A new rebel executive was
broken up by the arrest of two brothers named Sheares, who were
eventually hanged as traitors. An outbreak of rebellion was certain; it
was forced on prematurely by drastic measures of repression. Though
nothing can excuse the barbarities perpetrated under the shield of
so-called martial law, severe repression was certainly necessary.
Without it the conspiracy would have continued to grow, and a rebellion
coincident with a foreign invasion would have been in the highest degree
dangerous. The rebels lost their leaders; their movements were paralysed
in some districts and crippled in others; they saw no hope except in an
immediate outbreak, and were driven to it by intolerable severities. So
far the system pursued by the government was successful. Yet in some
districts the terror and rage it excited stimulated rebellion, and when
rebellion broke out led to horrible reprisals. The rising began on an
appointed day, May 23. Attacks were made on the garrisons at Naas,
Clane, and other places in Kildare. Nearly everywhere they were repulsed
with heavy loss, the catholics among the militia and yeomanry behaving
with perfect loyalty. It was a sanguinary struggle. The rebels
surprised a detachment of the North Cork militia by night, and
slaughtered them, killing many of them in their beds. The troops gave
little quarter; rebels taken in arms were commonly flogged, shot, or
hanged without trial. The citizens of Dublin, where the rebels had been
thoroughly cowed by floggings and hangings, were zealous in preparing to
defend their city. On the south-west small bodies of troops routed the
rebels with heavy loss at Carlow and Hacketstown. The communications of
Dublin were secured on the north by a loyalist victory at Tara, where,
on the 26th, about 400 yeomanry and fencibles defeated ten times their
number of rebels, and on the west by another victory. By the 31st the
rebels in Meath, Kildare, and Carlow had lost all heart.

[Sidenote: _WEXFORD REBELLION._]

By that time rebellion had broken out in the county of Wexford. There it
soon took the form of a religious war, though the catholic troops
remained faithful to their colours. There were only 600 regular troops
and militia in the county, the loyalist force being composed chiefly of
yeomanry, who were generally protestants. With and without the approval
of the magistrates, they had begun to practise the usual methods of
enforcing disarmament, burning hous