Prosperous Heritage
The End of the 1798 Rebellion in Kildare.
After the defeat at Ovidstown and the fall of Prosperous, Aylmer was forced to negotiate a surrender with General Dundas.
On the 21st July Colonel William Aylmer, Captain Andrew Farrell signed the treaty of peace along with the other officers of the rebel party of the camp that lay at Prosperous.
The Wexford, Wicklow and Kildare leaders from the camp, were all invited by a flag of truce from Government, to sign a peace agreement. Two hostages namely, Major Cope and Captain Courtney of the Armagh militia were given as sureties, both were kept in custody by the rebels for two hours until the eighteen rebel officers from Wexford, Wicklow, and Kildare returned after signing the articles of peace, which was then concluded between the Government and the people, and which put an end to the rebellion.
The leaders were later taken in carriages to Dublin castle for questioning, and statements taken.
The conditions of the treaty were; a free pardon to all rebels having no further part in the rebellion. Officers who gave themselves up to Government had to remain state prisoners until the Government thought it safe to transport them to any country they pleased, that was not at war with England under the “Banishment Bill”.
The rebels were granted three days of freedom to say goodbye to their family and friends before they gave themselves up as prisoners.
Under the Banishment Bill, leaders such as William Aylmer was permitted to emigrate to Germany where he became an officer in the Austrian service. Hugh Ware was allowed to go to France where he entered the French service with the rank of Colonel Ware and George Luby proceeded to the United States of America where he died shortly after his arrival.
Bernard Duggan was eventually released from Naas gaol, where he had been a state prisoner. He was ordered to leave Kildare, where he had been tried for high treason, the murder of Captain Swayne and for his involvement in the battle of Prosperous.
The same charges were also sworn against another young man of the name of Thomas Wylde (also a rebel at Prosperous), and proved to the satisfaction of the court, as may be seen by Lord Longville’s speech in the first Parliament after the union of Great Britain and Ireland. Although the rebels were acquitted by the Amnesty Act, many were detained for long periods as state prisoners.
As Lieutenant Colonel Charles Stewart remarked, “Prosperous was the receptacle of the 1798 rebellion.”
The very first shots fired, the only victory for the united Irishmen, and the eventual signing of the truce, all occurred at Prosperous in county Kildare.
Despite the fact that the north Kildare rebels and Prosperous, held fast for over two months, longer than any other county, our learned scholars seem not to dwell on its importance in favour of events in Wexford and even Wicklow.
“Gradh mo chroidhe, my Leinster-men, you fanned the flame aglow”
THE MEN OF '98, "Who Fears to Speak of '98", Death of Father Michael Murphy at Arklow, 9th June, 1798
A colour poster depicting a harp and flags above seven portrait of the following:
Father Michael Murphy; Lord E. Fitzgerald; A. Hamilton Rowan; Thomas A. Emmet; William Orr; Michael Dwyer; and Wolfe Tone.
Prosperous Locals (L-R) Mark Cullen, Brian Moran and Darren Brereton hoist a replicate of the Prosperous United Irishmen flag on the very spot where it was last seen on the 19th June 1798.
(The flag was presented to Prosperous by Kildare’s Decade of Commemorations Committee)