Rapparees (from the Irish,
ropairí, plural of
ropaire, actually meaning
half pikeA Spontoon is a type of European lance that came into being alongside the pike. The spontoon was in wide use by the mid 1600s, and it continued to be used until the mid to late 1800s....
or a pike-wielding person) were
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
guerrillaGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
fighters who operated on the
JacobiteJacobitism was the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
side during the 1690s
Williamite war in IrelandThe Williamite War in Ireland, also known as the Jacobite War in Ireland and in Ireland as Cogadh an Dá Rí or The War of the Two Kings, was the opening conflict following the deposition of King James II in 1688 when he attempted to regain the throne of his Three Kingdoms from his daughter Mary II...
. Subsequently the name was also given to
banditBrigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.- Origin of the word :...
s and highwaymen in Ireland - many former guerrillas having turned to crime after the war was over.
There was a long tradition of
guerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
in Ireland before the 1690s.
Rapparees (from the Irish,
ropairí, plural of
ropaire, actually meaning
half pikeA Spontoon is a type of European lance that came into being alongside the pike. The spontoon was in wide use by the mid 1600s, and it continued to be used until the mid to late 1800s....
or a pike-wielding person) were
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
guerrillaGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
fighters who operated on the
JacobiteJacobitism was the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
side during the 1690s
Williamite war in IrelandThe Williamite War in Ireland, also known as the Jacobite War in Ireland and in Ireland as Cogadh an Dá Rí or The War of the Two Kings, was the opening conflict following the deposition of King James II in 1688 when he attempted to regain the throne of his Three Kingdoms from his daughter Mary II...
. Subsequently the name was also given to
banditBrigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.- Origin of the word :...
s and highwaymen in Ireland - many former guerrillas having turned to crime after the war was over.
Wood kerne and Tories
There was a long tradition of
guerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
in Ireland before the 1690s. Irish irregulars in the 16th century were known as
ceithearnaigh choille,
"wood-kerne", a reference to native Irish foot-soldiers called
ceithearnaigh, or "kerne".
In the
Irish Confederate WarsThis article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....
of the 1640s and 50s, irregular fighters on the
Irish ConfederateConfederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...
side were known as
"tories", from the Irish word
tóraidhe (modern
tóraí) meaning "pursued man". The tories were usually Confederate soldiers whose units had broken up and who regrouped in small bands in rugged country such as the
Wicklow MountainsThe Wicklow Mountains are a range of mountains in the southeast of Ireland. They run in a north-south direction from south County Dublin across County Wicklow and into County Wexford...
or the
Bog of AllenThe Bog of Allen is a large peat bog in the centre of Ireland between the rivers Liffey and Shannon.The Irish Peatland Conservation Council describes the bog as "an important area of peatland, as much a part of Irish natural heritage as the Book of Kells." The bog, however, is in danger now...
.
From 1650-53, during the
Cromwellian conquest of IrelandThe Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649...
, the tories caused the occupying English Parliamentarian forces a great deal of trouble, attacking vulnerable garrisons, tax-collectors and supply columns and then melting away when faced with detachments of English troops.
Henry IretonHenry Ireton , was an English general in the army of Parliament during the English Civil War. He was the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell.-Early life:...
and
John HewsonColonel John Hewson was a soldier in the New Model Army and signed the death warrant of King Charles I, making him a regicide.-Life:...
, the Parliamentarian commanders, both led punitive columns into the Wicklow mountains to try and root out the tory bands, but without success.
The guerrillas were eventually defeated by evicting all civilians from areas where they operated, selling those who refused to surrender as indentured labours and finally publishing surrender terms allowing tories to leave the country to enter military service in France and Spain.
The last organised bands of tories surrendered in 1653. After the war, many tories continued their activities as ordinary criminals, the Cromwellian authorities called them "private tories".
The ranks of tories remained filled throughout the post-war period by displaced Irish Catholics whose land and property was abusively
stolen'Extortion', outwresting, or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly...
in the
Cromwellian SettlementPlantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties, but principally in the provinces of Munster and Ulster. The lands were then granted by Crown authority to colonists from Britain...
.
Redmond O'HanlonRedmond O'Hanlon was a 17th-century Irish tóraidhe or rapparee , and an important figure in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.- Early life :...
was one of the most famous of the post-war outlaws.
Similar
outlawAn outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law".In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" , and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal...
s were to be found in contemporary Scotland, known as mosstroopers.
The Williamite War
In the 1690s, during the
Glorious RevolutionThe Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians with an invading army led by the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau who, as a result, ascended the English throne as William III of England...
, the label "
toryToryism is a traditionalist political philosophy, which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is most prominent in Great Britain, but also features in some parts of The Commonwealth — particularly in Canada...
" was insultingly given to the English supporters of
James IIJames II & VII was King of England and Ireland as James II, and Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, to associate them with the Irish rebels and bandits of a generation earlier. In Ireland, Irish Catholics supported James - becoming known as
JacobitesJacobitism was the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
.
Under Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, each locality had to raise a regiment to support the Jacobite cause. Most did so, but James and his French backers did not have the resources to arm and pay them all, so many of them were disbanded.
It was from these bands that most of the Rapparees were organised. They armed themselves with whatever they could find or take from Protestant civilians, including
musketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder.Usually, the musket is thought to be the weapon that replaced the arquebus, and was in turn replaced by the rifle...
s, long knives (
sceana or "skiens") and half-pikes.
The rapparees got their name from this last weapon - a
pikeA pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used two-handed and used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown...
about 6 feet (2 m) long, cut down from the standard military pike which was up to 16 feet (5 m) long - which was known in
IrishIrish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...
as a
rapaire.
Throughout the campaign, the rapparees caused major logistical problems to the Williamite army, raiding their rear areas and killing their soldiers and supporters. Many rapparee bands developed a bad reputation among the general civilian population, including among Catholics, for robbing indiscriminately.
George Story, a Williamite officer, tells us that the rapparees hid their weapons in bogs when Williamite troops were in the area and melted into the civilian population, only to re-arm and reappear when the troops were gone.
The rapparees were a considerable help to the Jacobite war effort, tying down thousands of Williamite troops who had to protect supply depots and columns.
The famous rapparee "
Galloping HoganMichael "Galloping" Hogan was born in the parish of Doon, at the foot of the Slieve Phelim hills in East Limerick.Possibly previously a relatively wealthy landowner, he became a 'rapparee' or brigand following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland....
" is said to have guided Patrick Sarsfield's cavalry raid that destroyed the Williamite's siege train at the
siege of Limerick (1690)Limerick, a city in western Ireland, was besieged twice in the Williamite War in Ireland, 1689-1691. On the first of these occasions, in August to September 1690, its Jacobite defenders retreated to the city after their defeat at the Battle of the Boyne...
.
Social Bandits?
Most rapparees surrendered at the end of the war. Some however, left to serve in foreign armies. Hogan, for instance, ended up in Portugal and served as a senior officer in the Portuguese army.
Many rapparee bands operated in Ireland well into the 18th century. Famous figures include Count
Redmond O'HanlonRedmond O'Hanlon was a 17th-century Irish tóraidhe or rapparee , and an important figure in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.- Early life :...
, and
Eamonn Ryan -
Éamonn an Chnoic"Éamonn an Chnoic" is a popular song in traditional Irish music. It is a slow, mournful ballad with a somber theme and no chorus....
("Ned of the Hill"), who entered Irish folklore through songs and poems about their exploits.
The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
released a song based on Ryan, titled "Young Ned of the Hill", in 1989.
Some historians see the rapparees as an Irish version of the "social bandit" described by the historian
Eric HobsbawmEric John Ernest Hobsbawm, CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian and author, one of the most influential British historians of the late twentieth century.-Life:...
—who is an outlaw but not regarded as a criminal by his own community.
Rapparees in fiction
Raparees have often been depicted in fiction, for example in
Thomas FlanaganThomas Flanagan or Tom Flanagan may refer to:People:* Thomas Flanagan , Irish civil engineer and politician* Tommy Flanagan , American jazz pianist...
's
Year of the French, "Joshua's son Jonathan, who in 1690 had raised his company to serve King William at the Boyne and Aughrim and Limerick, rode home to Mount Pleasant and defended it for five years against the sporadic sallies of the rapparees, the swordsman, masterless now, of the defeated
James StuartJames Stuart may refer to:*King James I of England, James VI of Scotland *King James II of England, James VII of Scotland *James Francis Edward Stuart , "the Old Pretender", claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland...
."
Captain Cooper also boasts that, "When your great lords were off in England, it was men like my great grandfather fought off the rapparees."
Blending in with regular civilians and hiding their weapons in the bogs, these civilians were often able to avoid being captured or killed by enemy troops such as Captain Cooper's great grandfather.