Battle of the Harrow

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The Battle of the Harrow was fought on May 26, 1798, during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was fought between British troops, specifically a unit of a unit of Wexford yeoman cavalry, the Camolin Cavalry and insurgents mobilised by the revolutionary organisation named the United Irishmen.

What follows is the entry for 26 May, 1798 in the Detail Book of the Camolin Cavalry;

"United men coming in with their concealed arms, and taking the Oath of Allegiance administered to them by the sitting Magestrates, Sir Frederick Flood and Henry Brownrigg Esq. An officer and 20 men ordered to burn the house of Miles Leary near Killena—did not burn it as he promised to deliver up all the Arms in his possession early the next morning—dined at free quarters at the house of Bryan Leacy’s Killena-mill, where the detachment [was joined] by a Corporal and four men, who had been sent towards Courtown to bring in the body of Catherine Murphy, charged with having administered the United oath to several Men. On the party’s march to Camolin, they were met by a messenger from Lieut. Bookey, mentioning that the long expected Rebellion had broke out in several parts of the country, and that an entire family of Protestants had been murdered by the Insurgents near Scarawalsh. Party hastened to Camolin (leaving the prisoner in charge with some Loyalists who lodge her safe in Camolin) where they receive an order from Isaac Cornock, Esq., a Magistrate, to repair to Ferns, and there join an Officer’s guard of the North Cork Regiment of Militia.

On arrival in Ferns, Lieut. Smith and a party was ordered towards Scarawalsh, where the murders were committed, to see if this information was true, and Lieut. Bookey with another Party rode towards the Harrow, where he met a large party of Insurgents armed with Pikes and some Arms. The Lieut. rode before the Party, and ordered the rebels to surrender, and deliver up their Arms, on which they discharged a volley at the Party, accompanied with a shower of stones, some of which brought Lieut. Bookey from his horse, as also John Donovan, a private in the Corps. The party after firing a few shots, finding themselves overpowered by the Rebels, retreated to Ferns, where they remained ‘till day break, melancholy spectators of the devastation committed by the Rebels. The information of the Murders at Scarawalsh found to be true."

[edit] Sources

H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley; The War in Wexford: an account of the rebellion in the south of Ireland in 1798, told from original documents (London 1910) pp. 83-4.