Roddy McCorley

Roddy McCorley (Irish: Rodaí Mac Corlaí [ [http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/4138 An Phoblacht: Rodaí Mac Corlaí ] ] )(d. March 22 1799) was a United Irishman and a participant in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

McCorley, the son of a miller, led the rebellion in Duneane, County Antrim. A young Presbyterian radical, he and his family had been evicted from their farm before the rebellion due to the death of his father. After the rebellion he went into hiding for almost a year but was betrayed, captured by British soldiers and court-martialled in Ballymena.

He was executed on Good Friday 1799 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. His body was then dissected by the British and buried under the Belfast-Derry road until the mid 1800s, when he was exhumed and given a proper burial in an unmarked grave.

A well-known ballad about him, "Roddy McCorley", was written by Ethna Carbery (1866–1902). It was repopularised by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, The Dubliners, The Kingston Trio and others during the folk music revival of the 1960's, and recorded in 1995 by Shane MacGowan and The Popes for their album "The Snake".

McCorley's family continued the republican tradition and his grandson, Roger McCorley was a senior figure in the Belfast Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence of 1919-1922.

ources

* "The Summer Soldiers" - The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down" - A.T.Q Stewart (1995) ISBN 0-85640-558-2

References