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| Young Irelander Rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRevolutions of 1848 | |||||||
 Rebels lightning a fire onSlievenamon | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Young Ireland | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| William Smith O'Brien Thomas Meagher Michael Doheny | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2,000 poorly armed, malnourished local peasants[1] | around 50, larger number of reinforcements arrived later | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 killed:
| |||||||
  Location within Ireland | |||||||
TheYoung Irelander Rebellion was a failedIrish nationalist uprising led by theYoung Ireland movement,[2] part of the widerRevolutions of 1848 that affected most of Europe. It took place on 29 July 1848 at Farranrory, a small settlement about 4.3 km north-northeast of the village ofBallingarry, South Tipperary. After being chased by a force of Young Irelanders and their supporters, anIrish Constabulary unit took refuge in a house and held those inside ashostages. A several-hour gunfight followed, but the rebels fled after a large group of police reinforcements arrived.
It is sometimes called theFamine Rebellion (because it took place as a result of the Great Irish Famine), theBattle of Ballingarry or theBattle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch.
As with the earlierUnited Irishmen, who sought to emulate theFrench Revolution,[citation needed] the Young Irelanders were inspired by Republicanism in America and in Europe.[citation needed]
The year 1848 was a year of revolutions throughout continental Europe. In France, KingLouis Philippe was overthrown by theFebruary Revolution and theSecond Republic was proclaimed in Paris.[3] This revolution sent political shock waves across Europe, and revolutions broke out inBerlin,Vienna,Rome,Prague, andBudapest. At least temporarily, absolutist governments were replaced by liberal administrations, suffrage was introduced for a portion of the population and elections were held to constituent assemblies to draw up new national constitutions. It was sometimes described as the "springtime of the people".
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Ireland was also still reeling from the impact of theGreat Famine. The British government's reaction had been too little and too late to prevent the Irish people from suffering great hardship. This delayed reaction was criticized by Irish officials, to little avail.[3]
Inspired by these events and the success of liberal, romantic nationalism on the European mainland and disgusted byDaniel O'Connell's consideration of a renewed alliance with theBritish Whigs,[4][page needed] a group known as Young Ireland broke away from O'Connell'sRepeal Association. They took an uncompromising stand for a national Parliament with full legislative and executive powers. At its founding, the Confederation resolved to be based on principles of freedom, tolerance and truth.[5][page needed] While the young men did not call for rebellion, neither would they make absolute pledges for peace. Their goal was independence of the Irish nation and they held to any means to achieve that which were consistent with honour, morality and reason.[6] TheYoung Irelanders, as they had become known, longed to see achieved in Ireland the liberties achieved onthe Continent. At the beginning of 1847, they formed an organisation known as The Irish Confederation.[7][page needed]
LeadersWilliam Smith O'Brien,Thomas Francis Meagher and Richard O'Gorman led a delegation to Paris to congratulate the new French Republic. Meagher returned to Ireland with a tricolour flag (now thenational flag) – a symbol of the reconciliation of the green of Catholic Gaelic Ireland with the orange of Protestant Anglo Ireland.[3]
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Since most of the continental revolutions were relatively bloodless, O'Brien believed he could attain similar results in Ireland. He hoped to unite Irish landlords and tenants in protest against British rule. The government, however, forced the leaders' hands on 22 July 1848 by announcing the suspension ofhabeas corpus. This meant they could imprison the Young Irelanders and other opponents on proclamation without trial. Having to choose between armed resistance or an ignominious flight, O'Brien decided that the movement would have to make a stand.[8]
On the 16 of July 1848, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher and Michael Doheny gathered 50,000 people on the mountain ofSlievenamon inCounty Tipperary[9]. From 23 to 29 July 1848, O'Brien, Meagher andDillon raised the standard of revolt as they travelled fromCounty Wexford throughCounty Kilkenny and intoCounty Tipperary. The last great gathering of Young Ireland leaders took place in the village of The Commons on 28 July. The next day, O'Brien was in The Commons where barricades had been erected, nearthe Commons colliery,[10] to prevent his arrest. His local supporters—miners, tradesmen and small tenant farmers—awaited the arrival of the military and police. As the police fromCallan approached the crossroads before The Commons from Ballingarry, they saw barricades in front of them and, thinking discretion the better part of valour, they veered right up the road toward County Kilkenny. The rebels followed them across the fields.
Sub-Inspector Trant and his 46 policemen took refuge in a large two-storey farmhouse, taking the five young children in the house ashostages. They barricaded themselves in, pointing their guns from the windows. The house was surrounded by the rebels and a stand-off ensued. Mrs. Margaret McCormack,[11] the owner of the house and mother of the children, demanded to be let into her house, but the police refused and would not release the children. Mrs. McCormack found O'Brien reconnoitering the house from the out-buildings and asked him what was to become of her children and her house.
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O'Brien and Mrs. McCormack went up to the parlour window of the house to speak to the police. Through the window, O'Brien stated, "We are all Irishmen—give up your guns and you are free to go." O'Brien shook hands with some of the police through the window. The initial report to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland stated that a constable fired the first shot at O'Brien, who was attempting to negotiate. General firing then ensued between the police and the rebels. O'Brien had to be dragged out of the line of fire by James Stephens andTerence Bellew MacManus, both of whom were wounded.
The rebels were incensed that they had been fired upon without provocation, and the shooting went on for a number of hours. During the initial exchange of fire, the rebels at the front of the house—men, women and children—crouched beneath the wall. So great was the pressure of the crowd that one man, Thomas Walsh, was forced to cross from one side of the front gate to the other. As he crossed between the gate piers he was shot dead by the police. During lulls in the shooting, the rebels retreated out of the range of fire. Another man, Patrick McBride, who had been standing at the gable-end of the house when the firing began—and was quite safe where he was—found that his companions had retreated. Jumping up on the wall to run and join them, he was fatally wounded by the police.
It was evident to the rebels that the position of the police was almost impregnable, and a Catholic clergyman of the parish, Rev. Philip Fitzgerald, endeavoured to mediate in the interests of peace. When a party of theCashel police under Sub-Inspector Cox were seen arriving over Boulea Hill, the rebels attempted to stop them even though they were low on ammunition, but the police continued to advance, firing up the road. It became clear that the police in the house were about to be reinforced and rescued. The rebels then faded away, effectively terminating both the era of Young Ireland and Repeal, but the consequences of their actions would follow them for many years. This event is colloquially known as "the Battle of Widow McCormack's cabbage plot".
John Mitchel, the most committed advocate of revolution, had been arrested early in 1848, then convicted on the purposefully–created charge oftreason-felony. He was sentenced to transportation toBermuda, where he joined other convicts labouring on the construction of theRoyal Naval Dockyard onIreland Island. He was subsequently sent toVan Diemen's Land (in present-dayTasmania, Australia) where he was soon to be joined by other leaders, such asWilliam Smith O'Brien andThomas Francis Meagher who had both been arrested after Ballingarry.John Blake Dillon escaped to France, as did three of the younger members,James Stephens,John O'Mahony andMichael Doheny. Meagher and John Mitchel (who had been transported there before for political activities) both managed to escape and emigrate to the United States in the early 1850s. They served on opposite sides of theAmerican Civil War: Meagher serving withthe Union, for which he recruited and commanded theIrish Brigade, and Mitchel allying himself with the South and living there, sending three sons to fight with theConfederacy.[12]
The McCormack family emigrated to the US in about 1853. Since that time, the McCormack house (which was owned by numerous other families after 1848) has always been known locally as the Warhouse. In 2004,the State decided on "Famine Warhouse 1848" as the official name of the house, which had been designated a national heritage monument.[13][14]
After the collapse of the rebellion, James Stephens and John O'Mahony went tothe Continent to avoid arrest. In Paris, they supported themselves by teaching and with translation work and planned the next stage of "the fight to overthrowBritish rule in Ireland". In 1856, O'Mahony went to America and founded theFenian Brotherhood in 1858. Stephens returned to Ireland and in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day 1858, following an organising tour through the length and breadth of the country, founded the Irish counterpart of the American Fenians, theIrish Republican Brotherhood.[15][16][17]
