User:Jnestorius/Rebel Cork

Todo

• Any evidence for Contae na Reibiliúnach, Corcaigh na Reibiliúnach?
• archaic spellings: Corke, Corkye; Rebell, Rebbel, Rebelle

Contemporary

Before Fenians

Calendars on 1603 rebellion:

• Carew manuscripts "A brief Relation of the Rebellion of the city of Cork"
• State Papers: Many documents up to no. 113 p. 76 relate to rebellion of Cork. Also extract from Carew [above] in Preface. No. 113 re James Archer (Jesuit) "If Archer cannot be intercepted by other means, he [Geoffrey Fenton] is of opinion that the Mayor of Cork, Florence McArtye, and those Roches of Kinsale should be severally put to the question for Archer"

"The Sceptic" (1809) by Thomas Moore compares British attitudes to United Irishmen and Spanish American wars of independence:

Thus, selfish still the same dishonouring chain
She binds in Ireland, she would break in Spain;
While prais'd at distance, but at home forbid,
Rebels in Cork are patriots at Madrid!

Moore was quoted by:

• The Nation (1861) re unionist press criticism of William Smith O'Brien's support for László Teleki (exiled veteran of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) after his 1860 extradition from Saxony to Austria.
• Henry O'Neill (1868) contrasting British press support for '"Enslaved Greece," "oppressed Poland," "downtrodden Italy."'
• The Catholic Record (1876, Philadelphia) on the Catalpa rescue.
• c. 1882 nationalist press comment on the Urabi revolt

1858–1868

Phoenix National and Literary Society in Skibbereen, founded 1856 by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, merged with IRB 1858, trials 1859.

Events in Cork

1861: when Terence MacManus's body was returned to Ireland for burial, the Cork Interment Committee secured a mass in Cove, falsely reported as a High Mass by the Bishop of Cloyne in the cathedral; whereas the Dublin Interment Committee were refused a lying-in-state. Perhaps this was spun into the idea that Cork clergy were more rebellious than Dublin?

August 1865:

a few days ago, there occurred at Dangan, near Youghal, a scene between the Fenians and the police that ended in bloodshed-the usual termination of Irish fights. ... It appears that the county of Cork is the chief focus of this miserable faction. ... A Cork journal says:—

"That the Fenian Brotherhood are daily numerically increasing in this locality is unquestionable; that they are growing more and more careless as to whether their movements are observed or not is also quite apparent. Little attempt is made at concealment or secrecy. They no longer seek the cover of the night to practice their evolutions or to hold their meetings. In open day they assemble, not on unfrequented mountains or lonely out of the way places, but close to the city, and even march along the public roads in military fashion, in closely-packed and well-ordered ranks. They discuss their plans and avow their intentions almost without reserve. At least, such a state of things exists in this part of the country, and to a greater extent than is generally known."

October 1865:

If they [Irish Americans] ever expected that the North [of Ireland] was about to plunge itself into an English war for the sake of some hundreds of Cork shopboys, led on by the terrible John Mitchell, they are by this time undeceived.

Trials related to seizures at The Irish People: special commission opened in Dublin 27 November 1865, moved to Cork in December, closed 2 February 1866.

December 1865:

Of those 310 selected men [from the 3000 on the jury-list on the basis of having the most property] there are the 100 magistrates who, at the meeting of the county called by Lord Fermoy [Lord Lieutenant of Cork], recommended the county to be proclaimed, and a prosecution to be raised against all those suspected of Fenianism.

July 1866

• [p. 107] Those cases ranged through the whole area of the crime of treason, from the offence of Sergeant Darragh, who planned a mutiny at Cork, to the rebellious ballad-singing of the tipsified privates at Enniskillen, who got as far only as chanting "The Fenian Men," and "The Green above the Red," in wayside public-houses.
• [p. 109] The disclosures at recent courts-martial in Dublin seemed less serious in popular estimation than those which caused such excessive apprehension some time before at Cork; and yet, although from the present weakness of Fenianism there was a disposition to treat the Dublin inquiries lightly, the mutiny planned for Clonmel was the really serious part of the military plot, and it would not be for the nation's advantage to pass by the lesson which it teaches or the warning which it supplies. From the evidence of the approver-soldiers and the testimony of a detective, it is deducible that Clonmel was the focus of the Fenian military arrangements.
• [p. 112] It is impossible that what was going on at Cork, Clonmel, and other places, could have remained concealed so long if the officers most in communication with the men had been alive to their responsibilities.

27 Nov 1866:

However, last week imparted some solidity to the subject. Two large cases of muskets, of a pattern to carry much further than the Enfield rifle, have been stopped at Cork, duly directed to a business firm in that city. A number of pikes and bullets have been found at Limerick, and it is stated as a matter of notoriety that the Fenians liberated on their parole and despatched to America have eluded the vigilance of our police and made their way back into Ireland. Why their word should ever have been taken or trusted for five minutes we cannot imagine, but there they are, swelling the train at Fenian funerals, and directing nightly drillings.

9 March 1867

THE great Fenian outbreak in Ireland has come at last ... a simultaneous rising has taken place at frequent intervals, along a line of at least two hundred miles of country, extending from Drogheda, by way of Dublin and the Wicklow mountains, to Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. ... In the counties of Tipperary and Limerick, and round the city of Cork, large bodies of Fenians have been engaged in attacks on the police, in tearing up the railways, cutting the telegraphic wires, and general preparations for a rising.

14 March 1867

When men have to act in secret, under the eye of the police, at widely different places, complete concert becomes impossible. ... Thus the "rising" in Kerry occurred some days before any movement was made anywhere else. ... A few days later similar "risings" occurred in Cork and in Queen's County and Kildare and Louth, each apparently consisting of the marching and countermarching of small bands, whose operations are confined to attacks on police "barracks," of one of which they are said, by the telegraph, to have secured possession.

4 May 1867:

[trials at Dublin Commission and Cork Special Commission] THE CORK SPECIAL COMMISSION.-Chief Justice Monahan, Justice George, and Justice Keogh arrived in Cork on Wednesday afternoon, by the mail train, and were escorted through the city by a troop of 12th Lancers and a large body of mounted constabulary. Their lodgings are guarded by a company of the 17th Regiment of Foot and a body of police. The special commission was opened on Thursday. There are 55 prisoners for high treason, and 13 for Whiteboy offences. On Thursday true bills were found against 15 of the prisoners, namely, John M'Clure, Edward Kelly, David Joyce, Jeremiah Aher, David Connins, and Thomas Bowler, who were concerned in the attack on Knockadown police-barracks; also James F. X. O'Brien, Francis Holmes, Michael J. Thompson, Eugene Lombard, Simon Downey, Morgan M'Swiney, Francis Kearns, John Coughlen, and Eugene Moary charged with having been implicated in the attack on Bally-Nockin barracks; and also against M'Clure and Kelly for firing on the troops at Kilclooney Wood.

10 May 1867:

As to the origin of the Fenian conspiracy there prevailed most extraordinary ignorance. In the late Parliament the present Chief Justice of Ireland stated that some of the prisoners convicted in 1858, when he was the Irish Attorney General, and released in 1859, were the chief organizers of the Fenian conspiracy. If that were so, the circumstance would show that this conspiracy was got up, not by any spontaneous action on the part of the people, but by professional agitators and traitors, who lived by the trade of treason alone, which put them in receipt of large sums of money. It was, he believed, in 1863, that the drilling which took place in the county of Cork was first heard of, and in 1864 the persons who had engaged in the drilling were convicted and punished. No communication was made to Parliament, and the country did not know what was going on until in the month of September, 1865, the magistrates of the county of Cork applied to Government for additional constabulary to put down illegal assemblies and illegal drilling. Very shortly afterwards the seizure of a newspaper was made in Dublin.

15 May 1867:

The gallant behavior of the Irish constabulary during the late Fenian attempt at insurrection has just been chronicled in an unpretending little report, ... It appears from the return that at Castlemartyr, in the county of Cork, the police station was defended successfully by six men, while the “supposed number of insurgents” was four hundred; ... Afterwards follows a list of the stations to which parties of police belonged who met and successfully engaged the insurgents in places other than the police stations. The most notable of the adventures here reported occurred at Mallow. Three constables are described as encountering three hundred rebels.

[I believe the report is HC 1867 no. 525]

On 3 January 1868 Fenians stole half a ton of blasting powder from Cork magazine.

December 1868: requiem masses in Cork and Queenstown for the Manchester Martyrs.

July 1869

We know, by the proceedings at Cork, with what sort of gratitude some of the released rebels regarded their liberation, and how they announced their intention to try again on the first convenient opportunity.

After Fenians

"Rebel Cork" (1869) by 'Carn Thierna' (after Carntierna; Charles Pat O'Con[n]or born 1838 Fermoy – died 1901 Lewisham; Gladstone put him on the Civil List in 1881!) dedicated to the 1869 mayor of Cork, Daniel O'Sullivan, a "friend of the people" whose sympathy for Fenian prisoners inflamed unionists.

"Rebel" Cork, they say you are, proud county town of mine,
And Rebel Cork you still shall be to spite the Saxon swine

June 1869 report in Cork Constitution (unionist paper):

CAIRN THEIRNA [sic] IN "REBEL CORK."

The above formed the heading of large bills placarded on the walls of the city for the past few days, and then came the announcement that Mr. Charles Pat O'Connor (Cairn Thierna), author of "Mike Malone in London", "The Factions,” "Rebel Cork," will deliver Readings from the following Irish poets; [..."] With such attractious as these and the popularity of Mr. O’Connor among a large section of the community—a full house was expected and when the proceedings commenced the galleries were well filled, but the audience in the hall was rather thin. Amongst them were some of the detective police, who came for the usual amount of abuse from the occupants the galleries. ...

He then again launched into the martial strain, and he delivered "Fontenoy" very indifferently, but with great success amongst the audience, whom he afterwards delighted with a ballad called "Cork’s own town," in which the city was praised as "rebel Cork." ...

He then said—I think may now finish with the National Anthem. (Hear, hear, and hissing.) ...

The "National Anthem", a popular air known as "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," was then played by the band. Portion was sung to the following words

"God save Ireland,” said the heroes;
God save Ireland, said they all:
Whether on the scaftold high, or battle field die.—
No matter if for Erin's sake we fall,"

The audience, men and women, all joined in this on the three occasions that the verse was repeated, and at its conclusion there was enthusiastic and prolonged cheering. Tho proceedings terminated with "Patrick's Day,” and three cheers for Old Ireland.

"The Rebel Girls of Cork" (1869) by 'Shamus'

The girls of "Rebel Cork," boys,
The rebel girls of Cork

1869 on in The Pilot https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=q&r=1&results=1&sf=byDA&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22+rebel+Cork%22------

• pilot18700319 "They were called rebels in Cork, and they gloried in the name (loud cheers). They were rebels against wrong, and would be so as long as wrong existed"
• pilot18711223
• pilot18710128

c.1870 "The Lay of Earl Spencer" by John Keegan Casey (died March 1870), subtitled "A Tale of Rebel Cork", mocks a Cork visit by John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (LL 1868–74; visited Cork September 1869)

So what d'ye think of venturing
  Away from beef and pork,
To see what sort of place it is,
  That rebel town o' Cork.

1870:

Cork calls itself the Premier County of Ireland, and is a region of no little interest to the historical and geographical student. This vast tract, which extends from the verge of the Galtees to the capes of Bantry Bay, and from the waters that flow to the Shannon, through Kerry, to the far distant borders of Waterford, has at all times been singularly affected by any foreign influences that have penetrated Ireland. Its capital in a remote age was occupied by a colony of Danes, who spread over many spots on the seaboard; in a later century it was divided between Anglo-Norman nobles and their dependents, who, however, not being strong enough to subdue or expel the native race, became gradually amalgamated with it. During the great crisis of the sixteenth century the fine harbours of Cork and its proximity to Spain made it a point of vantage to the enemies of England; and more than one fleet of Philip II. sailed from its coast to support the risings of Tyrone and the lordly rebels of Desmond. Having been reconquered, and settled from England under circumstances, it is said, of frightful severity, it felt the fury of the arms of Cromwell, who confiscated a very large part of it; and in the Jacobite wars that followed it became the theatre of a fierce and doubtful conflict. In the ensuing century it gave an asylum for a brief space of time to the ships of Hoche, and in our day it has been the head-quarters of the Fenian organization and movement. Society, accordingly, in this district has been repeatedly disturbed by violence; and its structure and tendencies have, no doubt, felt the effects of numerous invasions and conquests.

The Catholic Telegraph, 21 December 1871, p. 2 col. 3 "Manchester Martyrs" 'in "Rebel Cork" the anniversary was celebrated...'

"The Girls of our own Village" (1872)

Let poets praise in thrilling lays the girls of rebel Cork,
Let Limerick boast of "colleen bawns" that stood the battle's shock,
And Dublin of its high-bred dames dressed up in silk apparels,
But the subject of my theme shall be, our own dear village girls.

Newspaper reports:

• 12 Jan 1872 Freeman's Journal "THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT MEETING AT LIMERICK YESTERDAY" '... Smyth, Captain MacCartney, and the Mayor of Cork—rebel Cork, as it was called—but it was rebel only against the tyranny, the bad laws and misgovernment under which tho country languished (hear, hear, and cheers).'
• 21 May 1872 Freeman's Journal "REPRESENTATION OF MALLOW" 'Mr O'Kelly then spoke briefly, and was received with cheers for "Rebel Cork."'
• 2 Feb 1874 Cork Examiner 'Glorious "Rebel Cork" had stepped to the front with John Mitchell' (Supplement p.1); and 'A Voice—Three cheers for "Rebel Cork" (loud cheers). The proceedings then terminated.'
• 10 Dec 1881 (written 3 Nov 1881), "Sarsfield", The United Irishman (New York) Vol. 1 no. 49 p. 8 col. 5 "A Rebel's Letter, from Rebel Cork" [describes incidents in Cork Limerick and Waterford]
• 29 April 1882, Eugene Davis, The United Irishman (New York) Vol. 2 no. 69 p. 1 col. 5 "Our Paris Letter" 'And thus it is why this corporation of Cork, composed, as I am given to understand, almost exclusively of the portion of society I allude to, passed unanimously their vote of sympathy to the foreign potentate, Victoria. Ah, shades of the brothers Sheares, must you not have looked grimly down on that city by the Lee when it hath such corporations and aldermen as these! Certainly it was not the shopocracy of bygone days that had aught to do with giving that city the proud title of “REBEL CORK.” No! The brave toiling mechanics, men who are ever found true to the old cause, and whose spirit of self-sacrifice has been often tried, and never found wanting; the laborers who belong to the people, and who have never shirked from their duty to Ireland—such were they, who, by their constancy, courage, patriotism and devotion made the city of the Shandon bells the synonym of all that is most deadly in its hatred and most determined in its opposition to English rule.'

1883 David Power Conyngham describes Charles Stewart Parnell's three constituencies in the 1880 election as 'royal Meath, Land League Mayo, [and] "rebel" Cork [city]'.

Rebel Cork Benevolent Association founded 1883 in San Francisco for Irish emigrants (apparently had that name from foundation; certainly by 1890)

1885 Saturday Review:

But really when, with all your utmost efforts in the cause of disloyalty, you cannot, even in “rebel Cork,” get up a. better counter-demonstration than the hisses of a few college students, it is enough to make a Nationalist, not “ scratch his head and think ” — that is the result it ought to produce — but tear his hair and rave

1886 poem https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18860508-01&e=-------en-20--101--txt-txIN-Cork+rebel------ pilot18860508

1897 article implies title earned by Fenians.

1901–03:

• Unionist Belfast Evening News used "Rebel Cork" ironically in cartoon suggesting Belfast councillors' visit to Cork International Exhibition illustrated possibility of nonpartisan co-operation.
• Unionist Cork Constitution used "Rebel Cork" ironically in poem on royal visit: "Their Majesties are coming / Dear Rebel Cork to thee!"
• Man sentenced for vandalising royal visit decorations said he was "sorry for Rebel Cork"
• Nationalist Councillors opposing 1901 sympathy vote on Assassination of William McKinley said "Rebel Cork" should not support opponent of Irish nationalism.

Wemyss Reid 1903:

[King Edward VII] visited the wilds of Connemara, the deserted streets of Galway, and even the town that but lately rejoiced in the name of 'rebel Cork.' Everywhere he was received with a welcome as hearty as it was unaffected. It would be unfair to seek to import into this welcome a more decided political meaning than the Irish themselves were willing to give to it.

1905, Punch:

We learn from the Irish Independent that men imprisoned in Cork Gaol for resisting the police at an eviction have been serenaded by a brass band. It is indeed a pleasant change to find lawbreakers being discouraged in "Rebel Cork."

1905 list of anglophones in Paris:

Mr. [Victor] Collins, though born in Staffordshire, claims to be a Cork man, his father's family being natives of Carrick-on-Var [sic] in the rebel county.

Sir Joseph Larmor 1912:

The Nationalist party are now, as always, ready to take what they can get, to be used as an argument to get more. A month ago they knew little or nothing about the present Bill; now a Convention in Dublin has accepted it without a word of criticism, or rather without a word of criticism that can reach the ears of the British public. But we have heard from hon. Members who represent what used to glory in the name of "Rebel Cork" their criticisms of the financial provisions of the Bill.

Patrick Joseph Quilligan (1920) poem "Rebel Cork": "As I walked through Rebel Cork ... From Cove to Blarney, from Bantry to Bear."

Retrospective

2005 John Sarsfield Casey (1846–96) The Galtee Boy: A Fenian Prison Narrative ISBN:9781904558224 University College Dublin Press p. 61

the first step taken by the Corkonians

An 1891 biography of Queen Victoria says of her 1849 visit to Ireland: 'In Cork itself — “rebel Cork” — there was no sign of disaffection.'

William Richard Le Fanu 1893, writing of 1848:

At the time of my arrival, the French Revolution had just broken out, and all through the south, especially in "Rebel Cork," there was the wildest excitement.

9 July 1894 Morning Leader London, p. 4 col. 4 "Idle Days in Ireland; Heaven's Reflex: From Cork to Killarney" https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004833/18940709/032/0004

"Rebel Cork" is its proud pet name. Rebel it has been since the days of Perkin Warbeck; through the centuries it has led the van of patriotic insurrection.

1896 John O'Leary

• of his time as a student in Cork (1850) and Galway (1850–53):

  In Cork ... I came across Young Irelanders—as how could I avoid doing so among so many young Irishmen? but they were neither effusive nor obtrusive; they let me alone, and I was too well content to let them alone for the time being. "Rebel Cork" was certainly no more rebel then than most other parts of the country, as it is no more rebel now, save on the tongues of recreant rebels and other rhetorical agitators. Curiously enough, when I got to Galway I seemed to find the atmosphere changed, though possibly the change was somewhat in myself, too, in that I had shaken off the lethargy that overshadowed me for a time. Anyway, the "West" seemed "awake," and wider and wider awake does it seem to have been growing' ever since; so that now, and, roughly speaking, since the Fenian times, neither North, South, nor East, can be said to be in any sense more National than the West. The shade of Davis may feel appeased, and Erin need no longer weep, "that Connaught lies in slumber deep."

• of his visit to the city in 1863:

  Cork has been ... been christened "Rebel Cork," and, however it may have been with her before or since, at the time of my visit she certainly deserved the name.

In an 1897 play by James Martin of Montreal set during the 1690 Siege of Limerick character Barney O'Reilly says to Tim Brannigan, "Bully for you, good old rebel Cork!"

1902 John O'Mahony (27 January 1870–28 November 1904; a Cork journalist married to Nora Tynan O'Mahony) wrote in tourist guide:

During the Fenian movement, 1865–67, Cork was a hotbed of treason, and more prisoners were sentenced from there than from all the other parts of Ireland put together. Thus, in the nineteenth century, the name of "Rebel Cork," which was earned so far back as the time of Perkin Warbeck, was still deserved.

13 July 1903 Echo (London) W. Forster Bovill, p. 1 col. 5, "From my Irish Sketch Book; I: The Cork Exhibition" https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004596/19030713/014/0001

During the Fenian Movement of 1865-67, the town was in a terrible fervent [sic], and earned the sobriquet of “Rebel Cork.” Gradually, however, its attitude changed, and the seeds of the industrial movement are penetrating its hard and stony soil.

1908 potted Irish history, reaching reformation under Elizabeth and James I:

Cork made even a more determined stand against English rule : it had long been proud of its designation of "rebel Cork"[.]

1916 John F. Boyle (Irish Independent journalist of whom "little is known") early account of the Easter Rising:

For some remarkable reason this city rejoiced for many years in the title of "Rebel Cork," though how it was deserved is not very easily discernible, considering the fact that the most the rebels belonging to it have ever accomplished has been a very considerable amount of talk

1 October 1917 Evening Herald (Dublin) p. 2 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001730/19171001/045/0002 "REBEL CORK"

It is thought by many that it was the attachment of the city to King James's cause that earned for the city the title of "rebel Cork," but this is erroneous. It was two centuries earlier, when the Plantagenet Pretender, Perkin Warbeck

1921 Daniel Cohalan, Catholic Bishop of Cork, writing to Gerald Achilles Burgoyne, Cork Pursuivant, about possible mottoes for Cork (?Cork County Council):

"Rebel Cork" is well known, but in its historical origin it has not much to commend it.

What did Cohalan think was "its historical origin"?

1930s Irish Folklore Commission collected a few (mostly ephemeral/local) songs mentioning "Rebel Cork": "The Boys/Men of Old/Sweet Roscrea"; Father Norris's "We're assembled in New York / Exiles all from rebel Cork"; Jermiah M. Barry's "How many years have passed / Since first I saw that name"; "Danno Mahony" [of Dereenloman]; “My home in Killavoy”; "Down Erin's Lovely Lee"; "To Ireland, the dear old land that bore us".

1947 Rebel Cork's fighting story 1916–21 published; companion fighting story volumes on Kerry, Limerick, and Dublin had no "Rebel" or other sobriquet in titles.

Richard Hayward 1964:

Indeed, like the Danes before them, the Desmonds became more Irish than the Irish themselves and whilst English laws were nominally enforced the citizens of Cork showed a defiance of external authority that was to remain characteristic of them right down to the present time. Rebel Cork became a byword and has remained a byword—and a proud one at that. [goes on to Warbeck]

• note Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond was called "The Rebel Earl".

1966 Eoin Neeson:

Cork has a tradition of civic leadership going back beyond the reign of Elizabeth I, when it won the title ‘Rebel Cork’ because Florence McCarthy Mór shut the gates against her Reformation armies,[fn 1] the only city in the country to do so.

• [fn 1] According to John George MacCarthy, who wrote an interesting history of the city published about 1878. Another source says that the title was acquired when Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, was ‘crowned’ King in Christ Church, in 1493.
  • MacCarthy's History of Cork
    • discusses 1603 lockout at increasing length between 1st (1856), 2nd (1869), and 8th (1879) editions. But mayor was "Tom Sarsfield's Rebellion" not Florence McCarthy
    • section before this discusses Florence MacCarthy's unauthorised marriage to Lady Ellen MacCarthy, daughter of Donald McCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancare (incorrectly Earl of Clancarthy in John George MacCarthy's text)

1972:

A violent history earned the city the title of ‘rebel Cork.’ In the fifteenth century a mayor of Cork unwisely accompanied Perkin Warbeck in his attempt to claim the throne of England; in the twentieth, during the war of independence, one lord mayor was shot (a jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Lloyd George) and another was imprisoned and died on hunger strike in England.

1983: Jack Lynch in speech at Rebel Cork Benv Assn in San Fran supported Warbeck origin.

Tourist article by Healy 1984:

says "we learn from him [Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork] why Cork became known as 'The Rebel City'", namely refusal of corporation to proclaim James VI as new king in 1603 because "The English commander angered the citizens by taking over their castle at Blackrock and building a new one on Haulbowline Island". Says "possible also that they had in mind" execution of mayor who backed Perkin Warbeck; i.e. another reason for their 1603 rebellion, not another reason for cognomen "rebel city".

Boyle is directly quoted re 1603 in 1861 book -- find complete text from this and look for word "rebel"

Charles Smith footnotes (p 93 fn b to "Boyle" and p 94 fn c to "Lord Cork", same person)

In conclusion, I think from Boyle we only learn of the event, whereas Healy asserts that the event is the reason for "rebel city"; Boyle does not use or mention "rebel cork" or "rebel city" (?or even "rebel"?)

1990s John A. Murphy:

• 1993:
  1. Cork "likes to flaunt the soubriquet of 'rebel Cork', being blissfully unaware for the most part that the designation began as a derogatory one at the time when the city briefly supported the cause of the Yorkist pretender, Perkin Warbeck, in 1495."
  2. now has "strong connotations of republican resistance" in early 20th century, especially Tomás MacCurtain, Terence MacSwiney, and "rearguard resistance to the infant Irish Free State"
  3. also "more widely as a synonym of a sturdily independent attitude of mind"
• 1999 Sunday Independent reprises #1

1999 Sean J. Connolly Kingdoms United?: Great Britain and Ireland Since 1500 p. 105

'rebel Cork' (the phrase being probably re-introduced into the local political vocabulary by Young Ireland)[fn]

2005 self published pp 43-44 asserts 1603 is origin, I think citing 2002 city Council publication

Gerard O'Brien 2004 discussing Whiteboys of 1760s:

Long before they became known jointly as ‘Rebel Cork’ the city and county of Cork had maintained a strong anti-establishment sentiment. Even before the evolution of the republican movement which gave Cork’s ‘rebelliousness’ its coherence and direction, the eastern part of the county together with west Waterford and south Tipperary was the scene of early demonstrations against authority.

Glenn Patterson 2008:

One of the few incidents outside of Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising was the siege in Castlelyons, near Fermoy, at the home of the strongly republican Kent family. ... The county had as a result acquired, or appropriated to itself, the tag ‘Rebel Cork’.

2013 city councillor and amateur historian Kieran McCarthy blog post supports Warbeck

Historian Brian Hanley (2022) reviewing a biography of Tom Barry quotes Cathal O'Shannon's description of him as a "characteristic product of Rebel Cork" and adds an aside: "This review is not the place to discuss the complex origins of that term!"

Red herrings

1977: How these names spark the poetry when their full meaning is known! Without that one cannot feel the full force of both popular ballads and more literary productions that evoke the heroes of the past. We must not only know what Stormont and Westminster mean to the Irish but that Repeal Year was 1843; that The Right Boys rose in 1787, 1822 and 1828 ...; that The Cork Boys were an offshoot of Rebel Cork, ...

• based on "The Cork Boys were an offshoot of Rebel Cork" means
  • "The Cork Boys were an offshoot of The Right Boys in County Cork"
  • not "The Cork Boys were an offshoot of a group named Rebel Cork"

Sources

• Breen, Daniel (2014). The Cork International Exhibition, 1902–1903 : a snapshot of Edwardian Cork. Sallins: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-7165-3230-9.
• O'Leary, John (1896). Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism. Vol. I. London: Downey & Company.