Young Ireland

Besides the inevitable scrimmages of desperate people near the corn depots and workhouses the first years of the Great Famine went by quite calm. Gaining food and just trying to survive was top-priority.
In the course of 1847 the situation has changed completely. The number of evictions, or in the terminology of that time ejectments, had increased, relatives of emigrants who had died on the coffin ships were after revenge and those not liable for relief were wild with anger.
Being a landlord or Poor Law Guardian had become hazardous. In September and October 1847 23 landlords and supervisors had been killed and several Poor Law Guardians decided to flee Ireland.

Most of these killings were uncoordinated and isolated acts of revenge, but the ghost of revolution had been excited by social unrest in Europe. Especially the events in France would turn out to be inspiring and on 10 October 1847 Lord Clarendon, then Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, raised the alarm: A great social revolution is now going on in Ireland, the accumulated evils of misgovernment and mismanagement are now coming to a crisis..

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Young Ireland

In the early 1840's Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association, a movement striving for the repeal of the 1801 Act of the Union, was involved in a battle of generations. The old guard had achieved some progress in the emancipation of Irish Catholics and besides they had lived through the 1798 United Irishmen Rebellion and the Emmet Rebellion in 1803.
Becoming their age the younger members grew impatient. Recent developments, among which the Poor Law, overshadowed the earlier successes of the Repeal Association. In their opinion the political and non-violent ideology of the Repeal Association had failed and, partly because they had never experienced an armed rebellion in their personal life, they propagated an armed rebellion.

The first signs of coming schism in the Repeal Association was the establishing of the Nation, a weekly journal propagating rebellion, in 1842 by the journalist Charles Gavan Duffy, the poet Thomas Davis, and the lawyer John Blake Dillon. John Mitchell and William Smith O'Brien soon joined and at some point they started to call themselves Young Ireland. The ideology and idealism of Young Ireland is expressed in the song A Nation Once Again.
Apart from Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon all Young Ireland leaders were Protestant and all of them were intellectual, well-educated sons of prosperous families. Remarkably Young Ireland started to emphasise the differences between the Irish and the British, although most of the leaders had a less than a basic knowledge of Gaelic and Irish culture.
Gradually the demands of Young Ireland shifted from repeal of the Act of the Union towards the founding of an Irish nation.

In October 1843 O'Connell had complied with the governmental ban of a meeting, but he was arrested anyway. Many members of the Repeal Association felt betrayed by this and support for Young Ireland increased.
The British reacted immediately by stating that they would never consider repeal of the Act of Union and by sending troops to Ireland.

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Thomas Francis Meagher

The conflict between the Repeal Association and Young Ireland reached its climax in July 1846.
Thomas Francis Meagher, a promising young Catholic man from Waterford and like many other Young Ireland members born and raised in good standing, was not taken very seriously by Young Ireland because of his posh English accent he had acquired during his education. The 23 years old Thomas Francis Meagher surprised friend and foe when he took a stand against the seasoned Daniel O'Connell, the Uncrowned King of Ireland, in a passionate speech.
According to Meagher the Repeal Association had wasted 20 years by following a non-violence policy and he underlined that he was not unfavourably disposed of physical violence to achieve a liberated Ireland. By this speech Thomas' prestige increased and he earned the nickname Meagher of the Sword.
Although Meagher's speech marked a new area for Young Ireland the common people could not care less. Apparently Young Ireland was completely dissociated from the real society and the concerns of the ordinary Irish who faced the horrors of the famine at that time.

In 1848 a delegation of Young Ireland, including Thomas Francis Meagher, went to France to congratulate the French revolutionaries with their success. Obviously they also wanted to exchange strategies and tactics and perhaps Young Ireland hoped the French would support their cause by sending troops.
One of the concrete items Thomas Francis Meagher brought back to Ireland was a tricolour. This might appear a negligible item, but because Daniel O'Connell had ran off with the Green Flag the tricolour came just as needed for. It is unknown whether Meagher was inspired by the French Drapeau Tricolore and has made the flag himself, or that the tricolour was a gift from the French.
The green, white and orange coloured bunting was presented to the public on 15 April 1848, flew for the first time in Waterford shortly thereafter and would become the national flag of the Irish Republic in 1913 and eventually of the Republic of Ireland on 18 April 1949.

The breach in the Repeal Association reverberated in the editorial staff of the Nation. Thomas Davis was after his death in 1845 succeeded by John Mitchell, who had already contributed several articles to the Nation. The revolutionary John Mitchell clashed with the more moderate Charles Duffy and in March 1848 Mitchell started The United Irishman, his own weekly newspaper. Only a few issues of this revolutionary paper, which was in fact a manual on how to attack British troops, were published before Mitchell was arrested in May 1848. He was convicted on a treason charge under the new Treason Felony Act and sentenced to fourteen years deportation, or in the terminology of those days transportation.

John Mitchell escaped from Van Dieman's Land, nowadays Tasmania, in 1853. He managed to reach the United States and wrote his book Jail Journey. In this book he is suggesting that an Irish rebellion can only be successful if Britain is preoccupied elsewhere, or to use more popular words England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. Pádraic Pearse adopted this idea when he planned the Easter Rising while Britain was involved in the First World War.

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Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch

After the arrest of John Mitchell Young Ireland was pressed to act. After all, the remaining leader could be arrested and convicted under the Treason Felony Act. Besides, they owe it to the public which was surprised that the leaders stood by and watched while John Mitchell was deported.
John Blake Dillon, Thomas Francis Meagher and William Smith O'Brien campaigned through the counties Kilkenny and Tipperary. Their appeal to the people did not fell on deaf ears and in July 1848 6000 men had joined. The supporters however were hungry and expected to be fed by Young Ireland. At Mullinahone O'Brien bought broad for the mass on his own expenses, but also made clear that they should bring their own food in the future. Thereupon the crowd started to dwindle.
A second setback for Young Ireland was an appeal made by the clergy to the crowd to go home. The clergymen pointed out that the rising was doomed to fail because Young Ireland could not provide food nor weapons and none of the leaders had some sort of military background. After this appeal approximately 500 men, among which several miners armed with mining tools and knowledge of explosives, remained.

The British counterstroke was based on the heroic and violent tenor of the articles from the Nation and The United Irishman and the initial number of insurgents.
English and Scottish regiments were brought in to replace Irish regiments and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was mobilised. On the way to the assembly point at Boulagh Commons one constabulary unit ran into the group of rebels. Outnumbered the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) took cover in the farmhouse owned by Mrs. McCormack. The widowed Mrs. McCormack was outside when the constabulary seized her house, but her five kids were still inside.

Widow McCormack pleaded with O'Brien against the suggestion of the miners to undermine the house with explosives and blow it up. The efforts of William Smith O'Brien to persuade the entrapped officers to release the children obviously did not avail. Thereupon a non-lethal plan to overpower the officers was engineered. Hay was stacked up near a door with the intention to set it alight and smoke out the officers and children. The hay was however soaking wet and did not burn.
During the standoff that followed other units of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) arrived at the scene and without too much of a struggle they finished what is become known as The Affray at the Widow McCormack's House, or more sarcastic The Cabbage-Garden Revolution.

William O'Brien was arrested and moved to Clonmel Jail to stand trial for high treason. He was found guilty and after hearing his death sentence he wrote the poem Never Despair, which would become a source of inspiration for Bobby Sands during his hunger strike.
The death sentence was commuted to transportation for life and, after spending several months at Spike Island in Cork awaiting deportation, he embarked in July 1849 to be transported with some associates, including Thomas Francis Meagher, to Van Dieman's Land, nowadays Tasmania. After five years his sentences was lifted on the condition that he didn't return to Ireland. He was fully pardoned in 1856 upon which he returned to Ireland. Until his death in 1864 he stood severely aloof from politics.

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Deportees

At all costs the British wanted to avoid martyrdom for the leaders of Young Ireland, thus instead of using the lawful option to execute those found guilty on treason or rebellion the leaders were deported to penal colonies in Australia. A notorious penal colony was Van Dieman's Land, nowadays Tasmania, which became famous by the song with the same name.

Deportation involved a risk for the British. Although desolated places in the middle of nowhere the penal colonies were not escape-proof. The song The Fenians Escape tells the story of such an escape. Besides, deportees who did not escape would be free men once they had served their time. Many ex-deportees found their way to the United States of America where they met Irish emigrants in the already existing interest groups, such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Apart from these interest groups new, more revolutionary, movements appeared.
In contrast with the earlier well-educated and well-to-do emigrants the bulk of the Irish in the United States had fled Ireland because of the Great Famine and not particularly because the wanted to settle in America. Besides, they found it hard to thrive in their new homeland and were eager to return and to fight for the Irish cause they simply lacked the skills necessary to get organised. Hardened in their motivation by their experiences the escapees and ex-deportees brought the necessary skills to the United States of America and organisations such as the Fenian Brotherhood, A new Irish nation on the other side of the Atlantic, and the Fighting 69, a militia initially founded to protect Irish property, were established.

After the Great Famine Ireland was a desolated country. It is clear that the Great Famine had the ability to distinct between classes: the number of native Irish speakers was cut in half and the small farmer has disappeared completely. The flame of cultural awareness was about to be extinguished until it was ignited by the Fenian Brotherhood. Financially supported by the Irish community abroad nationalistic movements like the Irish Republican Brotherhood started to appear in Ireland.

In a way the Great Famine was the start of serious rebellion, revolution and war, and therewith of an partially independent and divided Ireland.

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	Last modified: 19-02-2007. Copyright by Vincent J. Peters.
	Content: ireland - irish - history - great famine - great hunger - an gorta mor - potato famine - young ireland - repeal association - meagher of the sword - tricolour - green white orange - widow mccormack - affray at the widow mccormack house - cabbage-garden revolution - deportees - deportation