The Carnew Massacre blackened this date in 1798, in the Irish village of the same name.
It was the morrow of the outbreak of Ireland’s 1798 rebellion against British rule. This rising commenced on May 24 and foundered within weeks leaving a harvest of patriotic martyrs in its wake but those in the moment had not the advantage of hindsight — so as news of the fighting reached County Wicklow, adjacent to the rebel epicenter of Wexford, loyalists there authored a couple of notable summary atrocities by way of pre-emption.
On May 25, the British garrison at Carnew took 28 United Irishmen prisoners already being held in Carnew Castle and had them shot out of hand in an alley.
A similar mass execution of 36 nationalist prisoners occurred on the following day, May 26, at Dunlavin Green.
On this day..
- 1537: John and Margaret Bulmer, Bigod's rebels - 2020
- 1425: Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany - 2018
- 1940: Julien Vervaecke, Tour de France cyclist - 2017
- 1726: James Stephens and Patrick Barnel, broadsided - 2016
- 1987: Pawel Tuchlin, the Scorpion - 2015
- 1849: Washington Goode - 2014
- 1721: Joseph Hanno, "miserable African" - 2013
- 1872: Communards Serizier, Boin and Boudin - 2012
- 1911: Laura and Lawrence Nelson lynched - 2011
- 1946: Marcel Petiot, Vichy serial killer - 2010
- 1948: Witold Pilecki, Auschwitz infiltrator - 2009
- 1979: John Spenkelink, the harbinger - 2008