CA more and rooted general spirit of disaffectiony: in the 1803 rising Kildare by Liam Chambers Detail from A Map of the County of Kildare by Lieut. Alexander] Taylor, of his Majesty's 81st Regt, 1783. (Andrew Bonar Law) 20 HISTORY IRELAND Autumn 2003 In the aftermath of the 1803 and reports continued to reach the county to encourage and organise rebellion Robert Emmet frankly Dublin Castle of suspicious activities. potential rebels. A well-known admitted that 'To change the day Kildare involvement in plans for republican, he was arrested soon was impossible for I expected the rebellion in 1803 began inMarch. One after his arrival in Kildare in March counties to act, and feared to lose the of the men recruited in France to play 1803 and was later tried at Naas for advantage of surprise'. The a leading role in the conspiracy was a involvement in the 1798 rebellion, but participation of rebels from County stonemason from Rathcoffey called was acquitted. While reports now Kildare was central to Emmet's Michael Quigley. Quigley was one of began to trickle into Dublin Castle of strategy. The county's proximity to the fifteen Kildare leaders who renewed rebel activity in Kildare, the Dublin and the high-profile surrendered in July 1798. He was government remained largely in the involvement of the Kildare United banished after his release from prison dark about rebel preparations since Irishmen in 1798 ensured that they in 1802. Quigley arrived back in there was no formal organisational would become involved again in 1803. Ireland on 5 March 1803. Two days structure to penetrate, as had been Not only did Emmet expect hundreds later he met Robert Emmet in Dublin; the case in 1798. Indeed, despite the of Kildare rebels to participate in the Emmet supplied him with money and reactions of magistrates to Quigley's projected coup d'?tat in Dublin, he dispatched him to Kildare where, he mission and Delany's arrest, military also envisaged a rising in the county. assured Emmet, he would be able to commanders and government spies Despite a number of crushing enlist one thousand rebels willing to reported from Kildare that the county setbacks, it is remarkable that march on Dublin on only two days' was tranquil as late as July. hundreds, possibly thousands, of notice. Accompanied by Thomas By this stage plans for rebellion Kildare rebels were poised to engage Wylde and John Mahon, Quigley were proceeding rapidly. On 15 July a in rebellion on 23 July 1803. The two visited known United Irish veterans in meeting of Kildare leaders took place main centres of rebellion outside the Naas, Sallins, Rathcoffey, Prosperous, at the Thomas Street depot in Dublin. capital were the Kildare towns of Timahoe and elsewhere. Quigley's Emmet introduced Nicholas Gray, an Naas and Maynooth. This deserves mission around north Kildare was attorney and leading Wexford United some attention. Indeed, it was no closely followed by local magistrates, Irishman in 1798, who now resided wonder that the lord lieutenant, the and according to their reports local near Athy, as the projected leader of earl of Hardwicke, commented after United Irishmen responded the Kildare rebels. Three leaders from the rebellion that 'there is a more enthusiastically. Sir Fenton Aylmer, a Maynooth and Celbridge were also general and rooted spirit of prominent local landowner, noted present: Owen Lyons, Thomas disaffection in that county than in any that 'the peasantry of the County Kereghan and Thomas Frayne. A other part of the country'. Kildare in general are determined to loose plan was agreed. Rebels from rise when they hear of a French Naas would march on Dublin, while invasion and the 10 rebels in other of the Preparations join enemy'. By parts county March Quigley was back in Dublin, would take action locally. The Before the outbreak of the 1798 where he directed rebel preparations explosion at the Patrick Street depot rebellion Kildare had one of the with the assistance of other Kildare the following day meant that the date strongest United Irish organisations rebels who had been recruited to for rebellion was brought forward to in the country. Despite the fact that work in the arms depots in the city 23 July. On 21 July Thomas Wylde and government disarming was beginning centre. Malachi Delany, a south John Mahon were sent to Kildare to to bite in the months before rebellion Kildare veteran of 1798, also visited alert rebels of the impending broke out, the rising in Kildare lasted two months, ending with the surrender of the leading participants on 21 July 1798. This did not mean the end of the United Irish organisation in the county. Some groups of United Irishmen, under leaders like Michael Doorly of Lullymore, continued to meet in remote areas. In other parts of the county it appears that new organisational structures were introduced which ensured that no meetings were necessary and that action would only be taken once plans for a new rebellion were well advanced. This meant that neither the government nor local magistrates had any clear indication of the scale of disaffection in the county, beyond the activities of robbers who took advantage of post-rebellion lawlessness. Over the next few years Kildare was gradually pacified, St Patrick's and the castle, c. 1800. left of remained Maynooth, showing College Maynooth (top map) though loyalists vigilant and Naas (bottom left) were the main centres of rebellion in the county. (Royal Irish Academy) HISTORY IRELAND Autumn 2003 21 Robert Emmet and Michael Dwyer in Marshalsea Lane depot, 1803. Emmet met Kildare United Irish leaders there on 15 July 1803. (Shamrock, December 1896) insurrection. However, problems July about one hundred rebels, supplied after the rebellion Leinster arose when Kildare rebels began possibly more, gathered on the main also contacted the rebels through a arriving in Dublin to view for street in Maynooth under the servant called Thomas Cooney and themselves the preparations and leadership of Owen Lyons, a offered them weapons from Carton. arms in the depots. One group of shoemaker, Carter Connolly, a This was not because the duke Kildare rebels arrived on the morning schoolteacher, and Thomas supported or sympathised with the of the rebellion and were bitterly Kereghan, a farmer and Grand Canal rebels, though some rebels were disappointed by the unsatisfactory boatman, all wearing 'green deluded enough to think that this was level of armaments they found, which uniforms'. The rebels were armed the case, but 'lest government should contradicted the glowing reports of with pikes, though some had think that they, the rebels, would not Wylde and Mahon. This group of muskets, pistols, swords and lay a hand on him'. unidentified rebels simply returned carbines. They easily overpowered About midnight the small band of home, bringing the men under their the only two soldiers stationed in the Maynooth insurgents learned that command with them. This is a telling town and then set about searching the mailcoach was approaching and episode. It suggests that United for arms in the possession of local an ambush was prepared. One Irishmen had learned the lessons of inhabitants. At this point a curious, participant, Daniel Collison, later 1798 and would not be overawed by and later disputed, incident described what happened: '. upon the leadership of someone from a occurred. Carton House, the seat of the mailcoach coming up Kereghan higher social class like Emmet. the duke of Leinster, William Robert and his party fired first and as the Fitzgerald, was just outside coach passed the inn yard of Rebellion Maynooth. The duke's liberal politics Maynooth . Owen Lyons and his were well known, leading to party fired: s[ai]d Lyons being in Despite this setback, Emmet decided unwarranted accusations of uniform and armed with a that the rebellion would proceed, complicity in the 1798 rebellion. The blunderbuss ... there were a number involving other Kildare insurgents. United Irish involvement of his of cars drawn across William Bridge Later reports suggested that rebels brother, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, only in Maynooth . and s[ai]d bridge were poised for action across the heightened suspicions. Leinster was was guarded by a body of pikemen county, particularly in the north. In made aware of plans for a rising on 23 who threw down their pikes when the the end, however, only two towns July and immediately informed coach had passed the parties who seriously participated: Maynooth and Dublin Castle, later asking for extra fired'. At this point the rank and file Naas. At around eight o'clock on 23 troops. But according to information were already becoming wary. The 22 HISTORY IRELAND Autumn 2003 leaders decided to march to Celbridge, where they expected to rendezvous with a rebel force commanded by Thomas Frayne, who had also met with Emmet in Dublin. However, Frayne announced that his force would not be ready until the following night. After the small rebel force reached Rathcoffey on 24 July, they became aware that the rebellion in Dublin had failed. They were now in a precarious position- rebels in arms with no possibility of success and few options. They were already in indirect contact with the duke of Leinster, who offered to accept their surrender without an 'inquiry'. Initially hesitant, one group of rebels took up the offer after negotiations involving a French-born professor of natural philosophy at Maynooth College, Andre Darre. They finally surrendered in Maynooth on 25 July. According to plans agreed by Emmet and rebel leaders from Kildare a week before the rebellion, rebels from Naas would not attack the town (they had failed to capture it despite a prolonged assault on 24 May 1798); instead they were to march on Dublin.