Remembering the Past
1798 repercussions continue
By Aengus O Snodaigh
Though the United Irish risings failed in 1798, the repercussions and effects were felt for many years to come, culminating in the attempted rising by Robert Emmet and the remnants of the United Irish movement in Dublin in 1803.
For well over a year after the first rising in May 1798, the English authorities allowed their soldiers to roam the country rounding up suspects, bringing them to trial, flogging, transporting or executing the unfortunates caught up in their lust for revenge. They inflicted cruel retribution against the people who had the effrontery to assert their independence of England its crown.
The trials were similar to the showtrials of the 1980s in the Six Counties, with the Crown cases being dependent on informant testimony or a prejudiced judge. The most famous of these was that of Billy Byrne of Ballymanus, the record of which was reprinted last year. Others were not lucky enough to even come to trial, while others remained on the run in the mountains or managed to escape to the continent.
In early May 1798, the Dublin Castle authorities, as well as being on alert for an impending rising, became alarmed at the amount of United Irish sentiment being expressed among the seminaries at the recently-founded Maynooth College. The High Chancellor, Earl Clare, decided to investigate further and to take whatever action was appropriate. But, before he could act, the college authorities, who had also become suspicious of their students, moved against the United Irish contingent in Maynooth for fear that Dublin Castle would close the college down if they were not seen to quash the revolutionary fervour of the young trainee priests.
On 11 May, an emergency meeting of the college trustees ordered the college president, Father Peter Flood, to question the students as to their loyalty to the crown and about their attitude towards the United Irishmen. This he did the next day, and the results showed that their fears were well founded. Of the 69 students at the College, 59 swore they had nothing to do with the United Irish movement, while eight admitted they were sworn members, though they promised to renounce that allegiance. Two refused to answer any questions at all, maintaining their silence against their inquisitors. All ten were promptly expelled. The questioning of the local day students at the college saw seven expelled.
The two seminaries, Frank Hearne and another, mistakenly named as Seán de Paor, were informed on to the English authorities, but it wasn't until a year and a half later that they raided the college in a fruitless search for Hearne, on 1 October 1799.
On the same day though, in a raid on another seminary, St Patrick's College, Carlow, Frank Hearne was captured. He'd only been at the college for three months. A student at that college with the misfortune to be named Seán de Paor was also arrested by the soldiers under Brigadier-General Brydges Henniker. It is thought he was later found not guilty and released.
Hearne was not so lucky, being sent to the custody of Lieutenant-General Johnston in Waterford. He was `tried' at court-martial, found guilty and hanged on 23 October 1799, 200 years ago this week.
This account is largely taken from Séamus de Vál's account ``Abhar sagart agus an tÉirí Amach'' in The Past: the organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society 1998, No. 21
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