Battle of Ballynahinch

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Coordinates: 54°24′40″N 5°53′42″W / 54.411°N 5.895°W / 54.411; -5.895

Battle of Ballynahinch
Part of the United Irishmen Rebellion
Battle of Ballynahinch by Thomas Robinson (extract).jpg
Battle of Ballinahinch by Thomas Robinson
Date12–13 June 1798
Location
Ballynahinch, County Down
Result British victory, end of rebellion in Ulster
Belligerents
United Irishmen
Defenders		 Kingdom of Great Britain British Army
Commanders and leaders
Henry Munro

Major-General George Nugent

Colonel Robert Stewart
Strength
~4,000 ~2,000, 8 cannon
Casualties and losses
c. 300-400 dead c. 80 dead

The Battle of Ballynahinch was fought outside Ballynahinch, County Down, on 12 June, during the Irish rebellion of 1798 between British forces led by Major-General George Nugent and the local United Irishmen led by Henry Munro (1758–98).

Background[]

Munro was a Lisburn linen merchant and Presbyterian United Irishman who had no military experience but had taken over command of the Down organisation following the arrest of the designated leader, Rev. William Steel Dickson on 5 June. Upon hearing of the victory at Saintfield on 9 June, Munro joined the rebel camp there and then moved to Ednavady Hill, Ballynahinch to join the thousands who had gathered in support of the rebellion. The response of the British garrisons was to converge on Ballynahinch from Belfast and Downpatrick in two columns accompanied by several pieces of cannon.

Battle of Ballynahinch[]

The battle began late on 12 June when the Crown forces cannonaded and then occupied Ballynahinch. Rebel desertions followed although accounts vary. Some have Catholic Defenders decamping when Munro rejected as taking "ungenerous advantage" their proposal for a night attack on the soldiery rioting in the town.[1] Others suggest that those leaving the field were representative of the largely Presbyterian rebel host. James Hope (who had been a United emissary to the Defenders)[2] insists that among the rebels at Ballynahinch Catholics never formed an "exclusive body", and that the principal deserters were "Killinchy people ... and they were Dissenters".[3][4]

As dawn broke the battle recommenced with the rebels gathered on Edenavady Hill attacked from two sides and although achieving some initial success, confusion in the rebel army saw the United Irishmen retreat in chaos, pursued by regrouping British forces who quickly took advantage by turning retreat into massacre. Initial reports claimed four hundred rebels were killed, while British losses were around forty.[5] James Thomson (mathematician), the father of the famous scientist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin was at the battle and published an eyewitness account.

Aftermath[]

Munro escaped the field of battle but was betrayed by a farmer who he had paid to conceal him and was hanged in front of his own house in Lisburn on 16 June. Ballynahinch was sacked by the victorious military after the battle with sixty-three houses being burned down. Cavalry scoured the surrounding countryside for rebels, raiding homes and killing indiscriminately, the 22nd Dragoons being guilty of some of the worst atrocities.[6] The most famous victim was Betsy Gray, a young female rebel who, with her two brothers, was slaughtered in the post-battle massacre, ensuring her place in legend to this day.

Following the suppression of the 1798 Rebellion and the passing of the Act of Union, the Presbyterian population in the area of Ballynahinch would subsequently become predominantly Unionist and the Orange Order would have a strong presence there. Nonetheless, historian Guy Beiner has shown that many local family traditions continued to preserve in private memories of their United Irish ancestors' participation in the battle.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Proudfoot L. (ed.) Down History and Society (Dublin 1997) chapter by Nancy Curtin at p.289. ISBN 0-906602-80-7
  2. ^ Courtney, Roger (2013). Dissenting Voices: Rediscovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. pp. 109–111. ISBN 9781909556065.
  3. ^ Madden, Richard Robert (1860). Antrim and Down in '98 : the lives of Henry Joy M'Cracken, James Hope, William Putnam M'Cabe, Rev. James Porter, Henry Munro. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd. ... p. 240.
  4. ^ Elliott, Marianne (2000). The Catholics of Ulster, a History. London: Allen Lane, Penguin Press. pp. 256–258. ISBN 0713994649.
  5. ^ Nugent, report to Dublin Castle 14 June 1798
  6. ^ p.224, The Summer Soldiers -The 1798 rebellion in Antrim and Down A.T.Q Stewart (Belfast 1995) ISBN 0-85640-558-2
  7. ^ Guy Beiner, Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018).

External links[]

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