Irish Rebellion of 1798: Encyclopedia II - Irish Rebellion of 1798 - Atrocities

Irish Rebellion of 1798 - Atrocities

The prelude to the rebellion was characterised by the vicious brutality of Crown forces towards rebels, real or imagined, but large scale massacres quickly accompanied the outbreak of the rebellion. Almost every British victory in the rising was marked by the massacre of captured and wounded rebels, and they were responsible for particularly gruesome massacres at Gibbet Rath, New Ross and Enniscorthy, burning rebels alive in the latter two. In addition, countless civilians were murdered by the rampaging military who also practiced gang rape especially in county Wexford. Captured rebels were not treated as prisoners of war, but as a matter of course, were executed as traitors to the Crown, usually by hanging. Many individual instances of murder were also carried out by aggresive local Protestant and Loyalist Yeomanry Units who often targetted "pardoned" rebels and terrorized the countryside especially after nightfall.

The rebels in turn were guilty of massacres in Rathangan, Co. Kildare but the worst took place in Co. Wexford, at the Vinegar Hill camp, Scullabogue, Wexford bridge and in the Gorey vicinity. Despite the United Irishmen being an avowedly non-sectarian organisation, many of the rebel atrocities had a sectarian tinge especially where rebel discipline broke down, with Protestantism being identified with loyalism. There were also some reported instances of loyalist civilians being forced to "convert" to Catholicism to safeguard their lives and property.

Sectarian animosity was fuelled by the Penal Laws and prior repression, which largely targeted Catholics -including house and church burnings. Rumours of an "Orange Extermination Oath" (which said that Protestant loyalist were planning a massacre of Catholics) were also widespread in the days preceding the outbreak of the rebellion and some may have been actively spread by individual United Irishmen in order to attract recruits. In Wexford, such rumours were given credence by Loyalist massacres of Catholics at Dunlavin Green and Carnew.

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