Page 300 - Demo

300 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
Of the 1798 leaders who were arrested, many were executed while many more were imprisoned. The majority of those imprisoned were, after a time sent into exile, and with Martial Law in force keeping an uneasy peace throughout a country ravaged by brutality and compounded by a bad harvest, and with Killala retaken with great bloodshed and once again in loyalist hands, the ’98 Rising was effectively ended. The Rebellion of 1798 had one very important consequence. It demonstrated to Mr William Pitt, the British Prime Minister that Ireland constituted the challenge that was a huge and urgent political problem.
They rose in dark and evil days
To free their native land
And kindled then a living blaze
That nothing shall withstand;
Alas, that might should conquer right, They fell and passed away
But true men, like you, men, Are plenty here today.
Then here’s their memory, let it be To us a guiding light
To cheer our fight for liberty
And teach us to unite!
Though good and ill be Ireland’s still, Though sad as their your fate,
Yet true men, be you, men,
Like those of ’Ninety-eight.
(The Memory of the Dead, John Kells Ingram)
But, before leaving the eighteenth century behind, out of respect, the state of Irish lit- erature during that period should be mentioned.
Despite the awfulness of the Penal Laws and the fact that nothing really of note was published in Gaelic prose about this time, almost exclusively on its poetic side, Irish litera- ture flourished. As a result, the country was teeming with a host of Gaelic singers and poets. Individuals like the Cork-born Sean Claragh McDonnell, a man accomplished in Greek,
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