Irish Rebellion of 1798: Encyclopedia II - Irish Rebellion of 1798 - Outbreak of the Rebellion

Irish Rebellion of 1798 - Outbreak of the Rebellion

The nucleus of the rebellion had imploded but the counties surrounding Dublin rose as planned and the long threatened rising finally began. Surrounding districts of Dublin were first to rise and rebels quickly began to assemble in Wicklow, Meath and Kildare. The first clashes of the rebellion took place just after dawn on May 24th, and widespread fighting quickly spread throughout Leinster with the county of Kildare bearing the brunt of the initial fighting.

Despite the Government successfully beating off almost every rebel attack, all military forces in Kildare were ordered to withdraw to Naas for fear of their isolation and destruction as at Prosperous which tempoarily handed control of much of county Kildare to the rebels. However, rebel defeats at Carlow, and the hill of Tara, Co Meath effectively ended the rebellion in those counties. News of the rising spread panic and fear among loyalists in Wicklow who responding by massacring rebel suspects held in custody at Dunlavin Green, and in Carnew.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Outbreak of the Rebellion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki