January 10th 1798: An upsurge in arms raids by Queen's County (Laois) United Irishmen is noted by Saunders's Newsletter which reports that "a body of rioters assembled near Timahoe" on the 4th "and proceeded to plunder many of the country gentlemen's houses in that neighbourhood of firearms".
There is also much unrest in Carlow on January 5th, owing to rumours that Orangemen stole a chalice from a Catholic chapel near the county town and plan to massacre its congregation. The Order is relatively strong in the county owing to the support of lesser gentry families such as the Rochforts, but are innocent of the allegation.
The story quickly traverses the 20 miles between Baltin glass in Wicklow and Stradbally in Queen's County, indicating that it is a ruse by Carlow-based United Irish agitators to frighten locals into rallying to their cause.
Similar rumours are circulated in Wicklow, Wexford and Kildare to facilitate illegal nocturnal gatherings where new recruits can be sworn, pike drills practised and numerical strength displayed.
The Carlow incident, however, is probably related to events in the adjoining parishes of Moyacomb and Barragh in the east of the county where 1,561 persons flock to sign a loyal address composed by Father Purcell of Clonegal which condemns the "united men or rather united devils".
Purcell is aggrieved by the recent shooting of the elderly Lorenzo Nixon at Killinure, Wicklow, whose deafness apparently caused him to ignore demands to surrender his guns.
The priest declares that United Irish "emissaries affirm that all they have in view is emancipation and reform; and they slander men most distinguished for integrity and worth, by saying they are of the brotherhood . . . they attribute to priests . . . the same ferocious principles".
Sporadic arms raiding and occasional shooting of loyalists in Leinster gives the authorities no cause for complacency. News of the death near Naas of a sergeant in the New Romney Horse is carried by Faulkner's Dublin Journal on January 6th with an assertion that "more murders have taken place in the last year" in Kildare "than have taken place throughout the whole Kingdom before".
This is an exaggeration but the county is a rebel stronghold owing to the considerable organisational talents of Lord Edward Fitzgerald's coterie, as well as the indisposition of the predominately liberal magistracy to implement the hard line powers at their command.
Scores of United Irishmen from Kilmacthomas, Dungarvan and Carrick-on-Suir in Waterford are committed to the county gaol by magistrates and yeomanry commanders.
The number of "capital" offenders swells to 63 by the 10th with others being sent directly to Passage for embarkation on the Princess guard ship. One of the seven Upper-third men dispatched from Carrick by Capt Jephson is Michael Quinlan, seized on charges of `having forcibly administered treasonable illegal oaths.'
On January 10th, the first of 400 "respectable tenantry" call to their landlord, Thomas Knox Grogan of Healthfield, Wexford, to swear the oath of allegiance. Most are small farmers between the Monaseed area west of Gorey and the coast where the United Irishmen are very strong. This is hailed by the Journal as a hopeful sign that "our threatened disturbances will speedily subside".
A correspondent writes to the Press on the 10th to praise the rejection by the Catholics of Ballynahinch, Down, of a loyal address "reprobating UNION" which had been proposed by the parish priest.
He comments that the people insisted they "knew of no such thing as Catholic interest separate from the interest of Ireland - and that they should always respect those clergy the most who had the least to do with political domination, particularly when they set themselves up to control the common sense of their flocks and to censure that brotherhood of affection [the United Irishmen] which rendered men dear to each other".