Gibbet Rath massacre

Gibbet Rath executions
Location	Curragh, County Kildare
Date	29 May 1798
Attack type	Shooting
Deaths	300–500
Perpetrator	British Army

The Gibbet Rath executions, sometimes called the Gibbet Rath massacre, refers to the execution of several hundred rebels by British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 at the Curragh of Kildare on 29 May 1798.

News of the outbreak of the rebellion had prompted Major-General Sir James Duff, Military Commander in Limerick, to gather a force of about 600 men, mainly Dublin militia, backed up by seven artillery pieces, and set out on a forced march to Dublin on 27 May. His twin objectives were to restore communications between the two cities and to crush any resistance encountered on the way. As the soldiers entered County Kildare they discovered the bodies of several rebel victims, among them Lieutenant William Giffard, the son of the commander of the Dublin militia, Captain John Giffard, which reportedly inflamed the soldiers.

However, by the time Duff's column arrived in Monasterevin in County Kildare, at 7.00 a.m. on 29 May, the bulk of the rebel forces had already accepted a government amnesty from Generals Gerard Lake and Ralph Dundas, following their defeat at the battle of Kilcullen and had surrendered at Knockaulin Hill, several miles to the east of the Curragh on 27 May. Not aware that the rebels were gathering to surrender on the Curragh plain, Duff reinforced his column and marched to the nearby town of Kildare, and on to the adjacent southwest corner of the Curragh.

Duff's force had by now grown to 700 militia, dragoons and yeomanry with four pieces of artillery (three having been presumably left at Monasterevin). The designated place of surrender, the ancient fort of Gibbet Rath, was a wide expanse of plain with little or no cover for miles around but neither the rebels nor Duff's force had seemingly any reason to fear treachery as a separate peaceful surrender to General Dundas at Knockaulin Hill, who was accompanied only by two dragoons, had been successfully accomplished without bloodshed.

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