Mayo history: Rebel clerics hanged after 1798 rebellion
By Tom Gillespie
TWO Catholic priests made the ultimate sacrifice when they backed the French against the British in the historic 1798 Rising.
Both Fr. Andrew Conroy, from Lahardane, and Fr. Manus Sweeney, from Newport, were publicly hanged for treason in Castlebar and Newport respectively.
Fr. Conroy’s crime was for attempting to assist the French troops, under General Humbert, in what has gone down in history as the famed Races of Castlebar on August 27, 1798.
Fr. Conroy’s early school years were spent in a hedge school. He was further educated in France, and he returned to serve in Ballina and subsequently appointed Parish Priest of Addergoole (Lahardane).
When Fr. Conroy settled in a small cottage in Addergoole, he found his parishioners living in poor and desolate conditions. He visited the people in damp cabins or hovels, starving, although he also observed that he was surrounded by lush plains and lakes, land which was owned by what he considered ‘foreigners’.
Fr. Conroy thought it important to provide education for his parishioners so he set up four hedge schools, one of which stood on the ground where a monument to him now stands in Lahardane.
Fr. Conroy taught the students himself in these hedge schools. One of his students was Archbishop John McHale who later praised him for his love of his people and his desire for their freedom.
On August 22, 1798, General Humbert and 1,050 Frenchmen arrived in Killcummin Bay near Killala.
The Irish flag seen flying in Killala inspired and gave hope to the people who wished to free themselves from oppression and poverty. Many Irishmen carrying pikes prepared to join the army on its journey to Castlebar.
On arrival in Lahardane, after landing in Killala Bay, General Humbert and his 1,000 plus troops were offered hospitality by the parish priest, Fr. Conroy, in his simple dwelling. He was a fluent French speaker having been educated in France and so acted as an interpreter.
He was later to be tried and hanged in Castlebar.
Local historian and tour guide the late Brian Hoban recorded how a plaque commemorating Fr. Conroy is erected on the Imperial Hotel at the Mall in Castlebar, opposite which was the hanging tree which was blown down in 1918 on the eve of Eamon De Valera’s visit to the town where a mass rally was held on the Mall.
The wood from the tree was venerated by the people. Sam McCormack, who lived next door to the Imperial, made a number of penal crosses out of the wood from the tree. One of them is on display in St. Angela’s primary school.
When the French attacked Castlebar the British troops were routed in what has become known as the Races of Castlebar. Fierce fighting took place at Staball and over the bridge at Bridge Street, with dozens of the Red Coats ending up in the river which ran red with blood.
A faded mural in Newport on a gable end at the junction of Main Street and Chapel Street/Barrack Hill depicts the hanging of Fr. Sweeney.
Fr. Sweeney was born in Dookinella, Achill, where a monument to him stands today. He was reared at the home of his grandmother at Rossmore, Newport. He was ordained in the Irish College, Paris, about 1787. He returned to Newport as a curate in 1798 and became actively involved in the political life of the area.
In 1798 Fr. Manus welcomed and acted as interpreter for the French Captain, Boudet, who came to Newport after the Races of Castlebar. A week later, Fr. Manus was captured by Sir Neal O’Donnell of Newport, but released after representation by Minister Herne.
After the capture of Killala, by General Trench, Fr. Manus had to go 'on the run'. He spent seven weeks in hiding at Glenlara, six miles northeast of Newport, and spent a further six weeks at Camploon, near Newport, where he hid out in a shelter beneath a stack of turf during the day and took some exercise by night to keep fit.
He was accompanied by Neal O’Donnell and his brother-in-law, James Toolis, to Glenamadoo. He travelled through Mulranny on his own against the advice of O’Donnell who wanted him to go to Ballycroy.
He made his way to Bealafarsad where Tomas Ban Cattigan gave him shelter and he remained a fugitive until he was captured in Achill in May 1799.
In June he was incriminated on the evidence of O’Donnell and Reverend Michael Conway of Ballina. Following his trial in Castlebar, Fr. Manus was transported on his own cart to Newport via the Carrickaneady Road, which then was the old Castlebar/Newport Road.
He was hanged publicly on the Market Crane in Newport on June 8, 1799.
After his execution, Fr. Sweeney's body was supposed to have been taken back to his native Achill for burial. However, folk history relates that the horses drawing the cart with his body stopped dead a short distance outside Newport, near Burrishoole Abbey, where he used to say Mass, and refused to go further.
The carter decided to stop for the night, and by a strange coincidence a newly dug grave was discovered in the nave of the abandoned abbey. Taking this as a sign that Fr. Sweeney was to be honoured with an abbey burial, local people duly interred him there. A memorial was later erected to him on the spot.
The inscription on his grave reads: ‘This monument has been erected by the parishioners of Burrishoole to the memory of Fr. Manus Sweeney, a Holy Patriotic Priest who was hanged in Newport, June the 8th, 1799, because he had joined with his countrymen in the Rebellion of 1798’.