'Daniel, came to my house, with looks of the ut"most consternation and dismay, and confessed to me that he had taken the "United Irishmen's oath, and had paid for a pike, with which he had not yet "been furnished, nineteen-pence halfpenny, to one Kilty, a smith, who had "administered the oath to him and many others. While I sent my eldest son, "who was a lieutenant of yeomanry, to arrest Kilty, I exhorted M'Daniel to "surrender himself to a magistrate, and make his confession, but this he po sitively refused, saying, that he should in that case be lashed to make him "produce a pike which he had not, and to confess what he knew not. I then "advised him, as the only alternative, to remain quietly at home, promising, "that if he should be arrested on the information of others, I would repre"sent his case to the magistrates. He took my advice, but the fear of arrest " and lashing had so taken possession of his thoughts, that he could neither "eat nor sleep, and on the morning of the 25th he fell on his face and expired " in a little grove near my house." The same author (2d edition, p. 105) adds in a note, "That some magistrates of the county of Wexford, affirm, that "not more than one man was flogged in all the county before the insurrection. "I wish these gentlemen would publish their affirmation or negation in print. "They must admit that several were flogged in the town of Gorey alone. Of "these I knew three: Anthony Bolger, Michael Davies, and one Howlet and they must admit, that at least one flagellation, if not more, was exacted "in the town of Little Limerick, near Gorey. I have not at present sufficient "ground to suspect that any of these were flogged without proper cause; but "half hangings enough were committed by others without any consultation of magistrates. The floggings, however, in the county of Wexford, were al"most nothing comparatively with other counties; and the terror of people of this county arose chiefly from floggings inflicted elsewhere; and the incipiency of floggings among themselves, house burnings, &c."

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mobbish risings which will sometimes take place even where the conduct of their superiors is perfectly free from harshness. The county of Wicklow was one of the most thriving districts in the kingdom. There were persons of the different religions, in all the middle and inferior ranks, and they lived together in habits of great cordiality and good neighbourhood. The landed interest of the county of Wexford had always been prominent in their antipathy to the Catholics, and their representatives in parliament had uniformly opposed every mitigation of the Popery laws. In these circumstances may be traced something of a predisposing cause to the insurrection of the county of Wexford; but there existed no such circumstance with respect to the county of Wicklow. Other special circumstances affected the county of Wexford, which tended to bring forward the insurgency in that county. After the proclamation of the 30th of March, the Orange system made no public appearance in the county of Wexford, until the beginning of April, on the arrival there of the North Cork militia, commanded by lord Kingsborough. In this regiment, there were a great number of Orangemen, who were zealous in making proselytes, and displaying their devices; having medals and orange ribbons triumphantly pendant from their bosoms. It is believed, that previous to this period, there were but few actual Orangemen in the county; but soon after, those whose principles inclined that way, finding themselves supported by the military, joined the association, and publicly avowed themselves, by assuming the devices of the fraternity.

It is said, that the North Cork regiment were also the inventors--but they certainly were the introducers of the pitch-cap torture into the county of Wexford. Any person having their hair cut short, (and therefore called croppy, by which appellation the soldiery designated an United Irishman,) on being pointed out by some loyal neighbour, was immediately seized and brought into a guard house, where caps either of coarse linen or strong brown paper, besmeared inside with pitch, were always kept ready for service. The unfortunate victim had one of these well heated, compressed on his head, and when judged of a proper degree of coolness, so that it could not be easily pulled off, the sufferer was turned out amidst the horrid acclamations of the merciless torturers: and to the view of vast numbers of people, who generally crowded about the guard house door, attracted by the afflicted cries of the tormented. Many of those persecuted in this manner, experienced additional anguish from the melted

* Hay's history of the insurrection of the county of Wexford, p. 57. Hay, (p. 57,) who was on the spot and vouches for the truth of this narration.

pitch trickling into their eyes. This afforded a rare addition of enjoyment to these keen sportsmen, who reiterated their horrid yells of exultation, on the repetition of the several accidents to which their game was liable upon being turned out; for in the confusion and hurry of escaping from the ferocious hands of these more than savage tormentors, the blinded victims frequently fell or inadvertently dashed their heads against the walls in their way. The pain of disengaging the pitched cap from the head must have been next to intolerable. The hair was often torn out by the roots, and not unfrequently parts of the skin were so scalded or blistered as to adhere and come off along with it. The terror and dismay that these outrages occasioned are inconceivable. A serjeant of the North Cork, nick-named Tom the Devil, was most ingenious in devising new modes of torture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently rubbed into the hair, cut close and then set on fire; some, while shearing for this purpose, had the tips of their ears snipt off; sometimes an entire ear, and often both ears were completely cut off; and many lost part of their noses during the like preparation. But, strange to tell, these atrocities were publicly practised without the least reserve in open day, and no magistrate or officer ever interfered, but shamefully connived at this extraordinary mode of quieting the people! Some of the miserable sufferers on these shocking occasions, or some of their relations or friends, actuated by a principle of retaliation, if not of revenge, cut short the hair of several persons whom they either considered as enemies or suspected of having pointed them out as objects for such desperate treatment. This was done with a view, that those active citizens should fall in for a little experience of the like discipline, or to make the fashion of short hair so general that it might no longer be a mark of party distinction. Females were also exposed to the grossest insults from these military ruffians. Many women had their petticoats, handkerchiefs, caps, ribbons, and all parts of their dress that exhibited a shade of green (considered the national colour of Ireland) torn off, and their ears assailed by the most vile and indecent ribaldry. This was a circumstance so unforeseen, and of course so little provided against, that many women of enthusiastic loyalty suffered outrage in this manner. Some of these ladies would not on any account have worn any thing, which they could even imagine partook in any degree of croppyism. They were, however, unwarily involved until undeceived by the gentle hints from these kind guardians of allegi

ance.

Great as the apprehensions from Orangemen had been before among the people, they were now multiplied ten fold, and aggravated terror led them in numbers to be sworn United Irishmen,

in order to counteract the supposed plan of their rumoured exterminators. The fears of the people became so great at length, that they forsook their houses in the night and slept, (if under such circumstances they could sleep) in the ditches. These facts were notorious at the time, and had the magistrates, and gentlemen of the country been actuated by the feelings that humanity naturally excites on such occasions, they might with very little trouble have convinced the deluded populace of the fallacy of such reports, and they should have promised them public protec tion. In general, however, the fact was otherwise. The melancholy situation of the people was regarded with the utmost indifference; few individuals felt any concern or gave themselves any trouble about what they thought: and no efforts whatever were made to allay their apprehensions, or at all to undeceive them. Their minds were left to the operations of their fears, to dissipate which, if any pains had been taken, it is certain that these horrid conceptions entertained of Orangemen could never have taken such strong hold of their scared imaginations, and that violence would have been repressed in its origin.

The following circumstance occasioned the insurgency in the county of Wicklow, to become so very much an affair of religion. Some persons in Dublin, who had been very active in promoting the repeal of the Popery laws, afterwards unfortunately entered into the projects of the revolution; these men made use of the influence they had thus acquired upon many of their brethren to prevent the Catholics from going into the yeomanry, they circulated among that people an opinion which readily gained ground, that their co-operation was very essential to government, and, that by holding back on that occasion they would procure all the advantages which had been promised and were expected under lord Fitzwilliam; their suggestions were attended to more in the county of Wicklow than elsewhere. The consequent backwardness of the Catholics to join the armed corps threw a suspicion on that people, but created a necessity of filling up the numbers necessary for the defence of the country with the lowest cast of Protestants, who afterwards, when the heat of party ran high, made a very bad use of their arms and of their power.

By these means the division of the county of Wicklow into these parties first took place, and that division prepared the way for the revolutionary missionaries, who came afterwards to tamper with the people and dispose them for insurrection. The introduction of the united business crowned the whole, many were drawn into it from reports artfully circulated that the British empire was on the eve of dissolution, that the armed Protestants intended to massacre and expel them from Wicklow, as they had from Armagh, This alarm was so prevalent, that on many oc.

casions all the inhabitants for an extent of thirty miles deserted their houses, and slept in the open fields; this fact was proved on a trial before lord Yelverton, at the summer assizes of Wicklow. Many joined the association, because they had no other alternative; the armed corps generally considered every Catholic a rebel; they received no credit much less merit for any act of loyalty. After the corps were put on permanent duty, and the officers and magistrates began to torture and burn houses, multitudes of these people became fugitives from fear or actual want of dwellings: many from being exasperated at the sufferings of their acquaintance, friends and kindred; common sufferings brought these persons together and formed the rebellion of Wicklow and Wexford: many atrocious acts were committed in that rebellion, but they were acts of retaliation. The armed corps in the first days of the rebellion, and even in the two or three weeks preceding it, had shot many persons who were merely passing quietly through the county; the relatives of these murdered victims became furious for revenge, and murdered madly those of the opposite party, who fell into their possession.

Whatever effects different management might have produced in the county of Wexford, the ebullition of the rebellion in that county seems to have been more a sudden gust of revenge than a preconcerted design. The insurgents were more numerous and ferocious than elsewhere; and in many instances they were headed by persons who never had been members of the association of United Irishmen: but whom the sudden pressure of circumstances had seduced or driven into that unfortunate rebellion. The general insurrection in that county did not take place till Whitsunday, which fell on the 27th of May. But the zeal, says sir Richard Musgrave, of father John Murphy of Boolavogue chappel, in the parish of Kilcormick, was so intemperate, that he began his military career at six o'clock on Saturday evening the 26th of May.* It is a fact necessary to be known, that before the breaking out of the rebellion in Wicklow and Wexford not one Roman Catholic clergyman ever entered into the united association, except one Roach, who was under ecclesiastic censures,

The bishop of Killala has in his narrative of what passed at Killala in the summer of 1798, (p. 82,) given the following reason, why in every popular commotion in Ireland, some Roman Catholic priests will probably be found concerned in it. "The almost total dependence of the Romish clergy of Ire"land upon their people for the means of subsistence is the cause, according "to my best judgment, why upon every popular commotion many priests of "that communion have been, and until measures of better policy are adopted, "always will be found in the ranks of sedition and opposition to the establish"ed government. The peasant will love a revolution, because he feels the "weight of poverty, and has not often the sense to perceive that a change of "masters may render it heavier; the priest must follow the impulse of the "popular wave, or be left behind on the beach, to perish."

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