Background
News of the outbreak of the rebellion to the north had filtered down to County Wexford and was accompanied by the arrival of two military regiments notorious for their brutality: the Royal North Cork Militia and a Welsh fencible cavalry unit known as the Ancient Britons. In addition, regular yeomanry patrols of the countryside and reports of a massacre of prisoners by yeomen in Carnew added to the atmosphere of widespread fear. As a consequence, many people banded together to watch for military patrols or abandoned their homes to hide in the countryside.
One such group, numbering about forty, were gathered by Father John Murphy near the village of The Harrow on the evening of 26 May. Ostensibly the men had come to cut turf for Father Murphy, their local curate, which was a custom at the time. This ruse allowed the men to carry turf cutters, which could serve as rudimentary weapons, but they also had a small number of firearms concealed nearby.
The Fight at The Harrow
Meanwhile, a patrol of about twenty yeomen (belonging to the Camolin Cavalry) were approaching, alerted by the reports of rebellion and seeking a number of suspected United Irishmen. The yeomen initially passed Fr. Murphy's group without incident, but the bulk of the patrol halted nearby while their commanding officer, a Lieutenant Bookey, together with a private, John Donovan, rode on ahead to the dwelling of one of the suspected United Irishmen. Finding their target was not at home, they set fire to the cabin and then turned back to rejoin their unit. The rebels attacked the yeomanry, killing Bookey and Donovan; the remainder of the patrol fled.
The official version of events was recorded in the entry for 26 May 1798 in the Detail Book of the Camolin Cavalry;
"On arrival in Ferns, Lieut. Smith and a party was ordered towards Scarawalsh, where the murders were committed, to see if this information was true, and Lieut. Bookey with another Party rode towards the Harrow, where he met a large party of Insurgents armed with Pikes and some Arms. The Lieut. rode before the Party, and ordered the rebels to surrender, and deliver up their Arms, on which they discharged a volley at the Party, accompanied with a shower of stones, some of which brought Lieut. Bookey from his horse, as also John Donovan, a private in the Corps. The party after firing a few shots, finding themselves overpowered by the Rebels, retreated to Ferns, where they remained ‘till day break, melancholy spectators of the devastation committed by the Rebels. The information of the Murders at Scarawalsh found to be true."
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The Battle of Antrim was fought on 7 June 1798, in County Antrim, Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between British troops and Irish insurgents led by Henry Joy McCracken. The British won the battle, beating off a rebel attack on Antrim town following the arrival of reinforcements but the county governor, John O'Neill, 1st Viscount O'Neill, was fatally wounded.
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.
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James Corcoran was an Irish rebel leader who following the suppression of the United Irish insurrection of 1798, maintained a guerrilla resistance to the British Crown forces in counties Wexford and Kilkenny until his final defeat and death in 1804.
John Murphy was an Irish Roman Catholic priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns, who is mainly remembered for his central role in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in County Wexford, which is sometimes known as the Wexford Rebellion. He led the rebels to one of their initial victories over a government militia at Oulart Hill, and in the following weeks became one of the rebellion's main leaders.
Events from the year 1798 in Ireland.
"Boolavogue" is an Irish ballad commemorating the campaign of Father John Murphy and his army in County Wexford during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was composed by Patrick Joseph McCall in 1898, the centenary of the Rebellion.
The Camolin Cavalry was a mounted yeomanry unit drawn from the area around the village of Camolin, Wexford, Ireland. It was a part of this unit, commanded by Lieutenant Bookey, which encountered Father John Murphy's small band of rebels at The Battle of the Harrow in the parish of Kilcormick on the evening of 26 May 1798.
The Wexford Rebellion refers to the events of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in County Wexford. From 27 May until 21 June 1798, Society of United Irishmen rebels revolted against British rule in the county, engaging in multiple confrontations with Crown forces. The most successful and destructive rising in all the counties of Ireland, United Irishmen rebels experienced a number of early successes in the county despite being seen as a relatively loyal county by the Dublin Castle administration due to a series of military victories. However, the tide soon turned against the United Irishmen in Wexford as Crown forces poured into the region, engaging in a brutal counterinsurgency which indiscriminately targeted suspected rebels and eventually suppressed all rebel activities in the county.
The Battle of Enniscorthy was a land battle fought during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, on 28 May 1798, when an overwhelming force of rebels assailed the town of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, which was defended only by a 300-strong garrison supported by loyalist civilians. On the previous day at nearby Oulart, several thousand rebels led by Fr John Murphy had massacred a detachment of the North Cork militia, amounting to 110 officers and men.
The Battle of Kilthomas took place on 27 May 1798 when combined Loyalist Forces defeated a gathering of several thousand rebels in the greater Ferns/Carnew area, in one of the primary actions of the rebellion in County Wexford. This occurred at the same time as the Battle of Oulart Hill in the east of the county.
Scarawalsh is a historical barony in northern County Wexford, Ireland.
United Irishmen 
Ireland 