PRIESTS AND MINISTERS OF 1798.
LORD CASTLEREAGH and, his minions,’ past masters in the arts of duplicity, deception and subtle lying, endeavoured, and with some success, to make one section of the Irish people believe that the Rising of 1798 was a “papist rebellion,” planned for the annihilation of all who did not accept the Church’ of Rome; while they whispered into the ears of another section the equally groundless falsehood that it was a Protestant Plot for the complete destruction of the ‘Catholic religion in Ireland. Money was lavished on the spread of these two falsehoods, and that one of them was not propagated in vain is shown by the failure of all Ulster to rise when the call came. Thousands of Presbyterians had been scared by the Dublin Castle lies, and were not sufficiently long in ‘touch with their Catholic comrades to stand by them against the common enemy—British imperialism.
That both lies were without foundation is easily proved by a glance at the history of the period, Most of’ the leaders were Presbyterians or Protestants for the simple reason that the penal laws had driven Catholics out of all positions of influence; but when the war began Protestant, Presbyterian and Catholic fought loyally side by side. We have shown how Father Moses Kearns and Anthony Ferry, the Presbyterian, fought and died together; how the Presbyterians Sam McAllister and John Savage gave their lives for Catholic Michael Dwyer; how Henry Monro the Presbyterian, and Francis Walsh the Catholic, stood side by’ side at the battle of Ballinahinch; and dozens of similar instances could be given.
Priests and Ministers fought and died for the Republic of Ireland, while others were imprisoned, hunted, exiled, and persecuted in a score of ways because they had taken their stand with the men who were sacrificing not only their material prospects but their very lives in the effort to rid Ireland of the invader and murderer and robber that had crucified it for centuries. Rev. Mr. Warwick and Rev. James Porter, two Presbyterian ministers, were hanged in Ulster long before the Rising because they spread “ sedition “ and fomented “disaffection.” Rev. William Steele Dickson, who was to have been one of the military commanders in Ulster, was arrested on the very eve of the Rising, and held a prisoner for years. He wrote a narrative of the events of ‘98 in after years. Among other Presbyterian clergymen persecuted for their loyalty to Ireland were Rev. Samuel Barber, Rev. John Smyth, Rev. Sinclair Kelburne, Rev. Messrs Stevelly, Birch, Ward, McNeill, Simpson and Glendy. There were many others who managed to elude the vigilance of Castlereagh’s human bloodhounds—some by fleeing into exile, others by lying low at home.
Madden in his Lives and Times ci the United Irishmen, gives the names of fourteen priests “who were implicated or accused of being concerned in the Rebellion,” but in Connacht alone there were sixteen priests who had to face the charge of being loyal and faithful Irishmen as well as loyal and faithful priests of Cod. We have already told the story of Father Owen Cowley of Mayo, who died in his vestments in the cave of the hills where he was hiding; and we have told of Father Moses Kearns, the brave Wexford priest who, after leading his men through the whole campaign, was hanged along with Anthony Perry at Edenderry in Offaly, when captured by the English.
Father Michael Murphy, a magnificent man beloved of all his followers, was killed in action at the battle of Arklow, and his body was savagely mutilated by the English. Father John Murphy, a great priest, a great Irishman, and a great soldier, was taken prisoner after the battle of Scollagh Gap and most brutally tortured before being hanged in Tullow. Father Philip Roche, a brave man, but one who had faith in English honour and chivalry, went alone and against the advice of Father John and the other leaders, to discuss terms of peace with the English General Lake in Wexford. As soon as he was recognised he was dragged from his horse and literally torn limb from limb. Other priests persecuted in Wexford and its vicinity were Fathers Kavanagh, Stafford, Harold, Bushe, Barrett, Tanfe, and Redmond. The latter was against the Rising and actually intervened successfully to save property belonging to Lord Mountmorris. This humane act was brought against him by the notorious Hunter Cowan, as showing that he was a man of influence among the insurgents, and he was hanged.
PRIESTS OF THE WEST.
It is a very strange thing that Madden has no mention of the splendid priests who stood with their people in the West, and suffered the full force of English hate and cruelty for their devotion and bravery. One of the officers who came over with Humbert was a priest, Fr. Henry O’Kane, a fluent speaker of Irish. Probably because he was a French citizen as well as an officer, the English contented themselves with banishing him for Me from “the Kingdom of Ireland”; but they afterward tried to have their full revenge by saying that he was really a spy in their service. Fr. James Conroy, hero of William Rooney’s fine ballad, “The Priest of Addergool,” was hanged in Castlebar for his part in the Rising. He, too, his murderers, sought to defame by giving out after they had killed him that he begged for mercy and said he was forced to do the things he had done. The people knew this was a lie and they have kept his memory green through all the years. He intercepted a dispatch rider, by name William Burke, a Catholic soldier in the British Army, who was riding fast to Castlebar with news of Humbert’s arrival at Killala. Fr. Conroy stopped him, appealed to his patriotism, got the dispatch from him, and drew him into the ranks of the Republicans, all at the same time. He sent a boy of eight, named John MacHale, to rouse the countryside; that boy was to rise to fame in later years as the great Archbishop of Tuam. The priest then drew a map showing how Castlebar could be reached in a much shorter time by an unfrequented mountain road, and brought his map to Humbert himself, who thanked him for it and acted on his advice. He died as bravely and holily as he had lived. Another great and courageous- priest was Fr. Manus Sweeney, who was hanged at Newport after the Rising. Fr. Michael Cannon was proscribed and a reward offered to anyone who would give information about him. He was hidden and sheltered by the faithful people for a year, but was at last arrested and transported beyond the seas. Fr. Ambrose Cassidy was hunted, arrested, and imprisoned. Among other priests who were proscribed, persecuted, imprisoned or banished were:
Fr. Brown of Foxford; Fr. Paul Feighan; Fr. Ford; Fr. David Kelly; Fr. Thomas Monnelly; Fr. Owen Killeen; Fr. Phelim MacDonnell; Fr. Myles Prendergast; Fr. O’Donnell; Fr. O’Reilly; Fr. McGowan, fid several others, against whom “Donncha an Rópa (the ‘Hon.” Denis Browne) and his gang of spies and priest-hunters failed to bring any charge. It is heartening to know, after reading the slavish utterances of the Bishops and other Castle Catholics of the period, that there were scores of Irish-hearted priests who stood bravely by the people in the hour of trial, fought with them, died with them, suffered with them as comrades and brothers in the cause of the Republic of Ireland. FATHER O’COIGLEY.
FATHER JAMES O’COIGLEY (the English usually wrote down Quigley, the anglicised form of his name, but he used the Irish form himself) was one of the patriot priests of the ‘98 period, though he suffered death on the scaffold before the Rising took place. He was a native of Co. Armagh who, like many another of his time, received his education at the Irish College in Paris. He returned to Ireland about the time the United Irishmen cane into being, and seems to have been associated with them from the beginning. Probably because of his knowledge of France and of the French language, he was selected for a mission to that country from the United Irishmen at home. He and Arthur O’Connor and John Allen and two others were having a meal in a quiet inn near the quayside in Margate, England, on a February day in 1798, when the place was raided by a strong force, and they were all arrested. They were lodged in the Tower of London. The police accompanying the soldiers who raided the inn said they found a most damaging document in the pocket of a great-coat belonging to Fr. O’Coigley. He denied all knowledge of this paper, which could easily have been placed where it was found by those who found it, as has so often been done since then, but his protests were in vain. The prisoners were tried for High Treason at Maidstone in Kent, England, on May 21, 1798, the trial commencing at six o’clock in the morning. His comrades were acquitted, but Fr. O’Coigley was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Every effort was made by his chivalrous murderers to tempt him to betray others, but he remained silent and calm to the end. He was dragged on a hurdle for a mile, the distance between Maidstone Prison and Pennenden Heath, where the vilest criminals and malefactors were done to death. At the last moment he spoke bravely of his unswerving loyalty to the cause of the Republic of Ireland, and uttered a prayer for its deliverance from a brutal and unscrupulous enemy. Just as he made the sign of the Cross after commending his soul to God, the hangman received a signal from the Sheriff, and the brave priest was launched into eternity. They severed his head from the body and exhibited it to those present as the head of a traitor who had plotted against the English invaders of his native land. Then they buried him like a dog at the foot of the gallows. There are still slavish Irishmen who speak of the British Empire as a patron and protector of Christianity.
LORD CASTLEREAGH and, his minions,’ past masters in the arts of duplicity, deception and subtle lying, endeavoured, and with some success, to make one section of the Irish people believe that the Rising of 1798 was a “papist rebellion,” planned for the annihilation of all who did not accept the Church’ of Rome; while they whispered into the ears of another section the equally groundless falsehood that it was a Protestant Plot for the complete destruction of the ‘Catholic religion in Ireland. Money was lavished on the spread of these two falsehoods, and that one of them was not propagated in vain is shown by the failure of all Ulster to rise when the call came. Thousands of Presbyterians had been scared by the Dublin Castle lies, and were not sufficiently long in ‘touch with their Catholic comrades to stand by them against the common enemy—British imperialism.
That both lies were without foundation is easily proved by a glance at the history of the period, Most of’ the leaders were Presbyterians or Protestants for the simple reason that the penal laws had driven Catholics out of all positions of influence; but when the war began Protestant, Presbyterian and Catholic fought loyally side by side. We have shown how Father Moses Kearns and Anthony Ferry, the Presbyterian, fought and died together; how the Presbyterians Sam McAllister and John Savage gave their lives for Catholic Michael Dwyer; how Henry Monro the Presbyterian, and Francis Walsh the Catholic, stood side by’ side at the battle of Ballinahinch; and dozens of similar instances could be given.
Priests and Ministers fought and died for the Republic of Ireland, while others were imprisoned, hunted, exiled, and persecuted in a score of ways because they had taken their stand with the men who were sacrificing not only their material prospects but their very lives in the effort to rid Ireland of the invader and murderer and robber that had crucified it for centuries. Rev. Mr. Warwick and Rev. James Porter, two Presbyterian ministers, were hanged in Ulster long before the Rising because they spread “ sedition “ and fomented “disaffection.” Rev. William Steele Dickson, who was to have been one of the military commanders in Ulster, was arrested on the very eve of the Rising, and held a prisoner for years. He wrote a narrative of the events of ‘98 in after years. Among other Presbyterian clergymen persecuted for their loyalty to Ireland were Rev. Samuel Barber, Rev. John Smyth, Rev. Sinclair Kelburne, Rev. Messrs Stevelly, Birch, Ward, McNeill, Simpson and Glendy. There were many others who managed to elude the vigilance of Castlereagh’s human bloodhounds—some by fleeing into exile, others by lying low at home.
Madden in his Lives and Times ci the United Irishmen, gives the names of fourteen priests “who were implicated or accused of being concerned in the Rebellion,” but in Connacht alone there were sixteen priests who had to face the charge of being loyal and faithful Irishmen as well as loyal and faithful priests of Cod. We have already told the story of Father Owen Cowley of Mayo, who died in his vestments in the cave of the hills where he was hiding; and we have told of Father Moses Kearns, the brave Wexford priest who, after leading his men through the whole campaign, was hanged along with Anthony Perry at Edenderry in Offaly, when captured by the English.
Father Michael Murphy, a magnificent man beloved of all his followers, was killed in action at the battle of Arklow, and his body was savagely mutilated by the English. Father John Murphy, a great priest, a great Irishman, and a great soldier, was taken prisoner after the battle of Scollagh Gap and most brutally tortured before being hanged in Tullow. Father Philip Roche, a brave man, but one who had faith in English honour and chivalry, went alone and against the advice of Father John and the other leaders, to discuss terms of peace with the English General Lake in Wexford. As soon as he was recognised he was dragged from his horse and literally torn limb from limb. Other priests persecuted in Wexford and its vicinity were Fathers Kavanagh, Stafford, Harold, Bushe, Barrett, Tanfe, and Redmond. The latter was against the Rising and actually intervened successfully to save property belonging to Lord Mountmorris. This humane act was brought against him by the notorious Hunter Cowan, as showing that he was a man of influence among the insurgents, and he was hanged.
PRIESTS OF THE WEST.
It is a very strange thing that Madden has no mention of the splendid priests who stood with their people in the West, and suffered the full force of English hate and cruelty for their devotion and bravery. One of the officers who came over with Humbert was a priest, Fr. Henry O’Kane, a fluent speaker of Irish. Probably because he was a French citizen as well as an officer, the English contented themselves with banishing him for Me from “the Kingdom of Ireland”; but they afterward tried to have their full revenge by saying that he was really a spy in their service. Fr. James Conroy, hero of William Rooney’s fine ballad, “The Priest of Addergool,” was hanged in Castlebar for his part in the Rising. He, too, his murderers, sought to defame by giving out after they had killed him that he begged for mercy and said he was forced to do the things he had done. The people knew this was a lie and they have kept his memory green through all the years. He intercepted a dispatch rider, by name William Burke, a Catholic soldier in the British Army, who was riding fast to Castlebar with news of Humbert’s arrival at Killala. Fr. Conroy stopped him, appealed to his patriotism, got the dispatch from him, and drew him into the ranks of the Republicans, all at the same time. He sent a boy of eight, named John MacHale, to rouse the countryside; that boy was to rise to fame in later years as the great Archbishop of Tuam. The priest then drew a map showing how Castlebar could be reached in a much shorter time by an unfrequented mountain road, and brought his map to Humbert himself, who thanked him for it and acted on his advice. He died as bravely and holily as he had lived. Another great and courageous- priest was Fr. Manus Sweeney, who was hanged at Newport after the Rising. Fr. Michael Cannon was proscribed and a reward offered to anyone who would give information about him. He was hidden and sheltered by the faithful people for a year, but was at last arrested and transported beyond the seas. Fr. Ambrose Cassidy was hunted, arrested, and imprisoned. Among other priests who were proscribed, persecuted, imprisoned or banished were:
Fr. Brown of Foxford; Fr. Paul Feighan; Fr. Ford; Fr. David Kelly; Fr. Thomas Monnelly; Fr. Owen Killeen; Fr. Phelim MacDonnell; Fr. Myles Prendergast; Fr. O’Donnell; Fr. O’Reilly; Fr. McGowan, fid several others, against whom “Donncha an Rópa (the ‘Hon.” Denis Browne) and his gang of spies and priest-hunters failed to bring any charge. It is heartening to know, after reading the slavish utterances of the Bishops and other Castle Catholics of the period, that there were scores of Irish-hearted priests who stood bravely by the people in the hour of trial, fought with them, died with them, suffered with them as comrades and brothers in the cause of the Republic of Ireland. FATHER O’COIGLEY.