Michael Dwyer

For other people named Michael Dwyer, see Michael Dwyer (disambiguation).

Michael Dwyer
Nickname	"The Wicklow Chief"
Born	Camara, County Wicklow, Ireland
Died	Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia
Allegiance	Society of the United Irishmen
Battles/wars	1798 rebellion Guerilla Campaign 1799-1803

Michael Dwyer (1772–1825) was a Society of the United Irishmen leader in the 1798 rebellion. He later fought a guerilla campaign against the British Army in the Wicklow Mountains from 1798-1803.

Early life

Dwyer was born in Camara, County Wicklow. In 1784 the family moved to a farm at Eadesown in the Glen of Imaal. Dwyer was a cousin of Anne Devlin who would later achieve fame for her loyalty to the rebel cause following the suppression of Robert Emmet's rebellion.

Dwyer in 1798 rebellion

Dwyer joined the Society of United Irishmen and fought with the rebels as captain under General Joseph Holt in battles during the summer of 1798 at Arklow, Vinegar Hill, Ballyellis and Hacketstown. Under Holt's leadership he withdrew to the safety of the Wicklow Mountains in mid-July when rebels could no longer operate openly following their defeat in the disastrous midlands campaign of July 1798. Together with Joseph Holt they tied down thousands of troops.

Guerilla Campaign

Dwyer and his men began a campaign targeting local loyalists and yeomen, attacking small parties of the military and eluding any major sweeps against them. His force was strengthened by many deserters from the military who headed to Wicklow as the last rebel stronghold and who became the dedicated backbone of his force as they could not be expected to be included in any future offer of amnesty.

Due to the constant hunt for him, Dwyer was forced to split and reassemble his forces and hide amongst civilian sympathisers to elude his pursuers. In December 1799 at Derrynamuck he and about a dozen comrades were sheltering in three cottages when an informer led a large force of the British soldiers to the area. The cottages were quickly surrounded, the first two surrendering but following consultation, Dwyer and his men decided to fight on after negotiating the safe passage of the women and children. In the hopeless gunfight which followed, the cottage caught fire and only Dwyer remained unwounded. At this stage, Dwyer's comrade, Sam McAllister stood in the doorway to draw the soldiers fire on him but which allowed Dwyer to slip out and make an incredible escape.

Dwyer and Robert Emmett

Dwyer later made contact with Robert Emmet and was apprised of plans for his revolt but was reluctant to commit his followers to march to Dublin unless the rebellion showed some initial success. The subsequent failure of Emmet's rising led to a period of repression and renewed attempts by the Government to wipe out Dwyer's forces. Methods adopted included attempts to deny him shelter among the civilian population by severely punishing those suspected of harbouring his men, offering of huge rewards for information, assigning thousands of troops to Wicklow, and building a series of barracks at Glencree, Laragh, Glenmalure and Aghavannagh and a military road through county Wicklow.

In December 1803 Dwyer finally capitulated on terms that would allow him safe passage to America but the government reneged on the agreement holding him in Kilmainham Jail until August 1805, when they transported him to New South Wales (Australia) as an unsentenced exile.

Australia

Dwyer had arrived in Sydney on 14 February 1806 in the Tellicherry and was given free settler status. He arrived with his wife and two eldest children. He was given a grant of 40.5 ha (100 acres) of land on Cabramatta Creek in Sydney. Michael Dwyer was quoted as saying that all Irish will be free in this new country (Australia). This statement had been used against him and he was arrested in February 1807 and imprisoned. On 11 May 1807 Dwyer was charged with conspiring to mount an Irish insurrection against British rule. An Irish convict stated in court that Michael Dwyer had plans to march on the seat of Government in Australia, at Parramatta. Dwyer did not deny that he had said that all Irish will be free but he did deny the charges of organising an Irish insurrection in Sydney. Dwyer had the powerful support of Australia's first Jewish policeman, John Harris, who expressed the opinion in court that he did not believe that Dwyer was organising a rebellion against the Government in Sydney. On 18 May 1807, Dwyer was found not guilty of the charges of organising an Irish insurrection in Sydney.

Governor William Bligh disregarded the first trial acquittal of Michael Dwyer. Bligh who regarded the Irish and many other nationalities with contempt, organised another trial for Michael Dwyer in which he was stripped of his free settler status and transported to Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) and Norfolk Island. After Governor Bligh was overthrown in the Rum Rebellion in 1808, the new Governor of New South Wales, George Johnston, who was present at Dwyer's acquittal in the first trial ordered that Michael Dwyer's freedom be reinstated. Michael Dwyer was later to become Chief of Police (1813–1820) at Liverpool, New South Wales but was dismissed in October for drunken conduct and mislaying important documents. In December 1822 he was sued for aggrandizing his farm. Bankrupted, he was forced to sell off most of his assets, although this did not save him from several weeks incarceration in the Sydney debtors' prison in May 1825. Here he evidently contracted dysentery, to which he succumbed in August 1825.

Originally interred at Liverpool, his remains were reburied in the Devonshire Street cemetery, Sydney, in 1878 by his grandson John Dwyer, dean of St Mary's Cathedral. In May 1898 the coincidence of the planned closure of the cemetery and centenary celebrations for the 1798 rebellion suggested the second re-interment of Dwyer and his wife in Waverley cemetery, where a substantial memorial was erected in 1900. The massive crowds attending Dwyer's burial and the subsequent unveiling of the monument testified to the unique esteem in which Irish-Australians held the former Wicklow hero.

Dwyer had seven children and has numerous descendants throughout Australia. In 2002, in Bungendore near Canberra, a family reunion took place with descendants of Michael Dwyer's family including descendants of related Australian Irish families the Donoghues and Doyles. One of Michael Dwyer’s sons was the owner of The Harp Hotel in Bungendore, New South Wales in circa 1838. Dwyer’s nephew John Donoghue (1822–1892), built The Old Stone House, Molongolo Rd, Bungendore, circa 1865, a huge strongly constructed Bungendore landmark and a monument to pioneering and hard-working Irish Australian settlers.

References

• Ruan O’Donnell, 'Dwyer, Michael (1772? - 1825)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, MUP, 2005, p. 110.

External links

• Dwyer at Princess Grace Irish Library
• The Dwyer-McAllister Cottage in the Glen of Imaal

Persondata
Name	Dwyer, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1772
Place of birth	Camera, County Wicklow, Ireland
Date of death	1825
Place of death	Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia