The rebellion seems to have taken serious root in Wexford. Their force is very great, the body in question 10,000 men, a considerable proportion of fire-arms, and conducted with attention to military principles.
The letter subsequently refers to the uneasy situation in the north, where the spirit of rebellion had begun to reveal itself:
No disturbance has yet appeared in the other provinces, but my information from the north, this day received, makes it extremely to be apprehended that an effort will shortly be made in that quarter. They only wait for a small co-operation from France, or some successes on the part of the southern rebels.
Dublin Castle was especially sensitive to the possibility of French military intervention in the growing internal conflict. England itself in that year was increasingly apprehensive of a French invasion. London was aware that Napoleon had assembled an army and a supporting naval force, but as yet it was impossible to determine where the enemy would choose to strike. Ireland in turmoil was one likely place to attempt a landing, in the hope of severing the island from England. Earl Camden, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, writing from Dublin Castle on 6 June to Pelham, voices official concern about the situation, with an urgent request that fresh troops be sent quickly from England to put down the rising in Ireland:
The reason I so much press for this relief is the expectation that a landing, even of a small body of French, will set the country in a blaze, and I think neither our force nor our staff equal to the very difficult circumstances they will have to encounter.
Also, writing to Thomas Pelham on 3 June William Elliot, under-secretary of the military department, expressed similar preoccupation's, with a professional awareness of the amount of actual French help that might be required to affect the fortunes of the rebellion:
The contest is yet by no means decided, but, if the rebels should not have the co-operation of a French army, I trust we shall put them down. If the French should be able to throw a force of 5,000 men on any part of our coasts, it would render the result very dubious.
It was against this confused background that the northern United Irishmen rebellion got under way. The battle of Antrim was an outstanding engagement which, if it had succeeded in a manner similar to a number of the clashes in the Wexford area, would have affected considerably the outcome of the rising in general. There was at the time no sign of the expected French aid, and the northern rebels were isolated from those of the south and unable to join forces. A first-hand account of the battle comes from one of the major participants in the northern rebellion, James Hope. He claims that the persecution the people endured from the military was, as also in the south-east, a major cause of provoking the rebellion among the Ulster people:
We were thus situated, forced by burning of houses, and the torturing of the peasantry, into resistance. Without the due appointment of superior officers in the place of those who had resigned and abandoned the cause. I have already given you some account of the battle of Antrim; on some points, and not unimportant ones, you were misinformed by the Rev Mr M'Cartney. I was present on that occasion, and not a mere spectator of that battle. I pointed out to you, on the spot, the ground we occupied, and the several places where our people, at the onset, had triumphantly charged their enemies, and had been at last repulsed by them. Previous to our march for Antrim I was not appointed to any command; I had refused to accept of any. In the front rank there were 18 men, most of them personal friends and acquaintances of my own, led by a man named John M'Gladdery. I was in that front rank; and it was allowed by our opponents the men belonging to it marched up the main street, and met the enemies troops in good order, and did the duty assigned to them in a becoming manner. The first position taken was the church-yard, which commands the main street. There our green banner was unfurled, and M'Cracken was stationed with his principal officers about him.When the street firing on us commenced, a girl came up to us, in the churchyard, and told our leader there was a loop-hole in the wall where he had better go. She had come there in the midst of the firing to point it out to him. When the panic occurred, and the party in reserve mistook the flight of some dragoons for a charge on their companions, M'Cracken on quitting the church-yard to check the disorder, left me in command of that place, and I maintained it as long as there was a hope of keeping possession of the town.
I wish to correct a few errors in the statement of Dr Macartney's, respecting the battle of Antrim. It is not true, that we had two pieces of cannon at Antrim, we had a brass piece which had belonged to the Volunteers. It, and another of the same description, had been buried without the knowledge of the Rev Mr Campbell, in his Meeting House at Templepatrick. When the Monaghan Militia were burning the village of Templepatrick, the other piece was discovered, and Mr Campbell, who knew nothing whatsoever of the concealment of the two pieces there, was suspected to have had a guilty knowledge of the fact, and was never forgiven by Lord Templeton. The men who were in the foremost ranks of the people, marching into Antrim, were a small body of the Roughforth Volunteers, remarkably steady men, they came on in three files, six deep. The column that followed consisted of Templepatrick and Carmoney men, and some of the Killead people, who had arms. Those of the Campbell family were particularly distinguished among them for their courage; Joshua and Henry fell in the action.
It is stated by Mr Macartney, that the people marched to music, or that the air of the Lass of Richmond Hill was played. We had no musical instruments of any kind amongst us. A man of the name of Harvey commenced singing The Marsellois Hymn as we marched into the town, in which his companions joined, but thinking we needed a more lively air, I struck up a verse of a merry Irish song, which was soon joined in by our party.
Mr Macartney, and the yeomen he commanded, after the burning of some houses in the town, had taken refuge behind the wall of the park of Lord Massarene, in front of the high street, and occasionally rose up and fired some shots down the street. Close to the market-house, near the castle gate, some yeomen and horse soldiers kept their ground, the yeomen had two pieces of cannon there, which were soon silenced. We were about to attack the horsemen when a body of Ballyclare men entered the town by the west end street, and by Bow-lane. This caused some confusion, and the troops at the market-house profited by it to renew their fire, and took off some of our leaders. The people began to give way, and in attempting to stop the fugitives, M'Cracken, who proceeding with a party of men, by the rear of the houses, to dislodge the yeomen stationed in Lord Masserene's park, was borne down, disobeyed, and deserted by the panic struck multitude. He then made his way to Donogore Hill, along with Robert Wilson, where he expected to find a body of men in reserve, but all his plans had been frustrated by the defection of the military chiefs. James Agnew Farrel, and Mr Quin, a person employed in the salt works at Larne, had been appointed colonels, but neither acted. Farrel either brought, or sent, his fighting orders to General Nugent, and then he went to Scotland. One of our prisoners was a Captain George Mason M'Claverty, who had been taken that morning in his house, and carried to Donegal Hill. He used every argument to prevail on the people to disperse and return to their homes, promising them every protection in his power. He subsequently fulfilled his promise to the letter, not one of the persons in his neighbourhood, many of whom he had seen in arms that day, did he suffer to be troubled of persecuted. He was one of the most humane and just magistrates in the county. The number of people killed in the town, that is to say in the action, was very few. James M'Glathery, who had a command, wrote a sketch of the action, which Miss M'Cracken saw in the hands of his sister, Mrs Shaw, of Belfast, in which it was stated that only five or six of the people were killed in the town in action, and HJ M'Cracken said the statement was correct. The dead bodies of both parties were buried in the sands, at Shane's Castle, but those of the people, who were found slain in the fields, were buried in the crossroads at Muckamore, where it had been customary to inter those who committed suicide.
While any prospect of serving our cause appeared to exist, a few of us remained in arms; our ranks at length diminished, the influence of the merchants on the manufacturers, and that of the manufacturers on the workmen, formed a strong claim of pecuniary interests in the province of Ulster, so that shelter or relief of any kind afforded to those who stood out, was at the risk of the life and property of the giver.
The very perfection of our organisation in Ulster gave treachery the greater scope, from the greater intercourse it causes in societies and committees, and numbers of persons, thus becoming personally known to each other, the organisation of treachery was rendered still more complete, and, if a comparative few had not thrown their lives into the scale, Castlereagh’s plan of keeping the north and south divided, must have sooner succeeded.
When all our leaders deserted us, Henry Joy M’Cracken stood alone faithful to the last. He led on the forlorn hope of the cause at Antrim, and brought the government to terms with all but the leaders.
He died, rather than prove a traitor to his cause, of which I am still a living witness, who shared in all his exertions while he lived, and defy any authentic contradiction of that assertion now, or at any future date.
James Hope’s further narrative of the encounter at Ballymena on June 7 is perhaps more dramatic than his somewhat reflective account of the important battle of Antrim. The latter report however contains a number of conclusions that help the reader to understand the northern situation more completely: the official policy of ensuring that the two parts of the island remained as far as possible cut off from each other, to minimise the effect of the Rising, the problems of inadequate training and poor armament which also dogged the rebels’ efforts in the south; the fact that their French allies did not put in an appearance in time to be of use to the rebellions of early summer; and, especially in the north, the desertion of the United Irishmen movement by large numbers of its former adherents, discouraged by official harassment and in many cases absorbed into the anti-Republican ranks of the Orange Societies. These were particularly powerful in the north, but a considerable body of southern Protestants also belonged to the anti-revolutionary organisation, giving a certain quality of a religious war to the rebellion. This aspect of the situation was stressed by William Elliot in the letter quoted previously, referring to the Wexford campaign:
The war in that part of the country has certainly assumed a strong religious spirit, and I cannot help suspecting that the Orange associations, which, you will recollect, were formed and promoted by Colonel Rochfort and some other gentlemen in the counties of Wexford and Carlow, operated very mischievously. This, however, you will observe, is merely my own suspicion, and I can really give you no particular facts to support my opinion. Lord Fingal and most of the leading persons of the Catholic persuasion have presented a very loyal and spirited address, and, I believe, are perfectly impressed with the danger which is menaced to all religion and to all property. Among the lower class of the Catholics there appears to be a very widely extended disaffection, and it will be indubitably the object of the chiefs of the rebellion to fan the flame of religious dissension, which the foolish and acrimonious conversation and conduct of the intemperate part of the Protestants will not tend to abate.
Religious conflict, underlying the element of class conflict of which the under-secretary was aware, complicated and intensified the rebellion in the south. In the north, it possibly contributed to the relatively rapid suppression of the rising. Little more than a week after his expressions of grave misgivings with regard to affairs in the north, Viscount Castlereagh could write to the same William Elliot, to inform the latter that the military campaign against the Ulster rebels was already having better results than in Wexford:
The operations in the north have so far been very favourable; we have succeeded in giving the rebels, both in Down and Antrim, a severe check, which, considering the reduced state of Nugent’s force, and the serious consequences that might have resulted from any reverse in that quarter (where troops were not immediately at hand to repair a disaster), is in itself an important advantage, though it by no means ensures the suppression of the rebellion, nor can it be looked to as securing us against its extension to the other counties of the provinces.The rebels fought at Ballynahinch (Co Down), as in Wexford, with determined bravery, but without the fanaticism of the southerns. They made the attack and used some of the wretched ship guns mounted on cars with considerable address. The body there assembled was entirely dispersed; in their ranks were found two of my father’s servants, a footman and postilion. The rebels are in possession of the Ards, and their force considerable on the mountain above Newtownards.
Upon the whole the north is divided in sentiment. We have numerous adherents, and I am inclined to hope that the effort there will prove rather a diversion than the main attack . . .
In view of the situation in Wexford when the above letter was being written (June 15) Castlereagh had reason to feel more confident of being able to bring matters to a rapid conclusion in the government’s favour in Ulster. Apart from personal recollections of the fighting and the tome of official correspondence, one particularly poignant eyewitness document emerged from 1798 in the north. Perhaps the most outstanding name associated with the rebellion is that of James Hope’s friend and companion-in-arms, Henry Joy M’Cracken. As Hope expressed it: "faithful to the last", for which M’Cracken paid the supreme penalty, as did also many others whose names turn up in General Lake’s reports to Dublin Castle. His devoted sister, Mary, left an account of her last meeting with her brother, shortly before he went to the gallows:
During the early part of the day Harry and I had conversed with tranquillity on the subject of his death. We had been brought up in a firm conviction of an all-wise and overruling Providence, and of the duty of entire resignation to the Divine will. I remarked that his death was as much a dispensation of Providence as if it happened in the common course of nature, to which he assented. He told me that there had been much perjury on his trial, but that the truth would have answered the same purpose. After the clergymen were gone, I asked for a pair of scissors, that I might take off some of his hair. A young officer who was on guard (his name was George) went out of the room and brought a pair of scissors, but hesitated to trust them into my hand, when I asked him indignantly if he thought I meant to hurt my brother. He then gave them to me, and I cut off some of Harry’s hair which curled round his neck, and folded it up in paper, and put it into my bosom. Fox at that moment entered the room, and desired me to give it to him, as ‘too much use,’ he said, ‘had already been made of such things’. I refused, saying I would only part with it in death; when my dear brother said, ‘Oh, Mary, give it to him; of what value is it?' I felt that its possession would be a mere gratification to me, and, not wishing to discompose him by the contest, I gave it up.The time allowed him was now expired: he had hoped for a few days, that he might give his friends an account of all the late events in which he had taken a part. About 5pm he was ordered to the place of execution, the old market-house, the ground of which had been given to the town by his great great grandfather. I took his arm, and we walked together to the place of execution, where I was told it was the General’s orders I should leave him, which I peremptorily refused. Harry begged I would go. Clasping my hands around him (I did not weep till then), I said I could bear anything but leaving him. Three times he kissed me, and entreated I would go; and, looking round to recognise some friend to put me in charge of, he beckoned to a Mr Boyd, and said, ‘He will take charge of you’. Mr Boyd stepped forward and, fearing any further refusal would disturb the last moments of my dearest brother, I suffered myself to be led away. Mr Boyd endeavoured to give me comfort, and I felt there was still comfort in the hope he gave me, that we should meet in heaven. A Mr Armstrong, a friend of our family, came forward and took me from Mr Boyd, and conducted me home. I immediately sent a message to Dr M’Donnell and Mr M’Cluney, our apothecary, to come directly to the house. The latter came, and Dr M’Donnell sent his brother Alexander, a skilful surgeon. The body was given up to his family unmutilated; so far our entreaties and those of our friends prevailed.