Roddy McCorley

Early years and the 1798 rebellion

Roddy McCorley was the son of a miller and was born near Toome in the parish of Duneane, County Antrim. A few years before the 1798 rebellion McCorley's father is believed to have been executed for stealing sheep. These charges may have been politically motivated in an attempt to remove a troublesome agitator at a time of great social unrest. Following his father's execution, his family were evicted from their home.

There is uncertainty as to whether McCorley actually actively involved with the predominantly Presbyterian United Irishmen or the predominantly Catholic Defenders. McCorley's role in the 1798 rebellion itself is unrecorded. In a poem written 100 years after the rebellion by Ethna Carbery, he is claimed to have been one of the leaders of the United Irishmen at the Battle of Antrim, however there is no contemporary documentary evidence to support this claim or prove that he was even active in the rebellion.

Archer's Gang and capture

After the rebellion, McCorley joined the notorious Archer's Gang made up of former rebels. Some of these men had been British soldiers who changed sides in the conflict, and as such were guilty of treason and thus exempt from the terms imposed on the United Irishmen. This meant that they were always on the run in an attempt to evade capture. This "quasi-rebel" group were claimed to have attacked loyalists and participated in common crime. It is believed that McCorley was caught whilst trying to emigrate to America, having been betrayed by an informer.

Death

After McCorley was arrested he was tried by court martial in Ballymena and sentenced to be hanged "near the Bridge of Toome", modern day Toome in the parish of Duneane. His execution occurred on 28 February 1800. This bridge had been partially destroyed by rebels in 1798 to prevent the arrival of loyalist reinforcements from west of the River Bann.

His body was then dismembered and buried under the gallows, on the main Antrim to Derry road. A letter published in the Belfast Newsletter a few days after McCorley's execution gave an account of the execution and how McCorley was viewed by some. In it he is called Roger McCorley, which may be his proper Christian name.

In 1852, McCorley's nephew Hugh McCorley was appointed foreman of construction of a new bridge across the River Bann at Toome. Hugh made plans to recover his uncle's body and on 29 June 1852, buried him in an unmarked grave at Duneane parish graveyard.

His great-grandson, Roger McCorley, was an officer in the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921.

In popular culture

Despite being without any mention in Presbyterian folklore and no contemporary evidence of McCorley's actual presence in the United Irishmen rebellion, he is claimed by A. T. Q. Stewart as being a major figure in nationalist martyrology due to a song by Ethna Carbery called "Roddy McCorley", written in the 1890s.

It was repopularised by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, The Dubliners, The Kingston Trio, and others during the folk music revival of the 1960s, and recorded in 1995 by Shane MacGowan and The Popes for their album The Snake. Heather Dale recorded a version for her 2006 album The Hidden Path. The melody for "Roddy McCorley" was reused in 1957 for "Sean South", about a failed operation that year during the IRA's "Border Campaign".

An account of McCorley's career compiled from correspondence with his descendants in the early twentieth century, Who Fears to Speak of '98?, was written by the Belfast antiquary and nationalist Francis Joseph Biggar. It contains an edited version of an early 19th-century ballad about Roddy McCorley's fate.