Anthony Perry, born in County Down, Ireland…
May 1798 CE
Anthony Perry, born in County Down, Ireland to a Protestant family, has lived a prosperous life at Inch near the Wexford/Wicklow border as a gentleman farmer.
He had enlisted in the local yeomanry corps as a second lieutenant responding to the Governments appeal to save the kingdom from radicalism during the height of anti-Jacobin paranoia in the mid-1790s.
However, the atrocities he had witnessed, and may even have participated in, had disturbed him so much that he had taken the United Irish Oath in 1797 and had been made a colonel.
As a United Irish colonel, Perry is responsible for the organization and recruitment of the movement in north Wexford.
A measure of this success is evident by the fact that the brutal coercion campaign unleashed by the Government 1797-98 does not identify Wexford as a United Irish stronghold until barely a month before the eventual outbreak.
The arrival of the counterinsurgency campaign in Wexford, embodied by the dispatch of the dreaded North Cork Militia, ensures that high profile radicals like Perry will be the first to be subjected to arrest and interrogation.
On May 23, Perry is arrested and taken by the North Cork Militia to Gorey for interrogation.
After enduring 48 hours of torture including being pitchcapped, Perry breaks and reveals some names of comrades in the south Wexford movement but little of the north Wexford organization.
Acting upon the information tortured out of him, the authorities releas Perry on May 26 and concentrate mainly on a roundup of the United Irish leaders in Wexford town.
While the authorities concentrate on extracting intelligence about the rebel organization from southern leaders such as Bagenal Harvey, Edward Fitzgerald, and John Henry Colclough, the rebellion erupts rapidly after being sparked off by a clash at The Harrow where rebels under Fr.
John Murphy attack and defeat a small yeoman cavalry force.
A bloody series of raids for arms and attacks on loyalist forces ensues across the northern half of the county, countered by roaming bands of yeomen burning and killing indiscriminately.
Victories at battle of Oulart Hill and Enniscorthy follow, leaving the rebels in total control of the area between Enniscorthy and Gorey by May 29.
Despite his horrific wounds, Perry reports to the rebel camp at Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy on 29 May and is appointed as second in command to the northern army.
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