The Battle of the Harrow took place on 26 May 1798 and was the first clash of the

Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influence ...

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

. It was fought between government forces (specifically a unit of Wexford yeoman cavalry, the

Camolin Cavalry The Camolin Cavalry was a mounted yeomanry unit drawn from the area around the village of Camolin, Wexford, Ireland. It was a part of this unit, commanded by Lieutenant Bookey, which encountered Father John Murphy's small band of rebels at The B ...

) and United Irishmen insurgents under the leadership of a local priest, John Murphy who had mobilized following reports of atrocities by the yeomanry during the rebellion led by the

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

revolutionary organisation.

Background

News of the outbreak of the rebellion to the north had filtered down to County Wexford and was accompanied by the arrival of two military regiments notorious for their brutality: the Royal North Cork Militia and a Welsh

fencible The Fencibles (from the word ''defencible'') were British regiments raised in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and in the colonies for defence against the threat of invasion during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the Frenc ...

cavalry unit known as the Ancient Britons. In addition, regular yeomanry patrols of the countryside and reports of a massacre of prisoners by yeomen in Carnew added to the atmosphere of widespread fear. As a consequence, many people banded together to watch for military patrols or abandoned their homes to hide in the countryside. One such group, numbering about forty, were gathered by

Father John Murphy John Murphy (c. 1753 – c. 2 July 1798) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns, who is mainly remembered for his central role in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in County Wexford, which is sometimes known as the ...

near the village of

The Harrow ''The Harrow'' was an online magazine for fantasy and horror fiction, poetry, and reviews, launched in January 1998 by founder and editor-in-chief Dru Pagliassotti. The magazine has an all-volunteer editorial staff and reviewer pool and uses a d ...

on the evening of 26 May. Ostensibly the men had come to cut

turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

for Father Murphy, their local curate, which was a custom at the time. This ruse allowed the men to carry turf cutters, which could serve as rudimentary weapons, but they also had a small number of firearms concealed nearby.

The Fight at The Harrow

Meanwhile, a patrol of about twenty yeomen (belonging to the

) were approaching, alerted by the reports of rebellion and seeking a number of suspected United Irishmen. The yeomen initially passed Fr. Murphy's group without incident, but the bulk of the patrol halted nearby while their commanding officer, a Lieutenant Bookey, together with a private, John Donovan, rode on ahead to the dwelling of one of the suspected United Irishmen. Finding their target was not at home, they set fire to the cabin and then turned back to rejoin their unit. The rebels attacked the yeomanry, killing Bookey and Donovan; the remainder of the patrol fled. The official version of events was recorded in the entry for 26 May 1798 in the Detail Book of the

;

"''On arrival in Ferns, Lieut. Smith and a party was ordered towards Scarawalsh, where the murders were committed, to see if this information was true, and Lieut. Bookey with another Party rode towards the Harrow, where he met a large party of Insurgents armed with Pikes and some Arms. The Lieut. rode before the Party, and ordered the rebels to surrender, and deliver up their Arms, on which they discharged a volley at the Party, accompanied with a shower of stones, some of which brought Lieut. Bookey from his horse, as also John Donovan, a private in the Corps. The party after firing a few shots, finding themselves overpowered by the Rebels, retreated to Ferns, where they remained ‘till day break, melancholy spectators of the devastation committed by the Rebels. The information of the Murders at Scarawalsh found to be true''."

Sources

*H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley; ''The War in Wexford: an account of the rebellion in the south of Ireland in 1798, told from original documents'' (London 1910) pp. 83–4.

External links

1798 Rebellion website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrow, Battle of the Battles of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 History of County Wexford