It is generally accepted that the earth is approximately 41/2 billion years old. By comparison, the older rocks in Wicklow are only 1,000 million year~ old.. At that time the area that is now Wicklow was deep under the ocean, and gradually over millions of years the extreme pressure of the earths tectonic plates pushed up the mountain range which now form Wicklow and elsewhere. Under the mountain ranges were the molten rocks which gradually cooled to form granite. By approximately 75 million years ago the Wicklow mountains had been eroded to sea level and the granite had become exposed. 

Co. Wicklow, more than most Irish counties, owes its topography to the Ice Age. The last major Irish glacial period extended from about 70,000 years before the present to about 10,000 years ago. During this period of time the ice cap reached a thickness of over 1,000 meters.

The gradual receding of the ice cap created the geography of the present day Wicklow comprising glacial valleys, mountain lakes, conies such as Glenmalure, Glenmacnass and cirques. The melting ice in the valleys deposited great heaps of rocks and debris blocking the escape of the corrie lakes.

After the ice age ended and the temperature started to rise, Ireland changed from a type to forest and vegetation. By 6,000 years ago Wicklow was heavily forested with hazel, oak, elm etc.

Over 9,000 years ago the first people started to arrive in Ireland. These were hunter-gatherers who lived off the wild animals and fruit. Gradually over the next 3,000 years or so, later arrivals made some small developments in agriculture. The Bronze Age period of approximate4 in the wotrking of in Wicklow. Evidence of activity in this period can be seen today in standing stones stone circle, wedge tombs 

By the late bronze Iron Age period there were early signs of more localised settlement. These are indicated by Fulacht Fiadh and ringforts.

Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century and it said that Palladius, the bishop sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine in 431, landed at Arklow. Soon afterwards St. Patrick returned to Ireland to start his Irish mission.

One of the greatest of all Irish monastic sites is that associated with St. Kevin at Glendalough. This was a site of importance from the 6th  1 1th century. Many of the details that have come down to us are more legend than fact. We are told that he lived as a hermit in a small cell near the upper lake now known as St. Kevins Bed. He later became Abbot of Glendalough and he built the first church there. There are ruins of seven churches at Glendalough. The Drummond Missal is thought to have been written in Glendalough. - a book of various genealogies and an early Irish psalter.

Vikings.
The earliest documented evidence for Viking activities in Wicklow is dated to 827
AD. The Viking raiders were attracted to coastal settlements where they could easily

plunder a ready supply of materials such as timber, church valuables and slaves. It was also possible to use harbours and estuaries for repair to ships. The name Wicklow may be derived from the old Norse word Vykyngelo meaning possibly Wiggingne Lough (the lake of ships). The Vikings introduced their trading practises, coinage and measures. It was in the middle to late 10th century that the earliest round towers were built. These were for the purpose of safeguarding valuables from Viking or other raiders. Viking power in Ireland came to the end by the victory of Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.

The next crucial stage in Irish and Wicklow history was the Anglo Norman Invasion in 1169. Dermot MacMurrough, the King of Leinster, in order to resolve his dispute over the Irish kingship, sought the help of Henry II, the Anglo-Norman King of England. Pope Adrian 1V (an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear) gave the King his approval to take whatever action he thought necessary. The area of the east coast of Ireland from south Dublin to Wicklow was known as the territory of Ui Briuin Cualann and passed on the death of MacMurrough in 1171 to the Norman Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow.

The lands at Bray were granted to Walter de Riddlesford. The Normans were responsible for the construction of one of the most defensive structures at Newcastle McKyneyon.

The Shiring of Co. Wicklow.
During the 14th and 15th centuries the native Irish clans, principally the OByrnes and the OTooles, continued to make war on the Anglo Normans. The English authorities viewed the Anglo Norman invaders as very hostile and made several attempts to subdue the Gaelic Chieftains. In 1535 the Chief of the 0 Byrnes submitted to King Henry VIII and requested that his territory be shired. In 1578 the authorities were planning to form the new County of Wicklow. Sir Henry Harrington was granted the County of Shillelagh to hold for 21 years. However these attempts were halted, after the Lord Deputys Army (Lord Gray), was destroyed by Fiach McHugh OMoore at the battle of Glenmalure in 1580. McHugh was again in conflict with authorites for his part in the reserve of the Gaelic Princes Red Hugh ODonnell and Art and Henry ONeill. Despite further success by the OByrnes over Sir Henry Harrington, it was difficult to hold out against the Crown forces. The defeat of the Irish at Kinsale in 1601 signalled the end of the old way of Gaelic Ireland, and the flight of the Earls completed this phase.

It was now possible to bring the OByrne country under the control of Dublin Castle and the county was finally shired in 1606. Wicklow was the last county to be shired.

In 1603 Sir Richard Wingfield was granted the Manor of Powerscourt. His kinsman
Jacques Wingfield had been Master of Ordnance in Queen Elizabeths Irish Army.
The Powerscourt lands had previously been in the possession of the OTooles.

In 1618, Sir. William Brabazon (later to become the first Earl of Meath), was granted the castle and lands of Kilruddeiy by King James I.

In 1666 the manor and lands of great Bray were divided between Edward II, Earl of Meath and Oliver Tyrconnell. This gave the Brabazon family ownership of the greater part of Bray.

The Earl of Stratford, Thomas Wentworth, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632, had acquired approximately 60,000 acres in Co. Wicklow. Much of this land was in half barony of Shillelagh, which had been granted to Sir John Harrington in 1578. These great woodlands provided sources of fuel in smelting iron ore, which was imported from Wales as pigiron.

After the execution of Black Tom Wentworth at Tyburn, London in 1641, an ongoing
series of disputes arose over his lands at Shillelagh which were called the Fairwood.
Eventually through succession the lands came into the possession of Thomas WatsonWentworth who later became Earl of Malton. These lands later passed to Coolattin.
This estate amounted to about 80,000 acres.

Others of the large estates in Co. Wickiw were those of Howard Family, Earls of
Wicklow; the Earls of Carysford (Proby), the Downshire Estates; the large Beresford,
Hugo and See of Dublin estates were mostly of barren mountain. Some other large
landowners included the families of Moore, Cunnighame, Synge, Whaley,
Hutchinson, Parnell, Grattan and Acton.
 
Copyright  Wicklow 400 2006. All rights reserved. 

A GENERAL VIEW OF COUNTY
WICKLOW

 

The county of Wicklow is so named after its principal town. Although the name comes from its former Norse settlers, there is some confusion as to whether its origin is in Viking Alo (Viking meadow) or Wiggingne Lough (the lake of ships). Whichever is the case, the name Wicklow has been passed down to us. In Irish the county is known as Cull Mhantain (Mantans Church). Saint Patrick on his return to Ireland is reputed to have landed at what is now Wicklow town. The point of his landing is thought to be Travelahawk beach, near the Black Castle. He and his followers were stoned by the hostile locals. One of his priests received a blow in the fare and due to the resulting deformities he became known as Mantan or Gubby. Later the unfortunate priest was to return and establish a church in the area.

Comprising 494,704 statute acres, the county stretches forty and a half miles from north to south and thirty three from east to west It is divided into eight baronies, through which the county was governed since the sixteenth century. Bordered to the north by Dublin, to the south by Wexford and to the west by Kildare and Carlow, the countys physical shape has always had a great impact on its history and has divided the county into three distinct regions; the low lying strip along the east coast, the mountains and valleys of the centre and west and the southern less mountainous area. The eastern lowland strip has always been the most populous and fertile region. Stretching from Bray to Arklow, it contains the majority of urban settlements and has the longest history of habitation. The ancient roadway from Dublin to Arkiow has provided this area with a route to the rest of the country. Over the centuries this route has been used for trade, conquest, immigration and emigration, each adding to the culture and history of this region and, in turn, the whole county.

The earliest recorded mention of this region is in the writings of the Greek cartographer Ptolemy in circa 130A.D., who was probably working from earlier sources. The site of todays town of Wicklow is thought to be Manapia on his charts. The only surviving name is that of the Avoca river, spelled Ovoca by Ptolemy (the exact location of many of Ptolemys grid points are a matter of some dispute), though this does not show the same continuity as it would initially suggest. The river was so named in the nineteenth century by a local landlord who, also being a classical scholar, was no doubt inspired by the Greeks records.

Here, along with the southern region, we find the remains of some of the many castles built during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in order to extend the influence of the British crown and protect the lives and properties of the planters. The most well-known is the Black Castle in Wicklow town which, although it predates the sixteenth century (its final stage was completed in 1375 by William

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A GENERAL VIEW OF COUNTY
WICKLOW

Fitzwihiam) was to play no small part in the subduing of Wicklows Gaelic clans. Other castles of this time were situated at Castlekevin and Grange. Being a narrow strip of calm fertile beauty on the edge of a large rugged mountain range, it has often attracted comment from visitors, none more memorable than Jonathan Swifts description of the county as a frieze cloak trimmed with golden lace (1).

By far the largest area in the county is the central and western region of mountains, rivers, lakes and valleys. The rugged beauty of these uplands and the contrasting lowlands have helped give Wicklow the name Garden of Ireland. Apart from its valleys and an area around Baltinglass, this entire region is over five hundred feet; in fact about one quarter of the county in total is over one
 

County Wicklow
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A GENERAL VIEW OF COUNTY
WICKLOW

 

thousand feet. Starting in Dublin, these granite mountains run down through the whole county, rising at their highest point, Lugnaquila, to 3,039 feet, thus crowning the most extensive mountain range in Ireland. This range is intersected diagonally by a number of great glens, most notably Glendalough, Glenmalure and the Glen of Imaal, which have all played their part in Wicklows history. It is in these highlands and the lakes therein that some of the most renowned rivers in the country rise. The Kings River, joining the Liffey (at what are now the Blessington lakes) and the Meeting of the Waters, where the Avonmore and Avonbeg join to form the Avoca.

Although Ptolemys record of eastern settlement predates any other written evidence of settlement in Wicklow, the many archaeological remains concentrated in the peaks and valleys of this region predate Ptolemy by thousands of years. However, few of these prehistoric sites were places of habitation. Like ancient civilisations the world over, Wicklows early inhabitants seem to have used their mountains as places of worship, burial and refuge. Passage tombs such as those at Seefin (in the extreme northwest of the county), Tournan near Dunlavin, and Baltinglass are to be found over a large part of Ireland north of a line from Wicklow to Sligo (with a few exceptions in Cork and Waterford). These date from between 3,200 B.C. and 2,200 B.C. and are among the earliest human sites in the county. They consist, in their essence, of a stone passage leading to a stone chamber(s) and then covered by a mound or cairn of earth. Part of a European trend, Wicklows passage tombs are most closely associated with those of Brittany and Iberia.

By far the largest of Wicklows archeological remains are the hillforts, such as those at Brusselstown, Rathgall and Rathcoran. These sometimes enormous fortifications (Rathcoran encloses 10.5 hectares), encircle the summits of hills by constructing one or more ramparts around the hills contours. Not used as places of habitation, these iron age sites would have provided refuge for people and livestock during times of unrest. The area also includes stone circles (ritual sites circa 2,000 B.C.) and many neolithic burial mounds dating back to circa 2,400 B.C.
In the historic early Christian era, this area was also used as a place of retreat and worship. The mountains played host to ascetics and hermits, but most importantly it was here that the great monastic settlement of Glendalough was sited. Founded sometime in the sixth century by St. Kevin, what was originally a simple abbey quickly grew into one of the great monastic cities of early Christian Ireland. Frequently plundered by the Vikings because of its wealth, it was to survive as a diocese until it was united with Dublin in 1216. In 1398 it was totally destroyed by Crown forces, never to recover its former glory.

As can be seen from any map of the county, the southern region is in effect almost cut off from the rest of the county. If it can be said that west Wicklow has more in common with Kildare and Carlow than with the coastal towns of the East,

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A GENERAL VIEW OF COUNTY
WICKLOW

then the same can be said about the southern regions relationship with counties Carlow and Wexford. However, the Derry river valley ensures that it is not entirely cut off from the rest of the county.

Most famous in former times for its great oak woods, in particular around Shillelagh and Carnew, these large Iracts of wood aided the prosperity of south Wicklow. This area is also quite elevated, although there are no great peaks. Its many rivers have ensured its fertility, in particular the western section along the Slaney river valley. This fertility allies it to the great farming region of Wexford and Carlow. Its history is also closely connected with these counties, being on the border of the Wexford Pale during the late middle ages (an area of land surrounding Wexford town that was securely controlled by forces loyal to the English Crown). Had history been different, this area could have been at the centre of the proposed county of Wicklow and Ferns in the sixteenth century. Its association with Thomas Wentworth (Lord Deputy from 1632-1640), the Fitzwilliam estates, centred in Coolatin but covering much of south and east Wicklow, and the 1798 Rebellion has ensured its continuing importance in the history of the county.

Notes
(1) Brewer, J. N., The Beauties of Ireland, Sherwood Jones and Co. (London, 1825) p.
277.



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THE OBYRNES AND THE SHIRING
OF WICKLOW

The Clan OByrne are reputed to be descended from Heremon, who along with Herbor were the leaders of a Spanish colony which established itself in Ireland about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. The descendants of Heremon were the kings of Leinster.
Cahir Mor, Charles the Great, was elevated from the throne of Leinster to reign over the entire country in 144 A.D. Itis from his grandson FeachaBaiceada that the OByrnes, OTooles and OKavanaghs, the three main Wicldow clans, are descended.
The OByrnes took their name, Branach in Irish, from their grandfather, Bran Mut. They occupied the northern part of Kildare stretching from Naas as far north as Maynooth. The OTooles territory lay in southern Kildare and part of northern Wicklow. It was as a result of the Norman invasion that the two clans were driven off their lands and into the mountains of Wicklow. By 1202 they had located themselves along the seaboard of Wicklow from Newtownmountkennedy to Arklow and up to Glenmalure. It was not long before the two clans, who appear to haveforged alliances with each other through intermarriage, declared war on the new inhabitants, the Anglo-Normans.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the native Irish continue to harrass the invaders and open warfare, such as the burning of Wicklow town in 1306 when the OByrnes and OTooles conspired against the Butlers, was common. In the 1390s Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, along with the Earl of Ormond, attacked the OByrne Country and took the OByrne castle at Wicklow town (The Black Castle). The OTooles counter attacked and defeated the English spiking sixty heads on the gates of OTooles castle at Powerscourt. The two clans marched against the English and killed the Lord Lieutenant in 1398.
The English authorities obviously viewed the OByrne Country as very hostile, as Lord Furnival was highly praised in 1414 for having the courage to march an army through OByrne territory without any dire consequences resulting either to himself or his men. Two branches of the OByrne clan emerged within Wicklow; the eastbranch called Crioch-Branach based at Kiltimon Castle, now Dunran Demesne, and the GabhallRanalagh which stretched from Lickeen to Aughnm and Bahana to Glenmalure. It was from the latter branch that one of the most famous of the OByrnes, Fiach Mac Hugh, belonged. By the sixteenth century the two branches occupied east and west Wicklow with the central mountainous area sparsely populated.
The OByrnes of Gabhall Ranalagh sided with the Fitzgeralds, in their conflict with their ancient enemy, the Butlers. Garoid Og Fitzgerald the Lord

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THE OBYRNES AND THE SHIRING
OF WICKLOW

Deputy was a powerful and influential man and because he did not arrest the Earl of Desmond on charges of high treason, he was deposed and arraigned before the Privy Council of England. He escaped and was reinstated as Lord Deputy, no doubt due to his considerable influence in Ireland and he continued to strengthen his alliances with the Gaelic chieftains.
He was again summoned to England in 1534, but first appointed his son Silken Thomas as Vice Deputy. Once in London he was arrested and held in the Tower. A false rumour to the effect that his father had been executed spurred Thomas to rebel against the King. Many clans, the OByrnes among them, joined this revolt and for a time were successful.
Powerscourt House, now the seat of the Wingfield family, which had cost 3,333 6s. 6d. to build was destroyedby the OBymes and OTooles and much of Kildare itself was destroyed by fire. However, Thomas was eventually forced to surrender and along with his uncles, was executed in London in 1537.
The English saw the system of alliances which had been formed between the Gaelic chieftains and the English nobles as dangerous and set about breaking up those bonds. Earl St. Ledger, the new Lord Deputy, sought to introduce a system whereby the chieftains would take their lands and hold them on letters patent from the English King, instead of the Irish system where the chieftains were elected by their clansmen.

Thadeus, chief of the OByrnes, submitted to the King and signed a treaty in 1535 in which he swore to be a loyal subject and not to support any Irishman against the King. He also requested that his territory be shired: ... the Byrnes of the mountains, in the thirty fourth of Henry the Eight, (1542), desired that their country might be made shire-ground and called the County of Wicklow (1). These moves, and Thadeus himself, were rejected by the clan and a new leader was elected.

It is reported that Shane Mac Redmond OByrne and his son Hugh, grandfather and father of Fiach Mac Hugh, metLord Deputy Bellingham in Glenmalure in 1548 to discuss peace terms. The authorities in Dublin were to remark in the 1550s on the good behaviour of the OByrnes. However Hugh Mac Shane OByme was building up the strength of the Gabhall Ranalagh and was prepared to harbour the rebellious OMoores of County Offaly, who were related to him through marriage. Nevertheless, a pardon was granted to Hugh and Fiach for this action in 1566.

By 1578 the authorities were planning to shire Wicklow and form a new county of Wicklow and Ferns. Sir Henry Harrington was appointed seneschal of Wicklow in that year. The army of Lord Grey, the Lord Deputy, which was sent to subdue the county, was totally destroyed by Fiach Mac Hugh OByrne and his ally Lord Baltinglass at the battle of Glenmalure in August of 1580. The plans for a new county were no longer applicable to an area in open rebellion. The following January the English struck back, attacking Fiachs house at Greenan,

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THE OBYRNES AND THE SHIRING
OF WICKLOW

burning it and raiding his cattle. Troops were moved inland from the castles at Wicklow and Arkiow and garrisons were established at Castlekevin and Kilcommon. However, by September Fiach was once again pardoned.

In 1594 Fiach was again in conflict with the authorities. Along with Edward Eustace, son of the Earl of Baltinglass, he had been involved in the rescue of several young Gaelic clansmen from Dublin Castle, including Red Hugh ODonnell, Artand Henry ONeill. The escape took place during winter and they followed a route through the Wicklow mountains leading them eventually to Glenmalure. Art ONeill died of exposure and Red Hugh suffered so badly from frost bite that he had several toes amputated. They were given shelter by Fiachs wife Rose OToole. On returning to Ulster Red Hugh ODonnell was pronounced chief of his clan and soon rekindled the flames of rebellion which quickly spread to Leinster. Fiach and his sons joined these renewed hostilities.

It was during this period that Walter Reagh Fitzgerald, a son-in-law of Fiachs, together with Fiachs sons and stepsons attacked the castle of Sir Pierce Fitz james in County Kildare. Sir Pierce, his wife and children were burned to death. Fiach publicly disassociated himself from this attack, which had provoked widespread horror among the English. Sir Pierce had been considered one of the most loyal of the Queens subjects. He had earlier offered, with some slight help from the crown, to apprehend the traitorous OByrnes but his offer was refused.

Similar offers were made by Sir Henry Harrington, Sir Thomas Masterson, the City of Dublin and other gentlemen of the Pale. All such offers were refused. Instead Fiach was made a Justice of the Peace and on visiting Dublin was accepted and guarded with the Lord Chancellors sdns. He was in fact pardoned seven times for his traitorous behaviour to the crown (2). From this it would seem that it was not just military might on its own which had helped stave off the total conquest of the county until now by what would have been vastly superior forces, but the diplomacy, and the strong alliances which were established with people of power and influence in Dublin.

The Lord Deputy, Russell, then attacked Fiach and managed to capture his wife Rose. Fiach tried to raise a new force from both branches of the OByrnes but most of the Crioch Branch had turned against him. In May of 1597, Russell once again marched against Fiach and entered Glenmalure as he had done the previous September, laying waste to the land. However this time it was believed that Fiach had been betrayed by someone who knew exactly where he would be on that Sunday morning. He was discovered by a Captain Lee, beheaded and his quarters sent to Dublin to be placed on the walls of the Castle.

Fiachs sons, Phelim and Redmond continued the conflict and defeated Sir Henry Harrington in 1599, between Rathdrum and Wicklow at Deputys Pass. However the following year saw the new Lord Deputy, Lord Mountjoy, attacking and destroying Phelims camp. Great hardship for the OByrnes

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THE OBYRNES AND THE SHIRING
OF WICKLOW

ensued. The defeat of the Irish in Kinsale in 1601 meant the beginning of the end of the old way of life for the Gaelic chieftains and the Flight of the Earls in 1607 sounded the death knell.
The time was now ripe to bring the OByrnes Country under the full control of Dublin Castle and it is generally accepted that the county was finally shired in 1606. With this break up of the last bastion of Gaelic Ireland and the OByme clan the last county in Ireland was created.

Moves were made in 1606 to dispossess the traditional land holders, the OByrnes and the OTooles, of their lands in Wicklow. Phelim and Redmond OByrne were only given temporary grants to apart of GabhallRanalagh, the rest was declared royal lands. Phelim and his sons, Bryan and Tirlugh, fought this issue for many years, even going so far as to insist upon an inquisition being held to hear their case. However, a great deal of confusion surrounded the legal ownership of much of south Wicklow.

The ensuing years saw grants of former OByrne territory being granted to such men as Sir William Parsons, Sir John Hoey, Sir Henry Harrington and Sir Laurence Esmond. Phelim again petitioned the King in 1623 for the restoration of his lands anda commission of enquiry was established, but once again it found against him. In 1628 Lord Falkiand, the Lord Deputy, was among those who received large grants of Phelims land.

After Phelims death in 1630 his sons, Brian and Hugh, continued to press for the recovery of their lands and in the following year they were suspected of a conspiracy to rebel. Meanwhile the land comprising the former Gabhall Ranalagh was changing ownership, as people like Sir Adam Loftus sold his buildings to Calcot Chamber for 10,000 in 1639. The following year Chamber sold land to Henry Temple and the Earl of Strafford.

By 1641 the OByrne holdings had been reduced to 20,000 acres, which in its former glory would have amounted to 75,000 acres. The final blow was dealt to the OBymes of Gabhall Ranalagh in 1649 when Cromwell dispossessed them of everything as papist rebels (3).

Notes
(1) A discovery of the true cause why Ireland was never entirely subdued nor brought
under obedience of the Crown of England until the beginning of his Majestys reign,
Sir John Davies, His Majestys Attorney-General for Ireland MDCXII, PP. 267,
268.
(2) Calendar of State Papers 1601-1603, PP. 67 1-672.
(3) The above chapter would not have been possible without the assistance of Pat Power.

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TOTAL CONQUEST

In the years between the shiring of Wicklow and the 1640s, although under the rule of the Crown the county was to remain largely in the control of the OTooles to the north and the OByrnes to the south. To understand how this happened one has to look no further than the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Adam Loftus. Loftus was the most influential administrator in the land for the first four decades of the seventeenth century -he was also a very shrewd and able tactician. He had achieved his position of power through the patronage of his namesake uncle and thus, early in his life, he was to learn the importance of family. During his administrative career he succeeded in marrying his children and cousins into the most powerful families in Ireland, both Irish and English. In so doing he was not as underhand an operator as todays political morals may indicate. In Irish society the best course of action against a potential enemy was to make him or her a family member; in a country of many wars and factions Loftus position was one of the few constants.

As early as 1594 his uncle had him made Archdeacon of Glendalough, a position he held until his forced retirement under Cromwells Commonwealth. Since much of his church territory was in the lands of Barnaby OToole, he quickly ingratiated himself with the Gaelic lord. At the same time he and Phelim Mac Fiach OByrne, in whose territory he also held land(1), exchanged children through fosterage, thus cementing a family bond. Loftus loyalty to both these men, plus his future high office, ensured the continued survival of the OBymes and OTooles.

In the first year of James Is reign (1603), land that had been the territory of the rebellious Lord Baltinglass was to be vested in the crown but was instead passed to Phelim OByrne (2). This proved to be a serious bone of contention between Phelim, his tenants and his neighbours; most notably William Parsons who had been appointed a commissioner for the apportionment and erection of the county of Wicklow (3). Through his office he managed to procure large holdings in the county for himself. He was also only too aware of the illegality of Phelims position.

The OTooles land to the north was no less dubiously held. Following a rebellion led by Barnaby during the Lord Deputyship of Arthur Chichester (1604-16),Barnabys lands were confiscatedbutsomehow, afterpassing through a number of hands, the bulk managed to return to his son Luke (4). Loftus also had an interest in the east of the county, as his daughter Beale was married to William Usher owner of most of the benefices from Bray to Arkiow (5) and constable of the castle at Wicklow town. By 1634 two of Wicklows M.P.s were James Byrne (Phelims son, Phelim had earlier been M.P.) and William Usher.
As was earlier mentioned, Phelim was not always on good terms with his

Page 13

 
Thomas Weniworth, Earl of Strafford

tenants, neighbours and also his brother, Redmond. These disputes were often violent, to the extent that the Earl of Cork, a Lord Justice, remarked that he had not the least means of extinguishing the petty rebellion in the Ranalagh and the OBymes County. In an extreme measure to ensure that he would hold on to the lands he still possessed, Phelim passed them in their entirety to the Earl of Carlisle, who then appointed Phelim as his middleman. Although this arrangement worked to Phelims, and later his sons, advantage it did not secure peace in the region until the arrival of Thomas Wentworth as Lord Deputy (6). Wentworth was the first Lord Deputy capable of taking on what had become known as the Loftus party. He bought Carlisles Wicklow holdings for the crown and then leased the area to himself. The OBymes went to London to appeal this plantation but failed. When they returned in 1641 muttering many things, the whole country was in turmoil, the uprising in Ulster was mirrored in Wicklow (7). At the same moment the OByrnes broke out and the bones of many a Wicklow farmer bleached the hillsides (8). It is interesting to note that by this time William Parsons, as well now as being M.P. for Wicklow, had also become a Lord Justice.

Rebellion
In 1641 both the OBymes and the OTooles revolted. On 12th November the OBymes laid siege to the garrison at Carysfort, while later that month the OTooles attacked and captured the Black Castle at Wicklow town. On 29th

Page 14

TOTAL CONQUEST

November Sir Charles Coote regained the castle and massacred many of the towns inhabitants. They had sought sanctuary in a church, but Coote (later to become Earl of Mountrath) set fire to the church and his men killed all those who tried to make their escape from it. The following year, on 29th December 1642, the castle was again attacked by the OByrnes who demolished it and slaughtered the entire garrison. Loftus could no longer assist his old friends; in that year 172 Byrnes were listed and outlawed for treason (9). The fact that the Archbishop had by this stage sold much of his interest in the county could account for his desertion of his former allies. On 4th January 1642 he was among the signatories to an order whereby William Parsons and others were to enter Wicklow and
to tarry in that country as long as possibly you can gain provision for your men. You are in journey to kill, slay and destroy all the rebels you can there finde. You are in that country to destroy by fire and sword all the rebells goodes, houses and come, and to take all their cattle. You are to this purpose to doe any other thing for his Majesties service that you in your judgement shall finde fitt (10).
This was the first in a series of scorched earth policies that were to reduce Wicklow over the next ten years. In 1641 and 1642, among the many dispositions taken by royal examiners against the rebellious activities in Wicklow, those against Colonel Luke OToole point him out to be the most vociferous of the countys rebel leaders. Included in them was that of Andrew Foster, a gentleman from Macredin, who swore that the Rebels said that they would, within a week, burne Dublin and that neitherKing norQueene should govem Ireland any longer, for they would govern it themselves (11).
Richard Cleybrook, a county Wexford farmer swore
that he heard Luke Toole say, that he intended soon after to march to Killcothery (sic), and take it, and afterwards to come to Dublin and take the castle there, and that he would not leave an English man, nor an English woman in the Kingdom, but they should be banished, and that he would not leave any English beast alive nor any of the breed of them. He said also that he would have his own religion settled in this Kingdom, and that he would pull the Lord Parsons hat from his head (12).
From the 65 loyal subjects examined it was estimated that the rebels had caused 132,457 14s. 2d. worth of damage to the county. Only Cavan, Monaghan and Fermanagh fared worse. When the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholics of Kilkenny established themselves in 1642 as the Irish Parliament, they did so with the full support of the OBymes and OTooles. Among the signatories of the Oath of Association were Bnen, Brian and John Bieme (Byme). There was also listedaRichardBelling(Bealing)ofTyrrelstowfl little is known of his origins save that he possessed vast tracts of land in Meath, Dublin and Wicklow. In his own history of the Confederation he lists himself as Bealing, Richard, of Parke Esq., under the heading of those outlawed from

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TOTAL CONQUEST

Wicklow. Consequently, there is reason to treat him as a native of Wicklow. He was to become a very important member of this attempt to establish an independent parliament in an Ireland free from religious intolerance, yet still loyal to the English crown. As well as publishing his many-volumed history of the war, he was to become the Confederations special envoy to the Catholic crowned heads of Europe.

Cromwell
The war between the Confederation and the Crown was to be overtaken by the English civil war. In the main, the Irish took the side of the royalists, though not through any great loyalty to the King. It was hoped that in victory the monarch would then look favourably on the claims of his Irish supporters. However, something was to happen in 1649 that would lead to the eventual suppression of all resistance to the English Parliaments power in Ireland. On 15th August 1649 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Lieutenant and Commander of the Parliamentary Army in Ireland, landed at Ringsend, Dublin.
The fortunes of all three sides in JMand had risen and fallen at different stages until Cromwell sarrival but, in just nine months, he was able to impress his name so indelibly on the countrys consciousness that the is still the most vilified person in Irish history today, three hundred and fifty years later. In September of that year he besieged and captured Drogheda; he then turned his attention southwards. His time in Wicklow was brief but his impact, and the later impact of his armies under the control of Edmund Ludlow, was great indeed. On 27th September the Parliamentary armies sacked the castle at Killincarrig and then moved on towards Arklow. The Irish forces under Brian MacPhelim OByrne, rather than face the greater English forces head on, resorted to guerilla attacks from their mountain strongholds. In one of these attacks Cromwells horse (minus the Lord Lieutenant) and a valuable table that was to be a gift to his wife, were stolen by a band led by Christopher Tothill (Toole). Cromwells best efforts, including an offer of 100, could not force him to return them.
However, victories against Cromwell were to be few and far between. On 28th September Arklow fell after a brief battle. A garrison was installed and despite an effort by the OTooles and OByrnes to recapture it in December, it was to remain in English hands due to the arrival from Dublin of a force of horse under the command of Colonel Hewson. A further attempt to capture the town was foiled the following month. Cromwell passed on to Wexford and was eventually to break the strength of the Irish and Royalist armies. His successor in command of Parliaments forces, Henry Ireton, was to continue in the same vein.
The most successful tactic employed by the Irish was to remain the guerrilla one. The Wicklow mountains were to become the home of many of these bands which became known as Tories. As they were predominantly made up of

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TOTAL CONQUEST

OByrnes, OTooles and OKavanaghs, their knowledge of the terrain was to ensure their survival in spite of a number of attempts to flush them out. It was Iretons successor, Edmund Ludlow, who eventually crushed the Wicklow resistance on his second attempt. It was declared illegal for smiths, harness-makers or arinourers to be active in the county and virtually all activity was banned outside the confines of garrison towns. Furthermore, anybody found bearing arms in the county after 28th February 1652, was to be killed. On that thy Ludlow himself entered the mountains from Talbotstown at the head of an army of 4,000 men. He met with little opposition as
the Irish, who had sentinels placed on every hill, gave notice of our march to theft friends, so that upon our approach, they still fled to their bogs and woods (13).

One of Ludlows officers in the campaign was Colonel George Cooke, the Governor of Wexford, who was to describe the armys tactics in Wicklow in the following words;
In searching the woods and bogs we found great store of corn, which we burnt, also all the houses and cabins we could find; in all of which we found plenty of corn: we continued burning and destroying for four days, in which time we wanted no provision for horse or man to lie in, though we burnt our quarters every morning and continued burning all thy. He was an idle soldier that had not a fat lamb, veal, pig, poultry or all of them, every night to his supper. The enemy in these parts chiefly depended upon this country for provision. I believe we have destroyed as much as would have served some thousands of them until next harvest (14).

This continued scorched earth policy resulted in the Irish resorting to the only food stuff that could withstand the ravages of such armies. From then on the potato was to become more prominent in the Irish diet; among its many advantages was the fact that it could lie underground until it was to be eaten. Thus, not only was the Cromwellian era one of the most destructive ever to the native population it also sowed the seeds of the even more destructive Great Famine, two hundred years later.

It was not until August that Ludlow was to eventually rid himself of the Wicklow Tories. Ludlow first declared that all who surrendered would be well treated and allowed leave the country. Many of the Tories were by now sure of the futility of their cause and willingly surrendered. The OByme chief Hugh MacPhelim fled, while his brother made his way to Ulster and the last pocket of Irish resistance. Those remaining under the command of Luke OToole were quickly captured and thus the county was eventually subdued, while Luke was brought to Dublin to be executed.
Among the many trials that were staged in Dublin after the war was that of Eamonn OReilly, Vicar-General of Dublin and Eamonn Dubh OByme, who weredeemedresponsible for the massacreat the Black Castle in December 1642.

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TOTAL CONQUEST

For his part OByme (who pleaded innocent and blamed it all on OReil1v~ was
executed, while OReilly was gaoled and later banished. Wicklow was to be divided in order to pay the debts incuned by the war and to help pay the Munster army. The power of the Irish clans was well and truly broken and, save forabrief period of false hope given by the Jacobites in the 1680s and again in 1798, the English Crown and government was to continue to consolidate its position within the county until the present century.


Notes

(1) C.S.P., 1592 - 585.
(2) OGrady, Hugh, Strafford in Ireland, p.8 & 48.
(3) Dictionary of National Biography, Voi. XV, pitl9.
(4) CowperMss., 11-114.
(5) OGrady, op. cit.., p.48.
(6) In Hugh OGradys Strafford in Ireland, page 956, he mentions Phelim ONeill of south Wicklow. This is surely an error and consequently this episode is recounted as having happened to Phelim OByme.

(7) C.S.P., 1641 - 285.
(8) OGrady, op. cit., p.234.
(9) Gilberts History of the Confederate Wars, Vol. lii, p40.
(10) Ibid, pp.137-S.
(11) Boate, Arnold, A Remonstrance of Diverse Remarkable Passages in Ireland, Examination no.48, National Library of Ireland, Thorpe P2 (London, 1642).
(12) Ibid, Examination no. 56.
(13) Beresford-Ellis, Peter, To Hell or to Connaught, p37.
(14) Ibid.

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THE PENAL LAWS

The state of the different churches in the county prior to its shiring is hard to ascertain. As the greater proportion of what was to become Wicklow was under the control of its Gaelic Lords, it can be assumed that this area was the domain of the Roman church. Although the Anglican liturgy was first read in Ireland on Baster Sunday 1550 in Christ Church Cathedral, it was not until the next century that its influence was felt to any great extent throughout the country. However, we have an idea of where some of the countys monasteries were situated in 1540 from a Royal survey of that year. The monasteries of Baltinglass, (then spelt Bailtinglass and in county Kildare) and Arklow (Arctlo in county Wexford), were large monasteries owning much property in their surrounditig districts. Their considerable incomes were derived from rents charged on these properties. Apart from a tenementQ) at Churchestown near Wyklowe (2), which was little more than a hermitage, it was impossible to survey the remaining monasteries such as those at Kilpoole, Inhorollyn and Frankhous, described as being in OByrnes Country because they lie among the Irish whence information cannot be obtained at present (3).

What ever the state of the churches before 1606 the claim of a papal report in 1613 that the Catholics of Ireland were mostly steeped in a profound and blind ignorance of any faith they profess(4), was likely to be as true for Wicklow as it was for the rest of the country.
Wicklows shiring coincided with the Church of Irelands first plan to improve its organisation within the country. At this time due to its lack of numbers it had no great pool from which to draw its clergy: Its resources also being limited meant fmancial hardship for many aspiring Church of Ireland clergymen. The Catholic church, on the other hand, had a comparatively highly trained clergy with greater resources. Many of their priests were trained abroad and although the patronage power of the Gaelic Irish lords had lessened, there were still enough funds available from those who remained and from the old English families who were still Catholic.

The extent of the problems facing the Church of Ireland can be seen from their plan in 1604 to ensure that under no circumstances were benefices to be given in the future to lay persons, children, parish priests and unworthy ministers (5). Ministers and bishops were now expected to live in their parishes and dioceses. It was planned that nobody should be more than five miles from the nearest church. Gaelic speaking ministers arrived from Scotland and The Book of Common Prayer was translated into Irish. In Wicklow, which was still an Irish speaking area, the use of the vernacular in church services would have been an advantage to any new church. Also, the building of new churches and the arrival of new ministers gave the impression of a more vibrant religion than the older one, which was suffering from a series of restrictions that were later to become

.Page 19

THE PENAL LAWS

the penal laws. The fact that there are more than twice as many Church of Ireland parishes as Roman Catholic in Wicklow, gives an indication of how the former planned to increase its accessibility.

The period between 1604 and 1640 was to witness the slow undermining of the Catholic Church, while the Church of Irelands position strengthened, particularly with the granting of great tracts of land in Wicklow to English planters. By 1641 the percentage of land in Wicklow owned by Catholics had fallen below fifty percent (6); this reflected a country-wide policy of confiscation and planting. In 1642 the founding of the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny, to oppose the anti-Catholic bias of the government and administration, was the result of years of injustice and strife. In Wieldow the events leading up to its foundation and its eventual suppression in 1650 were to be the last attempts by the OToolcs and OByrnes to maintain their positions of strength. However faced with the military might of Coote, Ludlow and Cromwell, the Confederation, even with the support of the Royalists, crumbled (this is dealt with in more detail in Chapter 3).

All religions were to suffer greatly at this time. Cromwells Puritans had as much enmity towards Irish Protestants as they had towards Catholics. All were relentlessly persecuted - Catholic, Church of Ireland and Dissenter. The Restoration was to prove to be a far more tolerant time until the reign of James II. Then the occurrence of oppression by Catholics of Protestants showed Irelands Protestants how tenuous their position as a minority was. They consequently flocked to support William of Orange in the hope of establishing a Protestant monarchy. After Williams victories at the Boyne and Aughrim (Galway) in 1690, it was with the desire to ensure that James supporters, or Jacobites as they were now called, would be contained that he and his wife, Queen Mary, began to introduce the penal laws.

Thus, these laws were passed in order to give a sense of security and power to the Church of Ireland minority which ruled the country, but their enforcement at any given time depended on political rather than religious considerations. If they had been as strictly enforced as the anti-Roman laws of the sixteenth century in England, they would probably have totally wiped out Catholicism in Ireland.

The Banishment Act of 1697, which banished all ecelesiastics and regulars of the popish clergy out of the kingdoms by 1st May 1698 (7), (regulars being members of clerical orders such as Jesuits and Franciscans), was the first major salvo of the penal laws. At their height the restrictions on the rights of Catholics were extreme and were made all the more so in the tight of growing religious tolerance in the rest of Europe. The fate of Wicklow, being divided among the Catholic dioceses of Dublin, Ferns and Kildare and Leighlin, depended on the fortunes of their three bishops and their respective clergy over the next hundred years. In 1697 the list of priests in Wicklow, compiled through poll tax returns for that year was as follows:

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THE PENAL LAWS

Parishes of Bray, Rathmichael, Stagonillis, Powerscourt 
John Talbot, Richard Fitzsimons.

Parish of Delgany;
Seneca Fitzwilliam, Richard Fitzsimons.
Wicklow and united parishes;
Maurice Bryan, William Cavenah, Edmund Mc Gin, Bernardine Plunkett and Peter Cahel (Fryers).
Rathdrun1;
Phileman Mc Abe, Charles Byrn, William Cavenagh.
Arcloe;
Patrick FitzWilliam, Edmund Mc Ginn, Charles Cavenagh, James Cocklan,
Thomas Caho, Dominick Oran.

Ballymore;
Owen Mc Antee.
Hollywood;
Patrick Keman.
Dunlavin;
Patrick (Haggan?), Brian?

By early 1698 one hundred and fifty three priests had fled through Dublin along with Archbishop Piers Creagh of Dublin, thus leaving much of Wicklow bishopless. In the south, Michael Rossiter of Ferns stayed until his death, while Bishop Dempsey of Kildare and Leighuin also fled. It was to prove more difficult to deal with the diocesan clergy than the regulars. In 1704 Queen Anne passed a law whereby all had to be registered. By this law it was hoped that registered priests could be kept under a watchful eye and the absence of bishops would prevent ordinations. This, it was hoped, would ensure that all priests would die out in due course.
The thirteen priests registered in Wicklow were as follows:

Priest Age Area

Richard Fitz-Symons 46 Bray
James Makee 46 Baltinglass
(ordained by St Oliver Plunkett)
Charles Byrne 53 Rathdrum
William Cavenagh 43 Wicklow
Faelix Mc Cabe 50 (ilendalough
Murtagh Brenane 44 Carnew
Edmund Magin 56 Killaveny
Patrick Fitz-Williams 58 Arklow

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THE PENAL LAWS

Priest 00000000000000000000000Age00000000 Area

Seneca Fitz-William 000000000000 42 00000000Kilquade
Daniel Byrne 00000000000000000039 00000000Kilbride
Patrick Haggan 000000000000000046 00000000Dunlavin
Patrick Kernan 000000000000000059 00000000Dunlavin
Redmond Fitz-symons 0000000000 56 00000000Wicklow


Seven of the thirteen registered had been in the county since 1697. Bishop Rossiter, in order to legithnise his position, registered as parish priest of Killenick, county Wexford and unofficially kept on his position as Bishop of Ferns. As the century progressed however, absent or dead bishops were replaced. In 1707 Edmund Byrne became Archbishop of Dublin after Piers Creaghs death abroad. John Verdon replaced Bishop Rossiter in 1709 and eventually, after Bishop Dempseys death in 1707, he was replaced in 1715 by Edward Murphy. This reflects the countrywide position; as long as the Catholic church kept out of sight it was allowed, for the most part, to carry out its business. Churches were moved to out of the way places such as Brides Head near Wicklow town. 

This was often done with the connivance of local authorities and the Protestant clergy. On the whole there was little animosity towards Catholics. The Church of Ireland were to a large extent opposed to the penal laws, but as they were answerable to their bishops who were, by and large, political appointees of the Hanoverian kings, the parish clergy had to be seen to implement these laws. By being held off the beaten track masses escaped the attention of external investigators and mercenary priest-hunters.

Although, except in times of Jacobite tension, there was little enforcement of these laws, their existence and the rewards offered still tempted many to avail of them. Probably the most infamous of these was Edward Tyrell, a priest-hunter active in the Dublin and Wicklow area around 1712. Edward Byrne had been the unregistered Bishop of Dublin since 1707, but it was not until 1712 that his identity became known to the authorities. tyrell jumped at the chance to capture him and claim a reward. 

By September his search had led him to Wicklow town where, despite reports of Byrne having been there recently, he could not be found. In November Tyrell, who now seems to have been something of a nuisance to the local authorities, organised a raid on Thomas Byrnes house in the town and Remond Byrnes at Kallaughler (8) in search of the bishop and other clerics returned from Europe. None were found; William Hamilton, a town burgess, in his report tells of Tyrells efforts giving them no small trouble. Shortly afterwards Tyrell was executed for bigamy while Byrne next appears in safe hiding in the house of Alderman Reily, a Protestant member of the corporation in Dublin.
In 1737 Bishop Gallagher of Rapoe was moved to Kildare and Leighlin. While Bishop of Rapoe he had tried to replace an unsatisfactory, registered priest

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THE PENAL LAWS

with one Fr. Hegarty. The disgraced priest reported this violation of the 1704 registering act. The authorities arrested and shot Hegarty while he was escaping with the help of locals. Gallagher had no option other than to flee, but rather than leave the country he simply moved to the vacant Bishopric of Kildare and Leighlin. There was no attempt made to pursue him.

Bishop Gallaghers was not the only case of a Wicklow bishop being on the receiving end of his own priests usage of the penal laws. In 1751 Bishop Nicholas Sweetman of Ferns excommunicated three priests in the diocese, one named Doyle, for having entered clandestinely into Holy Orders by falsifying certain documents and had been giving grave scandal in the diocese for many years(9). In revenge Doyle reported Sweetman to the authorities, stating that he was an agent for enlisting men for foreign service and had been levying money on his priests for treasonable purposes(lO). Although arrested, Sweetman was later released.

Previously, in October 1714, when the Jacobite threat was still very real due to the accession of George I, them are two references to the suppression of Catholicism in Wicklow in letters from Thomas Ryves, the High Sheriff of the county, to the clerk of the Privy Council. Firstly, an unregistered priest Owen McFee (variously spelt elsewhere as Mc Fee and Mc Veagh) had been waiting in Wicklow Gaol for a number of months to be transported for saying mass. The delay was caused for want of shipping (11). 

It is possible that no ship was wiling to take part in the transportation of a priest. He had been convicted by Baron Pocklington at the summer assizes, who was also to report that in this county they were not much troubled with Popish Priests. He was also assured by a gentleman of the county that they know of noe Popish schools (12). This McFee is possibly the same Owen Mc Antee registered in Ballymore Eustace in 1697. If so, his age at this time would be seventy-two which would suggest that there was not a great deal of risk to his captors involved in his arrest.

At an earlier time, when the newly-enacted laws were more stringently enforced, the risk was greater. On 4th of June 1702, before the full force of the laws were enacted, the Poririeve of Wicklow town ordered that a mass housein the Libertyes ... neere the Barrack be closed. The Catholic congregation, having threatened to report it to the Government, seem to have changed theft minds. On 10th July Robert Fletcher, a town burgess, reports that a fire broke out on the Poririeves property engulfing eight houses. He lays the blame on the local Catholics as they very much seem to resent his officiousness (13). He also reports that despite the closing down of the mass house, worship was still practiced there every week.

Earlier that year on 3rd June, SL Kevins Day (1714), the annual pilgrimage to Glendalough was routed by Ryves and a posse comitatus who pulled down their tents, threw down and demolished their superstitious crosses, filled up and destroyed their wells, and apprehended and committed one Toole a popish

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THE PENAL LAWS

school master (14). The mood in Wicklow at that tense time is summed up in 
Ryves conclusion that
the Protestant inhabitants of this county are unanimous in their inclinations and resolutions, and will exert themselves with all the diligence and zeal for his Majestys service in putting all the laws in every respect strictly in force against the papists.

Many atrocities were carried out during these years, but the numerous stories passed down in folklore are hard to verify. In a lot of cases they were fabricated from scanty evidence, such as the stories of priests being branded. This, no doubt, originates in the attempt by extremists to pass a law to that effect in 1720, which was defeated largely due to the efforts of Church of Ireland clergy. Some are more likely to be true.

In a book of notes on the history of Killiskey kept between 1895 and 1906 the minister, Hugo Richard Huband, tells of a find some years before while the bridge at Nunscross was being repaired. Close by, in the remains of an old wall of what had once been a nunnery, a skeleton was found. 

The place was known locally as the place of the mourning where Catholic funerals stopped and prayed when passing. Many local people knew of the skeletons existence and claimed it to be that of a nun. A bush growing beside it was out of bounds to Protestant children who would be visited with divers kinds of penalties if they touched it. These elements of worship and punishment of Protestants would suggest some form of martyrdom. As rebels were known to have prayed there in 1798 it makes it possible that this nun may have been a victim of an outrage during penal times.

The success of the penal laws in Wicklow and the country as a whole has to be viewed through their three main elements; religious, political and financial. In religious terms, they had the opposite effect to that intended by theft originators. Whereas in 1690 most lrish people were only halthearted about theft religious affiliation, by 1800 the majority were devout Catholics. Catholicism was now seen as a form of rebellion against British rule. Furthermore, it left many Protestants with a feeling of guilt over the injustices carried out in their name. 

As a deterrent against the resurgence of Jacobitism, it is doubtful if there was any real danger of there ever being another James on the throne.
However, on a financial and political level they were a success. By 1812 Catholics outnumbered Protestants in Wicklow by ten to one, but Wakefield notes only one Catholic land holder of considerable size, none on the Grand Jury, none commissioned in the militia and very few noncommissioned. In that they ensured the prosperity of the minority over the majority, the penal laws were a resounding success.

Notes

(1) White, Newport B., Extents of Irish Monastic Possessions 1540-1541, from manuscripts in London, Public Stationery Office (Dublin, 1943) p. 59.

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TOWNS, STATELY HOMES AND SOME
FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

The following descriptions of the most important towns in Wicklow are mainly derived from Samuel Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. These extracts give an insight into the respective histories and state of these towns in 1837, when it was published.


Arklow
Arklow is a seaport, market and post town, twelve miles from Wicklow and forty miles form Dublin containing over4,383 inhabitants. This place, formerly called Arclogh, appears to have been used as a fishing station since time immemorial. It was included in one of those grants of territory for which Henry II, in 1172 caused service to be done at Wexford and by an original charter preserved among the rolls of Kilkenny Castle. In 1649 its castle was assaulted by Oliver Cromwell on his victorious march southward, and on its surrender was totally demolished. 

During the disturbance of 1798 a battle was fought near Arklow bridge between the Kings troops under the command of General Needham and the insurgents, in which the latter were defeated and their leader shot The town is situated on the rise of a hill extending along the right bank of the river Ovoca. It is divided into upper and lower towns in which the latter town is called the Fishery, and in 1831 it contained seven hundred and two houses. The houses in the upper town, which consists of one principle street, are neatly built, while the lower town is inhabited by the fishermen who live in cabins. The inhabitants are amply supplied with fresh water from the excellent springs, but no works have been established to pipe it into the houses. The only improvement made recently is the laying down of foot pavements.

The church situated in the principal street of the town was erected in 1823 at an expense of 2,000. It was built after a design by Mr. Johnston and is in the later English style. The chapel is a handsome, modem structure situated opposite the remains of the ancient castle. There is a small place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. About three hundred and twenty children are instructed in several public schools, of which a boys school is supported by the Trustees of Erasmus Smiths Charity, two for girls are aided by Mrs Proby and an infants school is maintained by voluntary contributions. There are six private schools, in which there are two hundred and forty children and two Sunday schools.
A fever hospital and dispensary were erected in 1821. The only relic of the ancient castle is a small fragment mantled with ivy situated on an eminence above the river. The adjoining abbey is still used as aburying place by the Roman Catholics.

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TOWNS, STATELY HOMES AND SOME
FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

Baltinglass
Baltinglass is an ancient borough, market and post town in the barony of Upper Talbotstown, thirty two miles from Wicklow and twenty eight mites from Dublin containing 1,670 inhabitants. This place, according to most antiquaries, derives its name from Boal-Tin-Glas, The Pure Fire of Baal. The town is pleasantly situated in a romantic vale watered by the Slaney, over which is a stone bridge of three arches connecting those parts of it which are on the opposite banks of the river. It consists of four principal sheets, with two or three others of less importance and in 1831 contained two hundred and fifty six houses. 

It is amply supplied with water from springs and from its situation on the great mad from Dublin by Tullow to Wexford, enjoys a considerable traffic. The manufacture of linen, woollen and diaper was formerly extensively carried on here. There is also a flour-mill.
A market and fairs were granted by James I and Charles II. The town was
 
Map of Wicklow showing important great houses

Page 27

TOWNS, STATELY HOMES AND SOME
FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

incorporated by charter of Charles II in the fifteenth year of his reign, 1663, under the designation of the sovereign, burgesses, a recorder and town-clerk, a sergent -at-mace and a clerk of the market.
In the town of Baltinglass is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. An infirmary for the county of Wicklow containing four wards, in which are twenty beds, with a dispensary annexed to it, has been established in the town; there is also a savings bank.

Blessington
Blessington is a market post-town in the barony of Lower Tablotstown, six miles from Naas and fourteen miles from Dublin, containing 426 inhabitants. This place is situated on the river Liffey and on the high road from Dublin by Baltinglass to Wexford, Carlow and Waterford. The town occupies a rising ground on the north-western confines of the county and was built by Archbishop Boyle in the reign of Charles II. It consists of one street and contains about fifty houses, which are mostly respectable in appearance and a good inn or hotel. The market is on Thursday and fairs held on 12th May, 5th July and 12th November. The inhabitants were incorporated by charter of the 21st of Charles II, 1669, granted to Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellor of beland.

The borough returned two members to the Irish Parliament till the union, when the 1,500 awarded as compensation for the loss of the franchise was paid to Arthur, Marquess of Downshire; the right of election was vested in the corporation at large, which from that period has been extinct.
A neat building, the upper part of which is used for a girls school and the lower as a court for holding petty sessions with a house for the mistress and master, has been erected at the expense of 800 by the Marquess of Downshire, who allows a salary of 20 to the master and 10 to the mistress. 

There are about twenty boys in the school, who are taught in a school-room a short distance from the building, and thirty girls. There are also five hedge schools in which one hundred and fifty children are taught. Adispensary is supported in the customary manner. There are also some ruins of a church at Burgage and in the churchyard are the remains of a castle. On the outside is a very fine cross, hewn out of one large block of granite and about foureen feet high.

B ray
Bray, a market and post town in the half-barony of Rathdown fourteen miles from Wicklow and ten miles from Dublin. It contains about 2,590 inhabitants. This place derives its name, originally Bre or Bree signifying a hill or headland, from the precipitous promontory of clay slate and quartz called Bray Head which rises immediately on the south of the town to an elevation of eight hundred and seven feet above the level of the sea. The town is situated on the Dargle or Bray river, which here forms a boundary between the counties of Dublin and

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TOWNS, STATELY HOMES AND SOME
FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

Wicklow. The trade is exclusively of what is requisite for the towns needs, consisting principally of the importation of coal, timber, slates and limestone, in which vessels of seventy tons each, one of fifty tons, and one of twenty five tons belonging to the town, are regularly employed. There is a very extensive brewery, with a mailing store, capable of producing three hundred barrels weekly and near the brewery is a large flour mill.
The small harbour is very incommodious, having a bar at the entrance and only eight feet of water at spring and five feet at neap tides. The river abounds with excellent trout, which are in great quantities sent to Dublin and different parts of the country, even to London. The market is on Tuesday and Saturday and is abundantly supplied with quality provisions of every kind. Fairs for friezes are held on 12th January, 4th May, 5th August and 12th November. They are attended by all Dublin dealers and fairs for cattle arc held on 1st March, May, July, 15th August, 20th September, and 14th December.

A constabulary police force has been stationed here and also at Little Bray, the old castle in the latter having been fitted up as a barracks. A coastguard station has also been fixed here. There is also a Martello Tower near Bray Head, occupied by a private of the artillery. Petty sessions for the division are held in the school-house in Little Bray every alternate Saturday and the Earl of Meath, as Lord of the Manor of Kindlestown, holds a court here by his senesehal every month. By an inquisition taken in the reign of Charles lit appears, from various records, that the town had been in times past incorporated and endowed with many privileges.

Carnew
Carnew is a market and post town in the barony of Shillelagh, twenty three miles from Wicklow and forty seven from Dublin, containing 826 inhabitants. During the 1798 Rebellion Carnew witnessed an important battle in which the insurgents were victorious. The town is situated on the road from Gorey to Tullow and Carlow and on the side of a mountainous eminence that overlooks a fertile valley. It consists principally of one street containing one hundred and thirty one houses and has, during the last four years, been greatly improved by Earl Fitzwilliam, who has erected two rows of neat houses. The air is pleasant and there is a good supply of water. Two snuff and tobacco manufactures and a small brewery are also carried on here. 

The market is on the Thursday after the 12th February, May, August and November. Four other fairs have been established and are held on 1st April, July, October and 22nd December. Petty sessions are held on alternate Sundays, in a neat building erected by Earl Fit2william over which is the constabulary police barracks. This town being the residence of the chief constable of the Tinahely district.
The church, which was enlarged in. 1813, is a handsome building with an embattled tower. The chapel is situated in Tomacork and there is a place of

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FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

worship in the town for Wesleyan Methodists, A parochial library has been established and there are schools at Monatower, Askeymore and Camew, principally supported by Earl Fitzwilliam, in which are educated about four hundred and sixty Protestant and Roman Catholic children. There is also a school connected with Tomacork chapel and two hedge schools. A dispensary is supported in the customary manner. There is an association for employing the poor in spinning and weaving, superintended by the lathes of the town and neighbourhood, and a loan fund was established in 1834.

Donard
Donard is a town in the barony of lower Talbotstown, four and a half miles from Dunlavin containing 717 inhabitants. St. Silvester, who accompanied St. Palladius into Ireland about the year 430 A.D. (sic) presided over a church here, in which he was interred and his relics were honoured, until they were removed to the monastery of St Baithen or Innisboyne. During the disturbances of 1798 the village wasburntby the insurgents, the inhabitants having been driven to seek refuge in Dunlavin. The church was garrisoned by the yeomanry on this occasion, which greatly injured it and it has since become dilapidated. A market and two fairs were formerly held here by patent, but both have been discontinued, though a pleasure fair is yet held on 15th August. There is a constabulary police station. The church was built on a new site in 1835, with the aid of a grant of~850 by the late Board of First Fruits. The parochial school is aided by an annual donation from the vicar and an infants school for foundlings sent from the Foundling Hospital, Dublin is supported by this institution. In these schools about one hundred and fifty children are taught and there is also Sunday school. The remains of the church over which St. Silvester presided are on the summit of the mountain called Slieve Gadoe, or the church mountain, more than two thousand feet above the level of the sea and is a resort of numerous pilgrims.

Dunlavin
Dunlavin is a market town in the lower half-barony of Tablotstnwn; containing 1,068 inhabitants, seven and a half miles from Baltinglass and twenty one from Dublin on the old road from Blessington to Timolin. The town which is the property of the Tynte family, is built on an eminence surrounded by higher grounds and consists of two streets, one of which branches off at right angles from the centre of the other. It contains about 180 houses, of which several are well built, is amply supplied with water from springs and is considered a healthy place of residence. The market, chiefly for corn, is held on Wednesday and fairs for cattle are held on 1st March, 19th May, second Friday in July, 21st August, third Tuesday in October and 1st December. The market house is in the centre of the principal street. Its said to have been erected at an expense of 1,200 by the Rt. Hon. R. Tynte in 1835, thoroughly repaired and one end of it fitted up as

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a courthouse by Lady Tynte. It is a handsome building of hewn stone, with four projecting porticoes and crowned in the centre by a dome. About one hundred and thirty children are taught in two public schools of which one is supported by Mrs. Pennefather, and there are six private schools, with about three hundred and twenty children, a Sunday school and a dispensary.

Erniiskerry
A post town, in the parish of Powerscourt, barony of Rathdown, three miles from Bray and ten from Dublin. It contains 497 inhabitants and seventy houses most of which are tastefully built in the cottage style and inhabited by families of respectability. It is a favourite resort for strangers and visitors from Dublin, for whose accommodation, two very comfortable hotels and lodging-hbuses have been built. The air is extremely pure and mild and the temperature is favourable to persons affected with pulmonary diseases. A mail, a stage coach and jaunting cars commute between it and Dublin daily. A constabulary police force is stationed here and petty sessions are held on alternate Fridays. Near the bridge is a schoolhouse with apartments for a master and mistress. There is a dispensary and in 1828 a fever hospital was erected by subscription, towards which Lord Powerscourt contributed 200.

Rathdrum
A market post town and a parish in the barony of Ballinacor, eight miles from Wicklow and twenty nine from Dublin; containing 1,054 inhabitants. It derives its name of Rathdrum, The fort on the Hill, from its position on a lofty and commanding eminence, formerly the fortified residence of the ancient chieftains of the territory in the north east of the county, then known by the name of Crioc Cuolan. It was subsequently held by the OByrnes, but in 1595 was wrested from Fiach Mac Hugh OByrne by the Crowns forces. The manufacture of flannel is carried on here to such an extent that the Irish government deemed it necessary to appoint a seller of flannels to superintend it, under whom are a deputy and eight sworn meters, residing in the town. A flannel-hall was erected in 1793, at an expense of 3,500, by the late Earl Fitzwilliam, the trade continued to flourish so long as the protecting duties on Irish woollens were maintained, but on their repeal it declined rapidly and is now nearly extinct: the few pieces at present made arepurchased by the shopkeepers in the town. The apartments in the market house, which forms a spacious square and above the principal entrance of which in an escutcheon of Earl Fitzwilliams arms, are now used for a court-house, a Roman Catholic chapel and schools. The manufacture of woollen cloth also flourished here, but owing to the same causes has declined within the last twelve years and is now also extinct.
There are two breweries in the town, The market, held on Thursday, is well supplied with. provisions: the monthly market for flannels, which was well

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attended by buyers from Dublin, has been discontinued for some time. Fairs are held in Rathdrum on the last Thursday in February, May and August and on 5th April, 5th July, 10th October and 11th December; and at Ballinderry on 21st April, 16th May, 21st August, 29th October, the first Monday in November and 2nd December. Petty sessions for the bamny are held on alternate Thursdays in flannel-Hall and them is a chief constabulary police station in the town:
There are places of worship for Presbyterians and Wesleyan Methodists. About two hundred and fifty children are taught in two public schools; and there are three private schools in which are about a hundred children and a Sunday school; the parochial school is about to be rebuilt on a larger scale, at the expense of the vicar.

Rathnew
Rathnew, a parish and village, at the junction of the roads from Dublin, Rathdrum and Bray to Wicklow; in which there are 544 inhabitants. This place is also called Newrath and derives its name from an ancient rath. It is intersected by the river Vartry, over which there is a picturesque bridge. A constabulary police force is stationed in the village and petty sessions are held there on alternate Mondays. In the village there are the ruins of an ancient church, to which is attached a burial-ground.

Stratford-Upon-Slaney
A market-town and a parochial district, near the road to Wexford; containing 952 inhabitants. This town, which is of recent date, owes its origin to Edward, late Earl of Aldborough. A battle was fought here during the disturbances of 1798. Adjoining the town, on the bank of the river, are extensive cotton and calico printing works established in 1792. A fever hospital with adispensary was erected near the town in 1817. Adjoining the church is a plot of two acrcs of freehold land, from which Lord Hennikea takes his title of an Irish baron.

Tinahely
A market and post-town, in the parish of Kilcommon. It is twenty miles from Wicklow and forty one from Dublin on the road from Rathdrum to Carnew; containing 575 inhabitants. This place formed part of the vast estate of the Earl of Stratford. During the disturbances of 1798, the town was entirely destroyed but was soon afterwards rebuilt in an improved style. Here is a chief constabulary; a manorial court is held in April and petty sessions on alternate Wednesdays in a room over the market house, erected by the late Earl Fitzwilliam. Soap boiling is carried on and there is an extensive flour-mill and a tan-yard. A school is maintained partly by a grant of 50 from Earl Fitzwilliain.

Wicklow
Wicklow is a sea-port, assize, borough, market and post-town partly in the parish of Rathnew, barony of Newcastle, but chiefly in that of Kilpoole, barony

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of Arlkow, twenty four miles from Dublin on the coast road to Arklow containing 2,963 inhabitants. Its ancient name Wykinglo or Wykinglogy is derived from its situation at the southern extremity of a narrow creek, shut out from the sea by a long narrow peninsula called the Murrough.

Wicklow is situated on a piece of elevated rugged ground backed by hills of considerable height, over the point at which the river Vartry or Leitrim discharges itself into St. Georges Channel; this river is crossed by a bridge of eight arches. The houses are irregularly built and are of very inferior appearance; the streets are narrow and neither paved nor lighted, but there is an ample supply of water from the springs. The place is a resort for sea-bathing in the summer months. Races occasionally take place on the Murrough, a portion of which was kept as a race course on which a small stand was erected. The border of low land, which extends nearly six miles northwards slopes down gradually to the strand which, at low tide sometimes consists merely of fine sand, but at other times of laycrs of small pebbles, three or four feet in height and of considerable breath. Many of these pebbles are so esteemed for their beauty as to be bought by jewellers in Dublin to be wrought into necklaces and other Ornaments.

The market is held on Saturdays for butchers meat, poultry and vegetables. There is no regular market for corn, it is delivered to stores any day of the week. The fairs are held on 28th March, 24th May, 12th August and 25th November. The trade is confined to the exportation of grain and copper and lead ore, of which four hundred tons from neighbouring mines are shipped weekly and to the importation of coal, limestone, timber and hon.
Two light houses were erected on Wicklow Head, a promontory of considerable height bodily projecting into the sea about a mile to the south of the town. The lantern of one of the lighthouses is two hundred and fifty feet above high water mark and is visible in clear weather at a distance of twenty one nautical miles. 

The other lighthouse is five hundred and forty feet distant, but is one hundred and twenty one feet above the same level and spreads its light only to sixteen miles distance. Both are fixed lights. The corporation was constituted by acharterin the 11th of James 1(1613). The Wicklow parochial schools were built in 1827 at an expense of 656, of which 200 was granted from the Lord Lieutenants fund, and an infants school was established in 1830 by the Hon. Martha Stratford. In these schools are about sixty girls, sixty boys and sixty infants. Sunday schools were also established.

The county infirmary and fever hospital was erected in 1834 at an expense of 2,000. It is a neat building, situated in an airy part of the town: the infinnary is supported by the county presentments, the petty sessions fines of the whole county and subscription: the fever hospital by subscriptions only. A parochial alms-house for aged men and widows is supported by subscriptions and weekly collections at the church. There is also a coal and clothing fund for supplying the poor with blankets and a loan fund. On a rocky projection overhanging the sea


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may still be seen a small fragment of the walls of an ancient castle, the masonry of which is so excellent that it appears to be a portion of the natural rock. It is called the Black Castle.

GREAT HOUSES

One of the most notable aspects of Wicklows landscape is the profusion of stately homes and great houses. The following is a list of some of the most noted of these houses and the families who owned them. Theft numbers bear testament to the vibrant life of the gentry iii the county. Nowhere else in the country do you find so many houses of the affluent. Their social and economic influence on the life of the county was immense, bringing much needed employment to theft environs.

House00000000000000000000000Location00000000000000000000000Family

Altidore Castle0000000000000000 Kilpedder0000000000000000000000 Blatchford.
Avondale 00000000000000000000Rathdruth 0000000000000000000000 Hayes/Pamell.
Ballinacor00000000000000000000 Rathdrum 0000000000000000000000 Kemmis
Ballina 0000000000000000000000 Park Ashlord 0000000000000000000 Tighe.
Baltiboys 00000000000000000000 Blessington 000000000000000000000Smith.
Bellevue 000000000000000000000Delgany 00000000000000000000000 La Touche.
Blessington House 0000000000000 Blcssington 000000000000000000000Boyle.
Camew Castle 0000000000000000Carnew 00000000000000000000000 Fitzwilliam.
Castle Howard 0000000000000000Avoca 0000000000 0000000000000 Hyde.
Castlekevin 000000000000000000 Annamoe 0000000000000000000000 Frizell.
Charleville 0000000000000000000 Enniskerry 000000000000000000000 Monck.
Fortgranite 0000000000000000000Baltinglass 0000000000000000000000Saunders.
Glenart Castle 0000000000000000 Arklow 000000000000000000000000 Proby.
Glendalough House 000000000000 Armamore 0000000000000000000000Barton/Childers.
lHlumewood 000000000000000000Kiltegan 00000000000000000000000 Dick.
Kiliruddery 0000000000000000000Bray 00000000000000000000000000Brabazon.
Kilmacurragh 0000000 0000000000Rathdrum 0000000000000 000000000Acton.
(West Aston)
Luggala 00000000000 0000000000Roundwood 00000000 000000000000La Touche.
Mount Kennedy 000000000000000Newtownmountkennedy 00000000000Gun Cuninghame.
Mount Usher 00000000000000000Ashford 000000000000000000000000Walpole.
Powerscourt 00000 000000000000Enniskerry 0000000000000000000000Wingfield.
Russborough 000000000 00000000Blessington 0000000000000000000000Leeson.
Saunders Grove 000000000000000Baltinglass 0000000 000000000000000Saunders.
Shelton Abbey 0000000000000000Arkiow 00000000000000000000 0000Howard.
Tinnehinch 0000000000000000000Enniskerry 0000000000000000000000Grattan.
Woodbrook 00000 000000000000Bray 00000000000000000000 000000Cochrane.
Woodstock 000000000000000000Newtownmountkennedy 000000000000Tottenham.

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TWO FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

Over the years the county was to play host to many famous and infamous people. A lot of these have by now been forgotten but in theft day theft names were well known across the country and beyond. The following are brief accounts of the lives of two of Wicklow s most well known personalities in the eighteenth century.

Buck Whaley (1766-1800)

Thomas Whaley, commonly known as Buck or Jerusalem Whaley was born in Dublin on 15th December 1766. He was the eldest surviving son of Richard Chapell Whaley of Whaley Abbey, county Wicklow, Ml for Wicklow, 1747-1760. Richards ancestors settled in Ireland in the time of Oliver Cromwell to whom they were closely related (his great, great grand - mother and Cromwells father were brother and sister). His maternal great granduncle, Edward Whalley, was one of the signatories to Charles IIs death warrant. Richard Chapell Whaley was twice man-led, first to Catherine, who died childless and secondly to a much younger girl, Anne Ward, who was then only eighteen years old.

It was said that Richard acquired his nickname, Burn-Chapel, from the number of Roman Catholic churches he had helped burn. He died about 16th January 1791, leaving his young widow and seven children. Young Thomas Whaley upon his fathers death became entitled to estates worth 7,000 a year together with a sum of 60,000 in cash, the other members of the family being at the same time amply provided for. He remained at school till sixteen, his mother then sent him to Prance with an allowance of 900 a year, under the charge of a tutor. After a short but riotous experience of life in France, young Whaley returned to Dublin where, by all accounts, he threw himself into the decadence and general mayhem that was Dublin society at that time.

On 10th Febuary 1785 when he was only eighteen years old, he was elected amember of the lrish House of Commons for Newcastle and was to keep this scat until 1790. It was during this period that his famous trip to Jerusalem took place. Whaley had wagered that he could enter Jerusalem, which was then Muslim ruled and out of bounds for Christians. Whaley and two friends, Captains Wilson and Moore, set off for the Holy Land. On their travels through the Mediterranean they were welcomed by the many British garrisons in the area and their every move was relayed back to Ireland. 

Captain Wilson was then prevented from making it past Smyrna due to a rheumatic attack. So Whaley and Moore continued alone and on 28th February 1789 they reached Jerusalem. They returned to Dublin in June in great acclaim. His friends reluctantly paid him the 15,000 he had won from them. This was to be one of the few occasions that his gambling balance was in his favour. Over the next few years he lived in London and On the European mainland, where as usual his gambling exploits




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went against him. One of his most outrageous exploits occurred when, after winning all the money the Prince of Wales was willing to lose in a night he duly won his Favourita, or escort, in a final bet (obviously decadence was not a solely Irish trait).

His fortune was soon to run out as he explains in his memoirs, in the course of a few years I dissipated a fortune of near 400,000 and contracted debts to the aniountof~3,000 more without ever purchasing or acquiring contentment or one hours true happiness. Bankruptcy forced him into exile in the Isle of Man where one of his last bets was to continue to live on Irish soil forever (he had a ship load of soil sent from Ireland on which he built his house). His new lifestyle enabled him to be re-elected to the Irish Parliament in 1797, this time as M.P. for Enniscorthy. It did not, however, clear him in the eyes of some of the enemies his short and reckless life had earned him, for when he died of a cold in 1800 it was reported that a certain Irishman, a Mr. Robinson, danced on his grave.


Mary Tighe (1772-1810)
Born in 1772, Mary was the daughter of Reverend William Blachford and Theodosia Tighe of Rosanna, near Ashford. Rev. Blachford was librarian in MarshsLibrary Dublin from 1766 until his death in 1773. Mrs. Blachford joined the Society of Methodists in 1775. Mary married her cousin Henry Tighe of Rosanna, when she was twenty one. It was at Rosanna, on 25th June 1786, that John Wesley stayed on his visit to Wicklow. He preached there that night before doing likewise for the countys fledgling congregation in Wicklow town courthouse the next day.
Marys was not a happy marriage. Her husband was a barrister of the Middle Temple and not long after they were married the couple moved to London where Mary mixed a lot with society. A few years after this, in 1805, her most famous poem Psyche was published. At this time her health began to fail. 

Thomas Moore, writing to his mother in August 1805, was sure that Mary would not live through the winter. However it was not until 24th March 1810 that Mary Tighe, after many years of suffering, died of consumption, aged thirty eight. She is buried in Inistioge where a monument has been erected to her memory. Although her renown has not lasted, she was greatly admired in her day, particularly by the Methodist community. Her work was described by her biographer, Mackintosh, as the most faultless series of verses ever produced by a woman. In the prefeminist era this would have been considered to be praise indeed. It is rumoured that she built an addition to the Orphans Asylum in Wicklow (which was afterwards known as the Psyche Ward) with the profits from Psyche. It is also rumoured that the profits went to The Home of Refuge for Unprotected Female Servants in Dublin, which was founded by her mother.

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Agriculture
Over the two hundred and fifty years covered in this book, the practice of agriculture and the nature of goods produced in the county was to change drastically. In 1600 agriculture was predominantly pastoral. Pasturage was still practised through the ancient system of booleying, whereby livestock (cattle, goats and pigs) were kept on lowland pastures during the winter months and then moved to mountain grasslands in summer. This semi-nomadic lifestyle was unsuitable to large-scale tillage farming. Some crops were grown, mainly cereals such as oats, barley and rye. Ploughing was done by oxen, as horses were not considered suitable for such work. Claims that the oxen were forced to pull ploughs by their tails are hard to substantiate, although a law forbidding this practice was passed in the early seventeenth century.

As the century progressed farming became a less and less reliable occupation. The scorched earth policies of the 1640s all but de- stroyed agriculture in the county. However, with the arrival of new settlers, new methods and crops appeared. As has already been mentioned, the potato became more commonplace, mainly amongst the poorer farmers, who at this time were virtually all native Irish. The English settlers brought with them the closed field system. Holdings were now clearly marked, horses began to be used as beasts of burden and fruit was fanned for the first time. 
Farms became more efficient for many; atwo tier agricultural structure was being born. Large farmers owning or renting up to three or four hundred acres could avail of any innovations in the agricultural or marketing sectors, and thereby increase their efficiency. At the other end of the spectrum, the ever-increasing numberof poor farmers barely managed to maintain subsistence level.

By 1776 this can be seen in the writings of Arthur Young, a noted English agriculturalist, whose Tour in Ireland was the first conclusive, scientific survey of the state of the industry in belaild. His journey through Wicklow was to take him along its east coast. After making a number of favourable remarks on the state of agriculture between Arklow and Newtownmountkennedy, he stopped at Mount Kennedy estate where he stayed at the home of General Cunninghame who owned ten thousand acres in the immediate area. The General, as well as renting out the greater part of his land, ran a large farm himself. From Youngs account he seems to have been a model, progressive farmer. His crops included potatoes, oats, rye, wheat and barley. He also had a thriving coppice forest industry (this type of forestis dealt with below). Slash and burn tactics were employed, along with the use of dung as fertilizer (lime was too expensive). These methods seem to have been highly profitable and they gained the approval of the visiting expert. Livestock was also reared, though only a few calves were raised for the Dublin market and there was very little evidence of a


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Typical mining method of the eighteenth century

dairy industry. He, along with the majority of Wicklow farmers whose acreage would allow it, ran a thriving sheep farm. Lambs were bred for sale at the city markets. The work was quite labour intensive; in addition to their mothers milk the lambs were also treated to cows milk in order to increase their growth rate. This was the main reason for keeping cows in the area. It was also claimed that in order to encourage ewes and rams to perform at the right time, to ensure that

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the lambs were born In time for the market, they treat the ladies with a cup of generous Wicklow ale (1). This, and another claim that claret was used, was repudiated by Robert Fraser in 1801, who noted local resentment to Youngs remarks.

Compared to the rest of the country visited by Young, rents in Newtownmountkennedy were the highest, at two pounds an acre per annum. Most of the smaller farmers rented from middlemen atan even higher rate. Given that the productivity of these farmers land was about equal to the national average this must have caused quite a deal of hardship amongst the less well off in the area. On the whole, Young remarked that the tenantry in Wicklow were in a very backward state. Mixed farming was the norm, with most of the profit from cash crops and livestock being used to pay the rent. Another fact or that hampered the profitability of farming in Wicklow at this time came in the form of a bounty paid on the inland carriage of corn to Dublin. This corn had to be weighed at designated cranes in the capital. As none of these cranes were suitably situated for Wicklow farmers, many were unable to claim the bounty. A petition was sent to parliament on 20th April 1785 in an attempt to try to rectify this situation, which appears to have eventually been successful.

As the eighteenth century drew to a close and the nineteenth century began, little changed in Wicklow agriculture except the increasing poverty of the small farmers and labourers. These numbers were not as great as in most other counties because, unlike most rural areas in the south of Ireland, Wicklow had a safety valve in its other industries; textiles, mining and fishing. It was partly due to these that the county was to fare better than most during the famine of the 1840s.

Fishing
The fishing industry in Wicklow was centred in Arklow. It was not until the eighteenth century that it became the main occupation in the town, employing up to three hundred fishermen in the years 1810-1820. Herring was the main catch; the average yearly catch per boat at this time would be valued in the region of fifty pounds. With boat crews of six men this income would be supplemented with oyster dredging and other seasonal catches. Oysters were sold in Liverpool, while coal and earthenware were brought back to Arklow on the return journey. 

This seeming prosperity was not reflected in the condition of the harbour which was in a wretched state. When the harbour was improved later in the century it was to be of great benefit to the towns fishing industry. The industrys importance to the local area cannot be underestimated; the growth of the town was helped in no small way by the spin-offs from fishing and the profits made by the boat owners.

Textiles
The textile industry of the county was founded on cotton and wool. Cotton was woven and printed at Stratford-upon-Slaney, while the county-wide wool

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iindustry had its marketing centre in Rathdrum. In 1792 a company from Paisley, Scotland, established a factory just outside Stratford. Calico yam was imported from Scotland to be woven, bleached and printed here. This labour-intensive business brought large scale employment to the area, with over five hundred people working in its manufacture by 1812. Men and women were paid up to two guineas a week and children were employed at a rate of three pence per day. As many households would have had a number of people working as either weavers or printers, this small town and its surrounding area was a thriving area of industry and prosperity for most of the nineteenth century.

Wool was used extensively throughout the county for clothing. Sheep owning farmers wove a kind of frieze which was usually sold at local fairs. Travelling tailors were often employed, but for the most part families made their own clothes from locally produced wool. It is unlikely that great amounts of wool were used in this way, as the reports of travellers to the county invariably include descriptions of raggedly dressed peasantry. Arthur Young noted that while English peasants tended to be well dressed and poorly fed, their Irish counterparts were much healthier and better fed, but badly dressed.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Irish wool industry was in a very poor state. Wars, high tarriffs and trading bans ensured that the industry could not prosper. For much of this time it was illegal to sell Irish wool to any country other than Britain, where it was subject to high tarriffs. With the repeal of these laws and the introduction of protection laws for the Irish woollen industry, the situation began to improve.

In order to cater for this growth, Earl Fitzwilliam had a flannel hall built in Rathdrum in 1793. Here rolls of flannel, woven at factories and cottage industries across the county, were sold to buyers from other parts of Ireland and abroad. The Earl received 2d. for each piece of twelve yards sold. Depending on market conditions, the seller could get a price varying between is. 2d. to 2s. 6d. per yard. This rebirth of the Irish woollen industry was possible only through the recruitment of English weavers and other labourers skilled in the industry, as the Irish had forgotten many of the methods needed.

Unfortunately, the Rebellion of 1798 caused an enormous fall off in this industry for a number of years. The hall was used as a barrack for some of the period of the Rebellion. In the years between March 1797 and March 1798, 6,341 pieces of flannel were sold at the hall. This had fallen to 899 over the next twelve month period and only a very slow recovery followed. By 1808 it had risen to 5,905 pieces. The hail never became the success that its founder had hoped for, mainly due to the lifting of protections. It did, however, provide many smaller manufacturers with an outlet for their goods and the benefits of an open market system.

Forestry

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, roughly 13% of the entire

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country was covered with forests. By 1800 this had fallen to 2%. The destruction of the countrys woods was carried out on a commercial basis and was initially used as a lure to attract immigrants from Britian. By 1600 much of Britains woods had been destroyed and in an effort to save the remainder they looked to Ireland as a new source of timber.

The man responsible for starting the commercial destruction of Wicklows forests was Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and Lord Deputy of Ireland in the 1630s. As was explained in an earlier chapter, Wentworth came into possession of much of south Wicklow, including the famed Shillelagh oak forests. He viewed the destruction of these woods as being advantageous, since they had long been used as a place of refuge by rebels and criminals. The timber from these oak woods was used for tanning, house and ship building and to make pipe staves. However, the most destructive of all was the use of oak in iron smelting.

Before coal was utilised, oak was the only fuel available on these islands that could reach a temperature high enough to smelt iron. The ore was imported from Britain and a smelting works would be set up near an oak wood. As the timber was used up the works would move on, following the course of the retreating woods. Wentworth was to make a personal fortune from these Wicklow woods and after his execution his descendents, on what became known as the Wentworth Watson estate, continued in the same vein.

All of the forestry work carried out on the Wentworth-Watson estate was not of a destructive nature. For a large part of the eighteenth century the woods were exploited through the practice of coppice wood management. At Shillelagh, Cosha and Rathdrum as wellas felling trees they also planted them. A deforested section would be surrounded by a ditch or wall and replanted. A workforce of land agents and other woodsmen were employed to ensure the woods would be exploited as a renewable source of wealth.

The trees used in this method were oak, birch, hazel, alder, willow and holly. The surviving accounts from 1720 show that the profits gained for that year broke down as follows; 50% from ship and general building timber, 30% from bark (used for tanning leather), 8% from cordwood (used for charcoal) and 6% from coopers ware and other small products such as farm implements and buttons. Profits were enormous; between 1714 and 1720 the estates average annual income was 7,805, while the outgoings were only 1,280. 

Considering that the coppices occupied 800 hectares of land which was unsuitable for farming, it was an ideal method of turning unprofitable land to profit.
As it was, it provided the local tenaniry with regular seasonal work as woodcutters, squarers, sawyers, cleavers, barkers, ditchers, hedgers and carters. Given the quality of the land, these people would not have had much else in the form of income. It prolonged the life of the woods in the region, some of which, such as Tomnafinnogue, still stand. The timber sales that regularly took place at

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the coppices themselves attracted considerable attention from all over Ireland and England. The carters employed at these times would then transport the wood to Wicklow town or Dublin. Sometimes, as Thomas Wentworth had done, the timber would be transported by floating it down the river Slaney to port.

Coppice management was practised on many Wicklow estates into the nineteenth century, although the practice seemed to die out on the WentworthWatson estates. By 1776 Young recorded that the Shilelegh woods were no more. All that remains is a large stump known as the Sprig of Shilelegh. There were, however, still some natural forests left in the county. Young noted that those he saw in the Dargle Valley were the most extensive he had ever seen.

Mines
Next to agriculture the highest employing industry in the county was mining. The extent of the countys mineral wealth was well known across the United Kingdom. In 1856 in The Mines of Wicklow it was claimed that, with the exception of Gwennap in Cornwall it was doubtful that there exists in the United Kingdom any tract where, within such a small compass, greater returns of valuable minerals have been made (2). Wicklows mineral wealth consisted of lead, copper, iron, pyrites and gold.

Gold has long been associated with the county; in The Book of Leinster and Lucaji it is recorded that gold was first smelted in the forests south of the Liffey. The numerous archaeological finds of gold hoards in the county also indicate that the precious metal had been found in the region during antiquity. In 1795 gold was discovered in a river in the Croghankinsella area of south Wicklow. At first the local peasantry began to pan the river, retrieving up to eight hundred ounces in six weeks.

The government then moved in and took possession of the stream. They stationed a detachment of militia in the area to prevent the local peasantry from panning what was now the property of the state. From 1776 until 1801 when the area was abandoned, the quantity of gold found was valued at 2,259 9s. 1 1/2d. The river was only worked for four of these six years, as the Rebellion caused work to stop between August 1798 and September 1800. As the governments four year operation produced little more than the peasants six week search, the gold works was viewed as unprofitable and consequently it was halted. Apart from a brief period of excitement and profit in 1795, the discovery did not have any great effect on the local population, as jobs were not created to any large extent. John OKeefes comic opera The Wicklow Mountains, which is set in the area during the short gold rush, gives some idea of the excitement in the region for those brief few weeks.
The other minerals found in the county had a far greater effect on the lives of the people. The lead mines in the Glendalough / Glenmalure area and the copper, iron and pyrite mines in the Avoca district were to employ thousands of people

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from their localities, as well as attracting skilled workers from the mining districts of Britain.
Henry Inglis, writing in 1838, claimed that 2,000 people were employed on high wages in the lead mines. He observed that the miners were a drunken and improvident race (3). One miner, who earned thirty shillings a week, bemoaned the fact that it was impossible for him to drink the whole of the sum. Obviously there were many more respectable people employed by the industry. The church records from these areas show a large number of miners who settled and raised families in the mining district. They also show how many miners travelled from mine to mine and area to area in search of work.

Lead was found in the Luganure and Glenmalure mines. These were the only profitably run lead mines in the granite mountain range that was host to a number of lodes of varying sizes. The Glenmalure lodes were by far the largest, being up to twenty feet wide in places. They were mined by a Mr. Hodgson of Ballygahan under lease from the Earl of Essex, who was to build his own railway line linking his main lode with the port at Arklow. The mines at Luganure, near Glendalough, were leased by the Mining Company of Ireland from the Archbishop of Dublin.
The Luganure mines, despite earlier profits and a high level of investment, were consistently making a loss by the 1 840s, The annual reports of the company, while recording losses of up to 169 15s. lOd. in 1844, were optimistic, assuring their shareholders of the companys profitability in the future.

The mines of the Avoca area produced copper ore, copper pyrites, iron ore and iron pyrites. Mining had been carried out here on a sporadic basis for centuries. However, it was not until the 1840s that the boom time arrived. Smelting works had been established in the century before, but by this time the ore was exported in its raw state to England. It was the pyrites that were to be the jewel in this crown. The pyrites of this area are the only source of sulphur in the British Isles. Until this time sulphur was imported from Naples, but a dispute between the British and Neapolitan governments cut off this supply. The Avoca mines were thus guaranteed a monopoly position in the market.

There were over a thousand people working in the mines in the Avoca area in the 1840s. Coupled with the two thousand employed in Glenmalure and Luganure, they would have created many more jobs in spin-off industries and services. As a result of this large, well paid workforce, the population of these areas was not as dependent on the potato as it was elsewhere. Consequently, this area was to escape the worst ravages of the famine.

Notes
(1) Young, Arthur, Tour in lreland 1776-1779 (Dublin, 1780), vol .l,p.l27.
(2) Law, C. H., The Mines of Wicklow (London, 1856), p.1.
(3) Inglis, Henry D., Journey Through Ireland (London, 1836), p.20.

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Habitation

The cabins in which most of the peasantry lived for the period covered by this book, can only be described as hovels. In typical cases the walls were a mixture of mud kneaded with straw and the roof was made up of bogwood rafters raised from the top of the mudwalls and covered with thatch, often made from potato stalks, straw or turf sods. Consequently, they were not an effective barrier against the rain. The walls were about two feet thick and seven feet high. A small fire was lit in a grate in the middle of what was usually the only room and the family sat around the fire at night for warmth. These cabins had no chimney so the smoke could only escape through the door, but sometimes this was blocked up to keep out the wind and the rain. This, no doubt, was responsible for the high level of blindness in the country.

The cabins of the crofters and spalpeens (landless labourers and travellers), were no more than long sticks placed against a bank in a slanting position, with the other sides being built of clay. The roofs were made of tree branches and sods, covered with potato stalks, heath or straw. These cabins were not built any higher than the bank, so they could not be seen until a person came up close to them. At night any animals or livestock belonging to the family were let in; often this included two or three dogs or cats lying around the fire at night. There were no outhouses and farm implements were left in the fields.
In 1838 the travel writer Henry Inglis noted that rents in Wicklow were intolerably high. The rents could not be paid by the produce of the land by either the Catholic or Protestant peasantry. 

They found themselves forced to pay such rents as the only alternative was destitution. On the question of whether there were any improvements in the condition of the people in the proceeding years he observed that no improvement could have taken place in the conditions of the people whom I find in rags, living in mud cabins without furniture, windows and sometimes without chimnies (1). On the conditions of the labouring classes, he found little to bear Out the assertions of some of his Dublin friends, to whom Wicklow ought to have been familar, that I should find all the labourers employed and all tolerably comfortable (2). He goes on to give descriptions of two mountain cabins which he visited.

The first I entered was a mud cabin with one apartment. It was neither air nor water tight, the floor was extremely damp. The furniture consisted of a small bedstead with very scanty bedding, a wooden bench, one iron pot, the embers of some furze burnt on the floor, there was neither chimney nor window. The rent of this wretched cabin to which there was not a yard of land was two pounds. The next cabin I entered was situated on a hillside, in size and material it was like the other. I found in it a woman and her four children. There were two small bedsteads, no furniture except a stool, a little bench and

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one pot. There also were the burnt embers of some furze, the only fuel the poor in this neighbourhood can afford to use. The children were all of them in rags, the mother regretted that on that account she could not send them to school. The husband of this woman was a labourer, at 6d. per day - eighty of which 6d.s - that is 80 days labour, being absorbed in the rent of the cabin, which was taken out in labour, so that there was little more than 4 /2d. per day left for the support of a wife with four children, with potatoes at 4d. per stone (3).
The only thing standing between the rural Irish family and starvation was land; By the end of the eighteenth century more than four out of every five farmers had less than fifteen acres of land and one half of the fanners held less than five acres. They sold all the produce of the land to pay for their rent and lived off theft potato crop.

The agricultural labourer paid his rent in labour and received no money wage. He had a small plot of land attached to his cabin and here he grew potatoes for his family. For someone with no land life was difficult in the extreme. Such families had to rely on theft ability to sublet plots of land from other tenants, they were obliged to pay their rent and subsist on the produceof this land. This system was known as conacre and the workhouse awaited those who could not live by it.

On the higher income scale, life was much more comfortable. People either fell into this class or the one described above. The lot of the urban poor which included many artisans and tcachers, could at times of shortage be even more precarious than their rural counterparts. The habitations of the rich had their origins in the fortified castles of the later middle ages. These Irish castles were mainly square or rectangular. Their towers would have contained a number of small dark moms and would have been three of four stories high. The only light came from small holes in the huge walls. Cattle and other valuable property were gathered at night and held for safe keeping in a small wooden or stone enclosure called a bawn. Many of the castles fell into ruin by the beginning of the 1800s, but many were still used as servant quarters, or farm buildings. Others were incorporated into more modem houses.

The eighteenth century was to witness the construction of great houses across the county. The stability of this time meant that for the first time the houses of the rich did not require fortifications. Comfort and beauty were the main goals of the architects of the day. The construction of such masterpieces as Russborough House were carried out at this time. Many of the Irish and English nobility considered it desirable to own a country residence in Wicklow. This was facilitated by the improvements in roads and travel that ensured an easy journey from Dublin to most parts of the county.

Diet
By 1600 the Irish diet had already undergone a major change; the milk and

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meat based tradition of Gaelic Ireland had overlapped with the Normans taste for cereals. This more balanced diet was to continue for most of the seventeenth century. The relative underpopulation of the entire country ensured ample room for grazing. Cattle were the most important animals, with sheep and pigs also being kept. As well as using their meat, milk and milk products were of primary importance.
Milk, butter-milk, cheese and curds were the staple foods, butter was heavily salted to be kept for winter. With the introduction of cereals, particulary oats, the problem of providing a variety of foods in the non-dairy season was greatly reduced. Oats and wheat were made into breads and porridges. Sometimes they were combined with surplus butter and roasted to make something approaching flapjacks.

These foods were supplemented with the abundant wild products of the countryside. When in season fish, game, honey, berries and watercress were eaten. Drinks were also made from cereals and flavoured with honey and wild fruits. Obvibusly the abundance and variety of a familys diet depended largely on their social standing. The table of Phelim OByme would be far more impressive than that of one of his poorer tenants. However, given the relative cheapness of land and the proximity of uncultivated tracts to most holdings, there would have been an ample supply of food for most people.

What was to initiate the move towards the potato as the staple, and indeed, only food in many peoples diet was the scorched earth policies of the Cromwellian armies. ~,s has already been mentioned in chapter three, Wicklow was laid waste a number of times during the 1640s and 1650s. Each time livestock were slaughtered in the fields and corn was burned, or cut down while still green. The potato, which had been introduced to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh on his county Cork estates, was seen as a crop that could withstand this devastation. As it could remain underground until such time as it was required, fire and trampling could not destroy it. The years of confiscation and plantation that followed these wars forced a lot of tenants onto smaller holdings. Land that had been commonage was divided into great estates. As a result of this the pastoral economy was no longer an option for many farmers. The high yield and high nutritional value of the potato made it an ideal choice for the poor tenant.

During the eighteenth century this trend continued, until the potato became the staple food of the majority in the whole country. Depending on the size of a holding this diet was sometimes supplemented with milk; however, this was to become less common as the years progressed. In 1797 Samuel Hayes, the founder of Avondale House and forest park, calculated the needs of a standard family of four children as being nineteen stone of potatoes a week. This would also feed the familys fowl, dog and pig. Over the year about forty barrels would be consumed. Given the high yield of the crop this amount could be grown on a holding of half an acre. He also includes some herring, oats, buttermilk and rye

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or wheat bread as summer additions to this diet. However, he notes that the above amount is rather more than the cottagers of this county can produce on the grounds which are usually let with their holdings (4).
The catastrophe that was to befall Ireland in the 1840s, due to its over dependence on the potato, was not the first time the crop had caused disaster. There were many famines of varying severity in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. What made the great famine worse was the continual failure of the harvest over a number of years, the increased dependance on the potato and overpopulation in the 1840s. Ironically this enormous population growth was made possible by the ability of the potato to support large families on small plots. Samuel Hayes had even attributed the robust health of our peasantry and the great population of our country(5) to this quality of the potato.

Clothes
Fashion from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century in Ireland was very much dictated by a persons social class. Irish fashion was indeed a recognisable one, with a characteristic look of its own and, contrary to popular belief, quite different from that of Scotland. Clothing in Ireland was to change in these years, probably due to the increasing manufacture of cloths such as linen, cotton, flannel, frieze and other homespun fabrics; but also due to the widening of the import market in the 1800s, thus introducing softer cloths and developing the Irish woven silk trade, which had been established in the seventeenth century.

In the sixteenth century the basis of Irish dress was very much uniform. For most social groups the basic structure remained the same, except for the large number of poverty stricken people who were reduced to wearing any piece of cloth they could find. This structure, which dated back to the time of the Cells, consisted of the brat or mantle (cloak/cape), the trews (trousers) and the leine (tunic).
The brat was a shaped and lengthy garment reaching to the ankle. It was normally sleeveless, made from thick handspun wool and was considered the most characteristic of Irish garments. Up until the sixteenth century. it was normally worn with a brooch fastener on the shoulder. It was usually semicircular but it is argued that it may have sometimes been triangular.

The length of trews varied greatly, as did their shape, some reached the ankle whilst others were cut above the knee and held at the waist by a cord. Generally they were made from thick, warm, stockinet cloth, somewhat like modern day leggings or ski-pants. When full length they covered the whole leg and either ended at the feet like stockings, or else reached to the instep and were fastened by a band under the sole of the foot. The cloth form of the trews may have been derived from those worn in the Roman army; whilst the stocking type could have been influenced by the Greek army.
The leine also varied in length and originally resembled a shirt or frock type

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blouse. It eventually evolved to look more like a jacket. The way it was opened varied from garment to garment. Most developed to open down the front, but managed to keep their wide sleeves even in their jacket (ionar) form.
Much of the garments worn in country areas were made by self sufficient families using their own wool. For important occasions a local or itinerant tailor was employed. Mens garments were variously coloured, using dyes made from indigenous plants such as lichens and heather. There is a record of crocuses being planted, possibly for the production of saffron for dyeing. Saffron produced a bright yellow colour that could not (at the time), be derived from any other source. It was probably used to dye leine and might have only been used by the wealthy. It was also reputed to have anti-lice properties!

Womens clothing was rarely as colourful as mens. Peasant dresses had developed from the leine and were quite plain in appearance. Womens dress had evolved into a uniform look before the famine, with black gowns and crimson petticoats being its main elements. In the winter these were covered with a hooded cloak and shawl which were the successors of the age old mantle.
It should be remembered that the evolution of Irish dress was not just influenced by the weather, by the cloth used or by the wearer, but also by politics. Throughout this era, laws were passed in attempts to stamp out some of the symbols of Irishness such as dress and customs. Also, many laws were passed limiting the export of Irish wool.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the upper and middle classes valued good quality and colourful fabrics. Their tastes for fur and fine linen were expensive. Many accessories and fabrics, such as whale bone supports for tight bodices and silk had to be imported
The laws limiting the trade in wool had a crippling effect on the industry; in order to revive it these were repealed by the 1890s and protectionist laws were even introduced. By the nineteenth century even the monarch was taking an interest. George IV gave encouragement to the industry by recommending that only Irish fabrics should be worn at his reception here in 1821. His lead was followed at social events throughout the country.

The expansion of the cotton industry in Ireland benefited from the revolutionary change in fashion caused by the introduction of the simple muslin dress. This new style introduced a major social change, as such inexpensive fabrics meant that even maidservants could dress fashionably. Fashion was never an important factor in most peoples lives. For people who were struggling to survive keeping abreast with fashions was a luxury they could not afford.

Education
Education in Wicklow, and indeed Ireland as a whole, can be divided into two distinct classes, Catholic and Protestant. The restrictions placed on all aspects of Catholic life during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries precluded them

Page 58

from organised religion. The Protestant community fared better; the fewer restrictions on Dissenters and their smaller numbers ensured that their education was not seen as a great threat to the Church of Ireland. The established church being free from restrictions and having the full financial support of the government was in a much better position to educate itself. One of the earliest-records of a school in the county is in the Delgany vestry book in 1665. It noted Pd ye schoolemr, for a quarter 7th of December 1 5s. 8d., the master was Richard Oard. This form of parish school was to continue through the eighteenth century. The schoolhouse and teachers were supplied from the church funds. These schools were established as a result of an education act in 1570 whose purpose was to anglicise and civilise the unruly Irish. Although this act was added to in the reign of Elizabeth lit was never fully implemented. It did, however, reflect the governments understanding of the importance of education in solving social problems in Ireland. The aims of these and many later initiatives were quite limited  it was mainly a desire to produce young people literate enough to understand the scriptures that prompted their establishment. 
Alongside these schools in the eighteenth century there grew the tradition of the hedge schools. The fact that the education of Catholics was forbidden was enough to convince many of them that it must therefore be a desirable thing. Even the poorest were determined to educate their children. During the period of the penal laws hedge schools were held illegally in hedge rows and out of the way places throughout the country. The quality of the teacher varied greatly. Some were barely literate themselves while others were highly educated having earlier trained for the priesthood in Europe. Their fees were paid by the pupils and they rarely stayed long in one area as capture was always a possibility. As they often came into competition with each other, many were continually aware of their need to sell themselves. A typical image of a hedge school master (most would have been male) is of a rather eccentric figure whose flowery language often included classical quotations and latinisms. The hedge school curriculum included the three Rs, catechetics plus any other subject the master was familiar with. Text books also depended on what was available. One infamotus list of books included the History of Fair Rosina and Jane Shore (two prostitutes), Ovids Art of Love and The New System of Boxing by Mendose (6). However, as the penal laws were rescinded these schools became more regulated and uniform. They moved from the hedges to buildings provided by the local community and began to be known as Catholic Pay Schools.

At this time (the turn of the nineteenth century) the countrys first attempt at nondenominational schools was taking place. The Kildare Place Society for the Education of the Poor was founded at the close of the 18th century. Their aim was to improve the conduct of the poor by educating them in their proper civil duties. The board of the society, whose president was Lord Wicklow, contained both Catholics and Protestants, including for a time Daniel OConnell. In dealing with

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religious education it limited itself to the reading of scriptures without comment. As Sunday schools were often attached, the Church of Ireland pupils would then receive comment on Sundays, while the local priests were kept abreast of developments to arrange appropriate sermons.
The rest of the curriculum was based on the three Rs. Strict guidelines were laid down in the societys Schoolmasters Manual on teaching practice, punishment and the building of the schools. On paper at least it was a very progressive approach towards education and the large endowments granted by the government ensured that its operations were country wide. 

This included Wicklow, where there were a number of these schools. By the early nineteenth century any school-going children in the country either attended one of these schools or a Catholic Pay School. In many areas this choice was dependant on the quality of the teacher at each establishment. In 1820 the Wicklow Education Society report shows that there were at least 2,024 children being educated at Kildare Place schools in the county. It expressed general satisfaction with them, pointing out certain teachers of note such as Mr. Pavey of Carnew who continues although old and infirm, to teach such poor children as come to him in the summer half year; many ... do not pay him anything and from the remainder he gets very little, that he may be said to depend for his support on a pension of ten pounds per annum allowed him by Lord Fitzwilliam. Information on the Catholic Pay Schools is more scant. In his History of the Schools of Kildare and Leighlin Rev. 

Martin Brennan estimates that about 14% of the Catholic population attended these schools in the summer. By 1826 many teachers appear to have been quite old. He lists two from the south west of the county, Timothy Kavanagh of Bortle and Garret Doyle of Carnctenamiel, who were in their sixties. It appears that these schools were very much under the control of the local parish priests, who appointed and contributed towards the payment of the teachers. So by the beginning of the nineteenth century there was the beginnings of a widespread system of education in Wicklow. Local demand plus government policy ensured the continued move towards a more all-encompassing system later in the century. Compared to the rest of the United Kingdom, Ireland was very much to the forefront in this field. When a national system was eventually introduced in both islands, the Irish experience was to prove to have been of invaluable importance.

Notes
(1) Inglis, Henry D., Journey Through Ireland (London, 1838), p.20.
(2) Ibid,p.18.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Hayes, Samuel, Essays in Answer to all the Queries on the Culture of Potatoes (Dublin, 1797), p.20.
(5) Ibid,p.21.
(6) Dutton, Healy, Stastical Survey of the County of Clare, with observations on the means of improvements; drawn up for the consideration and by direction of the Dublin Society (Dublin, 1808), p. 137-7.


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THE 1798 REBELLION

Any examination of the 1798 Rebellion in Wicklow must necessarily begin by looking at the neighbouring county of Wexford, since it was here that the local rebels first took a stand. As the two most successful Protestant settlements outside Ulster, Wicklow and Wexford were closely linked. The Byrne family were very prominent in Wexford during the years leading up to the Rebellion and close family ties existed across the two counties. One of the most important Catholic families to have maintained its social standing in county Wicklow during the eighteenth century was the Byrnes of Ballymanus.

Wicklow in the 1790s had a higher percentage of Protestants than any other county in Ireland, excluding Ulster, while Wexford had the next highest. The Protestant community in Wexford were mainly found in the northern regions of the county and Gorey rivalled Carnew in south Wicklow as the most Protestant region in both counties. In such communities, sectarian disturbances in other counties could quickly lead to increased tension, fear and haired. Both south west Wicklow and Wexford had few towns and few industries, with the result that the rural population, both Protestant and Catholic, were almost totally engaged in agriculture, with many strong Protestant farming settlements on the western slopes of the Wicklow hills. There were few inier marriages between the two communities and very few conversions to Protestantism.

The contrast between the Rebellion in Wicklow and Wexford and that in other regions has perplexed many historians. It was most violent in an area which, at that time, was relatively calm and prosperous. Agrarian unrest is not an acceptable theory given such a successful farming community and sectarian fears amongst Catholics is not a strong enough argument alone to account for the ferocity of the uprising. Military attempts at suppression had been more violent against Catholics in other counties.
So why did the Rebellion take such strong hold in Wicklow and Wexford? To determine this, it is first necessary to give a brief overview of the events leading up to the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland as a whole.
After the leading United Irishmen were arrested in March of 1798, punishments meted out to anyone suspected of rebel activity by the military in the Leinster area became increasingly severe. The government had grasped the full extent of the conspiracy and were determined to crush it totally, using harsh methods if necessary. 

The armys definition of harsh methods was severe in the extreme. Militiamen and dragoons in Cork who were discovered to have taken a local Defender oath were given sentences ranging from 500 to 999 lashes. Not all of these floggings were carried out fully - often between 200 and 425 lashes were administered, with the rest remitted if the culprit agreed to service overseas for the remainder of his life. Such floggings were extremely inhumane, resulting

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in flesh being torn in lumps from the body, exposing bones and internal organs. On 30th March, 1798 a number of districts in Leinster were proclaimed areas
in which the military could live at free quarters and search for arms. In effect, this meant that the military were let loose and were encouraged in acts of great violence against all who were supposed to be disaffected (1). There were virtually no restraints at all on these troops - their only task was to obtain the surrender of arms and to uncover local United Irishmen officers.

Aside from flogging, other forms of torture were used; half-hanging, where a rope was pulled tightly around the victims neck and then slackened when he became unconscious and the pitch-cap, where a brown paper cap was filled with molten pitch, placed on the victims head, allowed to set slightly and then set alight, resulting in burning pitch falling onto the victims face and eyes. It could usually only be removed together with much of the victims hair and scalp.

AU forms of torture were applied indiscriminately to innocent and guilty suspects, since it was felt that torture would quickly distinguish between the two. However, it was the floggings that inspired most fear and were most effective in obtaining information quickly, together with a surrender of arms. After the proclamation on 30th March, the wooden triangle, upon which those to be flogged were spread eagled, appears to have been first erected in Athy, county Kildare.

They were stripped naked, tied to the triangle and their flesh cut without mercy and though some men stood the torture to the last gasp sooner than become informers, others did not, and...one single informer in the town was sufficient to destroy all the United Irishmen in it (2).

This system of torture was being carried Out largely by Irish soldiers, most of them Catholics in the lowest class of the militia, Prior to and during the 1798 Rebellion, over four-fifths of government troops were Irish (3). Soon the population of Leinster was so terrified by the floggings, house burning, pitch-capping, half-hanging and indiscriminate shooting, that many slept outside in the fields for safety.
Although the leading United Irishmen had been arrested on 12th March, the organisation claimed that the positions left vacant by them on the Leinster Provincial Committee were quickly filled and that the organisation of the capital was perfect (4). In fact a new National Directory had been established under the leadership of a young Protestant barrister called John Sheares. He and his brother were arrested only five weeks after the arrest of the previous United Irishmen leaders, due to the evidence of the informer Armstrong. The brothers were subsequently sentenced to death for high treason.

The Sheares brothers were in gaol by 21st March. Their replacements had no choice but to go ahead with the Rebellion, planned for 23rd May, as events had progressed too far to be stopped. Tension was high among the peasantry, exacerbated by the military terror. A dozen or more risings of badly-organised groups of peasants, armed wiLh pikes and some firearms, occurred in the counties

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surrounding Dublin between 23rd and 25th May, often amounting to little more than demonstrations. The rebels were defeated with great slaughter, although they did succeed in inflicting some casualties. Their own losses were said to be enormous, as high as several hundred after each battle. Many of these deaths probably took place after the battles themselves were over - anyone caught a few miles within the vicinity of a skirmish was likely to be shot on the spot. Houses were burnt, people were flogged and executed in greater numbers than ever before. 
During the period of unrest Dublin remained firmly under government control, but the rebel activities in the south were achieving a greater degree of success. From 1797 onwards, the United Irishmen pursued a policy of heightening fears amongst the Catholic peasantry with regard to a plot by Orangemen to rise and murder all Catholics, which served to increase the existing sense of Catholic solidarity. Wicklow had three Orange Order lodges at this time, with a predominantly Protestant membership. Wexford was probably one of the counties which appeared least likely to cause trouble, since the number of sworn United Irishmen only numbered approximately 300. A strong Defender organisation had been in existence in the county for many years, but had not been very active. However, Wexford proved to be the county in which the Rebellion took the strongest hold.

The reason for this is due to several factors local to the county and also partly to accident. One of the important local factors was the lack of serious organisation on the part of rebel groups, which resulted in a lack of concern by the government until almost the last minute. Only a small garrison existed in the county and the task of searching for arms was left to the local, largely Protestant, yeomanry who were amateur and undisciplined. Another important local factor was that the Wexford Protestants were much more sectarian than in most other counties and when they began their searches for arms around the county they were particularly vicious in outlook and action.

To make matters worse, the government troops sent to Wexford were the North Cork militia, who were credited with inventing the pitch-cap method of torture, even though they were largely composed of Catholics. A man called Heppenstal, one of the sergeants in the militia, was nicknamed the walking gallows due to his skill at half-hanging men over his shoulder. Therefore, during the last days of May 1798 feargripped the population of Wexford and surrounding regions. Once the Rebellion broke out in other parts of the country, followed by news of the sadistic reprisals, the terror rose.

At Dunlavin in west Wicklow, twenty eight prisoners were taken from the local gaol by the government garrison and executed without trial, although they had played no part in the Rebellion. In Carnew, a further twenty eight people suspected of rebel activities were shot without trial by a squad of local yeomen and militia. News of these shootings quickly spread and confirmed the local

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peasants worst fears with regard to the treatment they could expect at the hands of government forces.
The Rebellion in Wexford began on 26th May at Boolavogue and Oulart and quickly spread throughout the north of the county. Father John Murphy, parish priest at Boolavogue, had played a prominent part in persuading the local population to surrender their anns in exchange for protections and had made a declaration of allegiance to the government which was signed by 757 of his parishioners. However, the terms of the Arms Proclamation in Wexford were ignored by the local magistrates and troops, who had begun to carry out floggings and other tortures. Fr. Murphy was becoming more and more desperate. 

On the evening of 26th May he was returning from a visit to a neighbouring farmer in the company of some men, a number of whom were carrying arms. They met a cavalry troop who either fired a volley and demanded their weapons, or merely demanded the weapons. The men responded with shots and stones. The lieutenant in command was stabbed in the side of the neck with a pike and was killed. As an eyewitness stated, The firstblow of the insurrection in Wexford was now struck (5).

As reprisal the next day, houses all over the county were set alight and a group of people on Kilthomas Hill were killed on suspicion of being rebels. Fr. Murphy and his group, now numbering about 1,000, camped on Oulart Hill. When attacked by the North Cork militia, who numbered about 110 men, the rebels held their ground, despite having only forty or fifty firearms between them. They succeeded in driving the troops from the hill and killing many, with the loss of only six men.

Now equipped with a valuable addition to their arms taken from the defeated militia, the rebels marched on Enniscorthy and took it alter a three hour battle, almost burning it to the ground. They then established what was to become their most permanent base, on Vinegar Hill beside the town. On top of the hill were the remains of a windmill, where some thirty-five Protestants from Enniscorthy, under suspicion of being Orangemen, were executed by the rebels. Hill camps such as that at Vinegar Hill were to become a feature of the rebels movements during the following weeks. They had almost no tents, but lay in the open at night as the weather was unusually fine. This they took to be a good omen and they claimed it would not rain again until victory was won.

However, the rebels were burdened with several weaknesses. The greatest of these were the lack of a strategic plan of action and lack of effective leadership. While often brave and determined, they lacked discipline in battle and tended to act spontaneously, rather than on the commands of their senior officers. Retreat from action was usually fast and sudden and consequently they feared being left behind by their companions and watched each other closely. They were also reluctant to fight at night for the same reason, as it was then more difficult to tell what was going on. Thomas Cloney, a young Catholic farmer who had emerged

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peasants worst fears with regard to the treatment they could expect at the hands of government forces.
The Rebellion in Wexford began on 26th May at Boolavogue and Oulart and quickly spread throughout the north of the county. Father John Murphy, parish priest at Boolavogue, had played a prominent part in persuading the local population to surrender their anns in exchange for protections and had made a declaration of allegiance to the government which was signed by 757 of his parishioners. However, the terms of the Arms Proclamation in Wexford were ignored by the local magistrates and troops, who had begun to carry out floggings and other tortures. 

Fr. Murphy was becoming more and more desperate. On the evening of 26th May he was returning from a visit to a neighbouring farmer in the company of some men, a number of whom were carrying arms. They met a cavalry troop who either fired a volley and demanded their weapons, or merely demanded the weapons. The men responded with shots and stones. The lieutenant in command was stabbed in the side of the neck with a pike and was killed. As an eyewitness stated, The firstblow of the insurrection in Wexford was now struck (5).

As reprisal the next day, houses all over the county were set alight and a group of people on Kilthomas Hill were killed on suspicion of being rebels. Fr. Murphy and his group, now numbering about 1,000, camped on Oulart Hill. When attacked by the North Cork militia, who numbered about 110 men, the rebels held their ground, despite having only forty or fifty firearms between them. They succeeded in driving the troops from the hill and killing many, with the loss of only six men.
Now equipped with a valuable addition to their arms taken from the defeated militia, the rebels marched on Enniscorthy and took it alter a three hour battle, almost burning it to the ground. They then established what was to become their most permanent base, on Vinegar Hill beside the town. On top of the hill were the remains of a windmill, where some thirty-five Protestants from Enniscorthy, under suspicion of being Orangemen, were executed by the rebels. Hill camps such as that at Vinegar Hill were to become a feature of the rebels movements during the following weeks. They had almost no tents, but lay in the open at night as the weather was unusually fine. This they took to be a good omen and they claimed it would not rain again until victory was won.

However, the rebels were burdened with several weaknesses. The greatest of these were the lack of a strategic plan of action and lack of effective leadership. While often brave and determined, they lacked discipline in battle and tended to act spontaneously, rather than on the commands of their senior officers. Retreat from action was usually fast and sudden and consequently they feared being left behind by their companions and watched each other closely. They were also reluctant to fight at night for the same reason, as it was then more difficult to tell what was going on. Thomas Cloney, a young Catholic farmer who had emerged

page65


THE 1798 REBELLION


The attack on Arklow took place on 9th June, led by Fr. Michael Murphy amongst others. Here they not only disposed themselves skilfully but fought with almost absurd dash and bravado (6). Armed largely with pikes, they attacked the town from the south, charging into the path of five pieces of artillery firing grapeshot, sustaining heavy losses. The commander of the Arklow garrison, General Needham, had received reinforcements prior to the battle and, despite repeated attacks to the English line, held firm. The rebels tactics were not good enough for victory, their marksmanship was bad and their weapons inferior. While they had some cannon, they were not familiar with them and had to force prisoners captured with the guns to fire them, with negligible results. By eight oclock they were running short of ammunition and withdrew, leaving between 2,000 and 3,000 dead. Fr. Murphy was killed within thirty yards of the loyalist lines.

The strategic consequence of this failure to take Arklow was that the rebels remained contained in the south east corner of the county. For the Rebellion to succeed it had to spread from the south east and connect up with the Rebellion in Ulster, hopefully gathering support along the way. The failure of the rebels to take Arklow and open a path to Dublin averted the threat of a general uprising throughout Ireland.
The third column, made up of around 2,500 men, set out towards Bunclody (Newtownbarry), commanded by Fr. Kearns. They succeeded in driving the militia out but then slipped into drunkenness and plunder and were cast out of the town in a counter-attack which saw many killed. Bagenal Harvey was deposed as Commander-in-Chief and Fr. Roche, a local Catholic priest, installed in his stead. While continuing to lead the rebels from Wexford town, he was becoming increasingly desperate. A last-minute massacre took place on the wooden bridge at Wexford, where around 100 Protestants were shot or piked and cast into the Slaney river.

Vinegar Hill was attacked by government forces employing heavy cannon fire on 2lstJune. They attempted to encircle the hill but quite a number of rebels escaped, due to a gap in the circle. A large group of these, under Fr. John Murphy, headed for Kilkenny but failed to find support there and withdrew, establishing a camp at Kilcomney Hill which was overrun by government troops on 26th June.
The rest of the Wexford rebels split into smaller bands and took refuge in the mountains of county Wicklow. They were led by Joseph Holt, a radical Protestant farmer and the Catholic Michael Dwyer. While these bands resisted capture for a considerable time and were a constant thorn in the governments side due to their raids on government troops, they did not represent a serious threat to the stability of the country. Within six weeks of the Rebellions outbreak, all signs of it had virtually disappeared. The whole mopping up procedure, in fact, was if anything an even bloodier business than anything that

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had taken place during or before the rebellion itself (7). Many rebels were butchered while unarmed and on their knees begging for mercy. Frequently, the male inhabitants of any house that gave shelter to the rebels were killed. In 1799 Billy Byrne, a former yeoman ai)d reluctant rebel leader, was executed in Wicklow town for his part in the rising. The Protestant historian, Gordon, estimated that 50,000 people died on both sides in the whole Rebellion.
Fr. John Murphy was hanged at Tullow, his body burned in a tar barrel and his head placed on a pike. Bagenal Harvey, Matthew Keogh and Fr. Roche were all hanged on 1st July off Wexford Bridge, their heads impaled on pikes over the courthouse and their bodies thrown in the Slaney river. On 8th-July 1798 six weeks after the Rebellion broke out, the only rebel forces still at large were around 5,000 armed with pikes in Wicklow, some rebels in the north of Wexford and on the Meath and Dublin county borders. Matters settled back relatively quickly into the usual peasant restlessness which had existed for half a century and would last for a century more, although both Holt and Dwyer remained at large in Wicklow fore several years. 
Dwyer, born in the Glen of lmmal in 1771, became an active leader in the Rebellion. Following the crushing of the rebel forces he went on the run in the Wicklow mountains and succeeded in avoiding capture by utilising his intimate knowledge of the area. At one point Dwyer and his companions were trapped by British troops. One of his followers, Samuel McAllister, gave his life by drawing the enemys fire, thus enabling Dwyer to escape and remain at large for a further four years.
Due to the large number of rebels who took refuge in the Wicklow mountains, the British Army were forced to construct the Military Road, running from north to south through the mountains and marked by a number of barracks where troops were stationed, in order to exert some control over the area. Dwyer eventually surrendered in 1804 at Humewood, near Baltinglass and was subsequently transported as a free man to Australia.

The Rebellion was chasacterised both in Wicklow and Wexford by systematic burning of houses, churches and businesses-by both sides. There was hardly one sound house left standing in west and south Wicklow once the rising ended, although the damage around Rathdrum was less, due to the protection offered by the yeomanry of the disirict to the loyalists. The fact that Wicklow was less urbanised than Wexford could account for the lower number of claims lodged by loyalists for compensation. The underlying sectarian element is evidenced by the lengthy reiributions which followed the crushing of the Rebellion in July. The landlords of both counties did little to help matters, being bitterly opposed to emancipation. Even as late as August 1799, Bishop Troy wrote no priest can appear in the northeast parts of that distracted county nor in the neighbourhood of Arklow (8). Between August 1798 and October 1800 fifteen Catholic chapels were burned in the Wicklow districts of the diocese of Dublin.

page 67 

THE 1798 REBELLION

Therefore, because the Protestant community was proportionately larger in Wicklow and north Wexford than anywhere else excluding Ulster, the ability of the community to resist the rising sectarian tension was much more difficult on each side. This fact helps to explain why atrocities in other counties did not have the same outcome. Even in other counties with large Protestant communities, a relatively high percentage were economically dependant to some extent on the support or patronage of a landlord. In contrast, members of the Protestant farming community in Wicklow and Wexford were more independent of landlord patronage. There were also a large number of younger Catholic men who had succeeded to estates, such as Garret Byrne, or who were the eldest sons of prosperous farmers. Desperation of the part of these well-off Catholics drove many to their involvement in the Rebellion, allied to their long-standing opposition to the establishment Protestant families in the county.
Holt observed that it was private wrongs and individual oppression, quite unconnected with the government, which gave the bloody and inveternte character to the rebellion in the county of Wicklow (9).


Notes
(1) Maurice, Sir J. F. (ed.), The Diary of Sir John Moore (London, 1904), vol. 1, p.271.
(2) McHugh. Roger (ed.), Carlow in 98, Memoirs of William Farrell (Dublin, 1949),
p.75.

(3) Maurice, op. cit., vol. ii, p.270.
(4) Gordon, Rev. J. B., History of the Rebellion in lreland 1798, (London, 1803), p.62.
(5) Cited in Charles Dickson, The Wexford Rising in 1798 (Tralee, 1955), p.55.
(6) Kee, Robert, The Most Distressful Country (London 1976), p.1 19.
(7) Ibid.,p.123.

(8) Pakenham, Thomas, The Year of Liberty (London, 1969), p.349.
(9) Holt, Joseph, Memoirs of (London, 1838), vol. 1, p.17.


Page 68

Wicklow Gaol pre 1950
by Edward Kane 

With the Prison Act of 1786 an Inspector General of Prisons was appointed and Sir Jeremiah was given this role, due no doubt to his excellent record in leading the field in prison reform in Ireland. This act established an administrative pyramid with a local inspector at its base, then the Inspector General and finally Parliament before which the Inspector General had to lay an annual report as to the state of gaols in Ireland.

Rev. Foster Archer became the second Inspector General of Prisons in 1796. Again annual reports were very irregular and it was not until 1823 that reports appeared on an annual basis up till 1876 when the General Prisons Board took over this role. The Prisons Act of 1822 had reinforced the position of an inspectorate by appointing a second Inspector General of Prisons.

In the Inspector Generals report of 1799 it is stated that a prisoner, a William (Billy) Byrne of Ballymanus was enjoying great freedom within the confines of Wicklow Gaol. His fellow inmates were either locked in their cells or were manacled, while Billy Byrnes cell door remained open all day. Visitors, it was reported, were allowed to visit the rebel leader anytime, day or night. The Inspector General was not pleased with this situation and recommended that the gaoler be dismissed.

Page 70

WICKLOW COUNTY GAOL

Following the Rebellion of 1798 the reports of the Inspector General remarked upon the impact on the Gaol of the large number of prisoners held within its walls. It was feared that the very walls would collapse.

In the early reports of the Inspector General in the 1820s it is stated that a new building had been erected but that the authorities were unhappy with the quality of workmanship. Apparently it was felt by the governor that low quality materials had been used by the builder. It was recommended that payments should be withheld until matters were rectified.

With this new addition, Wicklow County Gaol could now boast six yards, five small day rooms, two work rooms, thirty four cells, two solitary cells, a chapel and infirmary and a marshalsea. However, it soon became obvious that the method of controlling prisoners, the system of silence and separation, was unenforceable due to the confines of the Gaol structure. From as early as 1836 the Inspectors General were advocating that another addition should be built onto the Gaol. By 1840 the Grand Jury had placed 10,000 aside for construction work. It was completed in 1843, bringing the total to seventy seven cells, six day rooms, four yards, a public kitchen, a chapel - minutely divided for seventy prisoners, a treadwheel, a hospital and a laundry all within the Gaol complex.

The system that emerged in the early part of the nineteenth century was one whereby people were sent to prison to be punished for their crimes and while there would go through a process of rehabilitation. This meant that they attended school (within the prison) on a daily basis; chaplains of all denominations visited regularly to talk to the prisoners and exhort them to virtue; a system of separation was introduced whereby moral contamination of one prisoner by another would be avoided by providing separate cells for each prisoner, as well as individual stalls in the chapel and the treadwheel house.

Probably the most important aspect of the rehabilitation was the concept of the prisoners working within the prison, producing a product which could be sold outside. Money from this could be used to offset the running costs of the Gaol, with a portion returning to the prisoners as profit. It was also considered essential that the Gaol should be self sufficient and he able to maintain the building and clothe the prisoners from within. The prisoners were expected to paint the Gaol and maintain the yards, make the uniforms and shoes and wash and repair their clothes. In order to achieve this the appointment of turnkeys who were also tradesmen was necessary and so the turnkeys working in Wicklow Gaol were a painter, a tailor and a shoemaker by trade, in addition to others who acted as school masters. The matron, along with the assistant, supervised the female prisoners who were engaged in knitting, sewing, mending, weaving, spinning and washing. She also acted as school mistress.

At various times the prisoners in Wicklow Gaol made fishing nets which were sold both locally and in Arklow, picked oakum, which was rope used as insulation between boards on a ship, and did stone breaking. The making of

page 71

WICKLOW COUNTY GAOL

fishing nets was abandoned after a short time however, as it was feared that they could be used as a means of escape by throwing them over the walls.
By showing the prisoners the error of their ways and giving them the benefit of a trade, their opportunities of obtaining gainful employment on their release either at home or in the event of emigration would be enhanced. In theory the moral rehabilitation of the prisoners would be complete.
A matron was appointed to supervise all aspects of the female prisoners welfare at all times, with responsibility for their medical wellbeing, prison work, treatment and schooling. As well as eating communally, female prisoners were allowed to work together. Classes were held in a refectory type room. A school master was employed to teach the men and this was carried out in the chapel until the Inspector General objected saying that the chapel should be retained for religious worship only.
According to the Inspectors General, prostitutes frequently committed crime for the express purpose of being sentenced to the Gaol and thus being assured of receiving treatment for their social diseases. This was the case in 1845 when seven females, the worst and most abandoned characters in the town committed crimes for venereal disease treatment. That same year two children were born in the prison, one being stillborn.

The treadwheel was the most common form of punishment inflicted on the prisoners. It had been invented by William Cubitt in 1818 purely for punitary purposes, with few exceptions. No benefits, such as water being pumped or the grinding of wheat, accrued to Wicklow Gaol. According to the early Inspectors General reports, a treadwheel had been installed in the early 1820s in Wicklow but because of concern over its legality it was not put into use for several years. Once this situation was defined the authorities put it into full use and male prisoners were required to work the treadwheel for five hours in summer and four hours in winter, with breaks of twenty minutes allowed from time to time.
The whipping of boys was another form of punishment meted out to prisoners in Wicklow according to the reports, with the governor responsible for overseeing that all punishments were carried out and administered correctly.

The presence of lunatics within the prison created problems for the authorities as it was deemed necessary to have them accompanied, usually by fellow prisoners, at all times. This requirement meant that the penal system of silence and separation was unenforceable, as two prisoners would have to sleep with a lunatic in a cell and wash, dress and feed their charge. The term lunatic covered those who were mentally handicapped, epileptic and the insane.
Wicklow Gaol catered for both short and long term prisoners, those who had commited misdemeanours and felonies. In its early years, as was seen in the case of Fr. Owen McFee, offenders against the penal laws were held there and even transported to America. When this colony was lost to the English with the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 anotherdumping ground for the

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WICKLOW COUNTY GAOL

the criminal classes was identified with the opening up of a colony in New South Wales in 1788.
Prisoners were transported to this new colony from Wicklow Gaol from the 1790s until the 1850s. Many of those involved in the 1798 Rebellion were transported, such as General Joseph Holt, Michael Dwyer and Hugh Vesty Byrne, though these were transported as free men. Byrne was one of the few men who escaped from the Gaol.

By the time of the Great Famine the occurrence of food stealing had greatly increased with offences such as stealing potato seed, cabbage, carrots, bread and of course sheep being very common. Depending on the particular circumstances of their offence, people were often transported to Australia. It is likely that some commited petty offences in order to be imprisoned during the years of the Famine, thereby ensuring they had regular meals.

Due to improvements in transport and communications, and the construction of Mountjoy Gaol in Dublin in the 1850s, Wicklow Gaol became more of a holding centre. Under the terms of the Prison Act of 1877 Wicklow Gaol was finally demoted from a county gaol to a bridewell.

Notes
(1) Urban District Council Minutes Book, Borough of Wicklow (1709), courtesy of Wicklow Urban District Council.

(2) Burke, Irish Priests in Penal Times, p.299.

(3) Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the present state, situation and management of the Public Prisons, Gaols and Brideweils of this Kingdom. Irish House of Commons Journals, vol.11, 1786.

page 73

POPULATION TRENDS

In 1672, William Petty estimated the population of the country to be roughly 1.1 million, out of which there were 800,000 Irish people.

It had been estimated that the population was over 1.8 million thirty years before: about 504,000 of the Irish people perished and were wasted by the sword, plague, famine, hardship and banishment, between 23rd October 1641 and the same day in 1652. The population of Wicklow, at this time, was unknown. The earliest population estimated for Wicklow was in 1812. In this year the population was calculated as being 83,109, excluding the barony of Newcastle. It can be roughly estimated that Newcastle would have a similar population to Arklow because they had a similar demographic structure. Altogether in the county in 1812 there were somewhere in the region of 101,357 people. The returns for Wicklow were as follows:

oooooooooooooooooooooNO. OF HOUSES oooooooooooooooGROSS POPULATION
ARKLOW oooooooooooooooo2,867 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo18,248
BALLINACOR oooooooooooo3,039 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo18,419
NEWCASTLE
RATHDOWN ooooooooooooo1,165 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo7,289
SHILLELAGH ooooooooooooooo971 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo12,122
TALBOTSTOWN LOWER ooo1,889 11,250
TALBOTSTOWN UPPER oooo2,534 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo15,783
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo13,645oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo83,109
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo(Calculations as in original) (1)

From 1821 onwards there was a census every ten years; the following table shows the population of the county, male and female, for the first half of the nineteenth century:

POPULATION OF WICKLOW, 1821-1851

YEAR oooooooMALES ooooooFEMALES ooooooTOTAL ooooooo%CHANGE

1821 oooooooo55,203 oooooooo55,564 oooooooooo110,767 ooooooooooooo-
1831 oooooooo61,052 oooooooo60,505 oooooooooo121,557 ooooooooo+9.79
1841 oooooooo64,489 oooooooo62,654 oooooooooo126,143 ooooooooo+3.77
1851 oooooooo50,230 oooooooo48,749 oooooooooo98,979 oooooooooo-21.53
oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo(2)

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POPULATION TRENDS

The census of 1841, being the last before the Great Famine, gives us some indication of the state of the country in those years. It can be roughly calculated from it that there were 50,861 employed, 61,360 were too old or too young to work and 13,922 were unemployed. The population was evenly balanced between males and females. The drop in the population of2l .53% by 1851 shows the severe reduction caused through death and emigration (it must be remembered that Wicklow did not suffer as greatly as many other counties during this time).

By 1861, the first census to give religious denominations, Roman Catholics made up 81% of the population of the county, the Church of Ireland constituted 17.7%, Presbyterians were 0.3%, Methodists were 0.8% and others were 0.2%.
In the Ballymore Eustace Church of Ireland records (this parish is in county Kildare, on the border with Wicklow), between the years 1794 and 1798 there were 81 recorded deaths, 56 of which were from illness, 3 were of natural causes (old age), 2 were from violence, 1 was from unknown causes and 3 were from accidents. 

The illnesses recorded ranged from dropsy to asthma and apoplexy. There were no records for 1798 as there were too many deaths to record due to the Rebellion. There was one interesting case where a man was registered as having died from palsey and the next entry was that of his wife on the very same day; the reason given for her sudden death was grief. Eight of these who died were infants, giving an infant mortality rate of about 10%. Being on the border of county Wicklow it could be assumed that this county would have a similar breakdown in its deaths.


Notes
(1) Returns from the 1812 Act For Taking Account of the Population of Ireland. Ballinacor includes both upper and lower baronies.
(2) Vaughan. W.E. & Fitzpatrick, A.J. (eds.), Irish Historical Statistical Population, Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1978), p.8.

page 75

Extract from Shillelagh Workhouse records during the Great Famine

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries Fynes Morryson, secretary to the Lord Deputy, traveled the country and recorded what he saw in his book, Descriptions of Ireland under Elizabeth and James. Wicklow was omitted from his record of most of the counties of the country as less affording memorable things. Over the next two hundred years the reports of travelers were to change considerably. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the county was to play host to some of the most eminent travel writers of the time. Arthur Young, De Latocnaye, Henry D. Inglis and Mr. and Mrs. Hall, to name a few, waxed lyrical on the beauties they saw in Wicklow. No doubt this difference of opinion was in part due to a change in perception. However, it was also due to the changes that had occurred in the county during the intervening years. 
In Fynes Morrysons time the county was an unruly and dangerous place. Wars and skirmishes had been common and would continue to be so for some time to come. By the 1840s the situation had changed. The county was now peaceful, while its first class physical infrastructure, noted by Robert Fraser in 1801, and its natural wealth had made it one of the wealthiest counties in the south of the country. Its many estates and their parklands gave most areas a prosperous apperance. There may have been severe poverty for some, but a superficial eye could disregard the unsightly. The hotels that had been established to cater for the new phenomenon of tourism bear witness to its growth in the late eighteenth century. The visitors book from Hunters Hotel for this period includes the names of travelers from all parts of the United Kingdom.

The many immigrants that had settled in the county during the proceeding centuries had by now become an integral part of the regions social and economic make up. Although there was still some tension between Catholics and Protestants, both religions were beginning to learn to live together peacefully. Now that the repressive anti-Catholic laws had been repealed, the way was open for equality. Unlike many other parts of the country, where small Church of Ireland communities formed an economic elite, Wicklows large Anglican community was dispersed amongst all social classes. Catholics and Protestants worked and

page 76

lived alongside each other. Even in the workhouse records there were many whose religion was entered as Protestant. Shared lives and hardships encouraged tolerance and understanding.
Many of the old Irish traditions had died out and the Irish language was nothing more than a memory, but many still survived. Elizabeth Smith, of Baltiboys House, in her Irish Journals of 1840-1850 writes about the survival of the Celtic custom of the wrenboys on St. Stephens Day. This tradition was kept alive in both communities; the assimilation of elements of each others heritage was another step towards greater understanding.

The poverty of the peasantry and laboring classes was a problem that had not been solved by all this progress. The devastation that resulted from the famine, reducing the population of the county by a quarter through death and emigration, had been foretold by earlier ones, but these portents went unheeded. The Great Famine of the late 1840s stretched the county to its limit. The surviving workhouse records from Shillelagh and Rathdrum show that both were continually full during this time. Many inmates were very young and there were quite a number of deserted children some of whose parents had emigrated. The trend of emigration started at this time was to continue long after the famine was over.

Lord Fitzwihiam even assisted many of his tenants to emigrate, the famine having proved the undesirability of small holdings for both landlord and tenant. Others followed Fr. Hoare from Killaveney, who on 2ndNovember 1850, set sail for New Orleans on board theTiconderoga, with a ship full of former tenants from Killaveney and its surrounding parishes. The growing unprofitability of the lead mines also encouraged many miners to leave the county.
However, the famine years and the following years were not all gloom and doom. Although it went unnoticed at the time, 1847 saw the birth of Charles Stuart Parnell in Avondale House, Rathdrum. On a local level he was to become one of the largest employers in the county through mining, quarrying and forestry. More importantly, his political life led to his becoming The Un-crowned King of Ireland and his work was to eventually help change the lot of

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WICKLOW ON THE EVE OF THE FAMINE

Irish peasants for the better. For the first time ever the Irish peasant was to become the owner of his own land, largely due to the work of Parnell.
The railway was to eventually come to the county by the 1850s, the line carrying it from Dun Laoghaire to Wicklow town being designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the greatest engineer of his day. He was to become associated with the county again at a later date when a ship he designed, the Great Eastern, was captained by Robert Halpin from Wicklow town.

Wicklows history has brought with it many mixed blessings. Its many personalities and occurrences has put it in a singular position in Irish history. Sandwiched between the Dublin and Wexford Pales, it was the last region in the country to come under the control of the English Crown. When it did it was eventually to become the most Anglicised of counties in the southern half of the country. Its experiences during the era of the penal laws and the savagery of the 1798 Rebellion were forgotten and, in an island where religious differences run deep, it has seen its two main religious groups learn to live peacefully, side by side.

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