16th May 1798: The deepening security crisis elicits generous donations to the Treasury's "Patriotic Volunteer" fund from wealthy supporters of Government. The purse of Dublin banker and conservative David La Touche provides £1,000, half the generous presentment of Lord Leitrim, while the Bank of Ireland donates the staggering sum of £20,060. All such donations are listed in the press, including the modest but poignant expression of loyalty from "John Kinsley, butler to Lord Tyraw ley", who contributes a hard-earned £7 19 shillings and three pence.
The raising of Supplementary Yeomanry corps is ano ther innovation intended to strengthen the hand of the state ahead of the open insurrection that many now anticipate is likely with or without a French invasion. Suitably qua lified persons are encouraged to organise 50 strong yeomanry units from hand-picked civilian volunteers.
In Hacketstown, Co Carlow, a quasi-official band of loyalists is formed around an Orange Lodge by the Rev James McGhee, Vicar of Clonmore. This typifies anti-insurgent mobilisation in Leinster in communities subjected to martial law.
In parts of Co Dublin, the traditional May celebrations are tainted by a sinister variant of seasonal festivity. Major Sirr is drawn from the city to Finglas where, Freeman's Journal reports, he finds "a maypole erected, seditiously decorated with the Cap of Liberty, alias the jacobinical emblem the Bonnet Rouge. The soldiers quickly prostrated this idol of political paganism, as we trust they will every object put in opposition to the true and saving principles of our glorious and sacred constitution."
Lieut Stewart of the Derry Militia is recovering from a stab wound sustained when searching the Francis Street brewery owned by leading United Irishman John Sweetman.
The Journal notes on May 12th that the near-fatal assault was carried out by one Stringer, a plasterer by trade, and preceded the recovery of "a most curious instrument for the destruction of mankind, and not less to be admired for its workmanship and construction, formed into a seven-barrelled gun; two or more of the barrels which may be discharged at one time, or the entire together."
This piece is little more than a curiosity but the notable proliferation of pikes in the city and its environs suggests that a major armament programme is afoot. It appears that the United Irishmen are accelerating their preparations for war and are attempting to mass-produce pikes to compensate for weapons losses in areas under martial law.
Lord Grenville in London is uneasy at the quickening pace and direction of events in Ireland and receives Camden's rushed letter of the 14th in which his "anxiety for the fate of this country" is appreciated.
A Wexford correspondent writes from Monamolin in the north of the county on the 15th to describe how the local church was "crowded from one end to the other with loyal subjects, whose countenances showed most expressively the joy of their hearts on being cal led to enrol themselves for the protection of our glorious constitution . . . under the command of their revered and be loved friend, Hawtrey White Esq, Captain of the Ballagh keen cavalry, to whose indefatigable exertions we are indebted for the tranquillity we at this moment enjoy in the midst of disturbed and proclaimed county."