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Glenmore and the Tithe Tax [Updated]
It is difficult to believe today, that taxes were imposed to support the clergy of the Established Church, the Church of Ireland. Thus, other protestants and Catholics were taxed to support a religion to which they did not belong. To address the resentment of the people toward the tithes, the authorities offered to share the collected tithes with the Irish Catholic Church. The Irish Catholic Church refused the offer fearing that it would lead the Church to come under the control of the Government. In order to evade the tax some Catholic priests encouraged their parishioners to place their livestock in the ownership of the parish priests to keep the animals from being seized by authorities attempting to collect the hated tax.
Not all Catholic Priests sided with the people against the tax. It was reported in January 1831 that threatening notices, against tithes and tithe-payers were posted on the Chapel doors of Kilmacow and Glenmore Catholic Churches. (Kerry Evening Post, Sat. 8 Jan 1831). In both places the clergy expressed disproval for the notices from the altar. In Danny Dowling’s notes an article in the Waterford Chronicle on the 7th of August 1830 reported that there was great “public distress” in the parish of Glenmore. Rev. Fr. Foran, the Curate, obtained a ton of oatmeal from the corporation of Waterford valued at £20; Lady Esmond donated £5 and several other individuals including Mr. Wallis, the Church of Ireland Rector, of Rosbercon, donated £1. The money was used to improve the high road and provide wages to the labourers to enable them to feed their families. It was noted that “during this time of general distress,” Lady Esmonde relieved or fed at least thirty poor people per day. Priests like Father Foran, who sought the aid of the authorities to feed starving parishioners, may have felt unable to support the objectors and risk the withholding of aid.
In March 1831 at Graiguenamanagh, Kilkenny, 120 troops tried to enforce seizure orders on cattle the local priest “owned” and clashed with locals. In June 1831, in Newtownbarry, Wexforrd (since 1952 the town is now called Bunclody) locals again resisted the seizure of cattle, and The Royal Irish Constabulary killed 12 and wounded 20. Thus began what is often referred to as the Tithe War.
Objectors to the tax began to organise and employed church bells in the Catholic Churches to warn the local people to hide livestock and gather to resist the armed collectors. In December 1831 a detachment of about 40 Royal Irish Constables served notices and seized animals around the Carrickshock, Kilkenny area. On the third day objectors answered the call of the church bells. In 1977, Danny Dowling interviewed James Bookle, of Grennan, Thomastown who was aged 83. James recalled that as a lad he was told that a lot of people from various Kilkenny areas, went to Carrickshock. Two brothers named Shea from Coolhill, in the Rower, walked to Carrickshock with two sprongs (pitch forks) on their shoulders. They crossed Ida and travelled via Tullogher and Ballyhale.
On the third day, the detachment of Constables collecting animals in the Carrickshock area was ambushed in a boreen flanked by stone walls. Armed with only sticks, stones, hurleys and farm implements such as sprongs the gathered objectors surrounded the Constables. The Constables were able to fire upon the objectors once, but due to the rain of stones from the assembled protestors the Constables were unable to re-load their muskets. It is believed that 13 of the Constables and 3 local objectors were killed at Carrickshock. Danny in July 1962 interviewed Nicky Forristal, of the Mill, Graiguenakill, Glenmore who reported that Pand Irish of Carrigcloney, Glenmore stated that when they were fighting that day in Carrickshock the battle cry was “Remember Newtownbarry.”
Nicky Forristal also provided the lyrics to a song sung in Glenmore regarding Carrickshock. He also reported that he heard his father say that Sergeant Wylie, who was referred to as “The Orange Traitor” in the song, was at Carrickshock and was later stationed in the Glenmore RIC barracks, as a sergeant.
“Sergt. Wylie the Orange Traitor, that day he ran With great force and speed, And well he knew if he was overtaken his body, Like the rest would be left to bleed.”
Carrickshock appears to have had a long term effect on Sergeant Wylie according to Nicky Forristal. Years after Carrickshock the Glenmore Chapel bell began to ring suddenly and Wylie took fright. He ran down to Gaffney’s yard and “got in under a barrell to hide.” Danny explained that Gaffney was in with the landlord, Lord Bessborough, and Wylie thought he would be safe at Gaffney’s.
Immediately after Carrickshock local men were charged with murder, and in 1832 about 200,000 people gathered in Ballyhale, Kilkenny to support the men. The large crowd was addressed by Daniel O’Connell. The men were not convicted.
The following list of persons tried and acquitted in the Kilkenny Assizes 1832 was provided to the House of Commons and included: [1] John Kennedy (murder, Carrickshock case); (the remaining defendants had the same notation “Carrickshock case, no proseution;” [2] John Ryan; [4] Thomas Ryan; [5] Patrick Carty; [6] John Daly; [7] Richard Grennan; [8] Patrik Dwyer; [9] Edmond Duggan; [10] William Walsh; and [11] Thomas Egan. It was noted that the defendant John Ryan on two consecutive days was tried before two different juries and both juries were discharged after they could not agree to a verdict (Return of Number of Persons tried found Guilty or acquitted in Counties of Kilkenny, Mayo and Queen’s). digitalized by the University of Southamptom available at www.jstor.org/stable/community.29946989).
After continued violence when authorities attempted to collect the tithes, parliament enacted the Church Temporalities Act in 1833 and thereby reduced the size of the Church of Ireland hierarchy and abolished the parish cess or church rate which was a separate but also resented tax. Resistance to the tithes continued and it became increasingly difficult for the authorities to find and collect livestock. Often the cost of attempting to collect far exceeded the value of the property seized. The government in the face of continued violence and strained police relations suspended collections.
Shortly after the first anniversary of Carrickshock a proclamation was published in the Dublin Gazette (3 Jan. 1834) stating that several houses in the village of Ballyhale, on the high road between Waterford and Thomastown, were illuminated and bonfires lighted to “celebrate the murder of the police at Carrickshock” on the 14th of December 1831. A reward of 50 pounds was offered to any person who could within 6 months provide information that would lead to the apprehension and conviction of all or any of the persons involved in the celebrations.
The Waterford Chronicle, of the 19th of March 1836 provides an interesting account of an Anti-Tithe meeting held in Glenmore. The article not only provides the names of several Glenmore men, but also provides a different non-violent approach some took to protest the tithes.
“At a numerous and highly respectable meeting of the above Parish, held in the Chapel-yard, on SUNDAY, the 13th Instant, LAURENCE STRANGE, Esq., Aylwardstown, was unanimouslv called to the chair. Mr. JOHN BOLGER, acted as Secretary. The following resolutions were unanimously agreed to :
Moved Mr. Andrew PheIan—seconded by Mr. Richard Fitzgerald. Resolved—That as we view the compulsive payment of Tithes by the professors of one religion, to the support of a different creed, unjust in principle as it is pressive and vexatious in its operation, and that so anomalous an impost, in the estimation of an enlightened world, reflect immeasurable discredit on the legislative, and on its passive victims.
Moved by Mr. Richard Phelan—seconded Mr. Robert Grant. Resolved—That the unrighteous system last yielding to the progress of intelligence, and a sense of right among all classes of people, we, the Inhabitants of this Parish, in common with every friend of human happiness, feel ourselves imperatively bound to resist, by every legal and constitutional means, the payment of so iniquitous an impost.
Moved by Mr. Mark Walsh— seconded Mr. Nicholas Gaffney. Resolved—That as we view the blessing of peace and preservation of life of paramount importance among all grades of society, we cannot but cry aloud against that system which so heavily pressed on the industry of the people, and was, alas the prolific cause of so many revolting scenes too shocking for human nature to contemplate; and no modification whatever of tithes short their entire annihilation both in name and substance, can satisfy the country or consistent be with justice.
Moved Mr. James Holden—seconded by Mr. Silvester Murphy. Resolved—Should any attempt be made levy the payment of that iniquitous impost, Tithes, in this Palish, we, one and all, pledge ourselves to resist it every legal means in our power, and do hereby promise to indemnify such person or persons persecuted.
Moved Mr. Thomas Heneberry—seconded Mr, Michael Freney. Resolved —That Petition presented to Parliament grounded on the foregoing resolutions, to be presented by our County Members, the Hon. Colonel Pierse Butler, and W.F. Finn, Esq.
Moved Mr. Michael Gahan—seconded Mr. Andrew Phelan. Resolved —That the foregoing resolutions be published in the Waterford and Weekly Waterford Chronicles. LAURENCE STRANGE, Chairman. JOHN BOLGER, Secretary.
Laurence Strange, Esq., having left the Chair, Mr. Andrew Phelan being called thereto, the thanks the Meeting were given to Mr. Strange for his very dignified and proper conduct in the Chair. ANDREW PHELAN, Chairman. John BOLGER, Secretary. “To the Right Honourable and Honorable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Parliament assembled. The humble Petition of the inhabitants of the Parish of Glenmore, in the county of Kilkenny, Humbly Shewether, That your petitioners, in approaching your honorable House, beg to state their unqualified loyalty and attachment to his Majesty’s person, and their entire confidence in his Majesty’s Government, and constitutional advisers. Your petitioners, persuaded of the kind and benevolent disposition of your honorable house, redress the grievances which affect the people of Ireland. Among their grievances the Tithe system holds a prominent portion, it has uniformly been the source of dissatisfaction and jealousy, and has in very many instances caused the shedding of the blood of several of his Majesty’s subjects in Ireland. Your Petitioners humbly submit your Honourable House, that it is not consonant with the principles of justice, that six millions of his Majesty’s loyal and dutiful Roman Catholic subjects in Ireland, should be taxed for the spiritual instruction of half a million members of the Established Church–a tax, from which the said Roman Catholics derive no benefit, and from which they receive no equivalent. Your petitioners further beg to state to your Honourable House, that as the amount of Tithes in Ireland is far above the want of the Established Church and more than adequate renumeration for its Ministers, it would as unjust as it would he impolitic continue it. Your Petitioners therefore pray your Honourable House, so to modify the Tithe system in Ireland, that it may be no longer a burden on those who receive no benefit. And your Petitioners will ever pray, etc, etc.”
In 1838, parliament enacted the Tithe Commutation Act for Ireland. This reduced the amount payable directly by about a quarter and made the remainder payable in rent to landlords. The landlords were required to collect the tithe as part of the rent and send it on to the authorities. Two Glenmore landlords, Sir John Newport and Major Gahan, of the lands of Kilmakevogue, Graigunakill and Carrigcloney were heralded as patriots when they publicly agreed not to demand the tithe as a rent charge (Dublin Morning Register, 14 September 1838).
Full relief from the tax was not achieved until the Irish Church Act 1869. One of the local events that may have helped bring about the Act was the highly publicised case of Elizabeth Simpson v. Reverald Henry Helsham. For several months in 1864 notices appeared in the Kilkenny Moderator advising people in Ballygurrim and Kilmakevogue, Glenmore not to pay their tithe rent to Reverend Henry Helsham. Under a court order a plaintiff owed moneys could appeal to the bishop of the releant diocese to execute on the goods and chattles (personal property) of the debtor in his diocese. In an article in the Saunder’s News-Letter on Thursday the 14th of May 1868 (in another case where Reverend Helsham was being sued) it was noted that in 1861 he “became embarrassed by his circumstances and had to leave the parish [Rosbercon] for awhile.” The tithe rent charges were collected by a sequestrator who paid the judgments against the Reverend from the rents collected. The tithe rents collected amounted to about £220 a year and clearly illustrates that the tithes which were levied against all holdings in the Union of Rosbercon, to support the Church of Ireland, were directed to support the lifestyle and debts of the Vicar even when he was not working as the Vicar of the parish.
For further details concerning Carrickshock see, http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ejournals/101014/101014.pdf Richard Lahert, The Mayor and the Outlaw: A Postscript to the Carrickshock Affray 1831 (Decies, spring 1994).
The featured drawing is from sheet music, The Irish Peasant (Ireland 1800-1870) © Trustees Indiana University http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/starr/LL-SSM-2-136-0014.
Updated 1 Dec. 2021. The Return of Number of Persons Tried Found Guilty or Acquitted in Counties of Kilkenny, Mayo and Queen’s was digitalized by the University of Southamptom is available at www.jstor.org/stable/community.29946989.
Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh
Murder on the Hill of Glenmore
As highlighted in a previous blog post–on the 8th of March 1833, Joseph Leonard, of Waterford, was stoned to death on the Hill of Glenmore about 3 miles from New Ross in Shanbogh Townland on the old Coach Road.
The Murder: Account I
In 1980 Danny Dowling interviewed Patrick Hennessy, of Hoodsgrove, Rosbercon concerning the murder of the landlord Joseph Leonard in 1833. According to Patrick his mother’s people were the same Malone’s that were involved in the murder. Patrick went on to explain that Master Moore, the National teacher, stated that there was a mill in Kilbrahan townland of Rosbercon. Meany who was executed for the murder of Joseph Leonard, along with the Malones lived on a farm where the mill was situated. According to Patrick Hennessy, Meany was thrown out of the farm before Leonard’s murder.
On the day of the murder, one of the Malone men was home on leave from the British army. He was a veteran of some wars. He said to the mother, Mrs. Malone, who was a Treacy born in Ballymagill, that if Leonard the landlord was living where he had been he would be murdered. Mrs. Malone said in reply, “Why can’t ye do away with him?” She was putting down the spuds for the dinner when her two sons went off to kill the landlord. When they returned she said, “Ye are bad men to take so long to kill him.” Later, she claimed not to have known that they had gone to kill Leonard. The Cashins lived at Shambogh, and a Cashin girl, “gave the game away.” One of the Malone brothers escaped and when he was caught, he was strapped to the wrists and made to walk or dragged between two mounted horse soldiers. In this way he either walked or was dragged to jail. More than likely it was the way he was conveyed to jail when arrested. After the trials the Malone family on their farm in Kilhalan got it tough.
The Murder: Account II
A second oral history of the murder was provided by Ned Fortune and was recorded and can be found in the Folklore Commission. According to this account Joseph Leonard was the landlord of Kilbrahan, a small townland to the north of Shanbogh. Although Joseph Leonard lived in Waterford he was in the habit of traveling to New Ross a few times a week. By all accounts Joseph Leonard was a “good man” and there was “no reason for killing him.”
Leonard was murdered on the 8th March 1833, where the Old Coach Road just enters Shanbogh. A lime-kiln is close to the spot. Leonard was beaten to death, the horse then galloped toward Ross till the body was observed hanging out of the chaise or car. A man named Cassin gave information to the police, and they went to a house in Kilbrahan of a man named Meaney. The police found the whip of the murdered Leonard. This evidence was regarded as conclusive and Meaney was sentenced to be hanged.
The Execution
The scaffold was erected at the scene of the murder. The hanging was witnessed by thousands of people. Mrs Greene recalled her grandmother telling of how she dressed up in her best for the occasion and went off to witness the execution. The place of execution and murder in now known as Leonard’s Corner. A man named Malone was also convicted of the murder. He escaped at the time, but twelve months later was arrested in Tipperary. He was brought to Kilkenny Gaol and later executed outside it. Cassin, the informer, was given money by the government to leave the country, he did, and was never heard from again.
Contempoary Newspaper Accounts
Danny has collected a large number of copies of contemporary newspaper articles that give further and often conflicting information concerning the murder, trial and executions. Similar to what often happens today with the media linking crime to terrorism some contemporary newspaper linked the murder to agrarian eviction violence. The Battle of Carrickshock occurred on the 14th of December 1832 and was fought over the imposition of Tithes for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland on Catholics and other Protestants. The Battle resulted in several of the police being killed. Most of the contemporary newspapers articles did not link the murder of Joseph Leonard to the White Feet, Carrickshock or any other cause.
The Murder
According to the contemporary newspaper accounts, Joseph Leonard left Waterford in high spirits at 11 in the morning for New Ross on the 8th of March 1833. He was on his way to New Ross to arrange to sell some “distrained” cattle belonging to a tenant. The sale was to take place on the 9th of March. It was reported that £125 of rent was overdue and Joseph Leonard offered to settle for the sum of £80, but the tenant refused. Joseph Leonard was described as an inoffensive gentleman. At 2 or 3 in the afternoon Joseph Leonard was walking alongside his horse that was pulling the gig up the hill of Glenmore.
As he walked along Joseph Leonard was attacked in an area where there were several houses nearby. According to Danny the nearby lime kiln became known as the murdering kiln because of the murder. A blunderbuss was fired at Joseph Leonard, but it missed. He was taken by three men who broke his right arm and they put his head on a low adjacent wall and beat his head with stones until he was dead. The killers then cut off his left ear. His corpse was placed in the gig and large stones were placed in front of the wheels to keep the horse from moving. Some accounts provide that the Wexford Car came along and brought the gig and corpse into Ross. Other accounts provide that a “country boy” came along and brought the gig and corpse into Ross. Joseph Leonard’s death is recorded in the Roman Catholic Parish records thus indicating that the newspaper accounts stating that the murdered man was a Catholic landlord were correct.
Arrests
Joseph Leonard’s corpse was returned to Waterford on the 11th of March 1833 and buried according to Danny in the St. Patrick’s cemetery of Ballybricken. A quick hunt through the cemetery on the 7th of February 2020 did not result in his grave being discovered. The newspaper articles record that the Kilkenny magistrate, Henry Alcock, Esq. acting on information received, from what was described as two children named Cashin, arrested four men at the funeral. Other newspaper articles provide that Magistrate Alcock arrested only one man at the funeral, Philip Malone, of Kilbrahon, Rosbercon. Eventually three men and one woman were charged in connection with the murder of Joseph Leonard.
Defendants Philip Malone and his mother
Philip Malone and his mother Mary Malone stood trial in Kilkenny in March 1834 and although Mary Malone was acquitted Philip Malone was convicted. He was sentenced to be executed by hanging in chains. The grand jury petitioned the court to allow the execution to be carried out at the place of the murder. The principal witnesses at the trial were: James Roche, a boy of 14, who witnessed “the transaction,” and James Cashen, aged 18, who gave King’s evidence as an approver. Apparently James Cashen was hired by Malone to kill Joseph Leonard. Another witness named in newspaper articles was Richard Cashen whose age is not revealed.
On the 17th of March 1834 Philip Malone was taken from Kilkenny City and transported to the place of the murder and hanged at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Newspapers accounts provide that Philip Malone conducted himself in an exemplary manner and acknowledged the justice of his sentence. The execution was well attended and there was little sympathy expressed for the condemned. Philip Malone was described as a “remarkable as a man of great physical prowess.”
Defendant Patrick Meany
Patrick Meany, a neighbour, attended the hanging of Philip Malone and later while drinking in a public house was arrested by Magistrate Esmond of Kilkenny. Patrick Meany believed that because he did not do the actual killing he could not be convicted of a crime. Danny believes that Patrick Meany was originally from Robinstown, in Glenmore. Due to a land dispute he moved to Rosbercon. Patrick Meany stood trial in Kilkenny city for conspiring to murder Joseph Leonard. He too was convicted and sentenced to hang at the place of the murder. According to newspaper accounts an immense number of country people assembled and covered the surrounding hills around the place of the murder to witness the execution.
The condemned man left Kilkenny City on the 7th of August 1834 at 6:30 in the morning in a chaise chair. Just prior to execution he prayed and asked the attending priest to speak for him. The priest said that Patrick Meany asked him to convey that Meany was sorry for the expression he used against the prosecutor when he was convicted and hoped the people would pray to God to pardon him. Patrick Meany was described as being about 45 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall and of “Herculean make.” Although he was described as in “comfortable circumstances” he was dressed like a common labourer. The newspaper accounts noted that he was a widower, and left five children orphans. His eldest child was a daughter who was 18 and attended her father’s execution with her father’s sister and his son aged 14 also attended.
Aftermath of Executions
The night after the execution of Patrick Meany, four men attacked and stoned to death a soldier just outside New Ross. All four men were arrested.
The stigma to the families of the convicted murders continued for some time. Danny recorded in a 1974 interview of Nicholas Forristal, of Graiguenakill, Glenmore an incident that occurred near the Glenmore Parish Priest’s house in Robinstown. Father Aylward, the Parish Priest, asked a beggar if he “…was anything to Meany who killed Leonard the Landlord.” The beggar responded by asking Father Aylward, “How near related are you to the Belekums, who killed the girl on the mountain and buried her in a bog?”
The Victim
Very little information is recorded concerning the murdered Mr. Leonard. His age is not recorded and there is no indication that he was married at the time he was murdered.
House of Commons’ Account
In attempting to try to find information concerning the brother of Philip Malone, I came across perhaps the most unusual contemporary account of the murder conspiracy in the Evidence on Drunkeness: Presented to the House of Commons (1834) by James Silk Buckingham. In this account Philip Malone when the guilty verdict was rendered against him pointed to his 80 year old mother who shared the dock with him and said, “Yes, my Lord, I am guilty. She is the cause of it.” It was reported that his mother agreed to the price of the blood to be shed by her two sons. She watched Joseph Leonard approach and handed the pistol to her son. Malone was startled, “How can I murder the poor gentleman?” His mother called him a coward and handed him the remains of a ½ pint of whiskey which he drank and then went and killed his landlord.
Special thanks to Louise Walsh for the photos taken in St. Patrick’s Church Yard, Ballybricken, Waterford City.
Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh