THE REBELLION OF 1798. COUNTY DOWN EPISODES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2140, 27 March 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE REBELLION OF 1798. COUNTY DOWN EPISODES.

iTh almost three generations since, in the hottest summer known for a century, the United Irishmen put fortfe a a yery desperate effort to make Ireland an inde* jpenuen.t country. Middle ao;ed people of 'to-day, have .talked , with acton in the scenes of that .distracted ye*r t and therefore, still lopk back ,with interest upon, a ■tyugg!* which Loi;4 Russell has well de- 4 cribsqas at> once ," foolishly conceived, rashly bqgun, and crnelly crashed." Belfast was then; the great centre of Northern revolt, .what Froude describes as one "of the heated centres of philoßo--cial and therefore, we can understand why the only two -battles of the North— Bally nahinoh and Antrim, i representing the two counties -most deeply implicated in the rebellion— should, hie wfthin about the, same short distance of that .town. la both .battles tjhe. rebels jwere successful at the .first onset, /but discipline carried the day- for,, the King.' Thompson, the well-known Glasgow Pro*; fesuor, and author of the Arithmetic, was present at Ballynahinob, as a boy of twelve, on the night preceding the battle, and iq part of the j following d.iy. He describes .in the .Belfast Magazine the rebel encampment as . something like a fair, not like the assembly of a force ready to kill or to be killed. The rebels were from every m part of the County of Down. The contingent, from the Ar-dsi was particularly strong, and took a resolute part in the battle. There ore many amusing stories of the tine still afloat in the traditions of the peasantry. T>h,e men of .the households usually sent their womenfolk into the towns for safety, while they marched to the battle. In one case a farmstead was left in sole charge of an idiot son, who 'received solemn instruction to watch over the cattle and to protect the house. We have all of us some human weakness that is sure. fcOibreak out on opportunity, but the weakness in this case was for an unlimited liberty of supping cream and au unrestricted use of the scythe. The idiot was for three days in absolute possession ; he used his opportunities ,to great account in both these respects, but committed special havoc among the growing corn in the fields by sending the scythe through it day after day with an amazing energy. After Ballynahinch fight was settled, the manfolk returned home, to find that the idiot. had .been using his liberty of action rather destructively ;,but the only remark he made in reply. <to their complaint was, "Sma' liberty ; only three days aud a half o'tJ? There was a strange scattering iof the rebels after the battles of 1798. Fathers, of familes as well as grown-up ions,, were in very many cases never after seen in the country. They disappeared suddenly from sight. Many lay hid in bogs and woods till the-. Government , pardon released them. I knew an aged woman who could tell how she, as a little girl of ten or twelve, went night after vighti to arbog about a mile from,her father's house to carry him a day's supply -of food. Strange .that he should have survived for months in such '*■ damp hiding > place*; Yet all his caution was in vain i<< He [got impatient of his hiding-place^ ventured back to his house, and took the precaution to bury compromising'jpaperg in a sack at the foot of hia garden ; >hxxb ■ Wa» ultimately arrested and hanged 1 . The soldiers were then searching all the houses in the country for concealed rebels, but they seldom found anybody but woman and children. Often the visit ended by the houses being burnt to the ground. The soldiers usually searched all whom the.y met for the green badges, which were an invariable passport io the gallows. What aa'. infatuation that the rebels, after all .was over, should have carried, these badges at all, even concealed on their pearsons. Often a casual or jesting remark cost a- man his life. < In Maghera'a poor buft.respectitblj man made a joke that "the 'lead of the window* could be made into bullets A -The' remark Was carried to a Ideal magistrate, who Had tho offender^ hanged without mercy. Many rebels, however, succeeded in eluding the vigilant' search of "the military till the Government 'pardon was proclaimed, and they lived bn, in some cases; far into this century.' .But ' mata'y' disappeared from the country altogether after hairbreadth escapes, and got' either' to France or to : America. ' A remarkable man .was John Tennent, bf-Roseyards* iti County Antrim, who was deeply implicated in the conspiracy, though ho' did not wait for the outbreak of the rebellion. He entered the French army, 'became a distinguished officer, and was killed by a cannon-ball in 1813 at the battle of LoWenberg. William Putnam M'Cabe, a cotton-spinner, of Belfast, was another remarkable man. His father was a watchmaker, and shbwed his political colour by sticking up above his door the following sign:— "Thog. M'Cabe, ' an Irish slave, who deals in gold and silver." His son William lived till, 1821; and died in Paris. His descGmlents sank into poverty. • But the ■ most characteristic rebel of them all w&k a farmer named James Hope, of 'Templepatrick, ''County Antrim, Who" had a' perfect genius for organising revolt, '« poet ami a humourist as well, who lived on till 1841 in our own' Belfast. He had a controversy with Samuel M'Skimin, the wellknown antiquarian add historian of Carriokfergus, on the head of an article contributed by him to Frasers Magazine on the career of 'the unfortunate Thomas Russellt which, as Hope thought, seriously misrepresented the facts of a very singular career. The wonder is that Hope should ha^e escaped the vengeance of the Government, fofhe was one of the most dangerous rebels of his time. But the bulk of the rebels who left Ireland after the battle made their way to America. Many of them lived there in honour and comfort till far on, in this century.., I have myself spent some happy days, in the neat log-house built by one of those worthy men, a farmer' from Rirkcubbin, who made his way up to a romantic locality in one of the New England States. His sons rose to, positions,, of honour »nd wealth. One of them 1 forty

yeans' ago visited the old homestead in Ireland, and was able to carey back to to ,the old maa the tidings of many changes wrought by time in the Arda neighbourhood. The son of another Ballynaninoh rebel became one of the most ( distinguished' preachers of New York' city. "I was," said he, "nine years of age when my father carried his pike.' 1 But the moat tragical part of the story remains to> be told. , Those rebels who did not succeed in escaping to America or in keeping out of the way of the soildiers were hanged by court-martial. The centre of tragical interest in the year 1798 was the gaol of Downpatrick, It was resolved by the Government that all executions in County Down should take place in the front of the county gaol, and on successive Saturdays; as the •' marketday would naturally attract * large concourse of people- to thei town. The interval between sentence and execution was therefore longer or shorter, according to the day of arrest. If a rebel was arrested on Monday he had five days to live ; if on Friday his time was correspondingly short. The 'scene of execution was the old gaol, now known as the military barracks, for the new! gaol, which has now been turned into a convict establishment for jßoman Catholic prisoners, was ndt built till 1830. During the terrible summer ■ after the battles the old gaol saw many trying scenes. • Attoneys were there making the wills of the doomed men; clergymen were> there giving spiritual counsel and comfort ; the wives aud children of the prisoners- were there taking their iasfc. fare well t I met many years age in America theson of a County 1 Down. farmer whose father was hanged in Down-Gaol. All I hare described took place in his father's / case. > One of the men who suffered at that time, to whom I aave already referred as having ■ hid himself so long in a bog, had so completely overcome all fear or suspicion of arrest as togo publically about the roads. At last he ventured to go to Downpatrick on several saeoessive Saturdays to witness the executions. This was an extraordinary instance of foolhardy cariosity. On the very day preceding his arrest he was an observer of the usual Saturday spectacle, but not without grave warnings from an ancestor of my own. ' The following conversation, took place early on the Saturday forenoon—" Where are yegaun the day* Jamie?" was the question of my ancestor. "I'm gaun to see thehangtrfV .i"Weel, Jamie, if you'll tak' a bit of advice* ye!U stay at ha me; or yo'H g«t yer am iieck stretched." On Sunday, while > Janies M. was in church, the soldiers walked up the aisle and arrested him. A curious 'scene then took ' place, t He had been a very influential as well as determined United Irishman, and had done much to increase its membership in his own district, On quo occasion be went to the "bog" in search, of two fine, young men, whom he wanted to leave their work and proceed at once to Ballynabinoh for the fight. Their a£?ed mother, who was a widow, pleaded hard with Mr M.— rThat she should not be deprived of her boys, m their father was dead. He carried them off, however, without another word, for they were already sworn into the, con* spiracy. The widow in .question happened to b>& present at the. arrest of Mr M. „ He turned to her »yith the remark, "Widow Marshall, I am arrested and I "don't know for what." "Her reply was, " If ye brewed well, yell drink the betther." Great interest has always been taken in the fate of the informers of that troubled time. We now know by. State documents that the Government was -remarkably well served by information such as this class of people were ready to supply for money. It? was a business full of extreme risk, for the least suspicion of communication with the Government exposed the informer to certain dearth. One suspected informer was killed by a (•hot from an airgun in an entry between High Street and Warning Street, in Belfast! A farmer named James M'Kee, residing between Saintfield and Ballynahihch, was suspected of giving information to the Government. A large party of the rebels' went ojjt one night to take vengeance upon him.' They surrounded his house with a wall of pikes, and then E" "; on fire, burning, himself and sJI his i family^ to a^hes.' If was the -most tful tragedy and crime of the rebellion. ' I knew one of, the actors in that scene. -^ fife was a geutlemanly man of the farmer .class, tfhien . possessed 6f some wealth, but destined ultimately to sink into poverty. .Hew&3 moody. and silent; full of remorse till hi 3 dying day for his share inT'the SrnbleT.) ddod. I was at school with the sod and daughter of another inforoier, Nicholas £. , irhp was remarkably prosperous , in life, but the Roman Catholio boys at the school never' spoke to either of them, just as {heir father never noticed N. X. — —'■ presence in the chapel on Sundays. The ostracism must have been hard to bear. This informer brought Thomas Russell, Drake, atad Corry to the gallows at Downpatrick, Another informer, Jemmy Breeze, as he wag galled, had a short reignj for he was himself hanged, for disloyal practices. The betrayer of Harry Monroe' lived between forty, and fifty years into this century. He was a farmer living' near promara, who gave the rebel leader hospitality and. the offer of protection, bat after he' Had hid him in a pighouse'he betrayed him for reward, to the Govern nienf. On "his death -bed he asked his children t and, friends to Jeave h|Es bedroqm tnat he might have an oppar r Cu'nlty £>f'siyipg something private to Jus minister, $ut ith'ey,; resolutely refused his requ'est^'and he. died " making np sign." It is.bQlieve^that, h,e intended to unburcteu ljis conscience 'by' a confession! .The* informer Hughes, a Tyrone man, who lived till the middle of this century, was. a grest , scoundrel. He Used all his , influence with the Young Irelanders to cbuirais them to ' revolutionary courses. It was tlie late Sir John Gray, of Dublin, who unearthed him- Beiug on a visit to the Bey. Mr Sire, 1 son of the notorious Major Sirr, of Dublin, shortly beiore 1848, this clergyman said tp him jocularly, " Come here, ?roii : rebel, till I show you some 'of the (jtters of my father's spies and informers." The handwriting of several of the letters struck Sir John Gray with amazement as being' that of Hughes, who .had «o of ton mingled with the Young Irelanders and prompted ' them to deeds of blood by the recital of his own patriotic achievements in 1879. When Gray returned to Dublin he informed his associates of his discovery, aske^d, JBUigJies for an interview, and ma4e,hjxn.fio.njejss to his.' .old role as an informer. The wretched old schemer died soon 1 - afterwards. I have myself Been lois of letters written by the in formers of that time of Lord Castlereagh, which have now become the private property of a Dublin gentleman. The names of the' writers are never given— only the initals ; and, judging by the handwriting, I should say the writers were generally persons of some education and position. Little did men like the patriotic attorney, Leonard M* Anally, Counsellor Magan, and the "Sham Squire," Patrick Aiggins, who had a hand iv the betrayal of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, imagine that the publication of the papers of Lord Cornwatlis, would bring to light their secret relations with the Government,* and its immense' rewards, nearly fifty years after they Had left the world. In looking back upon the events of .that distracted and o miserable time, the most remarkable fact ii that, after

the dreadful experience of military servitude experienced in '98, not to speak of the direct loss of life in battle, involving according to Mr Froude, 50,000 Irish lives, an attempt should have been made five years later to raise again the standard rebellion, Ulster, however, had seen the folly of 1798, and took no part in the Emmet conspiracy. It is questionable whether, if Emmet had succeeded in taking Dublin Castle, the insurrection would have made much way in the prvinces. But a kind Providence poured down over all Ireland on the memoriable night fixed for the rising a centinuous deluge of rain, which extinguished the signal fires in sight of Doublin which were to tell that the iusurrection had commenced. Many a family in Ulster passed the whole of the night under temporary shelter in the open fields, as word was somehow mysteriously conveyed that another effort was to be made to try conclusions with the Government. Thomas Russell was the Northern leader, but he had no following. He, once filled the post of librarian in jthe Linen Hall Library of Belfast, and it was he who first suggested the foundation of- the Royal Academical Institution. He was, unlike many of bis associates, such as.Tone, a religious man, and dabbled in prophetic studies. After he was sentenced to death in Dowd patrick he asked a few day's respite that he might finish a work on the Book of Revelation, which had been the work of many years. His request was refused, for he was hanged, I believe, on the day after his conviction. He lies buried in the parish graveyard of Downpatrick, a few feet from the entrance to the church, with the simple inscription over him, " The grave of Russell/ placed there in loving memory by MiasJMary M'Cracken, of Belfast, jsister of Henry Joy M'Cracken, the hero of Antrim. It U tad to think that all the suffering of 1798 was utterly wasted effort. It i ended in nothing. Yet we have a right I to speak tenderly of the misguided men of that period. They were no mere rest* i leaf revolutionaries, ernentiert by profession, finding no sufficient employment, in the ordinary occupations of professional life, the creators of the fervid and pervading passions that then inflamed and frenzied the whole island. The passions were those of the people themselves, and* they did not require the fanning* of idle rhetoric to forco them into a blase. They were fanners, manufacturers, and shopkeepers, who would have been contented with Parliamentary reform, and between them and the oligarchy that then ruled Irelaud there was always room for a compromise. It was the despair ot obtaining this that drove them into consideration of Republicanism, which the examples of France and America naturally suggested. The descendants of the men who then fought against the British Government are now the most loyal subjects of the Crown. — Sigma.