“At Kilkenny the contest is proceeding, and here the mob are also said to be successful.
“No news from Waterford or Cork.”
The writer of this History was in Dublin at that time, and remembers the city being thrown into a state of great excitement by the foregoing intelligence. The alarm was, however, of short duration, as the citizens of the Irish capital were better acquainted with the disposition of the people, and the probability of their sustaining a close contest with the troops. Besides, there existed confidence in the loyalty of the police, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. An incident occurred in Dublin which greatly strengthened that confidence; it was thus related in the papers of the day:—“A policeman who attempted to arrest three of the club-men, who were armed, was stabbed in several places, and now lies dangerously wounded at Mercer’s hospital. The brave fellow never let go his grasp of two of the fellows, and they and a third are in custody, and will, no doubt, be indicted capitally at the next commission. The unfortunate constable (Byrne) at first, on being submitted to medical treatment, continued for some time to improve, but fever having set in, it was deemed advisable for him to make a declaration, and the magistrate on Thursday repaired to the hospital for that purpose.”
Happily the telegraphic communication was found to be false; it was managed by persons in the interest of the insurrection, in order to spread alarm, to magnify the undertaking, and drive many of the Irish people, both in Ireland and Great Britain, to join the confederacy. But while the startling tidings of the telegraph were false, other news, authentic and very alarming, reached London concerning the movements of the insurrectionary chiefs, and the reception which they met with from the people. The following piece of correct intelligence influenced the funds, and produced a considerable degree of anxiety in the public mind:—
“On Sunday evening, July 23rd, Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher reached Carrick-on-Suir at halfpast five in the evening from Kilkenny. On their route, at Gallan, they addressed thousands, and told them for the present not to interfere with the police or soldiery, as they performed their duties, but when the word should be given, not to spare any who opposed them. Monday being fair-day at Carrick, the town was filled with country people, and Messrs. Meagher and O’Brien addressed the people in a more violent and determined strain than heretofore, stating their determination not to be arrested under the provisions of the new act. Both gentlemen were armed with pistols, which they are determined to use in the event of an attempt being made to capture them; they stated that they had spent their fortunes in the people’s cause, and would hazard their lives for their service, and would now throw themselves on the protection of the people. A number of Waterford men, who were at Carrick doing business at the fair, begged of Mr. Meagher to come to Waterford, alleging that his fellow-citizens would protect him from arrest; but Mr. Smith O’Brien would not listen to that proposal, and brought off Mr. Meagher to Cashel, or, as others said, to Tipperary. Whilst this scene was enacting, two hundred of the 3rd Buffs marched in from the camp at Besborough, and took up their position in the barracks. Few of either party slept during the night; the Young Irelanders, however, did not do anything to disturb the peace of the town, but business is totally at a stand-still, and all in and about the town are resting on their arms, waiting for the battle hour. In Waterford the clubs are described as being well organised, and armed, and ready to act when called upon. The people seemed reckless from poverty; groups of workingmen might be seen in the streets by day and night, discussing politics and retailing the news of the hour. The queen’s forces in Waterford were about one thousand strong. The Rhadamanthus steam-vessel was in the river, and it was proposed to form two camps on the hills which command the town. In the country the peasants were arming; at Coolnamuck so much timber had been cut down for pike-handles, that the clubs would not allow any more to be taken thence, in compassion to the proprietor. At Mount Bolton the owner had it cut and left outside the wood for the people, to prevent further waste; at Lord Waterford’s demesne more ash-trees had been cut down, and the useless parts left behind. All the anvils in the country ring with pike-forging, and every weapon is put in order for the fray.”
The effect upon the government, the legislature, and the country, of the electric telegraph and other communications, false and true, may be judged of by the readers of these pages from the following speech by Sir George Grey, the home-secretary in the House of Commons, on Thursday evening, the 27th. Sir George had been questioned on this subject, and thus replied:—
“I have great satisfaction in stating that I have every reason to believe that the alarming accounts which have appeared in the later editions of the morning papers, and which were transmitted this morning from Liverpool by the electric telegraph, to the effect that insurrection had actually broken out in the south of Ireland, are totally destitute of truth. Sir, on receiving the copy of the paper containing the intelligence said to have been sent from Liverpool this morning, I dispatched a letter to the honourable member for Stoke-upon-Trent, to induce him to forward a communication by the electric telegraph to the mayor of Liverpool, requesting to know from him what information had been received in Liverpool from Ireland, and I received a despatch from that functionary, by the electric telegraph, stating that the information published this morning was accompanied from Ireland by a letter, dated Dublin, Wednesday evening, which represented that Mr. Conway, of the Dublin Evening Post, had received from the Castle a most dreadful rumour, which he was about to publish in a second edition of that paper. The writer then went on to say, that he took advantage of our queen’s messenger going off at the moment for London, to forward the intelligence in a parcel to Messrs. Willmer and Smith, of Liverpool, who, no doubt, would transmit it to London by the electric telegraph. The mayor of Liverpool, about an hour after this, further communicated to me that he is perfectly satisfied that the Irish intelligence, contained in the paragraph published in the morning papers, is utterly untrue, unless government have received a despatch from Lord Clarendon, confirming it. He also states that a queen’s messenger certainly had arrived from Dublin by a steamer this morning, and he left Liverpool by the half-past six express train. Now, it is perfectly true that a queen’s messenger was dispatched from Dublin last night. I had sent him over with a despatch, stating that the bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act had received the royal assent, and he left Dublin with a despatch from the lord-lieutenant yesterday evening, and arrived in London by the express train this morning by half-past one o’clock. This despatch certainly describes the state of the country in the neighbourhood of Clonmel, Carrick, and Thurles to be dreadful, but in relation to any actual outbreak it is perfectly silent, and makes no mention whatever. I have seen the messenger, and he states that he left Dublin at three o’clock yesterday afternoon, but he assures me he brought no parcel or letter for any party whatever. The messenger is stated to have come over by a special steamer from Kingston yesterday, that he started at three o’clock by the steamer which was reported to have had the queen’s messenger on board. Now, no queen’s messenger came over in that steamer; but I have received letters from the lord-lieutenant, written after the departure of the queen’s messenger yesterday afternoon, which contain no allusion to those frightful accounts. I am also assured by an hon. member that the hon. gentleman the member for Totness left Dublin yesterday by the steamer which leaves at seven o’clock, and that everything was tranquil when he left—that no rumour of the kind had reached his ears when the steamer left the port. I will only add that I certainly shall endeavour to trace the wilful originator of the report. I have now given all the information in my power, and it enables me to concur with the honourable gentleman that these reports were fabricated for a wicked and malicious purpose. With respect to the state of Ireland, I may only add, that by the letters which I have received from the lord-lieutenant, it appears that Sir Charles Napier had arrived at Cork with his squadron, with an able and ample body of troops, who, I am sure, are always ready to discharge their duty with unflinching bravery, and who are, therefore, entirely free from the imputations which the reports circulated this day have unfoundedly cast upon them.”
Lord Lansdowne was also questioned in the House of Lords, and made a similar reply, when the Marquis of Londonderry, in a very spirited maimer and amidst the applause of the house, inculpated the government for allowing the agitation in Ireland to rise to such a head, arguing that had the seditious writing, speaking, and acting of the confederates been timely prevented, the law would have been vindicated, public peace and order undisturbed, and many thousands of poor deluded men would have been saved from wandering after the ignis fatuus of the Confederation. This philippic was well deserved by the government; had they really desired that the pear should ripen before they plucked it, they could not have proceeded otherwise than they did. The insurrection might have been crushed in the bud had the government exercised proper wisdom and firmness. It will scarcely be believed that during these exciting transactions, any member of the legislature would have the folly to introduce measures for repealing the union or holding parliaments in Ireland. There were, however, such persons: Fergus O’Connor and John O’Connell repeatedly advocated repeal, and Mr. R. M. Fox gave notice of a motion for holding a parliament in Ireland, which, on the 26th, he withdrew, amidst the derisive laughter of the house, the honourable member assuring it that he deprecated the union of repealers and republicans in Ireland. The government and the legislature were very much strengthened by the support which the executive received from Sir Robert Peel. In one of the debates upon the political condition of Ireland during that memorable week, Sir Robert, with great warmth and energy of manner, said, “He was prepared to give his unqualified support to the government. He trusted in the veracity of the ministers when they stated that the conspiracy was wide-spread and imminent, and he was ready to take his part with the crown against those mock kings of Munster of whom they had heard, and against those conspirators who were working to substitute for the mild sway of her majesty a cruel and sanguinary despotism. There was now no excuse for further delay in coping with the Irish traitors, and he for one was prepared to consent to the suspension of all the forms of the house in order to the speedy passing of this bill; and if additional powers should be required, he trusted the government would not hesitate a moment in bringing them forward. Having referred to the results of revolution on the continent, the right honourable gentleman concluded by reiterating his conviction that the throne of this country was firmer than ever fixed in the hearts and affections of the people.”
The Roman Catholic clergy were never favourable to the Young Ireland party. They desired the repeal of the union, and even the entire separation of the two countries; but they had no confidence in the ringleaders of the Confederation, because, in their opinion, some were sceptics, and some heretics, and all men of a judgment below the undertaking: of this a considerable body of the clergymen of the Romish church in Ireland were well competent to judge; they knew the feelings of the people better than any other class of men did, and in their own ranks were numbered a great many men of high attainments and superior intellect. Some of the very old clergymen in the south, who remembered the great insurrection at the close of the last century, and the sufferings which the people experienced, spared no efforts of persuasion and moral influence to prevent a like occurrence, while some of the younger and more active clergymen literally horsewhipped the people to their homes who had turned out. But for these efforts of the priests, there would have been an insurrection of some force; and had the priests given it active encouragement, a wide-spread and sanguinary rebellion must have ensued. Lord Glengall declared in his place in the House of Lords that the country was much indebted to the Roman Catholic priests for the preservation of the peace. The general discontent of the people, and their disloyalty to the throne, had been, however, much perverted by the bigoted spirit and inflammatory harangues of their teachers.
After vain attempts to rouse the people to turn out, Mr. O’Brien, with persistence and courage worthy of any cause, placed himself at the head of a mob of a few hundred peasants and labourers, and without any well-poised aim or determinate plan of action, proclaimed open revolt against the queen’s government. On the 29th of July he appeared as the leader of this hopeless corps, to make war against the mightiest empire in the world. He was, however, compelled to resort to some decisive measure by the proclamations of reward offered for his arrest, and by the efforts which were put forth immediately upon the proclamations having been posted up. Kilkenny was one of the principal foci of the strength of the confederates, and O’Brien seems to have relied mainly upon the men of Kilkenny and Tipperary.