My great-great-grandfather.

Philip Loughnan was born about 1790[1]. His place of birth is unknown, but was probably the area around Carnew, in the barony of Shillelagh, on the borders of the counties Wicklow and Wexford, in south-east Ireland.

As a young boy, he grew up in an Ireland seething with rebellion. When he was about eight years old the United Irishmen rising broke out, initially in Dublin, and the dream of freedom spread rapidly across Ireland. The Irish rebel forces enjoyed their greatest successes against the Crown in Wexford. He would have known of the Irish victories at Carnew and Ballyellis in June 1798, as these would have occurred within a few miles of his home.

Philip lived through the Carnew Massacre, one of the worst English excesses of the rebellion, in which twenty nine suspected nationalists were arrested and, although they were never tried for any crime, were executed in a handball alley in Carnew Town by Crown forces. He would also have been aware of the, ultimately, decisive and devastating defeat of the Irish forces a few miles away at Vinegar Hill, overlooking the River Slaney at Enniscorthy, in County Wexford.

Where his family loyalties lay is not known, and whether any of his (and my) relatives took part in the rebellion is not recorded. However, there is an Owen Loughlin of Shillelagh listed as being a member of the United Irishmen in the 1798 Rebellion[2]. Loughlin / Loughman was a very unusual surname in the area at the time, so there is a possibility that Philip and Owen were related in some way.

Philip's local church, St Brigids, Tomacork, and the place where he was finally laid to rest, was one of a handful of Catholic churches in the south east of the country not to be burned to the ground. This was possibly because it had been built with money from the local English landlord, Earl Fitzwilliam. Instead, the English army used the holy ground as stables for it's horses[3]. The Crown forces also used the Cross over the vestry door for target practice, and even today one arm is missing from the Crucifix, as a result of these excesses.

In 1831, Philip could have been involved in the "Tithe Wars". Resistance to the Tithe tax levied on all to support the Church of Ireland was widespread among Catholics, who had to pay ten per cent of the value of their estate to maintain the "Established Church" although it was the religion of less than ten percent of the population. Locally, emotions were running very high on the subject of tithes. Only ten miles away at Bunclody twelve people resisting the seizure of cattle in lieu of tax were shot and killed by Police. A further twenty were injured.

Little is known about Philip’s life as Irish records for the time are very scarce. He was a Steward[4], possibly on Earl Fitzwilliam’s Coollatin Estates. He married Mary Hickey[5] sometime before 1834, and lived in the townland of Kennystown[6], itself a part of Kilcavan, in the parish of Carnew. The couple had at least three children that I can trace, Philip, James (my great-grandfather) and Hanna. There are probably many more relatives waiting to be found.

Philip and Mary survived the horrors of the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849, although I cannot tell whether their family was touched by the spectre of death during this period. Wicklow and Wexford were less troubled than the west of Ireland through these awful times, although life must have been very difficult for anyone surviving in rural Ireland at this time.

Philip died on 14 July 1868, and is buried in the churchyard at St Brigids, Tomacork, County Wicklow. His grave is just to the right of the entrance gate.

 

I would like to acknowledge the assistance I have received from Fergal Morrin in obtaining this information.

[1] From his gravestone in Tomacork Cemetery (not a reliable indicator) [2] http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/cgi-bin/wicklow/wicklow.cgi (reliability not known) [3] Tomacork church history [4] From his son, Philip’s, marriage certificate [5] [6] Wicklow Family History Centre