RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Derry (Londonderry) => Topic started by: Lily52 on Tuesday 13 August 19 16:27 BST (UK)
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My ancestor, Robert Macafee from Ballymoney, was executed in Coleraine for being involved with the 1798 Rebellion. I would love to know where this took place, and whether or not there is a burial place linked with such executions - or indeed some sort of memorial. Grateful for any info.
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Just in case you didn't see this. No further information but Robert gets a mention.
http://www.irishnews.com/opinion/2014/11/20/news/1798-rising-in-north-antrim-108508/
Andrew
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Coleraine Historical Society is on Facebook.
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Thank you Andrew - I do have that article in the Irish News. Just wish I had some more info about Robert and his hanging. Thank you also, Maiden Stone, but I don't do Facebook! I have emailed the Historical Society and hopefully they'll get back to me. :)
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you could write to one of the local papers in Ballymoney asing for help.
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Oops - posted something in error!
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Thanks Rathmore, I've emailed a Ballymoney paper. But in the meantime I have found where Robert's memorial is. It's included in a list of names of others who lost their lives in the 1798 Rebellion. The memorial is in the Republican section of Milltown Cemetery in Belfast. Although I was aware Robert and most other Ulster rebels were Presbyterians, fighting alongside Catholics for more liberal laws and fairer treatment, I never thought my ancestor would be remembered in a Republican memorial!! :D
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on the memorial I have seen it says Robert McAfee from Currysiskan
I have read the Presbyterian suffered more when they were caught because they supported the rebel army. Good men fighting along side RC. Good that he is mention on the Republican memorial. You should be very proud of him.
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on the memorial I have seen it says Robert McAfee from Currysiskan
Might this have been where your ancestor was from - Currysheskin.
https://www.townlands.ie/antrim/dunluce-upper/ballymoney/currysheskin/
KG
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Both PRONI in Belfast and the National Archives in Dublin have extensive holdings of Government documents relating to the uprising. They are not on-line and you have to go in person to access them, but if you are especially interested in events, you might want to study them. For example, the “Black Book of the Rebellion” (MIC 575/1 at PRONI) lists 200 or more involved in the uprising.
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That sounds about right, Rathmore. And indeed I do feel proud of him - wanting fairness and equality for everyone, no matter what their religion.
Currysisken was the McAfee family farm out at Macfin from the 1650's, KG. I think it only left the family around the 1930s, when my grandfather sold it. :-[
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Thanks for that, Elwyn. I'll be on the train to PRONI this week! :)
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Thanks for that, Elwyn. I'll be on the train to PRONI this week! :)
The Caldwell story contains a fairly detailed account of that family’s involvement in the 1798 uprising (and their lives later in the USA). T3541/5/2 at PRONI. Written towards the end of John Caldwell's life, around 1848, it’s a couple of hundred pages and mentions many Ballymoney area folk. Keith Beattie is an expert on the subject and has a book on the 1798 uprising in that area. He told me that some of the Caldwell account is probably exaggerated (in Caldwell’s favour) and so may not be 100% reliable but for all that, it's contemporaneous and names a lot of people in and around Ballymoney in 1798. Your ancestor may be mentioned. I don’t know.