seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Aughrim (County Wicklow)


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Death of Anne Devlin, Renowned Irish Republican

Anne Devlin, an Irish republican renowned for her unwavering loyalty to Robert Emmet during the 1803 rebellion, enduring torture and imprisonment for her refusal to betray her comrades, dies in Dublin on September 18, 1851.

Devlin is born in 1780 in Cronebeg, near Aughrim, County Wicklow, the second of four daughters and three sons of Bryan and Winifred (née Byrne) Devlin, who are Catholics engaged in farming. Her father and several relatives are members of the Society of United Irishmen, advocating for Irish independence. Though she and her immediate family do not initially participate in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, they provide shelter and assistance to rebels, and their home is destroyed by Crown forces, while her father is imprisoned until 1801.

After the family moves to Rathfarnham, Dublin, Devln becomes the housekeeper for Robert Emmet in April 1803, providing cover for his Dublin operations planning a nationalist uprising. She actively aids the United Irishmen by arranging meetings, transporting arms, and acting as a messenger to insurgent forces, notably her cousin Michael Dwyer in the Wicklow Mountains. The rebellion carefully orchestrated for July 23, 1803, collapses due to inadequate popular support and confusion among the rebels.

Following the failed uprising, Devlin and her family are arrested. She endures brutal interrogation by Major Henry Charles Sirr and is subjected to half-hanging, solitary confinement, and threats against her family, yet she refuses to reveal any critical information about Emmet or other conspirators. She spends over two years in Kilmainham Gaol and, despite her endurance, her health is permanently affected. She is released in 1806 after sustained lobbying and public outrage over her mistreatment.

After her release, Devlin works as a maid and laundress, initially assisted by the Emmet family and their acquaintances. She marries William Campbell in 1811, though she experiences increasing poverty after his death in 1845. She continues to be remembered for her courage, and her experiences are recorded by historians and contemporaries such as Dr. Richard Robert Madden and Brother Luke Cullen, preserving her memoirs and accounts of her revolutionary involvement.

Devlin dies on September 18, 1851, in Dublin and is interred at Glasnevin Cemetery, later commemorated with a monument and Celtic cross.

Devlin is widely celebrated as Ireland’s first female political prisoner and a symbol of loyalty and courage. A statue in Rathfarnham, annual memorial services in Dublin’s St. Catherine’s Church, and the naming of community centers in her honor (e.g., Anne Devlin Community Centre, 2026) reflect her enduring impact. Her life has inspired literature and film, including Pat Murphy‘s 1984 movie Anne Devlin, which portrays her perspective during the Emmet rebellion. She is credited in James Joyce’s short story “A Mother” as a model for the character Mrs. Kearney.

Anne Devlin’s life embodies courage, steadfast nationalism, and sacrifice. She actively supports Robert Emmet and the United Irishmen, suffers imprisonment without betrayal, and faces lifelong hardship, yet remains commemorated as a heroine of Irish independence.

(Pictured: Anne Devlin statue in Rathfarnham, Dublin)


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Birth of Kevin Barry, IRA Volunteer & Medical Student

Kevin Gerard Barry, Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer and medical student, is born on January 20, 1902, at 8 Fleet Street, Dublin. He becomes the first Irish republican to be executed by the British Government since the leaders of the Easter Rising.

Barry is the fourth of seven children born to Thomas Barry, dairyman, and Mary Barry (née Dowling), both originally from northeast County Carlow. His father dies of heart disease on February 8, 1908, at the age of 56. His mother then moves the family to the family’s farm at Tombeagh, Hacketstown, County Carlow, while retaining the family’s townhouse on Fleet Street. As a child he goes to the National School in Rathvilly. In 1915, he is sent to live in Dublin and attends the O’Connell Schools for three months, before enrolling in the Preparatory Grade at St. Mary’s College, Rathmines, in September 1915. He remains at that school until May 31, 1916, when it is closed by its clerical sponsors. With the closure of St. Mary’s College, he transfers to Belvedere College, a Jesuit school in Dublin. He joins the Irish Volunteers, the forerunner of the IRA, while still at Belvedere College, and enters University College Dublin (UCD) in 1919 to study medicine.

As a member of 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, he takes part in a successful raid for arms on the military post in King’s Inns, Dublin, on June 1, 1920. Within only six minutes the raiders secure rifles, light machine guns, and large quantities of ammunition, and depart the site with no casualties. He also takes part in an abortive attempt to burn Aughavanagh House, Aughrim, County Wicklow in July 1920, and an attack on a British ration party in Church Street, Dublin, on September 20, with the aim of seizing arms. The final operation fails. Gunfire breaks out, three soldiers of around Barry’s own age are killed or fatally wounded, and he becomes the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since 1916.

During interrogation, Barry is threatened with a bayonet and is mistreated. A general court-martial on October 20, which he refuses to recognise, condemns him to death for murdering the three soldiers, although one of the bullets taken from Private Marshall Whitehead’s body is a .45 calibre, while all witnesses state that Barry was armed with a .38 Mauser Parabellum. Despite widespread appeals on grounds of both clemency and expediency, the cabinet in London and officials in Dublin decide separately against a reprieve, probably because of its likely effect on the morale of soldiers and police.

On October 28, the Irish Bulletin, the official propaganda newspaper produced by Dáil Éireann‘s Department of Publicity, publishes Barry’s statement alleging torture. The headline reads English Military Government Torture a Prisoner of War and are about to Hang him. The Irish Bulletin declares Barry to be a prisoner of war, suggesting a conflict of principles is at the heart of the conflict. The British do not recognise a war and treat all killings by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as murder. The public learns on this day that the date of execution has been fixed for November 1.

He was hanged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, on November 1, after hearing two Masses in his cell. The timing of the execution, only seven days after the death by hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney, the republican Lord Mayor of Cork, brings public opinion to a fever-pitch. He is buried in unconsecrated ground on the jail property. His comrade and fellow student Frank Flood is buried alongside him four months later. A plain cross marks their graves and those of Patrick Moran, Thomas Whelan, Thomas Traynor, Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan, Bernard Ryan, Edmond Foley and Patrick Maher who are hanged in the same prison before the Anglo-Irish Treaty of July 1921 which ends hostilities between Irish republicans and the British. The graves go unidentified until 1934. They become known as the Forgotten Ten by republicans campaigning for the bodies to be reburied with honour and proper rites. On October 14, 2001, the remains of the ten men are given a state funeral and moved from Mountjoy Prison to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Barry is the first person to be tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920, passed twelve weeks earlier. Together with his youth, this makes him a republican martyr celebrated in many ballads and verses. The best-known, set to a tune popular with British servicemen, is recorded by the American singer Paul Robeson, among others. A memorial stained-glass window by Richard King of the Harry Clarke Studio is later installed in the former UCD council chamber (afterward called the Kevin Barry Room), Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin.