A treacherous priest

Projected Rebellion in Cork - Secret Services of Fr. Barry.

The appendix to the new edition of the first volume of “The Lives and Times of the United Irishmen” displays, under the head “Secret Service Money Revelations from Original Accounts and Receipts for Pensions,” a curious selection from these documents, to each of which, with some few exceptions, Dr Madden supplies interesting details regarding the circumstances under which the pension was earned. At page 395 appears a receipt from the late Rev. Thomas Barry, P.P. of Mallow, who enjoyed a secret stipend of £100 a year; and as no explanatory statement is volunteered, it perhaps becomes our duty to supply the omission, while furnishing at the same time a note to some preceding remarks of our own.

The following letter, addressed to the Very Rev. Dr Russell Roman Catholic Dean of Cloyne, by the Rev. ‘I’. Murphy, of Mallow, containing the result of some inquiries instituted at our suggestion among the oldest inhabitants of that town, will be read with interest:-

“Mallow, *October *2, 1865.

“Very Rev. and Dear Sir, - After many inquiries about the subject matter of your kind letter of Sept. 9, I thought it well to await the return of an old inhabitant who was absent from Mallow until yesterday.

“The following is the substance of his account of the *émeute, *which I believe to be the most authentic. Shortly after the insurrection of ‘98, the Royal Meath Militia were stationed in Mallow. They had conspired with the disaffected to blow up the Protestant Church, when the yeomanry troops were at service on a certain Sunday. Abundant materials were at hand, as Mallow contained several parks of artillery at the time in a field near the Protestant Church, and hence called Cannon Field to this day.

“On the Saturday preceding, two of the wives of the militia, who lodged at one Canty’s, at Ballydaheen, were noticed by Canty’s wife stitching or sewing the extremities of their petticoats together, and Mrs Canty (wife of Canty, a cooper) expressed her astonishment. The soldiers’ wives were equally surprised, and asked her did she not hear of the *rising *about to occur next day. An expression of more unbounded surprise was the response. The poor Meath women expected they could fill more than their pockets.

Canty (whose son still lives in Ballydaheen) communicated the news to his gossip, Lover, (a convert.) Lover went to confession on that Saturday, and Father Barry refused to absolve him except he disclosed the ease *extra tribunal. *His wishes were complied with, and both Lover and Father Barry went forthwith to General Erskine, *(sic?) *who lived on Spa Walk.

As soon as the plot was revealed, Sergeant Beatty with 19 men on guard for that night, (all implicated,) aware of the treachery, immediately decamped. The yeomen pursued them in their flight to the Galtees, and when one of Beatty’s men could no longer continue the retreat, his wish of dying at the hands of Beatty was complied with. Beatty turned round and shot him! The body of this poor fellow was brought back to Mallow next day, and lies interred near the Protestant church, and Sergeant Beatty himself (God be merciful to him!) was taken finally in Dublin, and hanged. Lover had four sons. They all emigrated after arriving at manhood. I am sorry to say one of them became a priest and died a short time since in Boston.

“The father received a pension of £50 a year for life, and Father Barry was in receipt of £100 a year until 1813, [The pension was finally restored to him, as his receipts prove In the Secret Service Money Book, now held by Charles Haliday, Esq., and from which Dr Madden has quoted the salient points, we find Father Barry’s name frequently figuring as a recipient of various gratuities exclusive of his pension. - W. J. F.] when a dispute arose between him and the Protestant minister of Mallow, about the interment of some Protestant who became a convert on his death-bed. Father Barry insisted on reading the service in the Protestant churchyard, was reported to Government for not persevering in proofs of loyalty, deprived of his pension, and died, and is buried in our Catholic cemetery adjoining the church. The only prayer I ever heard offered for him was, ‘God forgive him!’ Yours very sincerely,

“T. Murphy.

“To the Very Rev. Dean Russell.”

Dean Russell, in enclosing his correspondent’s letter to us for publication, corrects an error into which the Rev. Mr Murphy fell, in stating that Lover received £50* *a year in recognition of his timely information. A previous letter from the Dean observes:-

“Protestant gratitude, unfortunately for Mr Barry’s character, obtained for him £100 a year, but poor Lover never received a farthing. Having been reduced to great poverty, a petition was sent to Government, signed by 25 gentlemen, stating his services. The answer was, they knew nothing of him; but the rebellion was then smothered in the blood of the people.”

The Dean adds, that this and other information recently reached him from clergymen who were born in Mallow or its vicinity.

It would be difficult to find a pastor who presented a more venerable and paternal aspect than the late Father Thomas Barry of Mallow His flowing white hair and thorough benevolence of expression impressed most favourably all who came in contact with him, and commanded their entire confidence. The late eminent and lamented Daniel O’Connell, on being shown one of Father Barry’s receipts for “blood money,” as it was then somewhat erroneously presumed to have been, started, and, to quote the words of our informant who still holds his receipts, “became as white as a sheet!”

For thirty years O’Connell had been on terms of close intimacy with Father Barry, and reposed unbounded confidence in his counsel. In the *Dublin Evening Post *of the day an obituary notice appears of Father Barry, who died January 18, 1828. The singular fact is mentioned, that the priest’s pall was borne by six Protestants. Having directed the attention of Dean Russell to this article, he writes: “The statement that Mr Barry’s coffin was borne to the grave by six Protestants, can hardly be correct, as nothing was known of the pension he received till some time *after *his death. He was buried in the same respectful way in which Catholic clergymen arc usually buried.”

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