#OnThisDay 1870 The Fenians invaded Canada, led by Civil War officer John O’Neill & fought local militia at the Battle of Eccles Hill. Outnumbered but holding the high ground, the Canadians made the Fenians withdraw. Fenian John Rowe (pic) was 1 of 5 killed.
#OnThisDay 1798 Over 500 rebels & civilians alike were killed by the yeomanry when rebels fell into a trap set for them in Carlow town. In Carnew, Wicklow 28 prisoners suspected of being in the United Irishmen were also executed, by the Antrim Militia.
Mary Shackleton Leadbeater, a Quaker from Ballitore Kildare, with pro-republican sympathies was a noted writer &diarist. Her ‘Annals of Ballitore’ provided a day-to-day of the 1798 Rebellion in her town &it changed hands until the Crown forces burned most of it down.
Moll Doyle of Castleboro was a ‘warlike woman’ & ‘an Amazon’. ‘If every man had the courage of Miss Doyle, 1798 would have been a complete victory to us’. Moll Doyle was also recorded as cutting off the ammo belts of fallen dragoons & handing them to her comrades.
Bridget Dolan from Carnew, joined the United Irishmen & partook in an attack on a military convoy that saw two carriage drivers piked & the baggage set alight. After the Rising, Dolan switched sides & became an informer, providing evidence against her former allies.
The Irish at War 