Old Kilcullen 7 a.m
The outbreak of the rebellion on the night of 23/24 May 1798 led to failed assaults on Ballymore-Eustace, Naas, and Prosperous. As news of the rising spread throughout Kildare, Kilcullen rebels began to mobilise in the ancient hill-top churchyard in the town-land now known as Old Kilcullen. About 200 had gathered by daybreak, including a number of survivors of the attack on Ballymore-Eustace, when they were spotted by local military under the command of Lieutenant General Ralph Dundas, Commander of the Army of the Midlands, whose headquarters, Castle Martin, was located only three miles away. Dundas quickly mustered a combined force of about 120 infantry, cavalry and dragoons and marched to disperse the rebel gathering.
The 80 or so cavalry and dragoons raced ahead of the infantry and upon arrival at the base of the hill, charged the rebel gathering. The rebels however, quickly entrenched themselves on three sides by using a ditch and the walls of the ruined church and graveyard to protect their flanks. The cavalry were driven back by the long pikes of the rebels, losing over thirty of their number and many of their horses in the fighting. Two of their captains lay dead on the field, one of whom, a Captain Erskine, reportedly met his death after the battle. As he lay disabled with a broken leg from a horse fall he was discovered by an old woman scavenging the battlefield who stabbed him to death with a rusty knife. The rebels threatened to take advantage of the disarray of the cavalry with their own attack but the eventual arrival of infantry shielded the survivors withdrawal to Kilcullen Bridge where they were reinforced by about 100 local yeomen.
Knockaulin 26 May
The rebels defeated by General Dundas at Turnpike Hill, amassed themselves on Knockaulin hill (the ancient site of Dún Ailinne) near Old Kilcullen. On Saturday 26 May they began to negotiate a surrender. When Dundas replied favourably to the rebels overture for peace, they delivered terms. They would surrender themselves and their arms and return to their homes, provided the free-quarters would end and plundered property was restored. While Dundas may have been favourable to negotiate terms and end hostilities, the government was indignant and sent General Gerard Lake, Commander-in-Chief of the army, to Castlemartin.
By the time Lake arrived on Sunday, Dundas had agreed that the surrender would take place the next day, Whit Monday. Patrick O'Kelly, aged 17, was chosen to accept the surrender on behalf of the rebels and was appointed a Colonel so he could properly treat with General Dundas. The meeting was cordial but Lake refused any terms, other than the complete surrender of the rebels in the avenue of Castlemartin. O'Kelly said the rebels would only surrender on the hill. Despite Lake's objections, Dundas climbed Knockaulin.
The presence of Dundas greatly mollified the rebels disappointment at the refusal of terms, and the men began to deposit their arms and return home. The subsequent pile of arms was the size of the Royal Exchange, according to O'Kelly in his General History of the Rebellion of 1798, and these were later removed to Castlemartin. This avoided a planned assault by Lake as he had three regiments of infantry and four pieces of artillery lying within one mile of Castlemartin, ready to engage the rebels if necessary.
Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake was a British general. He commanded British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later served as Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India.
The Battle of Glenmalure took place in Ireland on 25 August 1580 during the Desmond Rebellions. A Catholic army of united Irish clans from the Wicklow Mountains led by Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne and James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass of the Pale, defeated an English army under Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton, at Clan O'Byrne's mountain stronghold of Glenmalure.
The Battle of Naas took place in Ireland on 24 May 1798.
The Battle of Ballymore-Eustace was one of the events in the United Irish rebellion of 1798. It took place on 24 May 1798 after the stationing of the 9th Dragoons, and members of the Tyrone, Antrim and Armagh Militias at Ballymore in County Kildare near the Kildare-Wicklow border on 10 May. The town had been recently garrisoned by almost 200 soldiers and militia who had been sent to repress sedition in the area. The troops had been dispersed in billets among the populace as per counter-insurgency practice of "free-quarters" where responsibility for the provisioning and sheltering of militia was foisted onto the populace. During this time a quantity of arms were surrendered and letters of protection issued.
The Carnew executions refer to the summary execution of 28 prisoners being held as suspected United Irishmen by yeomanry troops from the Carnew garrison stationed in the barracks of Carnew Castle, County Wicklow, Ireland on 25 May 1798.
The Gibbet Rath executions, sometimes called the Gibbet Rath massacre, refers to the execution of several hundred surrendering rebels by government forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 at the Curragh of Kildare on 29 May 1798.
Ballymore Eustace is a small town situated in County Kildare in Ireland, although until 1836 it lay within an exclave of County Dublin. It lies close to the border with County Wicklow.
The battle of Ovidstown was a military engagement between British Crown forces and United Irishmen rebels during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 near the town of Kilcock, County Kildare. Despite the initial failures experienced by the United Irishmen in County Kildare during the first months of the rebellion, the consolidation of government forces in the town of Naas and the priority given by the Dublin Castle administration to suppress the Wexford Rebellion in County Wexford meant that much of the county remained in rebel hands since the outbreak of the rebellion. Towns such as Prosperous and Clane were in rebel hands, while towns such as Maynooth, Kilcock and Kildare had been attacked and briefly occupied by the rebels. By 19 June, however, neighbouring County Meath had been judged sufficiently pacified to allow for government forces to be dispatched from that county into Kildare to recapture rebel-held territory.
County Kildare in the province of Leinster, Ireland, was first defined as a diocese in 1111, shired in 1297 and assumed its present borders in 1836. Its location in the Liffey basin on the main routes from Dublin to the south and west meant it was a valuable possession and important theatre of events throughout Irish history.
Kilcullen, formally Kilcullen Bridge, is a small town on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Ireland. Its population of 3,815 at the 2022 census made it the 13th largest settlement in County Kildare. From 2002 to 2011, it was one of the fastest growing towns in the county, doubling its population from 1,483 to 3,473. It is situated primarily in the Barony of Kilcullen, with a part in the Barony of Naas South, and subsidiary areas include Logstown, Harristown, Carnalway and Brannockstown, Gilltown, Nicholastown, and Castlemartin.
Events from the year 1798 in Ireland.
Castlemartin is the name of a historic house and estate, and the townland in which they sit, on the banks of the River Liffey in Kilcullen, County Kildare, Ireland. Formerly a key estate of the Eustace family, it was for many years the home of media magnate Tony O'Reilly, and his wife, Chryss Goulandris, but was bought in 2015 by John Malone, an Irish American. The estate includes major stud farm and cattle breeding operations, a restored medieval church and an icehouse.
St. Mary's Church, Castlemartin, located in the broad Kilcullen area of County Kildare, Ireland, is the first medieval church in Ireland to have been restored to full working order. The small stone Roman Catholic church, with accompanying burial ground, lies within Castlemartin Estate, which belonged for many years to media magnate Tony O'Reilly; O'Reilly paid for the restoration in 1979–1980, after which the church was reconsecrated in August 1981 by Archbishop Dermot Ryan. There has been a church on this site for over 800 years.
James FitzEustace of Harristown, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass (1530–1585) James FitzEustace, the eldest son of Rowland Eustace, 2nd Viscount Baltinglass and Joan, daughter of James Butler, 8th Baron Dunboyne.
Old Kilcullen, formerly Kilcullen, is a townland in County Kildare, Ireland, which includes a noted religious archaeological site within its boundary. As a townland it is relatively large but lightly populated. The location of the townland is roughly contained within the R418 and R448 routes starting at its most northerly point, a crossroads known locally as Thompson's Cross. The townland continues south from this point as far as Harklow and is intersected in its north east corner by the M9 motorway at Abbeyaun. Old Kilcullen was formerly the site of a walled town, and before that of an ecclesiastical settlement dating from the 5th century. The original settlement gave its name to the substantial surrounding civil parish and barony.
The High Sheriff of Kildare was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kildare, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kildare County Sheriff. The High Sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However, the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not serve his full term due to death or another event, and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given in this article are the dates of appointment.
Harristown is a townland in County Kildare on the River Liffey 2.5 miles (4.0 km) downstream from Kilcullen, just north of Brannockstown in the civil parish of Carnalway in the barony of Naas South. It is the site of a former borough and manor, and Harristown Borough was a borough constituency sending two MPs to the Irish House of Commons before the Acts of Union 1800. Harristown Common is a townland and former commonage north of Harristown proper and separated from it by the townlands of Dunnstown and Johnstown or Dunshane.
General Ralph Dundas was a Scottish officer of the British Army.
Michael Reynolds was the leader of the United Irish Kildare rebels during the Battle of Naas.
Naas South is a barony in County Kildare, Ireland.
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