ARKLOW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 211, 20 April 1877, Page 1

ARKLOW.

HE town of Arklow is remarkable in history as probably forming the turning point at which, was decided the fate of the Irish Insurrection of 1798. " Never before" writes Miles Byrne, the famous patriot leadpr, " never before had the English Government in Ireland been so near its total destruction." When Hoohe's expedition appeared on the coast in 179fi, the Irish nation was ready to avail itself of it, to throw off the English yoke ; but now the people found they were adequate to accomplish this great act oi themselves -without foreign aid. What a pity that there was not some enterprising chief at their head at Arklow, to have followed up our victory to the city of Dublin, where we should have mustered more than a hundred thousand in a few days ; consequently the capital would have been occupied

without delay by our forces ; when a provisional government would have been organised, and tho whole Irish nation called on to proclaim its independence. Then would every emblem of the cruel English Government have disappeared from the soil of our beloved country, which would once more take its rank amongst the other Independent States of the earth." The battle of Arklow has beon variously claimed ; the Government troops un ler General Nee.lham and Colonel Skerret, asserting their ri^ht to the victory, and on the other hand the like honor being ascribed to the insurgents The truth is that, according to the dictum of Sir Jonah Barrington, the affair was a drawn battle, but in all probability it would have resulted in favour of the patriot forces had they been properly commanded. The fight commenced at about 4 p.m. on the 9th of June. The insurgents numbering somo 20,000, but being poorly armed, and short of ammunition, advanced on all sided, except that on which

they were hindered by the river. Their three pieces of artillery they brought forward along the Coolgreney road, exposing themselves to a heavy and effective fire from the garrison; and the patrol of cavalry, sent to encounter them on trie sea-shore, they terrified to such good purpose that the valiant cavaliers set spurs to their horses, and never cried halt until they had placed the watere of the Ovoca between them and the hostile ranks. At one time the defeat of the royalists seemed certain. The bravery of the insurgents was irrepressible ; through grape-shot, and the constant fire of musketry they came on again and again, and the Durham fencibles, with whom lay tho great hopes of the garrison's success, were bo galled and broken, that General NeedEarn proposed a retreat, but was answered by Colonel Skerret, with reaton as well as gallantry, that such a motion in the face of an G^paxj Us bis superior ia uumbcrb frould bo destruction. Thus*

they persevered, until the death of Father Michael Murphy, killed by a cannon-ball, dispirited the insurgents, who drew off ; retiring towards Coolgreney, and, if Miles Byrne be sufficient authority, losing the cause of Ireland by their untimely retreat. The three priests, Fathers Roche, and M. and J. Murphy, who took so prominent a part in the affair of '98 have been most loudly of all condemned. Maxwell, in his account of the insurrection, vhich, indeed, is more an abusive tirade than a history, aa it pretends to be, loads them with every vile epithet. Uut of the style and accuracy of this writer let us take as a specimen a few sentences descriptive of the march of the insurgent forces on Arklow. "To maintain that religious frenzy," says he, "which wag their great source of courage, at the end of every mile during the march, their leaders said Mass, and used every mode of exhortation, attd every superstitious device that priestcraft could iaveat." Hor© is

quite enough to show us what may be the value of this author's work, the standard authority amongst certain classes on the subject. Father John Murphy, we know, notwithstanding, to have been a man in every way unlikely to have taken part in any violent movement, unless he had been, as lie was undoubtedly, forced into it. He was a graduate of the University of Seville ; in all his habits a gentleman, and possessed of learning and accomplish- "* ments. He had used his influence with his people, when the preliminary symptoms of the insurrection first became apparent, in persuading them to give up their pikes and firearms, and it was not until the cowardly yeomanry, believing the peasants to be fully disarmed, set upon them, burning their houses with many of the inhabitants, and committing atrocious outrages of every description, that the priest, whose chapel also had been reduced to ashes, considered it his duty to set himself at the head of his defenceless flock in order to organise a lawful resistance. Father Murphy was at length taken prisoner, when the affair had resulted everywhere in failure, tried by martial law at Durrow, and after he had been cruelly scourged, was hanged.