On the afternoon of 9 June 1798, around ten thousand Irish rebels swept down on the small seaside town of Arklow in County Wicklow. If they could take it, the road to Dublin lay open and the rising might spread across the whole island. By nightfall the attack had been beaten back, a much-loved rebel priest lay dead in the fields, and the great rebellion of 1798 had reached its high-water mark in the east.
Quick Answer: The Battle of Arklow was fought on 9 June 1798 during the Irish Rebellion. A combined force of Wexford and Wicklow United Irishmen, roughly 10,000 strong, attacked the British-held town of Arklow in an effort to carry the rising into Wicklow and on toward Dublin. The town's defenders, about 1,700 men under General Francis Needham, held firm, and the rebel assault failed. The defeat halted the rebellion's advance and became one of the turning points of the year.
What was the Battle of Arklow?
The Battle of Arklow was one of the largest engagements of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the rising organised by the Society of United Irishmen. Drawing on the ideals of the American and French revolutions, the United Irishmen sought an independent Irish parliament and equal standing for Catholics and Protestants alike. When the rebellion broke out in late May 1798, County Wexford became its heartland.
By early June the Wexford rebels had won a string of victories and were looking to spread the fight beyond their own county. Arklow, just over the border in County Wicklow, was the gateway north. Taking it would let the rising flood into Wicklow and bring the rebels within striking distance of Dublin itself. That is what turned a quiet market and fishing town into the scene of a desperate, bloody battle.
Why did the rebels need to take Arklow?
The momentum was with the insurgents. On 4 June they had crushed a British column at Tuberneering, capturing three artillery pieces and punching a hole in the cordon the army had thrown around Wexford. In the panic that followed, Arklow was briefly abandoned. But the rebels hesitated, content for the moment to hold Gorey and stay within the Wexford border.
That pause proved costly. An attempt to break westward across the River Barrow was stopped with heavy losses at the Battle of New Ross on 5 June. With the west closed off, the northern route through Arklow became the rising's best hope. By the time the rebels finally marched on the town, the British had reoccupied it. General Francis Needham — later the 1st Earl of Kilmorey — had hurried some 1,700 men down from Dublin, barricaded the approaches, and placed cannon to cover every road into the town. The window had all but closed, but the rebels came on regardless.
Who led the United Irishmen at Arklow?
The rebel army that formed up on the afternoon of 9 June was a combined Wexford and Wicklow force, and its leaders read like a roll-call of the families who carried the rising. Billy Byrne of Ballymanus led the Wicklow men of the Byrne name, while a young Myles Byrne commanded a division of pikemen and would later set down the whole story in his celebrated memoirs. Alongside them came Anthony Perry of Inch, Edward Fitzgerald of Newpark — of the great Leinster house of FitzGerald — and Conor McEvoy. At the head of one column rode the priest who would become the day's most famous casualty, Father Michael Murphy of Ballycanew.
Behind the named leaders marched thousands of ordinary men and women from across County Wicklow and Wexford — Doyles, Kavanaghs, Byrnes and Murphys among them — armed for the most part with little more than pikes and courage. They were marching against trained militia, cavalry and artillery dug in behind barricades.
What happened during the battle?
The rebel plan was to use the scrub and broken ground around the town as cover and strike from several directions at once. Late in the afternoon they opened with their captured cannon and pushed forward along the approaches, the pikemen surging toward the British line in wave after wave.
The fighting was ferocious and lasted for hours. At points the defenders were hard pressed, their ammunition running low and the outcome hanging in the balance. But pikes were no match for disciplined musket volleys and grapeshot fired from fortified positions. Each rebel charge broke against the barricades, and the casualties mounted terribly. Reliable figures are hard to come by, but the rebels are believed to have lost many hundreds of men, far more than the defenders.
As dusk came on, the assault lost its force. The rebels drew off into the gathering dark, leaving the field — and the road to Dublin — in British hands.
What happened to Father Michael Murphy?
For many on the rebel side, the turning point was the death of Father Michael Murphy. A priest from Ballycanew whose own chapel had been burned by the yeomanry, Murphy had taken up the rebel cause and was held in something close to awe by his followers, some of whom believed he could not be harmed by bullets. At Arklow he led a charge on horseback against a British gun position and was killed by gunfire only yards from the enemy line.
His death dealt a heavy blow to rebel morale. In the brutal aftermath his body was treated with deliberate cruelty: government troops are said to have severed his head and set it on a spike at the garrison gate as a warning to others. He was later buried at Castle Ellis. A century on, the people of Arklow raised a monument in his memory, and he remains one of the best-remembered figures of 1798. He should not be confused with Father John Murphy, another priest-leader of the rising, who had helped spark the Wexford rebellion at Oulart Hill and was executed some weeks later.
Why did the Battle of Arklow matter?
Arklow was the moment the rebellion of 1798 ran out of room to grow. As long as the rising stayed bottled up in Wexford and Wicklow, the British could concentrate their strength against it — and that is exactly what happened. Just twelve days after Arklow, the main rebel camp was stormed and scattered at the Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June, effectively breaking the Wexford rising.
Historians have long argued that had Arklow fallen, the rebellion might have spread far wider and the history of Ireland taken a different turn. Instead, its failure helped seal the fate of the United Irishmen. The defeat of the 1798 rebellion led directly to the Act of Union in 1801, which abolished the Irish parliament and bound Ireland more tightly to Britain — the very outcome the rebels had fought to prevent. For the families of Wicklow and Wexford who marched on Arklow, the memory of that June day endured for generations.
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