The Frenchman's Grave and The Rebellion of 1798

One of the best things about visiting a new places is scratching the surface to explore their hidden history. This is especially true of Ireland and its colourful past. Behind the islands’ many beautifull landscapes, you’ll find the stories of the Rising, waiting to be explored. One of these prints of history I found walking in the middle of the Ox Mountains – the grave of a French soldier who took ill and died more than 200 years ago on the windswept slopes of the Ox Mountains while marching with General Humbert's army from Ballina to Tubbercurry. Few years ago he has finally been commemorated with the erection of a plaque on what is believed to be his final resting place.  

Although the reputed burial place of the soldier has been known locally for generations as The Frenchman's Grave, it's also thought hundreds of General Humbert's soldiers may have died on the mountain side. I dedicate my post to one of the turbulent period in Irish History – The Rebellion of 1798. Brave but sad story of hope and dissapointments.

The 1798 rebellion was an insurrection launched by the United Irishmen, an underground republican society, aimed at overthrowing the Kingdom of Ireland, severing the connection with Great Britain and establishing an Irish Republic based on the principles of the French Revolution. The rebellion failed in its aim to launch a coordinated nationwide uprising. There were instead isolated outbreaks of rebellion in county Wexford, other Leinster counties, counties Antrim and Down in the north and after the landing of a French expeditionary force, in county Mayo in the west. The military uprising was put down with great bloodshed in the summer of 1798. Some of its leaders, notably Wolfe Tone were killed or died in imprisonment, while many others were exiled.

The 1798 rebellion was failed attempt to found a secular independent Irish Republic.

The fighting in the 1798 rebellion lasted just three months, but the deaths ran into the tens of thousands. A high estimate of the death toll is 50,000 and a lower one puts it at about 15,000. Thousands more former rebels were exiled in Scotland, transported to penal colonies in Australia and others such as Miles Byrne went into exile serving in the French revolutionary and Napoleonic armies until 1815.

A brief rebellion led by Robert Emmet, younger brother of one of the 1798 United Irish leaders, in 1802 achieved little beyond Emmet’s own death by execution.

As a result of the uprising, in 1800 the Irish parliament (which had existed since the 13^th century), under pressure from the British authorities, voted itself out if existence and Ireland was ruled directly from London from then until 1922.

The United Irishmen and The Brave French General

In 1798, France already a republic, was at war with England and Ireland was part of the British Empire.  A secret organisation calling themselves “The United Irishmen” had long desired to bring about a revolution breaking off all ties with Britain.  The 1790s marked an exceptional event in Irish history because the United Irishmen were a secular organisation with significant support both among Catholics and Protestants, including Protestants in the northern province of Ulster.

Wolfe Tone one of the United’s leaders spent years in France attempting to persuade the government to come to our assistance. His persuasions worked and three French warships arrived unexpectedly in Killala Bay.  

Theobald Wolfe Tone - one of the United's leaders

General Humbert with over 1,000 soldiers moved quickly to take Killala village and by that evening French and Irish Flags where flying side by side. On 23 August, 1798 Ballina was captured without a shot fired, the British Garrison having withdrawn to Foxford during the night.   Over 1500 Irish rebels joined forces with the French and launched an attack on Castlebar.  On  31 August the province of Connaught was declared a republic by the French with John Moore being installed as President.  On 31 August Humbert and his Franco Irish army pulled out of Castlebar and marched northeast through Foxford and Swinford and onto Tubbercurry.  Orders where given to 200 French Soldiers who had remained on in Killala to move eastwards towards Tubbercurry to join up with Humbert’s main force.  Captain James O’Dowd with his own rebel forces led the French from Ballina out to Bonniconlon over the Windy Gap, around Lough Talt and up along the road in Gorterslin and it was here on that long-forgotten march that an unknown French soldier – possibly wounded in a previous engagement – collapsed and died.  His comrades along with the local people of Gorterslin buried him at this spot. Nowadays after more than two centuries having gone by, all visitors can pay tribute to this gallant soldier. In turn, a bust of General Humbert in Killala was erected in 1998 to mark the 200 year anniversary of the rebellion.

French general Jean Joseph Humbert was a leader of two invasion attempts of Ireland to assist rebels at the end of the 18th century.

In 1794 Humbert was serving in the Army of the Coasts of Brest under Louis Lazare Hoche when he was given the responsibility to prepare for an to expedition to Ireland. Two years later he was in command of the Légion des Francs as they sailed into Bantry Bay. Horrendous weather, however, meant a landing wasn’t possible and the subsequent arrival of Royal navy forced a withdrawal.

The trip home ended in a naval battle during which Humbert, on the French ship Droits de l’Homme, narrowly escaped death. As the ship was destroyed and sank, hundreds of men perished but Humbert fortunately managed to escape.

The second attempt to land in Ireland was somewhat more successful when Humbert led troops in an attempt to support the 1798 Rebellion. However, by the time he arrived off the Irish coast, the United Irish rising had already been defeated. Humbert’s small force was defeated at the Battle of Ballinamuck. Humbert was taken prisoner of war but was repatriated shortly after.

Background, final and conclusions of Rebellion 1798

In the 18^th century, Ireland was a Kingdom in its own right, under the Kings of England. Executive power was largely in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary, appointed by the British prime minister. Ireland in the 18th century had its own parliament but the majority of the population was excluded from politic.The United Irishmen, inspired by the American and French revolutions, initially lobbied for democratic reform.The Irish rioters hoped to eventually found a self-governing, secular Irish state on the basis of universal male suffrage. 

Britain and revolutionary France went to war in 1793. In Ireland, the United Irishmen, who supported the French Republic, were banned and went underground in 1794. Wolfe Tone went into exile, first in America and then in France, where he lobbied for military aid for revolution in Ireland. The government in Dublin, startled by the near-invasion, responded with a vicious wave of repression, passing an Insurrection Act that suspended habeas corpus and other peacetime laws.

The fighting in the 1798 rebellion lasted just three months, but the deaths ran into the tens of thousands.

The Rising was uncoordinated as most of the United Irish leaders had been imprisoned.The first rebellions resulted in some sharp fighting but the poorly armed (they mostly had home-made pikes) and poorly led insurgents were defeated by British, militia and Yeomanry troops. In many cases, captured or surrendering rebels were massacred by vengeful government forces.The last act of the rebellion came in August 1798, when a small French expeditionary of general Humbert landed at Killalla Bay. While the French soldiers were allowed to surrender, the Irish insurgents who accompanied them were massacred.
The United Irishmen’s hope of founding a secular, independent, democratic Irish Republic therefore ended in total defeat.