Mr Carolan, an ex-British Army  Schoolmaster, who lived in the Curragh Camp one time, says that in the penal days a gallows stood on the spot called the Gibbet Rath.

There too, in 1798, a party of 800 United men assembled, with pike and musket, ready when opportunity offered to strike a blow for freedom.

On learning that General Duff, with an army of 2,000 was marching through the Curragh from Cork to Dublin, the Irishmen eagerly prepared to meet him but to their  dismay, discovered that the female relatives who had come with them, had damped their powder. When Duff came up with his army the Irish were forced to surrender and Duff ordered his men to disarm them. One young lad before handing one his musket said "I might as well unload it" and fired into the ground. Duff pretended to think that the disarming party were being attacked so gave the order to "cut the Irish - down".

They broke and tried to flee but pursued by British cavalry but one was left to tell the tale of the massacre.

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