A LARGE town had grown up around St. Brigid’s foundation. The Annals record that in 708 and 774 the town was burned. As the buildings were for the most part of wood they were easily burned, but were also easily replaced. The monastery of Kildare being so near the sea-board was one of the first places attacked by the Danes. In 836 a Danish fleet of 30 sail arrived in the Liffey. They plundered every church and Abbey in Magh Lifé, not allowing anyone to escape. They destroyed Kildare by fire and sword and carried away the rich shrines of SS. Brigid and Conleth. Again in 843 the town was plundered by the foreigners, and also in 883, 887, 895, 915, 916, 924, 926, 927, 928, 940, 962, 977, 981, 998. Some of the Irish chiefs also plundered Kildare. The town and church were burned in 1050 and 1067. The town was also burned in 1071, 1089. [, - sic] 1099. [, - sic] 1138, 1143 and 1155. Shortly after the Norman invasion, William Marshall, one of the adven­turers who had got possession of this territory, erected a castle for its defence. In 1294 Calbach O’Connor of Offaly took the town and castle by force and destroyed all the rolls of the Earl of Kildare. A Parliament was held here in 1309, and in 1316 the castle and town were granted to John Fitzgerald, who was at that time appointed Earl of Kildare. In the wars during Elizabeth’s reign the town was reduced to a state of ruin. In 1600 the town suffered so severely that the houses were all in ruins, and without a single inhabitant. In 1643 Kildare was made a garrison post under the Earl of Castlehaven, and the town grew in consequence. In 1647 it was taken by Colonel Jones for the Parliamentarians; it fell again into the hands of the Irish but was finally re-taken. by the Lord Lieutenant. By charter of James II the town was governed by a cor­poration which returned two members to Parliament. The borough was disfranchised at the Union and £15,000 awarded as compensation to the Duke of Leinster. The borough grounds extended considerably beyond the town and included about 3,000 acres of the Curragh and 300 acres south of the town, called the Kings Bog or Commons of Kildare.

        According to a return made in 1824 by the Parish Priest, Father Patrick Brennan, there were in that year five schools in the town, four Catholic and one Protestant, as well as a Sunday School. John Cassidy, who had been educated in the neighbourhood, had been teaching in the town since 1810. Attendance, males 25, females 15 Established Church 3, Roman Catholics 37. John Leeson aged 33 had been teaching in various houses since 1816. Attendance, males 21, females 9, Established Church 1, Roman Catholics 29. Denis Murphy had been teaching in this parish 20 years. School 27ft. by l5ft., given free by the convent of this town. Attendance, males 15, females 12, Roman Catholics 27. Mrs. Ravenhill, aged 60, had been teaching in different houses in the parish since 1813. House, mud walled and thatched, about l2ft. square, attendence [attendance – sic], males 25, females, 15, Roman Catholics 40. Daniel McCrone, aged 32, taught in the Protestant School which was open since 1817. Seven Established Church and four Roman Catholics attended. There was a Sunday School held on all Sundays and Holydays in the Parish Chapel. The teachers were Roman Catholics, excellent moral characters, forming a Society in themselves, and teaching under the superintendence [superintendence – sic] of the P.P. and his curate, who at that time was Father Michael Nowlan. Attendance, males 289, females 255, Roman Catholics 544. Attendance last winter (1823-24) 500. Summer 1823, 686. One half can read. The books were the Four Archbishops’ Catechism, Abridgment of Christian Doctrine. Father Brennan points out that a great majority of the children are deprived of the ordinary means of education, and this was not from any indifference in the children or parents towards education, but from lack of means. Father Brennan stated there were upwards of twelve hundred children under his spiritual care: he was speaking of Rathangan as well as Kildare. The National School system was introduced in 1833. In 1837, according to Lewis, p.86, there were in the town three public schools in which about 800 children were taught, and a private school in which there were about 70 children. The parish in that year had a population of 2,541, of whom 1,753 lived in the town, in which there were 346 houses.

 

 

IN the 1798 insurrection the United Irishmen of the two baronies of Uibh Failghe in Co. Kildare had risen. General Dundas had withdrawn his regular army and militia from the Kildare men’s area into Kilcullen. Kildare was occupied by the insurgents under Captain Garry of Kildare on the evening of the 24th May. On the 25th May, Captain Padraig O’Beirne of Nurney had led the men of Kildoon, Kildangan, Nurney and Riverstown in an attack on the Monasterevan Yeomen Garrison. Rathangan was taken on 26th May by a force under John Doorly of Lullymore, but on 28th May they were driven out by a combined force of British horse, foot and artillery. The general position in Kildare was one of stalemate. The King’s troops occupied large camps or fortified towns while the United Irishmen held the country. But Dublin had failed to rise and the men of Carlow had suffered a disastrous defeat on 25th May. General Dundas had offered favourable terms, including the raising of free quarters, and an amnesty for all insurgents who would lay down arms. These terms had been accepted by the Kil­cullen men. General Dundas, accompanied only by two dragoons, had gone to Knockaulen and accepted the arms from the insurgents. On the morning of 29th May, General Sir James Duff arrived from Limerick and was marching on Kildare with reinforcements, 250 militia infantry, two six pounder guns and 70 of Lord Roden’s Fencible Cavalry. On his way he had collected about 200 of the South Cork Militia Regiment with their two battalion guns. [, - sic] about 50 of the Fourth Dragoon Guards, and some of the Monas­terevan Yeomanry of both Bagot’s and Hoysted’s corps. One Cooper of Ballymanny acted as intermediary and advised the people of Kildare to proceed to the Rath of the Curragh, saying that he himself would undertake to persuade General Duff to take their surrender there. The Kildare people did so. Duff commanded the rebels, as he called them, to throw their arms in a heap. He then ordered the troops to charge and spare no rebel. The cutting down of the unarmed men was too easily accom­plished. The number of Kildare men who were massacred was 325. In one street alone of Kildare town, 85 widows were counted the following morning—Fr. Hurley, S.J. Lecture in Kildare, Leinster Leader 17/6/1950.

 

[Two baronies of Uibh Failghe are the two Baronies East and West Offaly or Ophaely; free-quarters – soldiers were billeted on the local populace at the expense of the local populace; Knockaulen read Knockaulin or Dun Alinne ]

 

The Grey Abbey Conservation Project have recently cleaned up Dunmurry Cemetery. Our thanks to Frank, Paddy and Christy for their brilliant work. There are two graves in Dunmurry which had information added about family members who lost their lives at the Gibbet Rath - Denis Downey of Grey Abbey whose story was retold by Fr. Swayne in his book Kildare in '98 and also Tim and James Hickey. I took these photos on 18 September 2005.

 

But the Government, through its spies, had been watching Lord Edward and the United Irishmen. Goading the people to rebellion they suddenly arrested the leaders. Lord Edward had been in hiding since March 1798 and on the 19th May he was surprised in the house of Thomas Murphy in Thomas Street, Dublin. After a fierce encounter in which two of his assailants were wounded Lord Edward himself was wounded. and overpowered. He was carried to Dublin Castle and thence to Newgate Jail. Here he lingered for some time and on June 3rd, 1798 Lord Edward died. His remains were placed in a vault under the East end of St. Werburgh’s Church.

 

 

[Because the article specifically relates to Lord Edward I have included Cruickshank's image of the Arrest of Lord Edward FitzGerald from Maxwell's History of the Rebellion]