School: Caroreigh (roll number 6700)

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1. The Battle of Horetown, 1798

   

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   There was an ancestor of James and Moses Fitz Harris and of Mrs. Mills of Cullenstown, who took a prominent part in the battle of Horetown, in the month of June, 1798. He was a smith by trade and made many a pike. His marksmanship with a gun was marvellous, as this story will show. He hid himself in ivy, in the tall tree at the end of the back lane, which comes out on the stony road from Jeffarces, opposite to the lane leading to Kavanaghs of the Pound, Horetown, on whose land many insurgents and yeomen are buried. The English troops were commanded by Sir John Moore, who was afterwards mortally wounded at the battle of Corunna in North Western Spain, during the Peninsular War fought between the English and Napolean Bonaparte.
   
   Fitz Harris shot numbers of yeoman from the above mentioned tree. On one occasion he saw an English officer with raised pistol about to shoot an insurgent and he promptly put a bullet through the officers eye. He was finally arrested and court-martialled before Sir John Moore. He was condemned to death, but because Sir John Moore was one of the few humane men in the English army in 1798 and because he admired Fitz Harrise’s skill

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Rochford

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Camaross, Co. Wexford

   Informant

   Rev. J. Crosbie

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Haresmead, Co. Wexford