Hike the Tipperary hill country where an Irish 'Robin Hood' once roamed
Walkers enjoying the view from the Eamonn an Chnoic Loop, Upperchurch. Picture: John G O'Dwyer
In the century between the 1550s and 1650s, the land of Ireland moved through a series of plantations from 100% owned by Irish Catholics to less than 10% in such ownership. Forced dispossession of native landowners created a deep and lasting pit of resentment.
It was into this bitterness that Edmund O’Ryan was born in the late 1660s to a family in Upperchurch, County Tipperary that had previously been ousted from their land. Feeling as a young adult the call to Holy Orders, he travelled to the Dominican College at Louvain to study for the priesthood since seminaries were then illegal in Ireland.
Tradition holds that having returned home for a period, he witnessed a bailiff seizing a cow from an impoverished widow in lieu of rent. Taking exception to this Edmund killed the bailiff. Undoubtedly this defiant act raised his status with the local community but meant there was now a price on his head. Forced to go on the run to avoid the hangman’s noose, he took refuge in the relatively untamed Slieve Felim Hills of County Tipperary and became known as Eamonn an Chnoic (Ned of the Hill).
When King James II arrived in Ireland in 1689, it is easy to see why Eamonn would have made common cause with the Jacobites since they appeared to promise religious freedom and restoration of confiscated land. He fought at the Battle of the Boyne, where the Jacobite army, were heavily defeated with James immediately fleeing to France. Two days later William of Orange took Dublin and the Protestant ascendancy was assured. After the war ended, the Irish leader Patrick Sarsfield and most of his soldiers went to fight on the continent. Surprisingly, Éamonn did not accompany them. Instead, he returned to the hill country and lived as an outlaw, attacking and robbing planters in the North Tipperary area.
Necessary journeys were, at this time, made either on horseback or by carriage and as trade increased there were growing numbers of well-to-do landowners and commercial journeymen undertaking these trips. Such travellers were extremely vulnerable to attack since there was no police force in Ireland prior to the 19th century. In such a fertile ground for lawlessness, every area of Ireland had its highwaymen and outlaws who lived off rich pickings.
The impoverished majority had, however, little to fear from the activities of highwaymen and so these untamed individuals easily morphed into Robin Hood style heroes, much admired for their boldness and daring. This was certainly the case with Eamonn.
Renowned as a rapparee and folk hero in the upland areas of North Tipperary, he allegedly robbed English settlers and gave to the native Irish, who had been disinherited from their lands. Ruthless and cunning when the situation required, he was nevertheless, much admired and mythologised by the ordinary people as an avenging angel on behalf of the oppressed. Using local knowledge of his native hill country, he evaded capture sometimes taking refuge in a secluded mountain cave located near present-day Hollyford, County Tipperary.
One advantage that Éamonn an Chnoic had was an education. This makes it probable that he is the author of the ballad written in Gaelic titled with the well-known opening line “Cé hé sin amuigh, a bhuil faobhar ar a guth”. It describes the life of an outlaw in the stark, unromanticised detail that would suggest it was written by an educated person, most likely with actual experience of being on the run.
Local tradition holds that Eamonn was eventually murdered by a relative named Tomás Bán Dwyer at Foilaclug, Hollyford, in 1724. Tomás gave refuge to Eamonn, at a time, when he believed the outlaw had a price of £300 on his head. Worth about €60,000 in today’s money, this was a considerable temptation among an impoverished peasantry. A reward for the head of an outlaw was then seen by the British authorities as the most effective way of neutralising them in what was otherwise a lawless society.
As Eamonn slept, Tomás decapitated him with an axe. Eamon was, however, highly respected for his chivalry. Intercessions had been made to the authorities on his behalf with the result that he had recently been pardoned and granted a safe passage abroad. No reward would now be paid for his killing with Eamonn’s remains buried near Doon County Limerick and his head at Foilaclog, Hollyford, County Tipperary.
Inni-K | Éamonn an Chnoic pic.twitter.com/NTpSx1kPGf
— 🪙 Beothach (@GaelicRevival) December 17, 2024
Unlike many outlaws, his name lives on. The ballad he reputedly composed has survived through the generations. Slow and mournful, it has been covered by, among others, by the Clancy Brothers and the Wolfe Tones, while the Pogues recorded a more upbeat version [exa.mn/2sv].
Eamonn is also remembered with a circular walk through the hill country he once roamed. Titled the Eamonn an Chnoic Loop, it begins from Upperchurch village and takes about 2.5 hours to complete.
- by John G O’Dwyer is available from Currach Books.
