IRELAND. 



259 



- 



in Woiont 



for his boldness, talents, and influence, to be arrest- 

 ed. He made a desperate resistance, and died soon af- 

 terwards of a wound which he received before he was 

 taken. The two brothers Sheares, and other conspira- 

 tors, were arrested the same month ; and, on the 21st of 

 May, the plan of insurrection was announced by Lord 

 Castlereagh, secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, to the 

 Lord Mayor of Dublin. The night of the 23d was the 

 time fixed for it. An attack on the troops stationed 

 near Dublin, and on the artillery, wa* to have been first 

 executed. The castle was, about the same time, to have 

 been surprised ; after which, the parties engaged in 

 the-e enterpn'zes were to have united. The stoppage 

 of all the mail coaches on the great roads, was to have 

 been the signal for the rising of the people in the vari- 

 ous parts of the country. The scheme wa* certainly 

 well arranged, and had it not been discovered, might 

 have been attended with the most disastrous consequen- 

 ces- 

 Even though thus discovered, the insurrection broke 

 out in a manner that caused great alarm, and, for some 

 time, exposed parts of Ireland to all the horrors of a civil 

 war. On the _' tth of May, the insurgents, though they 

 were nearly without leaders, and with scarcely any arms 

 except pike*, commenced their operation* by an attack 

 on Naas, Carlow, and other places, from which they 

 were repulsed with lou. They had previously destroy- 

 ed the mail-coaches in their road to Dublin, to give no- 

 tice to their confederate* that they were about to com- 

 mence their operations, and to retard the communication 

 of them to government. As coon as the first act* of re- 

 bellion took place, General Lake, who had succeeded 

 General Abercrombie in the command of the force*, is- 

 sued a proclamation, in which he expressed hi* deter- 

 mination to use, in the roost summary and vigorous 

 manner, the powers with which be had been entrusted 

 to suppress the rebellion ; and commanded all person* 

 of every rank, except officers and magistrates, to re- 

 main in their houses from nine o'clock at night till five 

 in the morning. Proclamations were also issued by the 

 Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Lord Lieutenant. In 

 the int. all persons in Dublin were ordered to give in 

 a list of their arms, or to surrender them if they had 

 not a licence to poum them ; and every house-keeper 

 to fix on the out-side of hi* door a list of the name* of 

 all person* resident in his house. In the second pro- 

 clamation it wa* stated, that order* had been rent to 

 all hi* majesty's general officer* hi Ireland, to punish, 

 according to martial law, all person* aaauting hi the re- 

 bellion. 



The Biugiesa of the rebel* toward* the south-west 

 wa checked by their repulse at Carlow ; but the city 

 of Dublin waa still partially blockaded by them. To 

 complete the plan for its relief. Sir James Duff made a 

 rapid march with 600 men from Limerick, and arriving 

 lare, opened the communication between the ca- 

 pital and the co 



On the 26lh of May. the insurrection broke out in 

 the county of Wexford, where it wa* not apprehended 

 that the insurgent* were in great force. They were 

 headed by a pnent of the name of Murphy, a ferocious 

 and ignorant fanati< .'7th, two bodieaof them 



made their appearance at Oulart and Kilthomav At 

 the Utter place they were defeated by 00 or 900 yeo- 

 men ; but at the former place, where Murphy himself 

 commanded, they were victorious. Murphy imme- 

 . diately proceeded to Enniscorthy, of which, by the at- 

 MUpcr of the Catholic mhabiunu, he gained pones 

 ion. The inhabitant* of the city of Wexford were 



now in great alarm, as they could plainly distinguish the Historj. 

 flames of the burning houses at Ennisct-rthy. As they **~~Y~^* 

 were little prepared for defence, they resolved to ne- 

 gociate with the insurgents, or rather, to endeavour to 

 persuade them to return peaceably to their homes. For 

 this purpose, two gentlemen, who had been arrested on 

 private information, were sent to them ; but they kept 

 one of these to be their leader, and sent the other hack 

 to Wexford. Against this place they now determined 

 to proceed. Its small garrison took a position outside, 

 but afterwards returned into the town, which was al- 

 most immediately evacuated, and taken possession of by Wexford 

 the rebels. Their force was about 1 5,()00 men ; and by taken. 

 the capture of Wexford, the southern parts of the coun- 

 ty, as well as the eastern and western, were at their mer- 

 cy. They now divided into two bodies ; one of which 

 directed its march to Gorey, in the northern part of the 

 county, in the hopes of thus forcing a passage to the 

 capita') ; and the other to New Ross, by reducing which 

 they would be enabled to enter the counties of Kilken- 

 ny and VVaterford. The inhabitants of Gorey were 

 apprised of their danger, but they trusted it would be 

 averted by the arrival of troops under General Lollus 

 and Colonel, Walpole, which immediately marched by 

 different routes to attack the insurgents, who were post, 

 ed on a hill seven mile* from (iorry, under the com- 

 mand of a priest of the name of Roche. This man 

 seems to have been possessed of great military talents, 

 for he immediately resolved to quit his position with 

 his whole force, upwards of IO,(XX> men, and attacked 

 Walpole while separated from Loftui' troop*. He came 

 up with him at Clough, and, attacking him quite un- Battle of 

 expected, the British were defeated, with the loss of Clough ; 

 their artillery. Loftus, in the mean time, following the 

 hnorgenu to Gorey, ignorant of the defeat of Walpole's 

 corps, found them posted so strongly that he durst not 

 attack them, but retreated into the county of Carlow. 



The body of the rebels who had marched towards 

 ROM were not so fortunate : They had chosen for their 

 leader a person of the name of Harvey, whom they had 

 liberated from Wexford jail. He formed a plan of at- 

 tacking three separate parts of the town of Ross at the 

 same time : The attack wa* accordingly made in a fu- of ROM; 

 nous but irregular manner. At first the rebels gained 

 some advantages, but they were soon thrown into con- 

 fusion ; and General Johnson, who commanded a strong 

 party of the regular army in the town, took advantage 

 of this circumstance, and, after a desperate resistance 

 tram some divisions of the rebel-, while others were 

 totally without discipline or management, he succeed- 

 ed in completely defeating them, and in saving the 

 place. Enraged at this defeat, the rebels massacred in 

 cold blood more than 100 of their Protestant prisoners 

 at Wexford 



The insurgent* who had defeated Walpole's corps 

 remained inactive for some time afterwards. At length, 

 on the 9th of June, they advam-rd to the north to join 

 another body of insurgents, and. when united, to at- 

 tack Arklow. The garrison in this place, not conceiv- 

 ing themselves strong enough t<> defend it against the 

 rebels, U It it, but afterwards returned, in consequence 

 ol their not attempting to seiz- it. The rebels, how- 

 ever, changed their plans, and advanced against it ; 

 but on the very clay of attack tin re arrivid tl,e Dur- 

 ham tenrible regiment. The royal lone now consist- 

 ed of IhOO men, and, being arranged in lioes, with ar- 

 tillery in front, they were enabled to cover three sides of 

 the place, a river protecting the othir ide. The force 

 of the- insurgents amounted to more than 20,000, but 



