Page 293 - Demo

Chapter eight 293 by the troops of the infamous General Sir James Duf and hundreds ruthlessly slaughtered.
Even though very few Wexford men had joined the ranks of the United Irish Society, the brutalaity of the outrages now perpetrated upon the local people by the yeomanry, and more so by the notorious North Cork Militia, infuriated many of the the population and forced them into a rising for which they were wholly unprepared. The Wexford rising began at Oulert Hill, where, under the leadership of the insurgent priest Father John Murphy, the rebels slew a detachment of the Cork militia who had earlier burned Father Murphy’s church.
They next captured a large supply of arms, marched upon and took, the towns of En- niscorthy and Gorey-both without major resistance- the majority of both garrisons had led before the arrival of the rebels. They then overcame a detachment of British at Three Rocks, near Wexford, before occupying the town and installing a prominent Protestant, Bagenal Harvey, as their leader. Up to then the rebels had been uniformly successful, but now, mainly through inexperience and indiscipline, they were to experience defeat. They were badly defeated at both Bunclody and New Ross, two towns they had earlier attacked and taken, but, after winning the towns, the rebels lost whatever bit of discipline and leader- ship they had possessed and ransacked the towns. Unsurprisingly both Bunclody and New Ross were easily retaken, the latter with the loss of 1,000 rebels.
It was said, ‘This disorganised body of men, who had been driven into the ight by the fearful atrocities perpetrated upon them, their families, their neighbours and friends, not