Bartholomew Teeling

Captain Bartholomew Teeling (1774 in Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland – 24 September 1798, in Arbor Hill, County Dublin, Ireland) was a leader of the Irish forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and who carried out an act of bravery during the Battle of Collooney. He was captured at the Battle of Ballinamuck and executed for treason.

Teeling was educated at the Dubordieu School in Lisburn and at Trinity College Dublin. His younger brother Charles Teeling (1778–1850) went on to be a writer. In 1796 he enlisted in the United Irishmen and travelled to France to encourage support for a French invasion of Ireland.

Teeling returned to Ireland on 22 August 1798, as Chief Aide de Camp to General Humbert, and landed at Killala Bay between County Sligo and Mayo with French troops. On 28 August the combined forced captured Castlebar and declared the Republic of Connacht. The Franco-Irish troops then pushed east through County Sligo but were halted by a cannon which the British forces had installed above Union Rock near Collooney.

On 5 September 1798, Teeling cleared the way for the advancing Irish-French army by single handedly disabling a British gunner post during the Battle of Collooney in Sligo when he broke from the French ranks and galloped towards Union Rock. He was armed with a pistol and shot the cannon's marksman and captured the cannon. The French and Irish advanced and the British, after losing the cannon position, retreated towards their barracks at Sligo, leaving 60 dead and 100 prisoners.

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