Kearns, Mogue

by C. J. Woods

Kearns, Mogue (d. 1798), catholic priest and insurgent, was born at Kiltealy, Co. Wexford. Ordained into the catholic priesthood (1786), he presumably studied in France, as he was in Paris just before the September massacres (1792), making his escape only after being caught by the revolutionary mob and hoisted on to a lamppost. His life was saved owing to his great weight, under which the rope snapped, and the aid of a doctor who revived him. Back in Ireland he spent some time at Clonard as a curate in the parish of Balyna on the Kildare–Meath border, where ‘he was frequently consulted by the magistrates and sometimes accompanied them in their patroles’ (Jones) whilst also associating with the catholic secret society, the Defenders. When an accusation of conspiracy to murder was made against him, the local bishop, Daniel Delany (qv) of Kildare and Leighlin, dismissed him. Kearns returned to the Duffry district in the Blackstairs Mountains, where he had spent his youth. His own bishop, James Caulfield (qv), refused to employ him. He was in effect suspended. Kearns's Defender connections, his keenness on country sports and pastimes, and his notoriety ‘for drinking and fighting’ (Caulfield) could only have been held against him by his ecclesiastical superiors.

By 1798 he was an associate of another disaffected priest, John Murphy (qv) of Boolavogue. When rebellion broke out (late May) Kearns was with the insurgents. He was involved in fighting at Enniscorthy and Newtownbarry and then, with Anthony Perry (qv), headed an insurgent Irish force moving north into Kildare, where they arrived (10 July) at the camp of William Aylmer (qv). The force moved on, attacking a fortified house at Clonard, reaching the Boyne in Co. Meath before turning back. His downfall came when he fell into the hands of the local yeomanry near Edenderry, King's Co., where he was arrested and tried by court martial. Mogue Kearns was hanged there with Perry on 21 July 1798 (Saunders's). His two brothers, Martin and Patrick Kearns, were also involved in the rebellion, as were four Kearns cousins, Michael, Mogue, Roger and Stephen of Ballycrystal. On his mother's side he was a near relation of John Kelly (qv) (d. 1798) of Killann. There are two plaques in his memory at Edenderry (where his name is given as Moses) and two at Kiltealy.