1798 in Ireland

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See also:	Other events of 1798 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1798 in Ireland.

Incumbent

• Monarch: George III

• March
  • Great Britain's Irish militia arrest the leadership of the Society of United Irishmen marking the beginning of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.^[1] A number are arrested at the house of Oliver Bond on 12 March.
  • Lord Castlereagh is appointed Acting Chief Secretary for Ireland.
• 30 March – martial law is proclaimed in Ireland.
• Spring – United Irishman and publisher Peter Finnerty is convicted and imprisoned for seditious libel.
• April – the "dragooning of Ulster": Lieutenant-General Lake, Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, issues a proclamation ordering the surrender of all arms by the civil population of Ulster, effectively disarming the United Irishmen.^[2]
• 21 April –
  hanged either immediately afterwards or in early July at Kilfinane
  .
• 19 May – rebel leader Lord Edward FitzGerald is arrested in Dublin,^[1] later dying of wounds received.
• 24 May – first clashes of the rebellion against British rule.^[1]
  • 2:00AM – Battle of Prosperous: the United Irishmen seize the model cotton manufacturing town of Prosperous, County Kildare, from the British garrison.
  • 2:30AM – Battle of Naas: the United Irishmen are repelled by the British garrison.
  • 7:00–9:00AM –
    Midlands withdraws to Naas
    .

• 25 May
  • Carnew massacre: summary execution of 38 suspected rebels by the British Army in County Wicklow.^[3]
  • Massacre of Dunlavin Green
    : Summary execution of 36 suspected rebels by the British Army in County Wicklow.
• 26 May
  • Wexford Rebellion: United Irishmen mobilise in the north of County Wexford. In the Battle of the Harrow, rebels led by Father John Murphy defeat the Camolin Cavalry.
  • Battle of Tara Hill: British forces drive United Irishmen from their position with around 400 of the latter killed.
• 27 May – Battle of Oulart Hill: Wexford rebels led by Father Murphy again defeat the militia.
• 28 May – Wexford Rebellion: Rebels take Enniscorthy.
• 29 May –
  Curragh of Kildare.^[4]
• 30 May – rebels occupy the town of Wexford.
• May – Blessington House, County Wicklow is burnt to the ground by rebels, and will never be rebuilt.^[5][6]
• 1 June – Republican government set up in County Wexford.
• 4 June –
  Battle of Tuberneering
  : United Irishmen led by Father Murphy ambush and defeat British forces in north Wexford.
• 5 June – Battle of New Ross: Wexford rebels are defeated by the British Army.
• 7 June
  • Carnew is burned by rebels led by Anthony Perry.
  • Battle of Antrim: Antrim United Irishmen led by Henry Joy McCracken attack British forces in Antrim town but are defeated.
• 9 June
  • Battle of Arklow: Wexford rebels are defeated by the British Army.
  • Battle of Saintfield: troops of the British Army are ambushed by rebels in Saintfield County Down. The United Irishmen secure a victory.
• 12-13 June – Battle of Ballynahinch: the British Army defeats rebels in County Down. The rebel leader Henry Munro is betrayed and hanged on 16 June in Lisburn.
• 14 June – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
• 19 June – Battle of Ovidstown: British forces defeat United Irishmen led by William Aylmer near Kilcock, County Kildare.
• 21 June – Battle of Vinegar Hill fought in and nearby Enniscorthy.^[1] The British regain control of County Wexford.^[7]
• 22 June – Thomas Judkin-Fitzgerald, High Sheriff of Tipperary, initiates floggings of those in Carrick-on-Suir thought to support the United Irishmen.^[8]
• 22 August – a force of French troops led by General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert lands near Killala in County Mayo^[1] and Humbert proclaims an Irish Republic.^[9]
• 27 August –
  Republic of Connacht
  .
• 31 August – Humbert proclaims a
  Republic of Connacht, with John Moore as president.^[9]
• 8 September – the French force is defeated by General Cornwallis at the
  Republic of Connacht
  .
• 16 September – a force of seventy armed United Irishmen led by James Napper Tandy in the French corvette Anacréon makes a brief and fruitless landing on Inishmacadurn in support of the rebellion.
• 23 September – Battle of Killala: in the last land battle of the rebellion, the British army defeats the remaining rebel Irish and French forces at Killala.^[11]
• 12 October –
  Sir John Borlase Warren prevents French Republican ships landing reinforcements for the United Irishmen on the Donegal coast; Wolfe Tone
  is captured.

• Completion of the neoclassical summer retreat at Castle Coole to the design of James Wyatt.

Births

• 15 January – Thomas Crofton Croker, antiquary (died 1854)
• 3 April – John Banim, dramatist and playwright (died 1842).
• 28 May – Alexander Workman, politician in Canada and Mayor of Ottawa (died 1891).
• 11 August –
  Governor of Prince Edward Island, later Governor of South Australia (died 1868
  ).
• 26 August – John McClintock, 1st Baron Rathdonnell, politician and Lord Lieutenant of County Louth (died 1879).
• 1 November – Benjamin Guinness, brewer and philanthropist (died 1868).
• 10 December – George Fletcher Moore, explorer and writer (died 1886).
• 13 December – James Henry, physician, classical scholar and poet (died 1876).

  Full date unknown

  • traditional healer (died 1874
    ).
  • John St. John Long, quack doctor (died 1834).
  • Alexander McDonnell, chess master (died 1835).
  • Richard Turner, iron-founder (died 1881).

Deaths

• 4 June – Lord Edward FitzGerald, aristocrat and revolutionary (born 1763).
• 17 July –
  Society of the United Irishmen (born 1767
  ).
• 6 September –
  Governor of Prince Edward Island
  (b. c1735).
• 30 September –
  Newfoundland
  (b. c1717).
• 19 November –
  United Irishmen, died from self-inflicted wound after being sentenced to death for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (born 1763
  ).

  Full date unknown

  • Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam (born 1734
    ).
  • Christopher Hewetson, sculptor (b. c.1737).
  • Bartholomew Teeling, a leader of the Irish forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (born 1774).

References