5 September 1798: Dunne of Thomas Court and Cusack of Ely Place are suspected of trying to co-ordinate an attack on the capital by Leinster rebels. Cusack's men allegedly remove pikes from children's graves for an action designed to distract the yeomanry from an internal revolt. Credence is lent to the rising theory by the arrest in Kildare of Michael Foley and another "protected Rebel Captain" who, according to Thomas Connolly, were "endeavouring with much success . . . to set rebellion on foot again". Meath is also disturbed and the Castle is sufficiently perturbed on the 30th to contemplate removing the "state prisoners" to a ship.
Cornwallis's army is divided into four brigades under Major Generals Campbell, HelyHutchinson, Moore and Hunter. Other bodies converge on Connaught and on the 31st, 400 troops march with Col Cole from Enniskillen, leaving 700 to protect Gen Nugent's HQ. Col Innes leads the Light Brigade from Blaris camp to Mayo, while the Fifeshires go to Lurgan and Major Gen Goldie to Armagh. Such redeployments enhance the role of the yeomanry in counter-insurgency, and in Wexford, Major Fitzgerald calls a parade at Ferns on September 1st. In a move to curb the illegal proclivities of the Wingfield and Ballaghkeen units, he directs that no "croppy horses" are to be presented and that "every mounted man is to appear fully accoutred".
At Castlebar, the Freeman's Journal reports, Humbert appoints a municipal council consisting of citizens C. Baynes (mayor), Michael Sheridan, John Heuston, Boests Egan PP, James Hitchcock, Redmond Lyons, Andrew Edmonston, James Gibbons, James Clarke and John Butler. The President of the new Connaught Republic is John Moore of Moore Hall, reputedly a "personal friend of Mr Fox in the Whig Club". The surrender at Elphin of the "most active" United Irishman, Major Plunkett, is deemed by the Marquis of Buckingham to "answer for the peace of Roscommon".
Noted on the 1st is the arrival in Cork of a French ship with 350 soldiers on board, captured with the loss of 30 more by the sloop Hazard. Scant reportage, however, obscures the full extent of the crisis in Wicklow where Holt's guerrillas battle daily with the yeomanry in the Aughrim district. Twenty-one King's County militiamen defect to Holt on the 2nd, joining many former members of the Leitrim, Cavan and Antrim regiments.
Granard is approached on the 5th by Westmeath and Longford rebels bearing guns taken from Mostrim yeomen the previous night. Captains Cottingham and Pallas lead out the Cavan militia, Granard, Ballymacue and Ballintemple cavalry with the Ballymacue and Kilmore infantry to engage 4,000 rebels "drawn out in line of battle". A combatant notes the insurgent attempt to surround the loyalists while driving 200 cattle into their ranks: "This obliged us for a moment to retreat, which was effected in good order, until we reached the moat, a high eminence commanding the town, when a hot and well directed fire was kept up which soon obliged them to break and fly in all directions; while the centre division was attacking the moat, the flanks advanced to assail the barrack, but the fire from the walls and temporary bastions that were lately erected, soon obliged them to retreat. The slaughter was immense; about 150 were left dead on the field."
Franco-Irish units clash at Collooney (Sligo) on the 5th with a detachment of Col Verecher's Limerick city militia and yeomen. The crown forces are bettered but deflect the course of Humbert's march towards Leitrim.