ENNISCORTHY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 205, 9 March 1877, Page 1

ENNISCORTHY.

HE river Slaney well sustains the reputation for beauty that river scenery ahnost universally possesses. Its banks are wooded and fertile, and iv many places upon them are situated handsome country seats and residences of the gentry of Wexford. Upon the waters of the river a brisk trade is maintained, and a continual traffic passes up and down them, the method of carriage being by means of a peculiar flat-bottomed boat, locally known as a cot. But it is for its historical associations that the Slaney is most remarkable, for it was in the neighborhood of its course that the most memorable events of the rising of 1798 occurred. It is well known that the insurrection of which we speak was, to serve certain purposo of their own, excited by the Government of the day. The

driven out in agony to present an object for the merriment of their torturers. Houses were burned, many times without an opportunity of escape being permitted to their inmates ; and the cantrips of Pandemonium let loose were performed in all their enormity, filling the peasantry with dismay, and rendering it impossible for them to remain submissive. It was under such circumstances that the town of Enniscortby was in the month of May, 1798, taken possession of by a band of insurgents numbering somewhere about 7000, the garrison retreating upon Wexf ord, and celebrating their march by a continuation of those diabolical actions in the practice of which they had become adepts. We remember some years ago to have met an octogenarian, a Protestant, and one who had been staunch amongst the loyalist! of the time of outbreak. He had accompanied the troops when they retired from Enniscorthy, and although he had been on their side, he narrated with horror and disgust the deeds that marked {.heir progress. Not a peasant encountered on the road, howsoever,

people were violently driven into resistance in the defence of their lives, and those of all who were dear to them. A licentious soldiery were let loose upon them, from whose outrages there was afforded ao protection, and men in authority seemed to vie with one another in devising means for the infliction of the most exquisite tortures Fathers were forced to kneel beneath the triangle to which their sons were bound and cruelly flogged in order that they mi<*ht De sprinkled with the blood drawn by the whips, and in their turn i tons were subjected to a like fate, reminding us of a certain execution ' which took place in the reignof Louis XI. The horrible pitch-cap was ' placed, ecaidjug hot upon the heads of the victims, ami they tow '

innocently employed he may have been, but felt the weight of their murderous hands, and their route -was stained all through by wanton blood-shed. The insurgents entrenched themselves upon. Vinegar Hill, at whose foot the town of Enniscorthy is situated, and here for three weeks their head-quarters were maintained. At the. end of thia period their position was attacked by 13,000 men, under the oomS viand of General Lake, and after a gallant defence maintained 1 against the regular troops by ruduly armed and undisciplined band* t of peasants., the soldiers were victorious, and their opponents •war* J obliged to retreat iv their turn to the town of "Wexford.