John Murphy (priest)

John Murphy ( Irish Seán Ó Murchadha ; * 1753 in Tincurry , County Wexford , Ireland; † July 2, 1798 in Tullow , County Carlow , Ireland) was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church who was one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was executed.

Life as a priest

John Murphy was born in 1753 in Tincurry, a village north of Enniscorthy , as one of five children of a tenant family. He received his first education in a so-called hedge school , an Irish village school, in which lessons could only be given in secret because Catholic schools were still banned in Ireland at that time. In addition, the local parish priest Dr. Andrew Cassin, who had a great influence on him. He grew up speaking Irish and English, and later learned Spanish, Latin and Greek. Murphy knew from a young age that he wanted to be a priest. His older brother James had already started the course before, but dropped out for health reasons. At that time, students were ordained priests before attending the seminary at one of the universities on the continent because it was forbidden by the Penal Laws , the British criminal laws against the Catholic upper class and Church. Murphy was ordained a priest in 1779 by Bishop Nicholas Sweetman in the Diocese of Ferns (County Wexford) and from 1780 attended the Dominican University in Seville , Spain. After studying theology, he returned to Ireland in 1785 and took office as chaplain to the parish pastor of Boolavogue, Father Patrick Cogley. Murphy was living with tenant farmers at the time and touring his community on horseback. Only a thatched chapel was available as a church, as the Catholics were also prohibited from official church buildings.

Ahead of the 1798 rebellion

Bishop Nicholas Sweetman was an ardent nationalist and had been incarcerated in Dublin prison for arms smuggling. In 1786, when James Caulfield succeeded him in the Diocese of Ferns, the Catholic community encountered a man who had completely opposing political views. In his opinion, the loyalty to King George III. of England and its government the duty of every Catholic. As a result, he was in Wexford as loyal to the government, even as a collaborator with the British.

Murphy supported the Irish drive for freedom, but was convinced that reforms had to come about peacefully. So he was initially against the rebellion because he believed it had little chance of success and he feared unnecessary loss of life. In the week leading up to the Wexford uprising, he promptly followed the bishop's instruction to all parishioners to lay down and surrender their weapons. In addition, at the request of the local landowner Lord Mountnorris, he and 757 of his parishioners took a written oath of allegiance to the British Crown, swearing they would not be a member of the United Irishmen .

In Wexford in particular, the Society of United Irishmen had great support, but this also led to corresponding unrest on the part of the British. In addition to the regular army units, they installed additional militias, which were mainly recruited from Yeomen , Irish yeoman farmers and tenants. When these Yeoman militias also appeared in Wexford, Murphy's mindset gradually changed. In order to track down rebels, the Yeomen churches and homesteads burned down and humiliated the population. Reports of similar incidents in other parts of Ireland cemented Murphy's change of heart. In view of the injustice felt in this way, Murphy became convinced that rebellion was the only option of resistance. When the residents of the Boolavogue area, close to the United Irishmen, were looking for a leader, he was reluctant to accept their choice. After the decision was made, however, he was completely absorbed in his new role.

Leader of the 1798 rebellion

As one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion, Murphy took part in the battle in the village of The Harrow (May 26, 1798), which is believed to have triggered the uprising in Wexford. He was then at the Battle of Oulart Hill (May 27, 1798), the capture of Enniscorthy (May 29, 1798), the battle of Three Rocks Hill and the capture of Wexford Town (May 31, 1798), the battle of Tubberneering and the conquest of Gorey (June 4, 1798). In the decisive battle on Vinegar Hill (June 21, 1798), which sealed the final defeat of the rebels at Wexford, Murphy and his troops were able to escape through a gap in the enemy lines at the last moment. Murphy tried to expand the uprising to County Kilkenny and actually captured the town of Castlecomer with his army (June 24, 1798). However, the expected popularity among the population did not materialize. Murphy then gave the order to return to Wexford. After another defeat in the Battle of Kilcumney Hill in County Carlow (June 26, 1798), Murphy and his bodyguard James Gallagher were separated from the main group of survivors on their way back in the thick fog. Murphy chose to seek refuge with a friend in Tullow, County Carlow. He celebrated his last mass in a hospitable house near the Blackstairs Mountains. On July 2, there is said to have been a secret meeting between Murphy and Bishop Delaney of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin in Tullow, but there is no historical evidence of this. There is evidence, however, that he was discovered and betrayed in the house of his acquaintances, so that he and James Gallagher were upset and arrested by some Yeomen that day. They were taken to General Duff's headquarters in Tullow and brought before a military tribunal that same day, which sentenced them to death on charges of treason of the British Crown. When Murphy was searched, they found a stole, a chalice and a vial of sacred oil for the sacraments. So you knew he was a priest. The identity of the two delinquents remained hidden until the very end. Murphy and his companion were initially tortured to get more information from them. Murphy was stripped, flogged, hanged and then beheaded in the Tullow market place. While his head was impaled on a bridge railing, his body was burned in a tar barrel.

In poetry and truth

Not least in the ballad Boolavogue , the unofficial anthem of County Wexford, written by PJ McCall to mark the centenary of the 1898 uprising , Father Murphy is musically transfigured as the leader of the Wexford rebellion. Murphy was not the commander in chief of the uprising as a whole or of the final battle of Vinegar Hill. As the commander of the rebels from Boolavogue, he was only one of several leaders involved in the uprising.

However, he must have had a charismatic aura; his contemporaries described him as an excellent athlete and rider, as a little too small, but strong and well built. He is also said to have demonstrated extraordinary military skill on a number of occasions, for example in the battle of Oulart Hill, where he stopped his men to lift their hats with the help of poles and pikes over the cover in order to attract enemy rifle fire to steer. While the enemy soldiers were then busy reloading, they could be overwhelmed. In addition, Father Murphy is credited with the tactic of driving a continuous herd of cattle in front of him when besieging a city, which should panic and confuse the enemy, and to invade the city under cover. However, this is also not historically proven.

Nevertheless, it can be said that Murphy was one of the few leaders in this uprising who had at least some military successes to show, while otherwise the great shortcoming of the rebels consisted of their poorly trained and equipped commanders and fighters. The five-week uprising was one of the bloodiest incidents in Irish history: a total of 30,000 people died in this short time. The British troops captured 79,630 pikes and 48,109 rifles, which can also give an indication of the extent of the uprising.

Father Murphy's remains were buried in the old Catholic cemetery in Ferns, County Wexford.

literature

• Daniel J. Gahan: Rebellion! Ireland in 1798. The O'Brien Press, Dublin 1997, ISBN 0-86278-548-0 .
• Nicholas Furlong: Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue 1753–1798. Geography Publications, Dublin 1991, ISBN 0-906602-18-1 .
• Nicholas Furlong: A History of County Wexford. Gill & McMillan, Dublin 2003, ISBN 0-7171-3461-X .
• Patricia O'Malley: With Pike and Flame - Wexford's 1798 Children Tell Their Stories. Duffry Press, Enniscorthy 1998.

Web links

• http://www.catholicireland.net/father-murphy-of-boolavogue
• http://www.countysongs.ie/song/boolavogue

Footnotes

1. ^ Robert Brendan McDowell: The Protestant nation (1775-1800) . In: Theodore W. Moody, Francis Xavier Martin (eds.): The course of Irish history . Mercier Press, Cork, 17th ed. 1987, ISBN 0-85342-715-1 , pp. 232-247, here p. 245.