The 1798 Rebellion County by County — Battles, Massacres, the French and Wolfe Tone

The United Irishmen

Formed at a gathering in a Belfast tavern in October 1791. Apart from Thomas Russell, from Cork, and Theobald Wolfe Tone, from Dublin, the founders were Presbyterians, Dissenters who shared some of the civil disabilities of the Catholic majority. The name was Tone’s suggestion. The first resolution called for “a cordial union among all the people of Ireland” and “complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in parliament”; in Dublin the society united “Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter” from the start. Despairing of reform, it became an insurrectionary movement seeking a republic, with French help. (Wikipedia, “Society of United Irishmen” ↗)

The dead — a range, not a number

Somewhere between about 10,000 and 30,000 or more. Wikipedia’s main article gives no single figure. Thomas Pakenham’s The Year of Liberty (1969) wrote of 30,000 killed, which the article calls mid-range between the contemporary estimates (of which about 2,000 were thought to be Crown forces and 1,000 loyalist civilians). L. M. Cullen’s unpublished cohort study of County Wexford found 6,000 killed there; on that basis Thomas Bartlett has proposed perhaps 10,000 for the whole island. Others hold to the higher numbers, arguing that families hid their losses for fear of reprisal. The deaths fell within about four months, May to September 1798. (Wikipedia, “Irish Rebellion of 1798” ↗)

The figures for single battles and massacres below are the ones the Wikipedia articles give; many are one side’s report, and several are disputed. Where articles disagree, the entry says so.

Leinster

The rising began here, on the night of 23–24 May, when the Dublin plan collapsed and the counties round the capital rose anyway. Kildare, Meath and Carlow were beaten within days; Wexford and the Wicklow mountains held out longest.

Dublin

Arrests at Oliver Bond’s house · 10 March 1798 · Event
Acting on the informer Thomas Reynolds, the government seized almost the whole Leinster Provincial Committee at the house of the wool merchant Oliver Bond, with two directors and their papers. Martial law followed on 30 March.
The rising in the city aborted · 19–23 May 1798 · Event
The rising was set for 23 May. Lord Edward FitzGerald was mortally wounded resisting arrest on the 19th (he died in Newgate on 4 June), the Sheares brothers were betrayed on the 21st and Samuel Neilson was seized on the morning of the 23rd. Troops occupied the assembly points and the city did not rise; the organisation in the outer districts did, and the surrounding counties followed. (Main article and “Lord Edward FitzGerald”.)
The Sheares brothers hanged · July 1798 · Executions
John and Henry Sheares were hanged, drawn and quartered in Dublin in July. Bartholomew Teeling, taken at Ballinamuck, was later buried in the mass grave for rebels at what became known as Croppies’ Acre.
Wolfe Tone’s court martial and death · 8–19 November 1798 · Executions
Tried by court martial in Dublin on 8 November and condemned to hang on the 12th; his request to be shot as a French officer was refused. On the morning set for the execution he was found with a wound to his throat, apparently self-inflicted, though the article notes this was later a subject of some speculation. He died on 19 November in the Provost Prison of the Royal Barracks and is buried at Bodenstown, County Kildare.

Kildare

Battle of Naas · 24 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
One of the first fights of the rebellion. Over 1,000 rebels under Michael Reynolds attacked the strongest garrison in the county at about 2.30 a.m. and were driven back by artillery and cavalry: about 135 rebels and about 25 soldiers killed. (The main article puts the attackers at 1,000 to 3,000 and says the cavalry cut down over a hundred.)
Battle of Prosperous · 24 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
A rebel success under John Esmonde, a Protestant doctor and yeomanry officer. The barracks were set on fire; about 40 of the garrison were killed (a yeomanry commander reported 50 militia and 20 Ancient Britons) for two or three rebels. Esmonde was later hanged in Dublin as a deserter, his yeoman’s coat turned inside out.
Battle of Kilcullen · 24 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Two clashes near Old Kilcullen and Kilcullen, among the first engagements of the rebellion.
Battle of Ballymore-Eustace · 24 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 200 rebels attacked a garrison of about 80 billeted on the town at 1 a.m.; they drew off leaving around 50 dead, the garrison at least 12 dead.
Battle of Rathangan · 24–28 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Rebels under a Captain Doorley took the town and held it for four days until militia and dragoons retook it on 28 May, with heavy losses on both sides.
Gibbet Rath executions, the Curragh · 29 May 1798 · Massacre
Rebels gathered at Gibbet Rath on the Curragh to surrender under an amnesty were attacked by General Duff’s column after stacking their arms: about 350 killed, in the article’s figure. Duff reported two to three hundred and blamed a rebel shot; Captain John Giffard wrote of 500. Accounts of how it began differ. Wikipedia’s main article dates it 27 May and says up to 500; the article on the event gives 29 May.
Battle of Ovidstown · 19 June 1798 · Battle
Near Kilcock, a force of about 400 under John Wolfe routed William Aylmer’s rebels: roughly 200 rebels and about 25 soldiers killed. Prosperous was reoccupied afterwards.
Battle of Clonard · 11 July 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Between 2,000 and 4,000 rebels, Wexford men among them, failed over six hours to take a fortified house at Leinster Bridge on the Boyne held by 27 men until reinforcements arrived.
Surrender at Sallins · 21 July 1798 · Event
A few hundred survivors of the Wexford column, after a last stand at Knightstown bog in Meath on 14 July, returned to Kildare and surrendered at Sallins. All but the leaders benefited from Cornwallis’s amnesty.

Meath

Battle of Tara Hill · 26 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Between 4,000 and 7,000 rebels camped on the Hill of Tara were driven into the graveyard at the summit by volley fire, cavalry and a 6-pounder. Estimates of rebel dead run from several hundred to several thousand; 350 were counted on the field next day. The defeat ended the rising in Meath.
Knightstown bog · 14 July 1798 · Battle
The last stand of the “Wexford croppies” who had marched north through Kilkenny and Kildare. The main article gives no casualty figure.

Carlow

Battle of Carlow · 25 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 1,200 rebels under Mick Heydon marched on the town, but the garrison was forewarned and ambushed them in Tullow Street and at the Potato Market. Houses where survivors sheltered were set alight by the soldiers, causing, in the article’s words, the deaths of 200 of the inhabitants. The article gives no overall count of rebels killed.
Fr John Murphy executed at Tullow · Summer 1798 · Executions
The Wexford leader was flogged, hanged and decapitated; his body was burnt in a tar barrel and his head put on a spike in Tullow. Where he was taken differs between articles: the Vinegar Hill article says he was captured near Tullow after that battle; the main article has him taken after his column passed into Kildare at the end of June. Neither passage read gives the day of his death.

Wicklow

Carnew executions · 25 May 1798 · Massacre
Yeomanry at Carnew Castle took 28 prisoners held as suspected United Irishmen to the handball alley and shot them, as a warning, on hearing of the fighting in Kildare.
Dunlavin Green executions · 26 May 1798 · Massacre
Yeomanry shot 36 suspected United Irishmen, many of them men of the local yeomanry and militia who had come forward on a bluff, on the green on market day. The article says there are several accounts, differing in detail; one loyalist account says the garrison feared an attack and were outnumbered by their prisoners. News of Dunlavin and Carnew helped bring north Wexford out.
Battle of Newtownmountkennedy · 30 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
A rebel attack on the base of the Ancient Britons was beaten off: about 170 rebels killed, and ten of the garrison including its commander. The rebel leader Michael Neil was executed.
Battle of Arklow · 9 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
A Wexford force estimated at 10,000 tried to break north toward Dublin and was checked. Rebel casualties are estimated at 1,000; there is no full British list, probably 50 to 100 dead and wounded. Fr Michael Murphy (not John Murphy of Boolavogue) was killed leading a charge.
Holt and Dwyer in the mountains · Autumn 1798 – December 1803 · Event
Joseph Holt fought on until a negotiated surrender in autumn 1798. Michael Dwyer’s band held out until December 1803, after a military road was built into the mountains, and surrendered on terms that sent them to New South Wales as unsentenced exiles.

Wexford

Battle of the Harrow · 26 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
The first clash in Wexford: a band gathered under Fr John Murphy near Boolavogue met a patrol of the Camolin Cavalry, killing two of them, including their lieutenant.
Battle of Oulart Hill · 27 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
On the hill above Oulart, a gathering of one to two thousand under Fr John Murphy, with hundreds of women and children, turned on 110 North Cork Militia who had pursued them to the summit and killed all but the commander and four others. Almost all of north Wexford joined the rebellion.
Battle of Enniscorthy · 28 May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Murphy’s rebels took the town from a garrison of about 300 and loyalist civilians, driving cattle at the defenders and firing the thatch. Up to 500 rebels and 90 defenders were killed, and 478 houses destroyed.
Battle of Three Rocks · Late May 1798 · Battle · in Battles
On Forth Mountain, rebels ambushed an artillery column marching to reinforce Wexford town: around 70 militia killed and two howitzers taken. Wexford town fell to the rebels on 30 May. The article read does not give the day of the ambush.
Battle of Bunclody (Newtownbarry) · 1 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 5,000 rebels under Fr Mogue Kearns attacked the forewarned garrison and were routed: 400 rebels killed, for one killed and one wounded by the official report.
Battle of New Ross · 5 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
The bloodiest battle of the rebellion. About 3,000 rebels under Bagenal Harvey, against a garrison of 2,000, took two-thirds of the town before being driven out. Rebel dead are estimated at 2,800 to 3,000 (a loyalist eyewitness gave 2,806; the rebel commander Thomas Cloney claimed at most 300); the garrison lost at least 230 dead, wounded or missing. Government troops killed captured and wounded rebels, and 69 were burned alive when a rebel aid station on Mary Street was set on fire.
Scullabogue Barn massacre · 5 June 1798 · Massacre
As news of New Ross and the burning at Mary Street reached the rebel guard at Scullabogue, loyalist prisoners, men, women and children, most of them Protestant but about 20 Catholic, were shot or burned in a barn. The figure is disputed: the article says up to 200, the rebel general Thomas Cloney put it at 100, the main article says one to two hundred. Bagenal Harvey resigned his command in protest. Twelve or thirteen men were later executed for it.
Battle of Foulksmills (Horetown) · 20 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 2,000 troops under John Moore defeated 3,000 rebels; both sides suffered roughly 300 killed or wounded.
Wexford Bridge killings · 20 June 1798 · Massacre
In Wexford town, after the rebel Committee of Public Safety was swept aside, loyalist prisoners were marched to the bridge over the Slaney and piked to death. The number differs between articles: the main article says seventy; the article on Wexford Bridge says nearly 100. There were a few Catholics among the dead and Protestants among the rebels present.
Battle of Vinegar Hill · 21 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 13,000 troops under General Lake surrounded and bombarded a camp of about 16,000 rebels, with thousands of women and children, above Enniscorthy. Most escaped through “Needham’s Gap”. Rebel deaths are disputed: estimates run from 400 to 1,200, Kevin Whelan gives 500 to 1,000 including camp followers, and in 2017 the Vinegar Hill Research Project found mass graves that may hold 1,500 to 2,000. Government forces reported about 100 killed and wounded. The article records rape of women by the military and wounded rebels burned in an aid station in the town.
Rebel leaders hanged on Wexford Bridge · 25–28 June 1798 · Executions
Bagenal Harvey, Fr Philip Roche, John Henry Colclough, Cornelius Grogan, Matthew Keogh and John Kelly of Killanne were among those hanged on the bridge; bodies were beheaded and thrown in the river.

Kilkenny

Castlecomer and Kilcomney Hill · 24–28 June 1798 · Battle
About 8,000 Wexford men under Fr John Murphy and Myles Byrne attacked Castlecomer on 24 June, hoping the colliers would join them; both sides withdrew from the burning town. On 28 June Murphy’s men were routed at Kilcomney Hill near Goresbridge.

Ulster

The north, where the United Irishmen began, came out late, in the first fortnight of June, largely Presbyterian, and was crushed in a week.

Antrim

Battle of Antrim · 7 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Henry Joy McCracken proclaimed the First Year of Liberty on 6 June. Of almost 10,000 who mustered at Donegore Hill, probably fewer than 4,000 attacked Antrim town; Lord O’Neill was fatally wounded, but reinforcements from Belfast broke the attack. Larne, Ballymena and Randalstown were briefly taken; afterwards troops looted and burned, Templepatrick among other places. McCracken was taken on 7 July and hanged in Belfast on 17 July. The articles read give no casualty totals.
Roddy McCorley and Thomas Archer · February–March 1800 · Executions
Roddy McCorley was executed at Toome in February 1800; his captain Thomas Archer was hanged in Ballymena in March, his body left hanging in a cage for months, with fifteen of his men. This marked the final end of the insurgency in Antrim.

Derry / Londonderry

Muster at Maghera · 7 June 1798 · Event
Men mustered west of the Bann at Maghera on 7 June. Watty Graham was later executed and his head paraded through the town.

Down

Battle of Saintfield · 9 June 1798 · Battle
The first major clash in Down, an ambush of a government column, largely regarded as a rebel victory. Over fifty soldiers were piked before the cannon were brought into play; a loyalist family of eight died when their house was destroyed. The dead of both sides were buried in a mass grave at the Presbyterian church.
Battle of Ballynahinch · 12–13 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 4,000 rebels under the Lisburn draper Henry Munro attacked about 2,000 troops under General Nugent and were routed. Nugent reported 500 rebels killed; local people thought it nearer 100. The Crown lost about 40. Betsy Gray was killed in the flight. Munro was hanged on 16 June and his head set on the Market House in Lisburn.

Munster

Munster had been disarmed by martial law after the French appeared off Bantry in 1796, and saw only two fights in the field.

Cork

Battle of the Big Cross · 19 June 1798 · Battle · in Battles
The only battle of the rebellion in County Cork, four miles east of Clonakilty: 300 to 400 lightly armed local men against a column of Westmeath Militia. Rebel dead are estimated at 50 to 100; the officer commanding reported one sergeant and one private lost.

Tipperary

Carrickmoclear, Slievenamon · 23 July 1798 · Battle
An informant led 600 men into a yeomanry trap on Carrickmoclear hill, near Ninemilehouse. The main article gives no casualty figure.

Connacht and the French

Connacht was drawn in only when the French landed in Mayo on 22 August. Humbert’s march ended at Ballinamuck; the last French fleet was beaten off Donegal in October.

Mayo

The French land at Kilcummin, Killala · 22 August 1798 · Event
About 1,000 French soldiers under General Humbert landed at Kilcummin and took Killala; up to 5,000 local men joined them. This was “Bliain na bhFrancach”, the year of the French.
Battle of Castlebar — “the Races” · 27 August 1798 · Battle · in Battles
About 800 French and 2,000 Irish routed General Lake’s force, which fled as far as Tuam and Athlone: the “Races of Castlebar”. The size of Lake’s army differs: the battle article says 3,000 to 5,000 engaged out of 6,000 gathered; the main article says 6,000. French and Irish lost about 150; Lake reported 53 killed, 34 wounded and 279 missing. Humbert then proclaimed a republic with John Moore as president of Connacht.
Battle of Killala · 23 September 1798 · Battle · in Battles
The last major land engagement. Government troops under General Trench retook Killala from the rebels and a handful of French officers; the main article says some 2,000 poorly armed insurgents were slaughtered. Sweeps followed, with summary executions and burnings; Mayo’s High Sheriff Denis Browne earned the name Donnchadh an Rópa.

Sligo

Battle of Collooney (Carricknagat) · 5 September 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Humbert’s army, marching north-east, beat a blocking force outside Collooney, which retreated to Sligo leaving 120 dead and 100 prisoners.

Cavan

Castle Lake, Bailieborough · 27 August 1798 · Massacre
In one of the new risings sparked by the French landing, some 300 United men were bayoneted or drowned on the shore of the Castle Lake outside Bailieborough.

Westmeath

Wilson’s Hospital, Multyfarnham · Early September 1798 · Battle
News of the defeat of the Westmeath and Longford rebels at Wilson’s Hospital School and at Granard reached Humbert before Ballinamuck. The article gives no date or figures.

Longford

Battle of Ballinamuck · 8 September 1798 · Battle · in Battles
Facing Cornwallis’s army of about 26,000, Humbert surrendered after little more than an hour. The roughly 1,000 Irish under Bartholomew Teeling were given no terms and were broken and pursued into a bog; about 500 French and Irish lay dead. 200 Irish prisoners were almost all hanged, Matthew Tone among them, many at Bully’s Acre in Ballinalee. The French were treated as prisoners of war. Wikipedia’s main article dates the surrender both 8 and 9 September in different sections; the battle article gives the 8th.

Donegal

Battle of Tory Island and Tone’s capture · 12 October 1798 · Battle · in Battles
A French squadron of ten ships carrying about 3,000 men, with Wolfe Tone aboard the Hoche, was caught off the Donegal coast; the Hoche struck after hours of bombardment and only two frigates and a schooner reached France. Tone was brought ashore at Buncrana on Lough Swilly and recognised. The articles differ on the details: “Battle of Tory Island” says he was recognised aboard the captured flagship; “Wolfe Tone” says he was recognised about two weeks later at Letterkenny by Sir George Hill and arrested there.

Quick answers

How many people died in the 1798 Rebellion?

No one knows. Wikipedia’s main article sets out the range: Thomas Pakenham wrote of 30,000, a figure mid-way between contemporary estimates; Thomas Bartlett, working from L. M. Cullen’s study of County Wexford (6,000 dead there), has proposed perhaps 10,000 for the whole island. Others argue the higher numbers are right, because families hid their dead.

When and where were the United Irishmen founded?

At a gathering in a Belfast tavern in October 1791, by Presbyterian reformers together with Thomas Russell and Wolfe Tone. A Dublin society followed, uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.

Where was the 1798 Rebellion fought?

Mainly in Leinster (Kildare, Meath, Carlow, Wicklow and above all Wexford) from 24 May, in Antrim and Down in June, and in Mayo, Sligo and Longford after the French landed at Killala on 22 August. There were small fights in Cork and Tipperary.

What were the Races of Castlebar?

On 27 August 1798 the French under Humbert and their Irish allies routed General Lake’s army at Castlebar, County Mayo. Lake’s men fled as far as Tuam and Athlone, and the rout became known as the Races of Castlebar.

How was Wolfe Tone captured?

He sailed with a French squadron that was defeated off Donegal at the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798. Brought ashore at Buncrana on Lough Swilly, he was recognised and arrested (the Wikipedia articles differ on whether that happened aboard ship or two weeks later at Letterkenny). Condemned by court martial in Dublin, he died of a throat wound on 19 November.

Sources and caveats

Read in October 2026: Wikipedia’s Irish Rebellion of 1798 ↗, Society of United Irishmen ↗, Wolfe Tone ↗, Lord Edward FitzGerald ↗, and the article linked on each entry. 32 of the 49 entries are battles; most are among the 1798 entries on our battles and sieges list. Casualty figures in these articles often come from one side’s report and should be read that way. Where the articles disagree with each other, on the date and toll at Gibbet Rath, the number killed at Scullabogue and on Wexford Bridge, the size of Lake’s army at Castlebar, the day of Humbert’s surrender and where Tone was recognised, we give both. Some counties saw unrest that is not here because no article we read describes it.

Battles and sieges → · Ascendancy Ireland, 1653–1800 → · 1916, place by place →

The 1798 Rebellion, county by county