COUNTY LOUTH
 1793
During this time the
Defenders were active in County Louth. Some had already been
arrested and were in prison awaiting trial. Later others
were absorbed into the United Irishmen. The immediate issue
at that time seems to relate to voting rights for Roman
Catholics.
Their activities were condemned by the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Dr Richard Reilly. The
wording of the resolutions, given below, adopted at the
meeting over which he presided seems much stronger than that
adopted elsewhere in the country at meetings attended by
both Protestant and Catholics.
'At a Meeting of the Roman Catholics of the County of Louth
held at Greenmount, near Castle Bellingham, on Thursday the
3rd of January, 1793
Right Rev. Dr. Reilly in the Chair.
The following Resolutions were unanimously agreed
to:
RESOLVED.
That the peace of this County
has for some time past been disturbed by repeated acts of
violence and outrage, whereby public order and regularity
have been infringed, the Laws shamefully violated, the
credit of the country impeached, its prosperity and welfare
materially affected, and are now likely to be entirely
destroyed, if some effectual remedy is not
administered to put a stop to such alarming misconduct.
RESOLVED That it appears to
us, that amongst other causes which may have given rise to
these unwarrantable proceedings, an idea has gone abroad
which has mislead and deluded the people, inducing them
falsely to conceive, that in pursuing such conduct, they are
struggling for the cause of the Roman Catholic Religion, the
interests of which they erroneously imagine will be thereby
advanced, and that the situation of the people professing
the same, is, by their conduct, most likely to be improved.
RESOLVED. That if independent
of the general question of restrictions from difference of
religious persuasion, any class or people labour under real
grievances peculiar to their particular situation such
grievances can be removed only by legal and peaceable
application for redress; and, that upon specification of any
such, and their existence proved, we shall be ready to
assist in such legal and peaceable application for removal
of the same, or, if from our respective situations, redress
shall lie with us we shall always be found willing to remove
the cause of complaint, when thus legally and peaceably
[preferred].
RESOLVED. That we are and have
been at all times strongly attached to the preservation of
public peace and tranquillity and ready to concur in
promoting or restoring the same, in whatever manner or from
whatever cause they may have been violated, but that we feel
ourselves peculiarly called on for public exertion, under
the present circumstances, when the interests of our
religion are shamefully made a pretext for riot and
confusion, which its principles so strongly condemn, and by
which the credit, character and honour of its adherents, are
so immediately impeached.
RESOLVED. That we do
hereby earnestly exhort all orders of people, particularly
those of our Communion, to abstain in future from all such
illegal and unwarrantable conduct; that we are fully
convinced no measure can be so detrimental to the interest
of the Religion which they profess, that now is so likely to
give an unfavourable turn to the exertions which are now
making to procure a repeal of the Laws by which, as Roman
Catholics, they are affected; that a continuation of such
conduct must, by withdrawing them from industry and
attention to their respective business, immediately produce
beggary and misery in their families, and by drawing on them
in the end, the just vengeance of the Law, must finally
terminate in the loss of their lives, imprisonment of their
persons, or exile from their country.
RESOLVED, That if after thus
publickly apprising them of the delusion under which they
labour, the danger with which they are threatened, the
injury, which by their conduct they are likely to do to the
rest of their fellow subjects of their own religious
persuasion, and the disgrace which they bring on themselves
by violating peace and good order, they should unhappily
persist in their present outrageous conduct, we do hereby
solemnly and publicly pledge ourselves to each other, to use
our utmost exertions to put an end to such scandalous and
illegal behaviour, and to pursue the most vigorous and
effectual measures for resisting and opposing the same.
RESOLVED, That copies of these
Resolutions be distributed to the respective Parish Priests
throughout the County, in order to receive the signatures of
all who shall wish to subscribe them, and immediately
printed in the Drogheda and Dublin Journals, Dublin
Evening Post, and National Evening Star.
Doctor Reilly having left the
Chair, and Edward Bellew, Esq being called to it.
RESOLVED That the thanks of
the Meeting be given to Doctor Reilly, for his very proper
and dignified conduct in the Chair.
Doctor Reilly having resumed
the Chair,
RESOLVED, That the thanks of
the Meeting are hereby given to Edward Bellew, Esq. for
having to fully met our Approbation in the foregoing
Resolutions.
P. Bellew,
Edward Bellew,
Wm. Bellew,
Pat Byrne,
Pat Russell,
Thomas Coleman,
Thomas Coleman, jun
Thomas Taafe,
Anthony McDermott,
Ger. Bellew,
Francis Bellew,
Neal Coleman,
John Hoey,
Thomas P. Coleman,
Peter Coleman,
Pat Markey,
Pat Plunket,
John Kieran,
Bern. Duffy,
Daniel Davitt,
Pat M’Guire,
Nich. Markey,
Andrew Markey,
Nich. Markey,
Dan. Markey,
Thomas Markey,
Philip Markey,
Nich Norris,
John White,
Henry White,
Richard Flanagan,
Wm. M’Gawley,
Barth. M’Gawley,
Joseph [Hardy?],
Thomas Plunkett,
Mat. Plunkett,
Lau. Mathews,
John [Callan],
John O’Donnell,
Denis Callan,
James Martin,
Pat Boylan,
John Boylan,
Martin Connor,
J. M’Allister, jun,
Mathew Kirwan jun,
James Hearn,
John Conlon,
Edward Molloy,
Pat Devin,
Barth. Landy,
Thomas King,
James Heeny,
Denis Read,
Bryan King,
Philip Markey,
John Flanagan,
Pat. Grimes,
Hugh Ward,
Mich. Dromgoole,
Richard Reilly, roman catholic
arch. bishop of Armagh,
Philip L...ns [Levins?] r. c.
dean of Armagh and pastor Dundalk,
John Wall, r.c. vicar and
pastor of Dunleer,
Charles Waters, r. c. pastor
of Ardee,
Owen [Eugene] Daly, r.c. p. of
Killcarin [Kilsaran],
Joseph Markey, r.c. p. of
Clogher,
Arthur Martin, r.c. p. of
Collon,
Richard Treaner, r. c. p. of
Dyzart [Dysart],
Joseph Carrigan, r.c. p. of
Termefuken [Termonfeckin],
Andrew Levices [Levins], r.c.
p. of Kilcurly,
Redmond O’Hanlon, r.c. p. of
Louth,
George Doud [Dowd], r.c. p. of
Drumiskin [Dromiskin],
Pat Doud [Dowd], r.c. p. of
Tallanstown,
Pat Corrigan, r.c. curate of
Dyzart [Dysart],
John O’Kelly, r.c. c. of
Dunleer,
James Byrne, r.c. c. of
Drameskin [Dromiskin],
John Lawles, r.c. c. of
Kilcurly,
Barth. Counsel, r.c. c. of
Termefukin [Termonfeckin].'
Another meeting reported on
the same page begins:-
'At a very numerous and respectable Meeting of
the Inhabitants of the City and Neighbourhood of Cashel,
pursuant to public notice, on Monday, 24th Dec. 1792.
Daniel Mansergh, Esq. Mayor,
in the Chair.
The following Resolutions were
unanimously agreed to:--
RESOLVED.
That we think it our
indispensable duty, at a time when the enemies of our happy
and excellent Constitution are busily employed in
disseminating Republican principles, subversive of the
Government of the Kingdom, not only to declare our
abhorrence of such principles and practices, but to profess
our unalterable attachment to our justly beloved Sovereign
and our decided resolution to support by every means in our
power, his rights, well knowing that they c.. the ... basis
of our own.
Actuated by these principles,
we hereby pledge ourselves unanimously, each to the other,
to discourage and oppose at all times, every attempt to
alienate the affections of the people from their Sovereign,
or the Constitution of this Kingdom, to disturb the public
tranquillity, or to introduce any [disorder] into the State,
under any pretences whatsoever, [circumstances] which could
not fail to check the rapid progress with which this Kingdom
is now making in manufactures, agriculture and trade, to
destroy its credit, and to render precarious that prosperity
which is felt and acknowledged by all ranks of people, to be
the happy effect of wise laws justily administered..
RESOLVED, therefore,
that the persons present at this meeting, do hereby declare,
that they will use all legal means to discourage seditious
publications, and to punish the authors, publishers, and
dispensers thereof. That they will at all times be ready to
assemble and assist the Magistrates, to suppress tumult and
faction, to maintain peace and good order, to afford
protection to the person and property of every man, and to
enforce a due execution of the laws, on which depend the
safety, the happiness, and the prosperity of every
individual, and of society in general.
RESOLVED. That these our
unalterable sentiments, be forthwith presented, in the most
dutiful manner to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, by the Chairman.
RESOLVED That our hearty
thanks are due to the Mayor, for his readiness to call this
meeting and for his very proper conduct in the Chair.
........'
etc. listing the names of
both Protestant and Catholics of the area that signed the
resolutions.
(Source: The Dublin Journal dated 10 January 1793,
p.4, National Library of Ireland)
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