Life
McCorley, the son of a miller, participated in the rebellion in Duneane, County Antrim. Some sources indicate that Roddy was a young Roman Catholic Defender, while others claim that he was a United Irishman of the Presbyterian faith. He and his family had been evicted from their farm before the rebellion owing to the execution of his father for stealing sheep, a charge thought to have been politically motivated. After the rebellion, Roddy went into hiding for almost a year, joining a company of soldiers who had deserted to the Irish cause, who were excluded from the terms of "surrender and protection" for fugitives. This company was called the "Archer gang" by their enemies. During an attempt to flee to the United States, McCorley was betrayed, captured by British soldiers and court-martialed in Ballymena. The trial and subsequent execution, where he is named "Roger MacCorley", is given in a contemporary issue of the The Belfast News-Letter issued in March, 1800.
He was executed on 28 February 1800 in the town of Toomebridge "near the bridge of Toome" which had been partially destroyed by rebels in 1798 to prevent the arrival of reinforcements from west of the River Bann.
A letter published in the Belfast Newsletter. describes how he was executed at Toome Bridge. “His body was then given up to dissection and afterwards buried under the gallows.”
The letter then goes on to say: “it is proper to observe that the whole part of his life was devoted to disorderly proceedings of every kind”.
McCorley's body remained under the bridge, which formed part of the Belfast–Derry road, until the mid-19th century, when he was exhumed by a nephew working on road development and given a proper burial in an unmarked grave in Duneane churchyard.
His great-grandson, Roger McCorley, was an officer in the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921.
Robert Gogan points out that the melody for Roddy McCorley was later used in the song, Sean South from Garryowen, which tells the story of a failed IRA attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary Barracks in County Fermanagh in 1957.
Read more about this topic: Roddy McCorley
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