Lackagh Deportees – A Timeline
On Wednesday 11th June the annual graveyard mass will take place in Lackagh churchyard . Following mass at 7.30pm there will be a special event which by the kind permission of Fr Liam Merrigan, P.P., will involve our Bishop Denis Nulty and His Excellency Cleviston Haynes Barbados Ambassador to Ireland.
At the invitation of Sean O’Fearghail the Bishop and the Ambassador will rededicate the recently restored commemorative plaque on the old church wall.
All are welcome !
Lackagh Deportees – A Timeline by Mario Corrigan
Oct 1655 – deaths of two soldiers, Denis Brennan and Murtagh Turner at “the castle of Lackay” – one source says they were repairing houses which had been taken from Catholics and were being prepared for Protestant planters
22 Oct. 1655 – Order from Dublin Castle to send senior officers to investigate the murders of ‘Denis Brennan and Murtogh Turner, Protestants (and persons lately in the service of the State and pay of the army)’. All the ‘Popish Inhabitants’ (Catholics) of the town were to be rounded up and sent to Waterford where they would be sent to the Barbados or some other colony while those involved in the murder would be. Orders from the Commonwealth Council Order book.
26 Oct. 1655 Dublin Castle – Attorney General William Basil to examine the evidence obtained by Col. John Hewson and Major Morgan, concerning the late murder at Lackagh.
6 Nov. 1655 – Ordered that Col. John Hewson, and Col. Henry Markham, and other Justices of the Peace as Col. Hewson required to take the examination of the Prisoners that are brought up to Dublin to be tried for the late Murder at Lackagh, in the County of Kildare, and take depositions of witnesses to return the same close sealed up unto the Council.
20 Nov. 1655 – four men, Connor Birne, Teige Moran, James Beacon and Tirlagh Dunn were sentenced to death – attainted of treason, indicted, arraigned, tried and condemned – writ of execution 20 Nov. 1655; Connor Birne and Teige Moran were executed near Lackagh Castle – James Beacon, and Tirlagh Dunn were executed in Dublin – they were sentenced to be hanged drawn and quartered – seems they were hanged, drawn and beheaded but sentence of quartering was remitted.
27 Nov. 1655 – Marshall Philip Peak of the Four Courts in Dublin ordered to deliver prisoners to Capt. Robert Coleman, commander of the Wexford Frigate, to include all Popish priests (other than those committed for murder) as also the persons brought out of the County of Kildare and committed to his custody for suspicion of being privy to ye murder lately done at the town of Lackagh. Coleman, at the first opportunity of wind and weather, to deliver them in safe custody to the Governor of Waterford, to be by him delivered to Capt. Norris, merchant there, who is to keep the priests and other prisoners abovesaid at his own expense until he shall transport them for the Barbados.
four were priests, James Tuite, Robert Keegan, Redmond Moore and John Tobin – the latter I believe to be a Capuchin friar known as Fr. Fiacre Tobin – he died 6 March on board a ship as it left Waterford in 1656 for the Barbados – there was a beatification process started for Tobin and another Capuchin, Dowdall around 1919 – he was believed martyred for his faith.
27 Nov. 1655 – entry in the Council Book of the Commonwealth, a record book of the Cromwellian administration in Ireland, noting the payment of £5 to Thomas Baker for the capture of Fr. Fiacre Tobin, an Irish Capuchin priest – the place of his arrest is give as ‘ye Barony of Balrudery [or Balrothery]’ in County Dublin.
28 Nov. 1655 – Ordered that the physical descriptions of four priests (Redmond Moore, Robert Keigan, James Tuite and John Tobin) be sent to the Lord Deputy and Council.
4th Dec. 1655 – repetition of the order to deliver prisoners to Robert Coleman given on 27 Nov. given above, except that it gives a list of the names of the prisoners to be handed over to Captain John Norris for transportation who will make arrangements for their transportation to Barbados.
6 Dec. 1655 – Sheriff of Kildare to sell goods of prisoners from Lackagh – to pay for imprisonment, trial, reparation to widows of two murdered men and expense of transportation.
6 March 1656 – death of Fr Faicre (John) Tobin on board ship as it left Waterford for the Barbados. The ship due to transport Fr. Fiacre to Barbados was detained in Waterford Harbour due to unfavourable sea conditions. He was held on board the ship along with other Catholic priests awaiting a similar fate, but he succumbed to disease on 6 March. It seems likely this is the same ship which housed the Lackagh deportees and would have taken some 3 months to make it to the Barbados.
1949 – a new Celtic Cross was erectedin Lackagh Graveyard in 1949 to Rev Stephen Bolger/Bulger the last parish priest of Lackagh who died in 1786 – Also 1949 was the diamond jubilee of the then PP of Monasterevin, Fr. Gorry who had been consecrated a priest 60 years previously – in the late 19th century .
4 Oct. 1959 – the memorial to those transported was unveiled on Sunday 4 Oct. by Monsignor Miller, PP of Droichead Nua. The marble for the plaque was donated by An t-Athair Peadar MacSuibhne who recited the rosary in English and Irish. Mr TP Clarke of the GAA reminded people of the history of the locality and the tradition that St. Brigid was born at Ummeras.
11 June 2025 – 370th anniversary of removal of Catholic inhabitants of Lackagh to Dublin for transportation to the Barbados. Re-dedication of the plaque by Bishop Denis Nulty and His Excellency Cleviston Haynes our Barbados Ambassador to Ireland, following the annual graveyard mass.
MEMORIAL
Wording and Names on plaque with variant spellings within parenthesis: John Foley does not seem to be included in the original list (included by Bishop Comerford in his history of Kildare and Leighlin) and may in fact be an error from ‘Tobyn’ in later sources. It could also be a priest held in Dublin!
Pray for all who rest here, or who prayed in this holy place including Conor Birne, Tiegue Moran, James Beacon , and Tirlagh Dunn, who on 20 November, 1655 were sentenced to death.
Also the following who on 27 November, 1655 were sentenced to transportation to the Barbadoes.
James Tuit, priest
Robert Keegan, priest {Robt Kegan)
Redmond Moore, priest (Redmund no mention as priest)
John Tobin, priest (Tobyn?)
John Foley, priest
Bryan Ruddery [Brian]
James Brennan
John Carron [Carroll]
Donnough Kelly [Donogh]
Philip O’ Connollan. [O Conlon]
Morgan Perron [Morgan Ferron (Forran)]
William Muloy [Molloy (Moloy)]
Maurice Hennegat
Henry ffz Garrett. [Fitzgarrett]
Morrice ffz Garrett [Maurice Fitzgarrett (Morrice)]
Margery ffz Garrett [Fitzgarrett]
Mary Grafton, wife to Henry ffz Garrett [Fitzgarrett]
Bridget ffz Garrett, Daughter to Loughlin Kelly (Bridgett)
Connor Toole [Conor]
Margt King [Margaret]
Margt Rely [Margaret Reily]
Margt Dongan [Margaret Donegan (Donyan)]
Katherine Brannan [Brennan (Kath Brunnan)]
Giles Crevy
Margaret Doolin
Honora Doolin
Dorothy Farrell
Ellinor ffz Garret [Elinor Fitzgarrett]
Honora ne Conlan [Ni Conlan]
Katherine Heylan [Catherine Hyland]
Anne Keating (Ann)
Eliz Keating [Elizabeth]
Margery Crenyan [Crinion]
Katherine Weiglan [Whelan]
Owney Hoose [Hughes]
Elizth Morran [Elizabeth]
Honora ne Gibbery [Ni Gibbery]
Daniel O’Rourk [O Rourke]
A song written for the commemorative event by Mario Corrigan
WORKING SUGAR AND TOBACCO – THE LACAGH EXILES
Two men they say were murdered, by Tories in the night
Old soldiers who’d been planted, old wrongs were put to right
But a crime had been committed, and though we were innocent
Our faith became a sentence, and forced our imprisonment
And for someone else’s Killing, they emptied Lackagh town
Half-hanged four men then butchered them, when they took their bodies down
when they took their bodies down
Chorus
We’ll say goodbye to Ireland, we’ll cry our tears and pray
That maybe we can somehow, make it home one day
Deported to Barbados, to the colonies as slaves,
Shackled like common criminals, starved but for the grains
Bound for an Empire’s service, on plantations cruelly run
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
By March of 1656 we were on the Ocean’s waves
Toward Tobacco Island, with over 30 Kildare slaves
Bound in chains below the deck, a stench upon the air
Fever claimed the Kilkenny friar, but the heretics did not care
We’d no idea of what lay ahead, but what jailors and sailors said
A paradise for colonists, but for us a hell on earth
but for us a hell on earth
Chorus
We’ll say goodbye to Ireland, we’ll cry our tears and pray
That maybe we can somehow, make it home one day
Deported to Barbados, to the colonies as slaves,
Shackled like common criminals, starved but for the grains
Bound for an Empire’s service, on plantations cruelly run
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
Mid. 8
They say some may yet be lucky, to work back their liberty
Though the years of hard harsh labour, leave nought but poverty
But they held on to their homeland, held it in their hearts
and kept their God to guide them, through the whippings (lash) and the dark
some of them were pirates, some of them rebelled
None made it home, their ghosts still there, their descendants called Red legs
None ever made it home, but they’re still called Red Legs
Chorus
We’ll say goodbye to Ireland, we’ll cry our tears and pray
That maybe we can somehow, make it home one day
Deported to Barbados, to the colonies as slaves,
Shackled like common criminals, starved but for the grains
Bound for an Empire’s service, on plantations cruelly run
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
Working sugar and tobacco, underneath the burning sun
Photograph courtesy: Cllr. Noel Connolly
