“Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day the first day of the session
The landlord’s marshal has decreed the rope will finish me”
It may have romantic connotations of a rapier wielding highwayman, but the term “Raparee” is actually an Anglicisation of the Irish word Rópaire, and it refers to the end that usually awaited these outlaws of the 16th and 17th century in Ireland. Funny enough the term “Tory” also originated from the lifestyle of these renegades and it comes from the Irish word Tóraí meaning someone who is on the run.
In the centuries previous to, and following the battle of the Boyne the wilds of a sparsely populated Ireland provided the shelter for outlaws who carried on the fight against the new authorities of English rule. Some were soldiers of the old Gaelic order and some were aligned with the Jacobite cause that continued as an aspiration until the battle of Culoden in 1745 finished that dream.
Séamas Mór Mac Murchaidh (1720-50) was one such Raparee from South Armagh. His grandfather had fought and died at the battle of Aughrim and he was hopeful of an overthrow of the crown. In 1745, along with his friend, the poet Peadar O Duirnín, he organised a monster rally on Slieve Gullion where he exhorted people to organise in preparation for the young pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie.
That didn’t go down well with the crown. In particular with a local “Tory Hunter” – a sort of bounty hunter of the crown who would hunt down rebellious Irish- named Johnson. The two eventually came to blows and Mac Murchaidh dealt a serious injury to Johnson.
Johnson called a truce which Mac Murchaidh unwisely granted. Unwise because, while he was licking his wounds Johnson alao offered a reward of £50 for Seamus’s capture. That was a huge amount of money in 1745.
It wasn’t out of character for Mac Murchaidh to act injudiciously. He cultivated a boastful reputation as a drinker and a charmer and this would be his undoing in the end. He liked to boast to his victims that he was “the handsomest man in Ireland” (“An fear ab fhear a bhíodh in Éireann”), which leaves the impression that he would rather his reputation to be known than cover his tracks.
Unfortunately it was his overindulgence in this weakness that lead to his hanging on St. Patrick’s day 1750, according to the song Amárach Lá fhéile Phádraig
There are a number of songs about Mac Murchaidh; some sung in his native home of Oriel and some that have travelled throughout Ireland and have had local place names inserted into the story. In the song Amárach Lá Fhéíle Phádraig, the prison of Clonmel is mentioned as his place of internment, but the final verse mentions localities in his native Ulster such as Loch Éirne.
It also has him speak his notorious boast “Is mise Séamus Mac Murchaidh an fear ab fhear a bhíodh in Éireann” – I’m Séamus Mac Murchaidh the handsomest man ever in Ireland.
Johnson’s £50 bounty was enough to entice the betrayal of Mac Murchaidh. According to the story, Mac Murchaidh had began to hide out with a mountain sheebeen owner, named MacDecker, who turned him in. Mac Decker had a daughter named Molly, who was romantically involved with Mac Murchaidh, so perhaps there was a double motive in the betrayal.
One of the stories has it that Molly was unhappy with Mac Murchaidh’s flirtatious habits and Johnson, knowing this, offered the reward to her and her father if they would trap him. With the aid of her father she did this, getting him insensibly drunk and off-guard and summoning Johnson and his men to capture him.
MacMurchaidh was imprisoned in Newry and was hanged. His body was left hanging for three days before it was taken down by his mother and buried in Creggan churchyard. There is a headstone in the graveyard which was erected by a family desendent in 1973.
There is a final twist to the tale. Mac Decker claimed his bounty but it was paid entirely in copper coins. Mac Decker, hauled the load home up the mountain and died of a heart attack from the strain.
Events were unkind to poor Molly also. According to folklore she was ostracised and suffered psychologically, and eventually she drowned herself.
Lorcán Mac Mathúna