The Young Ireland 1848 rebellion against the British

How Ireland's 1848 rebellion against the British ended in a cabbage patch

The Young Ireland rising collapsed after a single brief skirmish outside a widow's farmhouse in Co Tipperary, leaving its leader facing the gallows.

IrishCentral Staff

Jul 29, 2020

On July 29, 1848, the Young Ireland movement launched the revolt it hoped would drive the British out of Ireland, only for the whole affair to fall apart in a Tipperary cabbage patch. The clash at Widow McCormack's house near Ballingarry ended with leader William Smith O'Brien under arrest and a death sentence for treason that was later commuted to transportation to Tasmania.

On July 29, 1848, the Young Ireland movement's attempt at a rebellion against the British came to an abrupt end, culminating in the arrest of its leader, William O’Brien Smith.

Just a year after Black ‘47, the worst year of the Irish Great Hunger, Young Ireland was hoping to rise up and overthrow the British, but with the starving Irish just struggling to stay alive, dying, or emigrating in thousands, their revolutionary talk did little to act as a call to arms for the average Irish person.

In 1846, O’Brien Smith, alongside John Mitchel, formed the Irish Confederation with the Young Ireland movement, which was dedicated to direct action against the British. Two years later, they were already calling for open rebellion, despite the fact that Ireland was now in the third year of the devastating famine, which had left millions of the country’s people in brutal starvation.

Whereas the mistreatment of the Irish people by the British had rightly led to an increased radicalism in the Irish nationalist movement, without the general Irish population able to think of anything other than staying alive, it seemed doomed to failure, especially after the arrest of Mitchel before the rebellion had even started. He was convicted of sedition and transported to a prison colony in Australia before the revolt could begin, a move that led to an increased fervor to revolt among the leaders who remained.

On July 29, 1848, O’Brien Smith launched his rebellion but was quickly brought to heel in Co. Tipperary, where a brief skirmish in a cabbage patch saw the attempt crushed by a government police detachment. This fight became known as the "Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch."

He was also sentenced to death for treason, but his sentence was commuted to transportation to the penal colony in Tasmania.