Michael Dwyer, "The Wicklow Chief", Convict "Tellicherry" 1806

Dwyer, Michael (1772–1825)

by Ruan O'Donnell

Michael Dwyer (1772?-1825), Irish revolutionary and political exile, was the eldest of seven children of John and Mary Dwyer of Camera, Wicklow, Ireland. The family moved to a mountainous twenty-four-acre (9.7 ha) farm at Eadestown, Glen of Imaal, in 1784. Schooled at Bushfield, then Ballyhubbock, Michael worked as an ostler for the Morris family and helped his father to tend sheep.

In the spring of 1797, with scores of relations and friends, he joined the Society of United Irishmen. Rebellion broke out in Wicklow on 23 May. After fighting at the battle of Arklow, he was promoted 'captain' on 24 June. Dwyer killed at least one Welsh cavalryman in an ambush at Ballyellis on 30 June. In mid-July, as the rebellion waned, he joined the militant rump commanded by Joseph Holt, which rejected amnesty terms, hoping for military assistance from France. Actions later in 1797 established Dwyer's reputation as a dynamic rebel leader. A core group attached to him kept fighting after Holt surrendered in November 1798.

On 16 October that year Dwyer had married Mary Doyle, of Cullentragh. He supported the conspiracy by Robert Emmet for an attempted coup d'etat in July 1803. After severe measures against the rebels were introduced in November his extended family was facing transportation and, to alleviate their situation and save other comrades from execution, Dwyer surrendered on 14 December 1803, anticipating migration to the United States of America. Instead, he was gaoled at Kilmainham pending deportation to New South Wales as an unsentenced exile.

With his wife and the two eldest of their six children, Dwyer reached Port Jackson in the Tellicherry on 14 February 1806; the other children were left with relations in Dublin. He was allocated 100 acres (40.5 ha) of uncleared land fronting Cabramatta Creek, adjacent to grants to his comrades Hugh 'Vesty' Byrne, John Mernagh, Arthur Devlin and Martin Burke. In February 1807 Governor Bligh arrested several of the group and on 11 May Dwyer was tried for sedition. Although acquitted, he was ordered to be sent to Norfolk Island, an act of injustice that aggrieved elements in the New South Wales Corps. In January 1808 he was moved to the Derwent settlement, Van Diemen's Land, where he spent a year before being allowed back to Cabramatta by the anti-Bligh clique. Governor Macquarie confirmed favourable decisions extended to Dwyer by William Paterson in 1809, paving the way for his full integration into colonial society in 1810. In August Dwyer became constable of the Georges River district and in December 1812 poundkeeper.

Active in the colony's Catholic community, in 1821, having amassed 610 acres (246.9 ha), he contributed £10 to St Mary's church building fund. He was appointed chief constable of Liverpool in May 1820 but was dismissed in October for drunken conduct and mislaying important documents. In December 1822 he was sued for aggrandizing his farm with Ann Stroud's. This spurred a major debtor Daniel Cooper to demand restitution of some £2000 invested in Dwyer's popular Harrow Inn. 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 on 23 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.

Michael Dwyer (1772?-1825), Irish revolutionary and political exile, was the eldest of seven children of John and Mary Dwyer of Camera, Wicklow, Ireland. The family moved to a mountainous twenty-four-acre (9.7 ha) farm at Eadestown, Glen of Imaal, in 1784. Schooled at Bushfield, then Ballyhubbock, Michael worked as an ostler for the Morris family and helped his father to tend sheep.

In the spring of 1797, with scores of relations and friends, he joined the Society of United Irishmen. Rebellion broke out in Wicklow on 23 May. After fighting at the battle of Arklow, he was promoted 'captain' on 24 June. Dwyer killed at least one Welsh cavalryman in an ambush at Ballyellis on 30 June. In mid-July, as the rebellion waned, he joined the militant rump commanded by Joseph Holt, which rejected amnesty terms, hoping for military assistance from France. Actions later in 1797 established Dwyer's reputation as a dynamic rebel leader. A core group attached to him kept fighting after Holt surrendered in November 1798.

On 16 October that year Dwyer had married Mary Doyle, of Cullentragh. He supported the conspiracy by Robert Emmet for an attempted coup d'etat in July 1803. After severe measures against the rebels were introduced in November his extended family was facing transportation and, to alleviate their situation and save other comrades from execution, Dwyer surrendered on 14 December 1803, anticipating migration to the United States of America. Instead, he was gaoled at Kilmainham pending deportation to New South Wales as an unsentenced exile.

With his wife and the two eldest of their six children, Dwyer reached Port Jackson in the Tellicherry on 14 February 1806; the other children were left with relations in Dublin. He was allocated 100 acres (40.5 ha) of uncleared land fronting Cabramatta Creek, adjacent to grants to his comrades Hugh 'Vesty' Byrne, John Mernagh, Arthur Devlin and Martin Burke. In February 1807 Governor Bligh arrested several of the group and on 11 May Dwyer was tried for sedition. Although acquitted, he was ordered to be sent to Norfolk Island, an act of injustice that aggrieved elements in the New South Wales Corps. In January 1808 he was moved to the Derwent settlement, Van Diemen's Land, where he spent a year before being allowed back to Cabramatta by the anti-Bligh clique. Governor Macquarie confirmed favourable decisions extended to Dwyer by William Paterson in 1809, paving the way for his full integration into colonial society in 1810. In August Dwyer became constable of the Georges River district and in December 1812 poundkeeper.

Active in the colony's Catholic community, in 1821, having amassed 610 acres (246.9 ha), he contributed £10 to St Mary's church building fund. He was appointed chief constable of Liverpool in May 1820 but was dismissed in October for drunken conduct and mislaying important documents. In December 1822 he was sued for aggrandizing his farm with Ann Stroud's. This spurred a major debtor Daniel Cooper to demand restitution of some £2000 invested in Dwyer's popular Harrow Inn. 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 on 23 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.Irish patriot Michael Dwyer (1772-1825) was 26 when the 1798 rising began and was soon involved in the conflict. When the English largely subdued the rebellion against them, Dwyer and his men continued the fight as a highly successful guerrilla unit. His bravery caught the imagination of the Irish people and he soon became a folk hero, evading capture until late in 1803 when some of the men serving under him surrendered voluntarily on condition they were sent to America, the ‘promised land’.

Despite initially agreeing to this the English reneged, and without a trial sentenced Dwyer and his men to transportation for life to the penal colony at Botany Bay. Ironically, because they were classified as state prisoners not convicts, when they arrived in Sydney in 1806 they were treated as free settlers. Even more ironically, Dwyer later became a constable and served in the Georges River area. He received a full pardon in 1814 and lived until 1825. At his death he was survived by his wife Mary and seven children. Buried in the former Devonshire Street Cemetery, now the site of Central Station, his grave was the site of an annual pilgrimage from 1886 onwards, which was organised by the Shamrock Club, an Irish social group.

Just before 1898, with the centenary of the Irish Rebellion soon to be celebrated, the Irish community decided that a suitably grand resting place for the ‘Wicklow Chief’, as Dwyer was known, was needed. A committee led by Dr Charles McCarthy paid ?50 for a plot in the centre of Waverley Cemetery. Two thousand pounds was needed to pay for the memorial’s grand design, an extraordinary amount of money at the time. To raise this, ‘1798 Committees’ were established all over NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, with fundraising efforts at one stage reaching all the way to New Zealand. So many ordinary Australians contributed that there is an inscription on the monument that reads ‘Erected by the Irish People and Sympathisers in Australia’. Michael and Mary Dwyer’s bodies were moved and reburied in Waverley Cemetery on May 22, 1898. Their funeral was a massive event, the largest funeral ever seen in the country with 400 horse-drawn carriages following the hearse and a procession of approximately 10,000 people. Enormous crowds lined the street to watch the funeral cortège move from St. Mary’s Cathedral to Waverley Cemetery.

One of the most unusual monuments in the cemetery is also one of the most imposing, the ‘1798 Memorial’, or, as it is frequently known, ‘The Irish Monument’. This memorial is significant not only for its beauty and majesty, but because it is the world’s largest monument to the Irish Rebellion against English rule in 1798. Built mainly of white Carrara marble, the huge structure is a rectangular shape, nine metres wide and seven metres deep, with a white marble Celtic cross rising nine metres above its rear wall. Carved on the base of the cross are the words: ‘In loving memory of all who dared and suffered in Ireland in 1798. Pray for the souls of Michael Dwyer the ‘Wicklow Chief’ and Mary his wife, whose remains are interred in this vault.’

Michael Dwyer - "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 United Irishmen leader in the 1798 rebellion. He later fought a guerrilla campaign against the British Army in the Wicklow Mountains from 1798–1803.

Dwyer was born in Camara, a townland in the Glen of Imaal County Wicklow. He was the eldest of seven children of farmer John Dwyer and his wife Mary (née Byrne), who had a farm in the widespread fields of Wicklow and supplied the men of the rebellion with food. In 1784 the family moved to a farm in Eadestown. 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.

1798 rebellion - Dwyer joined the Society of United Irishmen and, in the summer of 1798, he fought with the rebels as captain under General Joseph Holt in battles 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. 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. On 15 February 1799 at Dernamuck, 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 in the third one, Miley Connell's cottage, after negotiating the safe passage of women and children. In the hopeless gunfight which followed, the cottage caught fire and only Dwyer remained unwounded. At this stage, Dwyer's comrade, Antrim man Sam McAllister, stood in the doorway to draw the soldiers' fire on him, which allowed Dwyer to slip out and make an incredible escape.

Dwyer and Robert Emmet - 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, the offer of huge rewards for information, the assigning of thousands of troops to Wicklow, and the building of 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 as an unsentenced exile.

Dwyer arrived in Sydney on 14 February 1806 on the Tellicherry and was given free settler status. He was accompanied by his wife Mary and their eldest children and also by his companions, Hugh 'Vesty' Byrne and Martin Burke, along with Arthur Devlin and John Mernagh. He was given a grant of 40.5 ha (100 acres) of land on Cabramatta Creek in Sydney. Although he had originally hoped to be sent to the United States of America, Michael Dwyer was later 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 aggrandising his by now 620 acre farm. Bankrupted, he was forced to sell off most of his assets, which included a tavern called "The Harrow Inn", 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 Michael Dwyer's descendants joining descendants of related Australian Irish families, the Donoghoe's and the Doyles. In 2006, a reunion also took place to mark the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Tellicherry in Botany Bay. 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 Donoghoe (1822–1892), built The Old Stone House, Molongolo Rd, Bungendore, in circa 1865. This dwelling is a strongly constructed Bungendore landmark and a monument to pioneering and hard-working Irish Australian settlers