Insurrection in Clare, 1799

[Paddy Casey]

The troubles in Ireland in the late 1790s, which have been extensively documented by historians, reached a climax in County Clare in 1799. The upheavals affected the whole county. Landowners and their houses and estates were attacked and a large army of insurgents, described in newspaper reports as well-armed and disciplined, marched on Ennis and Clarecastle. The insurrection was rapidly quelled and followed by the usual exemplary public hangings and floggings of ringleaders and their associates but, to quote the Clare Library summary of the events, "....The grievances which led to the disturbances remained, and continued to trouble the county until the final resolution of the land question almost a century later" (see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... ellion.htm ).

Attached are a couple of the very many newspaper reports, these from the Courier and Evening Gazette (London, England), Monday, January 21, 1799.

Apart from being of general historical interest, these reports give family historians crucial insight into the life and times of their ancestors. They could explain, for example, why an ancestor disappeared from one place and popped up a short time later somewhere else. Or simply disappeared. Or why a family's fortunes radically changed for the better or for worse (e.g. because they were on the "right" or the "wrong" side). And so on.

Paddy