Memoirs of the IRISH REBELLION of 1798

Sir Richard Musgrave’s Memories of the IRISH REBELLION of 1798

A book review by J.C. Sullivan

“Who fears to speak of ’98?” Those words sum up the feelings of the Irish Catholics who supported the rebellion and suffered the consequent atrocities against them led by the Protestant ascendancy. An account of the darkness of the era has re-emerged with all its inherent hate and ugliness laid bare.

Irish-America has been described as a Diaspora without real connections to the mother country. 99% of Americans who claim Irish heritage only know this because of oral tradition. Some say this is enough but others, in increasing numbers, are possessed with a quest for historical knowledge of their families and the events that caused them to emigrate. And they're finding out that Irish history has not been what they've been led to believe by American movies that always portrayed the English as good guys. In the process we Irish-Americans are discovering we are more Irish than we ever realized.

     In recent times, a loosening of Anglo and official interpretation bonds have been accomplished with the emergence of the once-forbidden written and spoken word of Irish nationalist leaders such as Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. It wasn’t so long ago that, while his face was shown on television, his words were spoken by someone else. The emergence of newly-freed speech has unleashed a passion for knowledge and awareness. The rising of 1798 provides a background for many exploring their roots. It’s no wonder then that on-line genealogy search programs, such as Ancestry.com, are a growth industry. Data, unfortunately, can only provide so much. Hence we must rely on data from the era, written in the era. Memoirs of the IRISH REBELLION of 1798 provide just that background.

Long neglected by the nation of Ireland herself, it is Irish America that is shedding proper light on the incredibly violent events and subsequent inhuman treatment of the vanquished by the victors. With the incredible rise of interest in the event, this book has re-emerged, shedding seemingly-fresh, first-hand knowledge of both events and attitudes of the period.

 Last published in 1802, Steven W. Myers & Delores E. McKnight have edited the memoirs of Sir Richard Musgrave, a Loyalist. It is resplendent with vivid eyewitness accounts, lists of massacre victims and rebel and loyalist participants. They have included a new index with 10,600 references to people and places, especially for the south Leinster area of Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow, Kildare and Dublin, for the east Ulster area of Armagh, Antrim and Down, and for the Mayo region.

     A historical treatise, the scholarship of the editors lays out the background of the political/moral/social interworking of the time. Common throughout Musgrave’s writings is an attitude that has been passed into this century – that of superiority. More importantly, it exposes the suffering of Irish Catholics at the hands of Loyalists and makes it perfectly understandable why so many left Ireland before An Gorta Mor, the great hunger of the 1840s and 50s.

The book is available in hardcover. At more than 1,000 pages, it can most probably still be found at globalgenealogy.com/countries/Ireland/resources/239001.htm, Amazon.com or Alibris.com.

Sullivan is an Irish-American writer residing in northeast Ohio. His publishing credits are numerous, including the Irish Echo newspaper, Mayo News, Western People, Irish-America Magazine and National Hibernian Digest.