Gibbet Rath Massacre - Massacre

Massacre

General Duff's force had by now grown to 700 militia, dragoons and yeomanry with four pieces of artillery (three having been presumably left at Monasterevan). The designated place of surrender, the ancient fort of Gibbet Rath, was a wide expanse of plain with little or no cover for miles around but neither the rebels nor Duff's force had seemingly any reason to fear treachery as a separate peaceful surrender to General Dundas at Knockaulin Hill, who was accompanied only by two dragoons, had been successfully accomplished without bloodshed.

By the time of Duff's arrival at Gibbet Rath on the morning of 29 May, an army of between 1,000–2,000 rebels were waiting to surrender in return for the promised amnesty. They were subjected to an angry tirade for their treason by Duff who ordered them to kneel for pardon and then to stack their arms. Shortly after the weapons were stacked an infantry and cavalry assault resulted in the death of about 350 men. Accounts of why the massacre began differ. Rebel claims that Duff ordered his troops to attack the disarmed and surrounded men were denied by Duff himself who claimed that the rebels fired on his men, while another source recorded “one man in the crowd, saying he would not hand over his fire-lock loaded, blazed it off in the air”. However, Duff redrafted his own official report of the engagement before submission to Dublin Castle, his final draft was transmitted without the references to his knowledge of the surrender preparations. The original report read as follows with the items in brackets excised from his final report;

"My Dear Genl. (I have witnessed a melancholy scene) We found the Rebels retiring from this Town on our arrival armed. We followed them with Dragoons; I sent on some of the Yeomen to tell them, on laying down their arms, they should not be hurt. Unfortunately some of them Fired on the Troops; from that moment they were attacked on all sides, nothing could stop the Rage of the Troops. I believe from Two to Three hundred of the Rebels were killed. (They intended, we are told, to lay down their arms to General Dundas). We have 3 men killed & several wounded. I am too fatigued to enlarge. I have forwarded the mails to Dublin."

The grieving Captain John Giffard expressed his own satisfaction as follows;

"My troops did not leave my hero unavenged - 500 rebels bleaching on the Curragh of Kildare—that Curragh over which my sweet innocent girls walked with me last Summer, that Curragh was strewed with the vile carcasses of popish rebels and the accursed town of Kildare has been reduced to a heap of ashes by our hands."