BY JOHN FITZGERALD
At the height of the Great Famine, the Young Ireland movement committed itself to repealing the act of Union with Britain. Similar movements on the Continent inspired its radical ideology.
The Young Irelanders aimed to convene an Irish Parliament to tackle the ravages of hunger, poverty, and oppression. “We’ll restore the land of Ireland, and its stewardship, to the Irish people”, they vowed.
Like their counterparts in Europe, they planned to use physical force to achieve their objective.
Unfortunately for the movement, its leaders were hopelessly impractical despite their high ideals. They had no viable strategy or plan of campaign for the rebellion they hoped would free Ireland.
The authorities learned of their “treasonable intent” and ordered the immediate arrest of the conspirators. In July 1848, Habeas Corpus was suspended.
Though unprepared for an uprising, the Young Irelanders were forced to set the wheels of resistance in motion. But the enterprise was doomed from the outset.
The Middle Classes refused to get involved. Cautious and conservative, they foresaw the inevitability of failure.
The peasants, by and large, were too weakened by hunger to even think of rebellion. Many of them could scarcely hold a pike or gun, let alone take on the world’s most powerful empire.
In desperation, the rebels abandoned attempts to seize Dublin City, which was heavily militarised. They sought instead to raise support in rural areas. The “damp squib” which ensued was confined to counties Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary.
Plan to capture Kilkenny
One of the most dedicated of the Young Ireland leaders was William Smith O’ Brien, a Protestant M.P. His task was to capture Kilkenny City. As it was strongly garrisoned by Crown forces, he went to the neighbouring county of Tipperary to seek reinforcements for the assault.
Limited support for his cause was forthcoming in Mullinahone and in an area close to Slievenamon. But the majority of the volunteers threw down their weapons and walked away when the strength of the opposition became evident.
On July 29th, O’ Brien arrived in a village called The Commons, and was encouraged to find that local miners and tenant farmers had turned out support him. A large rebel group assembled behind barricades erected in the village, waiting for the expected police onslaught.
But the forty-five constables from Callan under the command of Sub-Inspector Trant thought better of storming the barricades. Trent ordered his men to move away in the direction of Kilkenny. This emboldened the rebels, who pursued the police across fields in an effort to engage them in combat.
Panicking, Trant and his men forced their way into a two-storey farmhouse located between The Commons and Ballingarry. It was the home of Margaret McCormack and her five young children. Mrs. McCormack was outside the house when the police entered it. She was distraught when she saw her home occupied by dozens of uniformed men.
The police warned her to clear off as they barricaded themselves in the house. They refused to free the children, holding them as hostages against a rebel attack.
As the rebels encircled the house, guns started protruding from the windows. Smith O’ Brien tried to calm the situation. Accompanied by Mrs. McCormack, he approached the parlour window of the house and called upon the police to surrender.
He promised they would be released unharmed if they handed over their weapons. As a gesture of goodwill, he extended his hand to a constable who was leaning out through one of the windows.
But Trant balked at the idea of giving in to what he saw a motley gang of armed peasants. Even as O’ Brien returned to his men after the handshake and his failed attempt at negotiation, a policeman took aim and fired at him. Mrs. McCormack’s children cowered in terror as a full scale gun battle developed. A long siege began that continued for several hours.
O’ Brien, undaunted by the general mayhem, stood erect outside the house in the face of blazing rifle and pistol fire, and had to be pushed out of the firing line by two colleagues, both of whom were wounded. Bravery was fine, they reminded their leader, but suicide looked like a bad idea just then!
John Walsh was fatally shot between the gate piers in front of the house as he broke cover to catch a glimpse of the police. Tom McBride met with a similar fate. The rebels decided that the house could not be captured, given the enemy’s superior firepower, and the risk of injury to the children inside. A local priest was asked to intervene to end the standoff.
Then a large military force was spotted charging over the crest of Baulea Hill. The rebels tried to repulse this new threat, but, being poorly armed and seeing the futility of further bloodshed, Smith O’ Brien abandoned the siege and dispersed his men.
The rebellion itself was also over. The Young Ireland movement was crushed and its leaders jailed, executed, or transported for life. Savage reprisals followed in its wake. Referring to the situation in the South East, the Kilkenny Journal of September 20th, 1848, said: “Great fear prevails among the inhabitants of villages. Many of them have fled; others sleep in ditches. The two companies of the 75th are still under canvas in Callan…”
Margaret McCormack survived the tragic showdown at her home- now a museum called the “War House”- and emigrated to the USA in 1855. The skirmish between Smith O’ Brien’s men and the Callan police came to be known as “the Battle of Widow McCormack’s Cabbage Patch.”
