I'm from Sixmilebridge. I hadn't heard of or read about this incident, so thanks to Paddy for publishing it. I'm assuming it was a faction fight rather than a political gathering as the crowd was armed.
Sixmilebridge would not generally have been noted as a locale for faction fighting but that's probably because of a lack of research by modern local historians. Faction fighting appears to have been endemic in the other counties of Munster at the time and in West Clare, so I suppose it stands to reason that East Clare would be no different.
The large number of participants (if accurate) would indicate some central organisation at work. 2000 participants would have come from a very wide area measured in 10s of miles radius. I initially thought that 2000 people assembling for a fight was a wild exaggeration but then I found the following:
The following is taken from a website on Irish music (of all things!);
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/SG_SHA.htm
SHANAVEST AND CARAVAT
Irish, Air (2/4 time, "with spirit"). D Major. Standard. One part.
In Joyce's Ancient Irish Music (p. 32) there is a different air with this name.
Joyce (1909) observes that "Shanavest" and "Caravat" were the names of two 'fighting factions', or gangs, in and around Co. Kilkenny, about the beginning of the last century (c. 1800). Shanavest signifies an old vest, while Caravat is a cravat; they were tokens denoting the different gangs who would fight each other at fairs, markets and meetings of all kinds throughout the 1700's and even into the mid-1800's. Other ‘gang’ names were the “Black-feet’ and ‘White-feet’, ‘Three years old’ and ‘Four years old’. “When I was a boy (c. 1845) I often witnessed a furious fight with sticks and stones, between ‘Three years’ and ‘Four years’, at the fairs of Ardpatrick and Kildorrery...” (Joyce, 1873).
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The groups grew out of agrarian unrest. The Caravats were primarily a Whiteboy organization who recruited the poor in autonomous local gangs. They pitted themselves against the middle class with intense hostility, and had an internal structure that rewarded loyalty and solidarity. A recorded version of the Caravat oath goes:
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To be true to each other and our friends, to attend all meetings
when warned, no cause to excuse absence but sickness, of which
sufficient proof must be given, to keep all secrets, to suffer until
death rather than betray each other or whatsoever may be seen
or heard of our cause, and to stand by each other at all fairs
and patrons.
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The Shanavests who opposed them were a middle class anti-Whiteboy movement, who inhabited much the same geographic area as the Caravats. They rallied around the cause of Irish nationalism and condemned the Whiteboys as anti-nationalist. However, the Shanavests were smaller in number and as a consequence tended to loose out in the faction fights between the two. From 1806 to 1811 the Shanavest and Caravat conflict raged across large areas of Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork.. Its violence was unprecedented with clashes between the two groups often involving firearms and frequent deaths. At the end the conflict was reduced to faction fights, gang fights, with allegiance to a political cause more and more a transparency.
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Faction fighting was not only between rival gangs. In fact, the incident that produced the greatest death toll, with over 200 people killed and several hundred injured occurred between clan groups in a faction fight at Ballyveigh Strand, County Kerry in June, 1834. A 19th century account goes:
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It had been rumored that a faction fight was going to happen.
On 24th of June, 1834, on the occasion of the Ballyeagh strand
horse races on St. Johns Day, the Lawlors/Mulvihills encountered
the Cooleens. The battle was fought with special sticks called
Blackthorne sticks or cudgels. Some were weighted with lead
and were not used free swinging but were held in the middle to
protect the elbow. An estimated 1,200 of the Cooleens crossed
the Feale in boats from the north and were then in what was
considered Mulvihill/Lawlor territory and was in itself considered
provocative. The Cooleens attacked the Mulville/Lawlor people
who were generally imbibing with poteen and whskey. The invaders
came forward in lines with about 20 women on the sides with aprons
full of stones. The authorities tried to stop them from coming but
were unsuccessful. At first the Cooleens got the upper hand since
half of their adversaries were still in their tents having a good time
with their whiskey. Gradually the Mulville/Lawlor faction got organized
and about 1,500 of them counter-attacked. They drove the invaders back
into the water and won the day.
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