Two hundred and twenty six years ago this week, on July 11, 1798, one of the most significant incidents in the midlands during the 1798 Rebellion took place when the United Irishmen, mainly from Wexford, attacked a fortified house near Clonard Bridge on the River Boyne, aftter being fired on.
The event has since then been described as the Battle of Clonard, and the burial place of some of insurgents who died there was enclosed in 1873 and in 1898, the 100th anniversary, a permanent memorial was erected there, and is still there.
During the unsuccessful attack on the Tyrrell house, which lasted for several hours, the well located and heavily armed defenders resisted the efforts of poorly armed insurgents, and the latter were eventually repulsed with something like 160 of them killed and 60 wounded.
As they withdrew in the Carbury direction, they were pursued by the Yoemen and soldierly, and any of those found were killed in the days following, or captured and hanged soon after.
Among the insurgents who had survived the Battle of Vinegar Hill and marched north from Wexford, in the hope of joining other groups, and still expecting French reinforcements, were two young brothers in their teens, named Doyle.
The younger one, Peter, was killed at Clonard, but 17 years old James survived, and then narrowly evaded capture when he hid in a large field of potatoes while being closely pursued. His pursuers twice passed close to him, as they searched the potato drills.
Jim Doyle, like a number of others who survived, was forced to seek shelter in the area when his pursuers departed, and was fortunate when he knocked on a farmhouse door at Aughamore, near Kinnegad, on the Meath-Westmeath border. He found the family there were sympathetic to the rebellion and he was fed and sheltered.
The Whyte family, small farmers, with whom he remained, were happy to have him make full use of the valuable farming skills he brought with him, and subsequently, he married their only daughter, Mary.
The couple reared a large family, some of whom emigrated, and Jim Doyle spent his life farming in the area, and died in his seventies, about 1855. He was always known in the area as “The Croppy”, and was buried in Hardwood Cemetery, as were his wife and two of his sons. With a great many Doyle families in Wexford, no local family links were afterwards found.
Another of Jim Doyle’s sons, Peter, born in 1819, bought a house and farm near Kinnegad, at Cloncrave in 1860, and married Brigid Dixon, and they also had a large family.
One of Jim Doyle’s direct descendants, Niall Doyle, who is a great-great-great grandson, lives in Mullingar and another direct descendant is Dublin genealogist and the retired curator of the National Gallery, James O’Callaghan, whose mother Josephine (nee Doyle) was Jim Doyle’s great-granddaughter.
Her father William (grandson of Jim Doyle) married Ellen Glennon, Kinnegad a sister of Fr John Glennon, who went on to become Cardinal Glennon of St. Louis, Missouri, USA, who officiated at the opening of Mullingar Cathedral in 1939.
Both James O’Callaghan and Niall Doyle have over the years researched their families’ links with the Doyle brothers from Wexford and their involvement in the Battle of Clonard.
They believe that one of the leaders of the Wexford men at Clonard was Fr. Mogue Kearns, whose death is recorded as having taken place a day after the Clonard battle, on 12 July, 1798 (some reports suggest 21 July). He had been captured by the Yeomanry near Edenderry, and he was hanged at Blundell Wood. He was aged 33 and Fr Kearns’ Street in Edenderry is named after him, while Col. Perry Street is named after another executed rebel leader, captured after the Clonard battle.
Most of the 1798 insurgents at Clonard were from Wexford, with smaller contingents from Wicklow and Kildare. Numbers of them eventually managed to escape back to Wexford, with the Rebellion already a doomed cause.
