4 July 1798: The Lord Lieutenant Cornwallis, whose surrender of an army at Yorktown cost Britain its American colonies, signals his moderation by encouraging the military to extend conditional pardons to Irish rebels willing to hand over arms and swear an oath of allegiance to the king. A pragmatist who favours Catholic emancipation, he is immediately distrusted by the close allies of his conservative predecessor.
Political wrangling in the Castle is coloured by the fact that the Rebellion is far from over, notwithstanding the heavy defeats inflicted on the insurgents of two provinces.
At Ballyellis on the Wicklow-Wexford border, a 200strong cavalry patrol is attacked in difficult terrain on June 30th. The Ancient Britons and 5th Dragoon Guards mistakenly believe that they are closing on a demoralised rabble while rushing headlong into a carefully prepared ambush site.
At least 49 troopers and yeomen are killed for no rebel losses, a victory which strengthens the hand of those advocating a guerrilla war from the inaccessible and poorly mapped Wicklow mountains. The difficulty of attacking urban centres is shown by the failure of the same rebels to defeat Carnew's small garrison although comfort is derived by razing the town's few remaining intact structures.
About 300 Kildare and King's County rebels clash that afternoon at Fox's Hill (Kildare) with Maj John Ormsby's Limerick City militia and yeomen from Edenderry, Clonard and Kinnegad. Ormsby informs Castlereagh: "The rebels drew up in a line and seemed to be about 300 strong, they retreated into the bog, I pursued them & and they fled keeping up a smart fire on us in every direction, however, I soon routed them out of the bog & killed a number of them . . . not less than 100 must have been killed and wounded".
The body of one Capt Casey, notorious for his brutality when at Rathangan, is brought back to his home town of Edenderry and `hung up' in the street.
Saunder's Newsletter reports on July 2nd that "a few of the hovering parties" are still menacing Wicklow "but upon the least appearance of opposition, invariably take shelter in the bogs and mountains. Two of the Rebel Chiefs from Wexford, Perry and Fitzgerald, are the leaders of this band of desperate wretches, whom famine or the sword must destroy".
That this is wishful thinking is illustrated by the killing that day of two Wicklow yeomen captains and 17 of their men from Tinahely, Coolattin and Coolkenna corps who unexpectedly fall in with the rebel veterans of Ballyellis.
The most prominent victim, ironically, is the liberal Capt Joseph Chamney, former leader of the Rockingham Volunteers and an agent for Fitzwilliam. Once again, possession of a slated stone building proves the key to survival against numerically superior but cannonless rebel forces. Most such homes are routinely destroyed for this reason by the rebels, a practice which greatly exacerbates existing tensions between republicans and loyalists.
Carlow loyalists claim the life of the popular Father John Murphy on July 2nd. They flog, execute and dismember him in Tullow without realising his identity.
This fate is shared by Murphy's bodyguard, James Gallagher, who had become separated with him from the south Wexford division that came to grief at Scullogue Gap.