By James S. Donnelly, Jr.
University of Wisconsin/ Collins Press, 2009.
Reviewer: John Dorney
The aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars was hard on the labouring people of both Britain and Ireland.
During the War, due to the blockade of Britain, domestic industry and agriculture was protected from continental competition. In Ireland especially, there was a boom as prices for food exported to Britain rose. But as we are again learning, after boom there generally follows bust. After the War, prices collapsed. Landlords and factory owners suddenly found themselves exposed to the harsh wind of competition from the rest of Europe. In southern England this recession meant job losses and hardship – provoking a popular rebellion in 1830 called “Captain Swing”.
In rural Ireland it meant that rents rose at a time when poor farmers were least able to pay them. And the poorest also had to pay taxes to the British state and tithes to the Established Church of Ireland, for neither of which they felt a great deal of love. A rapidly rising population and the resultant pressure on land-holdings added to discontent. The rebellion began on the estate of William Courtenay in west Limerick but rapidly spread throughout the south of Ireland
The rebellion began on the estate of William Courtenay in west Limerick but rapidly spread throughout the south of Ireland
In west Limerick, this exploded in 1821 on the estate of William Courtenay into a ferocious bout of agrarian guerrilla warfare that would last until 1824. James S Donnelly’s book, Captain Rock, is the first to bring this little-remembered but fascinating episode to the attention of the modern reader.
The Original Captain Rock
“Captain Rock” was originally a nickname given to one Paddy Dillane of Shanagolden, Limerick, who with thrown rocks drove off labourers come to work on behalf of Alexander Hoskins, a particularly cruel agent of the landlord William Courtenay (himself almost a parody, it seems, of a feckless absentee landlord). Dillane was later behind the fatal shooting of the agent’s son.
In the disturbed times, “Captain Rock” soon began appearing on threatening notices to landlords, agents and others all across the south of Ireland. The Rockites wanted rents, tithes and taxes down and no evictions.
While the motivations of the Rockites may have been similar to those of the labourers of Kent and Sussex some ten years later, their actions were quite different.
In England there was great deal of arson and machines were wrecked by unemployed workers, but there were few if any killings.
In the initial months of the rebellion in Ireland there was an attempt at full scale insurrection in north Cork, with massed assaults of up to 2,000 rebels on Army barracks at Macroom, Millstreet and Newmarket that were repulsed after prolonged fighting.
In Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork and Tipperary, there was extensive raiding for arms and assassinations of landlords, their agents, “land-grabbers” and informers. Donnelly counts 130 such Rockite killings.
Landlords’ houses and Protestant Churches were also burnt down, as were goods such as stacked hay. There was also a gruesome incident of gang-rape of soldiers’ wives in Killdorrey, county Cork. Agrarian rebellion in Ireland was far more violent than in England and its repression much harsher
Agrarian rebellion in Ireland was far more violent than in England and its repression much harsher
The British military, the Irish Constabulary and the Yeomanry met fire with fire; killing dozens, if not hundreds of people. There were also over 100 executions and around 600 Transportations to Australia of Rockite rebels. Such repression saw the rebellion peter out in 1824. Donnelly also suggests that violent activism of ‘Captain Rock’ became less attractive when the more peaceful method of agitation favoured by Daniel O’Connell in pursuit of Catholic Emancipation began to gather momentum.
The repression of the English “Captain Swing” revolt was also harsh (19 executions and 505 Transportations). But the lethal violence there was almost all of the government side. The 