9 June 1998

Mark Coyne, St. Geralds College, Castlebar, was the senior winner of the essay competition run by the Castlebar 1798 Committee.

He has won a trip to France and a cheque for £300 for his essay entitled '1798. . . 1998' which is printed below.

The runners-up were Yvonne McDermott, St. Joseph's Secondary School, Castlebar ; Ruth Hughes, St. Joseph's Secondary School, Castlebar; Claire Lavelle, St. Joseph's Secondary School, Castlebar; Padraic Neary, St Gerald's College, Castlebar; and John Regan, St. Gerald's College, Castlebar. Each received £50.

Eibhlin Ni Ghallachoir, Scoil Naomh Angeal, Caislean A Bharraigh., was the winner of the national school section. She won a mountain bicycle. The runners-up were Cian Mannion, St. Joseph's National School, Breaffy, Castlebar; Brenda Ni Mhaolfabhail, Scoil Raifteiri, Caislean A Bharraigh; Teresa Ryan, Scoil Naomh Angeal, Caislean A Bharraigh; and Sean O'Mordha, Scoil Raifteiri, Caislean A Bharraigh. Each received £50.

Karen Brennan, Balla Secondary School, Balla, won the junior section and was presented with a CD stereo unit. The runners up were William Lavelle, Saint Gerald's College, Castlebar. "Special Merit"; John Ennis, St. Gerald's College, Castlebar; Susan Mannion, Davitt College, Castlebar; Padraic Barrett, Balla Secondary School, Balla; Robert Heraty, St. Gerald's College, Castlebar; Miriam Flatley, Balla Secondary School, Balla; and Patrick Lavelle, St. Gerald's College, Castlebar. Each received £50 at the presentation ceremony on Saturday.

In memory of the dead.

Two hundred years after this bloody rebellious event we aim to go beyond past synthetic commemorations to finally tell and understand the real story which will cause a transformation in our thinking about the 1798 rebellion. The 1998 commemorations, Comóradh '98 wishes to exhibit a factual realisation of what 1798 was all about?.

The Northern Peace Process today aspires to realise the same aspirations of the United Irishmen. The United Irishmen strived to engineer a political framework here and with Britain, epitomising all Irish people 'Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.'

The years between 1790-1805 were a pivotal period in the formation of modern Ireland, incorporating the roots of Republicanism, Loyalism, Separatism, Internationalism, Unionism and the birth of the Orange Order. The consequences of all these have survived and have breathed a new life amongst our people today.

It is the time when sectarian contours of Irish identity were set in place. The vanquishment of the 1798 rebellion was, also a major set back to the democrats of Scotland and England.

The song that must be heard and understood amidst all other harmonies is that, most of the discontent in Ireland at that time was with the destructive defected Irish Government not with England to the extent that Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian alike longed for the Act of Union (1801) as a welcomed alternative.

As Pakenham remarks, in his book 'The Year of Liberty', "the rebellion was not provoked by Pitt and the British Government, as most Irishmen came to believe, in order to pass the Union. On the contrary, was the result of Pitts failure to have any policy for Ireland". "Pitt could have corrected these abuses but instead distracted by the war with France, hoped for the best and Ireland was left to its fate."

However there is a danger that combinations of historical re-evaluation, mass commemoration and the reduction of an intricate and delicate period to "shared heritage" is really a slick sauce for mass indulgence. Such events, politically wriggled tell more about contemporary needs than they do about the events themselves.

This years version, sings a harmony in tune with nationalist versions of the Northern Peace Process and a lost dream of the United Irishmen that can yet be made a reality.

The danger this simplification posses is that we begin to brush vital elements to understanding the 1798 rebellion under the carpet. What about the 30,000 that died in 1798?.

To focus only on the ideals of the United Irishmen suggests to me that the dead of 1798 are politically inconvenient because they raise issues of responsibility and evoke new possibilities of further sectarianism. However in very many of the killings on both sides 'orange and green' in 1798, like in Northern Ireland today, victims were on opposite sides of the sectarian divide and knew one another.

In past commemorations of 1798, those for example in 1898, 1938, and 1948 the truth has being twisted so much, that people of the time were ignorant to the real factual story of the 1798 rebellion satisfying both narratives 'the orange and the green.' These previous major commemorations were passionate commemorations of the ideals of Catholic and Gaelic Ireland hence the 1898 interpretation of 1798 as 'Faith and Fatherland.'

MONUMENTS OF PIKEMEN

Monuments of pikemen and fighting priests were uncovered throughout the country and populace processions led by dramatic representations of Fr. Murphy on horseback. In deep contrast to today, little emphasis was put on the need for historical reassessment and research into the origins and consequences of the 1798 rebellion and worse again there was no trace of recognition to the true leaders of the rebellion the United Irishmen and to their core ideal of uniting 'Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.'

In the immediate aftermath of 1798, the next to kin of the courageous rebels shun and rampantly failed even to acknowledge that their family members had taken an active part in the rebellion. At the opening of the Mayo County Council Official 1798 Commemorations, John Cooney spoke of how many of the rebel insurgents graves are unmarked. This was a safety precaution and many of graves of the time are marked with gravestones marked with the years 1788, 1797, and 1799 avoiding giving the hint that someone died in 1798 during the rising. Following the rising Catholic chapels and liberty trees were burnt victoriously by loyalists.

In the 19th century history and reminiscence for most people of the rebellion were shaped by Sir Richard Musgraves history, first published in 1803. Musgrave accused Catholics priests as the root instigators and conspirators of the rebellion. The families who had supported the rebellion sought safety in suppressing their memories. The grave of Theobald Wolfe Tone the 'Father of Irish Republicanism' was duly marked in 1844 by the Young Islanders. The question which today is thankfully being asked is "How did Fr. Murphy become the hero of the Rising and how did history come to misrepresent the memories of courageous Presbyterians throughout the island of Ireland?"

It is now known by historical reassessment that the 1898 commemorations received this prejudicial, thwarted theme mainly due to the writings of a Wexford Franciscan Fr. Patrick Kavanagh. Kavanagh's Popular History of The Insurrection of 1798 was first published in the aftermath of the failed Fenian rising of 1867 and quickly became the popularly accepted account of 1798.

Kavanagh's deep sectarian suspicions of the motives of Isaac Butt, Parnell, and other Protestant politicians explains his attitude and ominously 'accurate account' of 1798. The second edition of his 'accurate account' of 1798 was published in 1874 the year 59 Home Rulers led by Butt were elected as MPs. Kavanagh by unacknowledging the role the Protestants in the rebellion and glorifying Catholics priests such as Fr. Murphy as the true leaders of the rebellion, he had in effect managed to complete Musgrave's intentions. The reality of course is that there were as many Catholics fighting for crown and country as there were Protestant. The Catholic Church at the time opposed the rebellion fearing for Ireland after having seen what was happening in France. Would the Catholic priests have being the first to the block?. Would they have turned places like Connemara into another Vendée?

STRIVED TO ENGINEER

Kavanagh died in 1918 but his fabled and passionate 'accurate account' continued to govern the celebrations in 1938 and 1948. In the 1930's Protestant workers were stoned and jeered when they tried to join the Bodenstown commemorations. The story that the United Irishmen strived to engineer a political framework here and with Britain, epitomising all Irish people 'Protestant, Catholics and Dissenter' was lost by the popular accumulation of romanticising and fictitious ballads again glorifying unjustly men such as Fr. Murphy ( e.g. Boolavogue). The consequences of which we now live with today.

Today most of the general public know that Theobald Wolfe Tone is the 'father' of Irish Republican nationalism. However many of us have distorted images of Tone's idea of Republican Nationalism. Tone's main objective was not wholly to end English rule in Ireland, by force of arms if necessary but the emancipation of the unjustly oppressed Catholics.

His conversion to militant republicanism was an accident rather than his principal aim. Elliott's biography of Tone illustrates the fact how each political grouping in Ireland takes from Tone's life, only what they see relevant to their cause. The best illustration is when she describes the annual pilgrimages of different groups of nationalists to Bodenstown on separate occasions, where she says 'the constitutionalists dissociating themselves from the IRA's ceremony and the physical force element in Tone's legacy.'

The Young Islanders like the United Irishmen were not doctrinaire on the issue of armed resistance but their second generation led a hopeless revolt in 1848 and brought into Fenianism 'the most enduring militant Irish Republican movement until the rise of the IRA.' By reading Elliott's biography of Tone one can see how Tone's republicanism was very different from modern day nationalism in the North. The media ignited fears among the public reporting that Sinn Fein had hijacked the 1798 Commemorations with their rally on Vinegar Hill in February this year but the fact of the matter is that Vinegar Hill is a public amenity and therefore can be used by anyone whenever they like. This rally was not an official Comóradh '98 celebration and therefore upholds any resulting twist to be put on this years commemorations.

The Orange Order which was founded in 1795, formed into a Grand Lodge in 1798 was made up of yeomanry that put down the rebellion. The Orange Order was against the rebellion. Rev Brian Kennaway, convenor of the education committee of the Orange Lodge of Ireland says "It was the children of the men of 1798 whom became the leaders of the Orange Order in the next generation". The reissue of Murder Without Sin by the Orange Order without any foreword to interpret the text claiming the letters on a rebel flag meant 'Murder Without Sin': if a Catholic killed a Protestant it would not be a sin, has not been helpful and clearly illustrates, how far this gap between fact and fiction has sub-conscientiously widened. Today we know that there's no justification to this argument and that the letters simply meant 'Men of West Shelmalier'(a barony near Wexford). Although the Orange Order's participation in the commemorations of 1798 are widely welcomed, this blatant sectarianism is just unacceptable.

The Scullabogue massacre is one of the most frightening example of sectarianism and hence was used in the realm of propaganda in the aftermath of the rebellion: Hundreds, mostly Protestant, crown supporters were shot and burned by rebel forces at Scullabogue, Co. Wexford in retaliation for the slaughter of wounded 'croppies' after the battle of New Ross. It must be remembered and understood that it was not rebel policy to commit atrocities. Those that did occur were denounced by the leaders. On the government side, however the army generals encouraged their militia to commit atrocities.

LICENCE TO KILL

General Lake, the real life Rambo or Bond gave the order to take no prisoners which really meant the licence to kill. Unionists have used the Scullabogue massacre to point the finger at Wexford and say that 1798 was a sectarian war. The Presbyterians like the Catholics had religious and political obstacles enforced on them. Both, in any case were enlightened by revolutionary events in France and America and also by the liberal Presbyterianism radiating from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The brotherhood among these two religious races frightened the government to the extreme extent that after the rebellion Propaganda was circulated by government agents with the aim to destroy this powerful weapon which was one of the keys to French victory 'Fraternité'. Although most modern day Presbyterians are Unionists they are now looking on 1798 as part of their heritage. Presbyterians should also be reminded that in 1792 the Presbyterian Synod's made a stand for Catholic Emancipation.

Commemoration should give due acknowledgement to the competence of the United Irishmen in the way they organised the populace with the modernity of their principles. The principle that each man no matter 'Protestant, Catholic or Dissenter' had democratic rights was a futuristic principle at the time, so much so that it really shook the establishment. The fears that it propagated explained some of the cruelties that were unleashed ('flogging, hanging and pitch-capping') by government forces on suspected 'croppies.'

One further consequence was the emergence of separatism and internationalism. Elliott in her biography of Wolfe Tone and in 'Partners In Revolution' has recast the rising as a intricate and delicate process of events which connects Ireland, England, Scotland and France together. We should celebrate Comóradh '98 not just with separatism in mind but also realising the international significance of 1798, just like the above extract from the United Irish Catechism which prompts us to appreciate the global international revolutionary movements which was sown in America, germinated and blossomed in France and was dispersed to Ireland. We need to look also at what was taking place in America, Britain, and France and the international political element: as for example not to forget that United Irishmen played an active role in the founding of the Republican Party in America.

The commemorations of 1798 should not be sold at bargain price for mass indulgence simplified as a time when we should celebrate our 'shared heritage' nor should it be sold as a time for focussing on the ideals of the United Irishmen. It is a time not owned by any one tradition and therefore should not be sold accordingly. It was a time which bore the seedlings of republicanism, Loyalism, Separatism, Internationalism, Unionism, and Orangeism. We have a chance to finally erase the sectarian contours which for so long has moulded our Irish identity. If we fail to recognise and celebrate the 1798 commemorations accordingly, then we should all fear to speak of '98.

Connaught Telegraph - News & Sport - June 1998