Bartholomew Teeling

Captain Bartholomew Teeling (1774 in Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland – 24 September 1798, in Arbor Hill, County Dublin, Ireland) was an Irish republican who was leader of the Irish forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and who carried out an act of bravery during the Battle of Collooney. He was captured at the Battle of Ballinamuck and executed for treason.

Background

Teeling, the son of a wealthy Catholic linen manufacturer in Lisburn, County Down. He was educated at the Dubordieu School in Lisburn. His younger brother Charles Teeling (1778–1850) went on to be a writer.

In 1795 the two brothers joined the United Irishmen and helped cement the republican movement's alliance with the Catholic Defenders. In County Down, their brother-in-law, John Magennis, was the Defenders "Grand Master". In 1796 Batholomew travelled to France to encourage support for a French invasion of Ireland.

1798 Rebellion

Land at Killala

Teeling returned to Ireland on 22 August 1798, as Chief Aide de Camp to General Humbert, and landed at Killala Bay between County Sligo and Mayo with French troops. On 28 August the combined forces captured Castlebar and declared the Republic of Connacht. The Franco-Irish troops then pushed east through County Sligo but were halted by a cannon which the British forces had installed above Union Rock near Collooney.

Battle of Collooney

On 5 September 1798, Teeling cleared the way for the advancing Irish-French army by single handedly disabling a British gunner post during the Battle of Collooney in Sligo when he broke from the French ranks and galloped towards Union Rock. He was armed with a pistol and shot the cannon's marksman and captured the cannon. The French and Irish advanced and the British, after losing the cannon position, retreated towards their barracks at Sligo, leaving 60 dead and 100 prisoners.

Battle of Ballinamuck

During the Battle of Ballinamuck at Longford Teeling and approximately 500 other Irishmen were captured along with their French allies. The French troops were treated as prisoners of war and later returned to France, however the Irish troops were executed by the British.

Teeling was court-martialled by Britain as an Irish rebel. To positively identify him, the authorities enlisted William Coulson, a damask manufacturer from Lisburn, who identified him as a son of Luke Teeling, a linen merchant who lived in Chapel Hill, Lisburn. Teeling was hanged at Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.

Teeling attempted to read the following statement from the scaffold, but was not permitted to:

He is believed to have been buried at the mass grave of rebels at Croppies' Acre, Dublin.

Teeling monument

In 1898, the centenary year of the battle, a statue of Teeling was erected in Carricknagat. One of the main streets in Sligo Town, which accommodates the Sligo Courthouse and main Garda Síochána barracks was later named Teeling Street also in honour of Bartholomew Teeling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teeling, Bartholomew
1774 births
1798 deaths
People from Lisburn
Irish republicans
United Irishmen
People executed for treason
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
People executed by the British military by hanging
People executed by the Kingdom of Great Britain
Executed Irish people