John Murphy (priest)
John Murphy was an Irish Roman Catholic priest remembered for his central role in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in Wexford, sometimes known as the Wexford Rebellion. Murphy led the insurgents to one of their initial victories over a government militia at Oulart Hill, and in the following weeks became one of the rebellion's main leaders.
Following the suppression of the rebellion Murphy was taken in early July near Tullow and summarily executed.
Early life
Murphy was born in Tincurry townland, Ferns parish, County Wexford, in c. 1753. He was one of six children of Thomas Murphy, a relatively prosperous farmer and bacon-curer, and Johanna, nee Whitty, of Tomgarrow. He received some early education at a hedge school run by a man called Mairtin Gunn; showing aptitude for Latin and Greek he was then tutored by his Jesuit parish priest Andrew Cassin with a view to entering the priesthood.Until relaxation of the penal laws in the late 18th century, seminaries were illegal in Ireland, requiring priests to complete their training abroad. By 1779, then aged about 26, Murphy had completed his initial training and was ordained by the Bishop of Ferns, Nicholas Sweetman at the Catholic chapel in the High Street, Wexford. Sweetman, a probable Jacobite sympathiser who had been arrested in 1751 on political grounds, chose the Dominican college in Seville, Spain for Murphy to complete his theological studies. Murphy remained in Spain until graduation in March 1785; his diploma recorded him as a diligent and conscientious, rather than outstanding, student.
On his return to Ireland Murphy was assigned to the vacant curacy of Kilcormuck, more usually known as Boolavogue, in Monageer parish, under parish priest Patrick Cogley. He was given lodgings with a tenant farmer, John Donohue, at Tomnaboley close to Boolavogue chapel: Donohue allowed Murphy to supplement his small curate's income by keeping two or three cows.
By the time of the events of 1798 Murphy had served as curate for several years; he seems to have had a poor relationship with Sweetman's successor as bishop, James Caulfield, which may have prevented his promotion to parish priest. A contemporary description by Musgrave said that Murphy was then "about forty-five years old, light complexioned, bald pated, and about five feet nine inches high uniting strength with agility".
The 1798 rebellion: background
The 1798 rebellion was principally organised by the Society of United Irishmen, a group of political reformers and radicals based in Belfast and Dublin and originally founded in 1791 by William Drennan. Inspired by the example of the American Revolution, the United Irishmen agitated for political reform, greater independence for the Irish parliament, and Catholic emancipation: throughout the 1790s their programme shifted from reform to advocating open revolt. The organisation was banned in 1793, but continued to develop plans for an insurrection backed by Revolutionary France.Much of the Catholic hierarchy was horrified by the prospect of revolution: not only were the United Irishmen's French allies strongly anti-clerical, but the British government had recently begun to relax legal restrictions on Catholics. In Wexford John Murphy's bishop, Caulfield, had reversed the anti-government stance of his predecessor Sweetman and was particularly concerned that his congregations would become drawn into political dissent. By 1797 the situation was particularly acute in Wexford, where hardship caused by fluctuations in grain prices was a powerful United recruiting tool. In the late spring of 1798 a violent government counter-insurgency campaign directed at the United Irishmen had spread to the county; combined with rumours of a plot by Orangemen to kill Catholics, it created a "wave of hysteria" among the rural peasantry.
In association with the local magistrates Caulfield asked his parish priests to sign and read out a declaration of loyalty. In Monageer parish Cogley was happy to comply, taking no part in later events, but Caulfield later characterised Murphy as "giddy", claiming he had often been "reprimanded and threatened". Several members of Murphy's family had links with the United Irishmen, as did his landlord Donohue. Throughout the spring of 1798 Murphy appears to have wavered between sympathy with and rejection of the United Irishmen; at Easter he refused the sacrament to those who did not abjure the United oath and on 8 April, under pressure from district magistrate Mountnorris of Camolin, he signed a declaration of loyalty as curate.
The rising in County Wexford
On the afternoon of 26 May 1798, news of two events reached north Wexford: the first was a massacre of suspected United Irishmen by loyalists at Carnew and by the garrison at Dunlavin; this seemed to verify rumours circulating in the previous months of a plot to kill Catholics. The second was news of a United Irish rising at Naas, Carlow, and in much of County Kildare. Approached by his parishioners, at this point Murphy appears to have agreed to commit to leading resistance locally.Oulart Hill
On the evening of 28th a patrol of some twenty cavalry from the Camolin yeomanry had been sent to investigate a report of an attack on the house of a Mrs Piper at Tincurry near Scarawalsh, in which her son in law was killed; they found the road blocked at the townland of the Harrow by a group of farmers armed with pikes. After an attempt to confront them two yeomen, lieutenant Thomas Bookey and John Donovan, were knocked down and killed. The remainder rode back to Ferns following which groups of yeomanry left there and Enniscorthy determined to shoot anyone they deemed responsible. Murphy sent one party to raid the house of Mountnorris at Camolin for arms; another raided and burned Bookey's house at Rockspring, while a third raided the house of Mr. Burrowes, a clergyman at Oulart, killing him and six other loyalist residents. During the night a number of houses were burned by rebels and up to 170 across the county by the yeomanry, including Murphy's own chapel: many loyalist civilians fled to the towns.Detachments of militia from the garrisons at Arklow and Wexford were now converging on the rebels. Murphy collected his supporters at Oulart Hill, accompanied by terrified local peasantry who joined them for protection; they were also joined by Edward Roche and Morgan Byrne, two sympathetic yeomanry officers. Surrounded and attacked by a detachment of 110 men from the North Cork Militia under Col. Foote, Murphy, Roche and Byrne organised their followers and in the ensuing Battle of Oulart Hill all but five of the militia were killed. A participant on the rebel side, Peter Foley, later recalled that "we were all novices in the art of war", adding that although nominated leader, Murphy "was of little use to us" and there was "no commmander".
Enniscorthy and Vinegar Hill
The victory was followed by a successful assault on the weak garrison of Enniscorthy, which swelled the Irish rebel forces and their weapon supply. However defeats at New Ross, Arklow, and Newtownbarry meant a loss of men and weapons. Fr John Murphy had returned to the headquarters of the rebellion at Vinegar Hill before the Battle of Arklow and was attempting to reinforce its defences. 20,000 British troops arrived at Wexford with artillery and defeated the rebel, armed only with pikes at the Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June. However, due to a lack of coordination among the British columns, the bulk of the rebel army escaped to fight on.Death
Eluding the crown forces by passing through the Scullogue Gap, Fr John Murphy and other leaders tried to spread the rebellion across the country by marching into Kilkenny and towards the midlands. On 26 June 1798 at the Battle of Kilcumney Hill in County Carlow, their forces were tricked and defeated. Fr Murphy and his bodyguard, James Gallagher, became separated from the main surviving group. Fr Murphy decided to head for the safety of a friend's house in Tullow, County Carlow, when the path cleared. They were sheltered by friends and strangers – one Protestant woman, asked by searching yeomen if any strangers had passed, answered "No strangers passed here today"; when she was later questioned about why she had not said Murphy and Gallagher had not passed, she explained that they had not – because they were still in her house when she was questioned.After a few days, some yeomen captured Murphy and Gallagher in a farmyard on 2 July 1798. They were brought to Tullow later that day where they were brought before a military tribunal, charged with committing treason against the British crown, and sentenced to death. Both men were tortured in an attempt to extract more information from them. Fr Murphy was stripped, flogged, hanged, decapitated, his corpse burnt in a barrel of tar and his head impaled on a spike. This final gesture was meant to be a warning to all others who fought against the British Crown.
Legacy
A single portrait exists of Murphy, now kept at Boolavogue: this was produced in the mid 19th century by a Dublin artist based on a contemporary pencil sketch found at his lodgings in Tomnaboley after his death.Murphy became one of the best known leaders of the Wexford rising, commemorated for his leadership and for his unlikely talent for military organisation. Although ten or eleven of the 84 priests then in Ferns diocese had some involvement in the rebellion, notably Philip Roche, Mogue Kearns, Thomas Clinch, John Redmond and Michael Murphy, all of whom were executed or killed in battle, later historiography gave John Murphy a "centre-stage position". This was probably influenced by the depictions in Fr. Patrick Kavanagh's Popular History of the Insurrection of 1798 and Brother Luke Cullen's account in Wexford and Wicklow Insurgents of 1798.
Later nineteenth century histories, notably that of Kavanagh, also depicted the rebel priests as fighting for "faith and fatherland", rather than stressing their status as United Irish sympathisers siding with parishioners against the instructions of the Catholic hierarchy. Murphy was widely commemorated as "Father Murphy", and when the mid 19th century painting of him was taken for restoration before the 1798 centenary celebrations, a Roman collar was added to replace the typical late 18th century cravat he wore in the portrait.
Murphy is commemorated in several songs, notably the ballad Boolavogue, written in 1898.
Father Murphy's remains are buried in the old Catholic graveyard in Ferns, Co Wexford, alongside those of Fr. Ned Redmond.