Maher/Connors Commemoration

on Sunday 15th June 2003

at Ardristan Graveyard

The Plaque unveiled at Ardristin Cemetery on 15th June 2003

The inscription reads as follows

"Who Fears To Speak of '98"

"Men, die like heroes; your country will remember not the blood of the innocent; let not the word informer be written on the foreheads your children" Thus did Tom Connors of Ardristan encourage the three brave Maher brothers, his neighbours and fellow victims of abominable torture unto death on the triangle at Carlow Barracks, 24th May 1798. Taken down from the triangle, Connors was tortured further until his final words "My country and my God” presaged his death.
Unveiled by his great grand nephew Michael Nolan, Ardristan, 15th June, 2003

B'fhior don Chonchubhrach. Cuimhneofar go deo ar an gceathrar acu.

The following is a passage from the autobiography of William Farrell,''Voice of Rebellion".

"This certainly was a dreadful day. Among the many prisoners brought in was a man by the name of O'Connor, from Tullow, and three brothers of the name of Maher, from very near the same place. I could never find out what crimes they were charged with or what occasion there was to send them from Tullow to this town (not to be tried, for there was no trial on them, but to be sacrificed) as I am pretty sure there were few towns at the time but had men enough able and willing to do such work themselves, without applying to others. But, however that might be, these four men were brought out to the triangles and were the first I believe, punished in that way; for the blood that had been spilled, so far from satisfying the rage of the soldiers, seemed only to increase their thirst for more.

They began with the unfortunate Mahers and the youngest of them was stripped and tied up first. They commenced cutting him with the cat-o-nine-tails with all their fury for a considerable time but, this failing to extort any confession from him, they actually began to use the rough-rider's cutting whips on him till he was one wound from his shoulders to the calves of his legs. This torture was so excessive that he began to fail under it and cried out to them to stop, but as soon as the eldest brother heard him, he stamped his foot on the ground and exclaimed "Oh, what are you going to do? Oh, let us die like men ! Oh, let us die like brothers!" This had the desired effect; he uttered no complaint after to the last gasp. They then untied him and hung him up naked and bleeding as he was. The two other brothers were served the same way and stood it with a fortitude that astonished everyone, as they never cried out during the whole operation. O'Connor acted a different part, for from the first cut he got to the last, he made battle with them as fat as words could do it, by calling them murderers and every opprobrious name he could think of. This increased their fury to such a degree that they made his flesh fly in every direction, until the standers-by were fairly disgusted with the exhibition; even some soldiers accustomed to see men flogged turned away and could not bear to look on at the horrid tragedy. When their fury was fully satisfied, they untied him and hung him up with the Mahers.

What a pity it was and what a loss to any country, to lose four such men and to have lost them in such a manner. There could be no excuse, no palliation for the men that came into town as assailants. They came in with arms in their hands and though they did not use them, still they put people in terror of their lives; and no one, I believe, will deny that they deserved their faith. But these four men had no concern whatever with it but were sent in from Tullow, upon what charge I could never learn, but if they were even guilty of crime, surely taking their lives by hanging or shooting might be sufficient punishment, without, like savages, butchering them in such a manner.

This a sketch of the Triangle which was used to torture the Maher brothers and O’Connor at Carlow in 1798

 

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