On August 28th, 1754, exactly 250 years ago tomorrow, two Kerrymen named Daniel O'Connell and Little John O'Sullivan were hanged together in Cork and their heads spiked over the South Gate.
They were followers of Murty Oge O'Sullivan of Eyeries, Bearehaven, Co Cork, a captain in Lord Clare's regiment of the Irish Brigade, who had fought at Fontenoy and Culloden and was popularly recognised as O'Sullivan Beare.
Murty's family were middlemen, living as intermediate landlords on a fragment of their former estates, which had been confiscated by Cromwell. He had a distinguished military career, serving in the armies of Austria-Hungary, France and Spain, and is said to have been presented with a sword by the Empress Maria Therese. In addition, he was involved in smuggling, running cargoes of brandy, tobacco and tea from his base at Nantes in France to his home at Eyeries, from which he carried back wool and other raw produce.
In March 1754, with O'Connell and Little John, he shot and killed a local revenue officer and magistrate, John Puxley. The shooting took place in the presence of Puxley's family. Puxley had been attempting to prevent recruiting for the Irish Brigade and also to suppress smuggling.
He and Murty had been smuggling allies, but when the latter turned to recruiting their pragmatic alliance ended. Personal resentments, long suppressed, then came to the fore. Murty had not forgotten the shooting dead by Puxley and his followers of a young, unarmed kinsman 13 years earlier. Puxley's descendants, incidentally, were later to establish the copper mining industry at Allihies in Bearehaven.
In May 1754 Murty was surprised in his fortified house at Eyeries by a party of troops from Cork. With some 20 retainers he put up a spirited defence, but when the thatch was set alight he was forced out, carrying, according to tradition, only his "good Austrian blade" - the gift of the empress. He managed to break through the soldiers, but was then shot from behind and killed. His head was spiked over Cork's South Gate and his body buried under the exercise yard of the Cat Fort, to be tramped over by the redcoats at drill.
O'Connell and Little John were subsequently tried in Cork and sentenced to death. On the night before his execution O'Connell composed a lament in Irish for his commanding officer. The poem, reflecting the psychological anguish of a man on the verge of annihilation, is extraordinary in its vividness and depth of feeling.
It opens with what must be one of the most terrible lines in the poetry of any language: Mo chreach agus mo chás bhocht mar thána' ar an saol so ("My grief and misfortune that ever I came into this world").
The poet's sorrow at Murty's ignominious fate is exacerbated by his memory of his leader's military prowess: Do chonnac-sa féin lá thú, 's do chlaíomh sáite chum comhraic/ Agus go ndéanfá-sa bearna tré ghuárdaibh Rí Seoirse ("I saw you myself one day, your stabbing-sword in readiness for combat/ It was you could forge a gap through the guards of King George").
In spare but harrowing detail he anticipates the ordeal awaiting him and Little John : Beid na sealáin 'nár bhfásgadh, agus na táinte 'nár mbodhradh ("The nooses will be strangling and the crowds deafening us").
While describing Murty as the best of masters, he reproaches him for having put their immortal souls in danger and appeals to the people of his native county : A Chiarraígh bígí ag guí linn, is bog binn linn bhur nglórtha ("People of Kerry, pray for us, soft and sweet are your voices").
(The Irish quotations, regional and poetic in form, are from an edition of the poem by Prof Pádraig Breathnach.)
It is tempting to link the poet with the O'Connells of Derrynane, from which district he came. The fact, however, that he portrays himself as Murty's social inferior makes such a connection unlikely. Whatever his origins, he was a remarkable man. Through his verses, composed in circumstances of great personal trauma, his warm humanity resonates down the centuries.
While the poem illustrates the Gaelic background of the protagonists, they were far from being insular. Murty would have spoken French, and probably Spanish and German. As a boy he would have learned Latin and perhaps some Greek. Like many of the old native gentry of the south-west, he was a cosmopolitan figure who moved easily in European society. He would have felt at home in today's Ireland.
At 2.30 p.m. tomorrow a public commemoration, supported by Cork City Council and Cork County Council, will convene at the South Gate Bridge, where a representative of the Lord Mayor will attend. We will visit the sites of the Cat Fort and the gallows, where wreaths will be laid and O'Connell's lament intoned. Pikemen from Wexford will provide a guard of honour.
Talks will be given by Dr Roibeárd Ó hÚrdail and Mr Richard Henchion. Peadar Ó Riada, with members of Cór Chúilaodha, and Aindrias Ó Súilleabháin, of the group Avergin, will participate. Cllr Tom Bogue, Eoghan Ó Súilleabháin, members of the Beara Historical Society and Mr Michael Ed O'Sullivan, Clan Chieftain, will attend.
We hope to make amends for the ignominy so unsparingly heaped on Murty Oge O'Sullivan and his two retainers in 1754.