Forgotten Graves of Irish Patriots

Continuity Wolfe Tone

I was reading this book, "Speeches from the Dock", which was first published in the late 1860's, (follow the link to download an ebook version, I really recommend it) and I got to this bit about the "Croppy's Hole";

Later still in the same year two gallant young officers of Irish blood, shared the fate of Russell and M'Cracken. They sailed with Humbert from Rochelle; they fought at Castlebar and Ballinamuck; and when the swords of their French allies were sheathed, they passed into the power of their foes. Matthew Tone was one of them; the other was Bartholomew Teeling. The latter filled the rank of Etat-major in the French army; and a letter from his commanding officer, General Humbert, was read at his trial, in which the highest praise was given to the young officer for the humane exertions which he made throughout his last brief campaign in the interest of mercy. "His hand," he said, "was ever raised to stay the useless effusion of blood, and his protection was afforded to the prostrate and defenceless." But his military judges paid little heed to those extenuating circumstances, and Teeling was condemned to die on the day of his trial. He perished on the 24th September, 1798, being then in his twenty-fourth year. He marched with a proud step to the place of execution on Arbour Hill, Dublin, and he died, as a soldier might, with unshaken firmness and unquailing mien. No lettered slab marks the place of his interment; and his bones remain in unhallowed and unconsecrated ground. Hardly had his headless body ceased to palpitate, when it was flung into a hole at the rere of the Royal Barracks. A few days later the same unhonoured spot received the mortal remains of Matthew Tone. "He had a more enthusiastic nature than any of us," writes his brother, Theobald Wolfe Tone, "and was a sincere Republican, capable of sacrificing everything for his principles." His execution was conducted with infamous cruelty and brutality, and the life-blood was still gushing from his body when it was flung into "the Croppy's Hole." "The day will come," says Dr. Madden, "when that desecrated spot will be hallowed ground—consecrated by religion—trod lightly by pensive patriotism—and decorated by funeral trophies in honour of the dead whose bones lie there in graves that are now neglected and unhonoured."

I wondered what had happened to the Croppy's Hole and if Dr Madden was right. I did some research online and discovered that Dr Maddens prediction came true... eventually. This was all before my time but perhaps some posters here will remember...

Croppy's Hole became known as "Croppies' Acre" and is located beside Collins Barracks (formally the Royal barracks) and apparently was a football pitch for many years. There were also plans to turn it into a car park:

Croppies' Acre desecration


A chairde,

Who fears to speak of `Ninety-eight?
Who blushes at the name?
When cowards mock the patriot's fate,
Who hangs his head for shame?

So goes the first few lines of ``The Memory of the Dead'' by John Kells Ingrams. Well, the National Museum directors should hang their collective heads in shame with their planned bus park on the graves of the ``unknown soldiers'' of the 1798 Rising.

The Esplanade or, as it is better known, Croppies' Acre (across from the museum's entrance) is currently a soccer pitch. The site was marked by a memorial column in 1985 by Soldiers of the Eastern Command.

It was to this site that many hundreds of soldiers of the Irish Republic who were defeated at Ballinamuck, County Longford, were brought, tortured, shot, put to the sword, or hanged. The identity of only 13 is known today, the most famous being Bartholomew Teeling and Wolfe Tone's brother Matthew.

Instead of demolishing the past, and running bus-loads of tourists over the graves of Ireland's patriot dead, the National Museum should be planning an appropriate memorial to them.

The Museum and the Office of Public Works have an opportunity to build a large-scale memorial which could encompass much of the local and national history of the area and link it to the Liffey.

Aengus O'Snodaigh,
Assistant Secretary,
Dublin 1798 Commemoration Committee,
c/o History Ireland,
P.O. Box 695,
Dublin 8.

Thankfully, in the face of outrage later on in 1997 the Office of Public Works designated the area as a 1798 Memorial Park and a monument was constructed.

Here is an article, again by Aengus O'Snodaigh, giving the history of Croppies Acre and the known peple who were murdered there:

Croppies' Acre lies in the Esplanade below the new National Museum (formerly Collins Barracks and the Royal Barracks) and between Benburb Street and Wolfe Tone Quay.

The laying out of the Military Esplanade in 1850, and the diversion and walling in of the river Liffey drastically altered the appearance of the Croppies' Acre and this lack of definition may have contributed to its neglect over the years. Prior to this the acre seems to have been marshy wasteground to the back and sides of a number of houses. It was into this marshy ground that the `Croppy Pit' or Croppy Hole' was dug and into which the lifeless bodies of captured, tortured and hanged bodies of United Irish soldiers or suspected sympathisers were flung.

Many of the ``unknown soldiers'' buried here had drifted leaderless into the city after the collapse of the 1798 risings around the country. Seeking the anonymity of the crowd, their cropped hair was a dead giveaway. They were hunted down and killed by marauding yeomen or captured, tortured and hanged by other crown forces. In order to help the rebels to evade capture, the city's Guild of Lamplighters refused to light the lamps on the bridges, quays and principal streets. For this act of compassion, several of the lamplighters were hanged and a curfew was imposed on the city.

You can read the rest of it here.

This is how it looks today:




It's shameful that it took so long for this to happen, and it got me wondering, are there any other similar places in Ireland that, like Croppies' Acre was for a long time, are forgotten?

thecommietommy

Continuity Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I was reading this book, "Speeches from the Dock", which was first published in the late 1860's, (follow the link to download an ebook version, I really recommend it) and I got to this bit about the "Croppy's Hole";



I wondered what had happened to the Croppy's Hole and if Dr Madden was right. I did some research online and discovered that Dr Maddens prediction came true... eventually. This was all before my time but perhaps some posters here will remember...

Croppy's Hole became known as "Croppies' Acre" and is located beside Collins Barracks (formally the Royal barracks) and apparently was a football pitch for many years. There were also plans to turn it into a car park:



Thankfully, in the face of outrage later on in 1997 the Office of Public Works designated the area as a 1798 Memorial Park and a monument was constructed.

Here is an article, again by Aengus O'Snodaigh, giving the history of Croppies Acre and the known peple who were murdered there:


You can read the rest of it here.

This is how it looks today:




It's shameful that it took so long for this to happen, and it got me wondering, are there any other similar places in Ireland that, like Croppies' Acre was for a long time, are forgotten?

The National Graves Association is an exellent organisation for looking after graves and monuments to our patriotic dead. Here is the link -

http://www.nga.ie/

Continuity Wolfe Tone

thecommietommy wrote: »

The National Graves Association is an exellent organisation for looking after graves and monuments to our patriotic dead. Here is the link -

http://www.nga.ie/

Thanks, I'm aware of them and have donated in the past, they are a fantastic organization.


But I was wondering if there are places like the Croppies' acre which may not be under the care of the NGA but in the hands of other people and lie in forgotten obscurity?

I'm sure Dublin wasn't the only place executions like this took place, are there other mass graves?

Continuity Wolfe Tone

No one have any ideas?

What about New Ross? I assume after the massacre there the bodies where dumped into a mass grave - or was it the river?

Fuinseog

Continuity Wolfe Tone wrote: »

No one have any ideas?

What about New Ross? I assume after the massacre there the bodies where dumped into a mass grave - or was it the river?

is there any monument for the insurgents who were massacred after Ballinamuck?

Sunnyisland

Fuinseog wrote: »

is there any monument for the insurgents who were massacred after Ballinamuck?

There is a small museum in ballinamuck village and the cannon used by Gunner me gee is positioned outside,It is an experience to walk around ballinamuck in the Co. Longford hillside where so many of those poor forgotten men shed their blood and are buried a long way from their homes.

Gee Bag

Continuity Wolfe Tone wrote: »

No one have any ideas?

What about New Ross? I assume after the massacre there the bodies where dumped into a mass grave - or was it the river?

The majority of the deaths during the battle of New Ross (I'm assuming thats what your referring to) resulted from an attack by the insurrgents that went badly wrong rather than a deliberate massacre. The rebels weren't pursued when they were routing.

The bodies of the rebels were mostly thrown into the River Barrow with the remainder being buried outside the town walls.

There is a fairly impressive statue of a pikeman in the town centre and another statue thing at Irishtown. I don't remember any speciific 1798 grave site though.

The massacre most often associated with the battle of New Ross was the burning of about 100 loyalists in a barn at Scullabogue by retreating rebels. There is a memorial at this site.

paky

interesting topic. im surprised there hasn't been any discoveries of these kind of graves. i can only assume that 1798 wasn't spoken out of fear of reprisal so this probably led to such places been forgotten about. there was an old folk tale that to come across a patch of wild barley was the sign of a croppy grave.

byhookorbycrook

paky wrote: »

there was an old folk tale that to come across a patch of wild barley was the sign of a croppy grave.

Requiem for the Croppies by Seamus Heaney

The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley...
No kitchens on the run, no striking camp...
We moved quick and sudden in our own country.
The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.
A people hardly marching... on the hike...
We found new tactics happening each day:
We'd cut through reins and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into infantry,
Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown.
Until... on Vinegar Hill... the final conclave.
Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.
The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.
They buried us without shroud or coffin
And in August... the barley grew up out of our grave.

Fr. John Murphy's remains were reputedly gathered in masons' aprons and secretly buried in the small grave yard known as the Mullawn in Tullow.There is also a local legend that the shadow of his severed head is still to be seen on the building where it was impaled to frighten the locals.

slowburner

Continuity Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Thanks, I'm aware of them and have donated in the past, they are a fantastic organization.


But I was wondering if there are places like the Croppies' acre which may not be under the care of the NGA but in the hands of other people and lie in forgotten obscurity?

I'm sure Dublin wasn't the only place executions like this took place, are there other mass graves?

Almost certainly.
I heard of two multiple burials dating from 1798 in the townland where I live (Joseph Holt operated from here). The information was sketchy, to say the least. I spent a fair bit of time trying to locate them - without a great deal of success - because the only way to confirm their existence would be through excavation, and that's not something I can do.
One of the probable burial sites is contained within the site of a national monument, the other has been engulfed by forestry plantation.

I think that many of these smaller scale burials were deliberately forgotten about, in much the same way, and for similar reasons, as small scale burials were not remembered from the Great Famine.

slowburner

paky wrote: »

interesting topic. im surprised there hasn't been any discoveries of these kind of graves. i can only assume that 1798 wasn't spoken out of fear of reprisal so this probably led to such places been forgotten about. there was an old folk tale that to come across a patch of wild barley was the sign of a croppy grave.

Given the fact that up to 30,000 people were killed in those brutal five months (May to September 1798), it is surprising that so few burials from the period have been encountered in the course of other excavations.

bodun

Where I'm from in South Kilkenny, we are approx. 3 miles from New Ross. One of our neighbours has a field which is called "The Soldier's Field". In one corner of the field there is a slight mound now, where the story goes that it is the grave of one of the rebels of 1798. This part of the field is never tilled for fear it is a grave but becomes slightly overgrown from time to time. The next time I'm down home I must visit it again and take some pictures for ye.