Thread by @samguthrie91

Hello and welcome to a history thread about Belfast, Sydney, & two different Battle(s) of Vinegar Hill 📖

It's the story of how one lad from Belfast *may* have wound up a co-conspirator in the only convict uprising in Australian history 🦘 1/

🤓Originally a tangent of my own research, the story of Edward O’Hara, has come to dominate my workload intensely over the last few days. 📚💻📚 2/

Does his history have anything to do with my dissertation? Uh… no, but I think it’s a brilliant illustration of the possibilities (& limitations) of archival internet research in our current times. 💾⌨️🖱️ 3/

Edward O'Hara was born to father, Edward, somewhere around Belfast, Co. Antrim, in 1769. Evidence for this appears in a number of sources around O'Hara's transportation. In 1798 O'Hara was a United Irishman during the rebellion. Image a view of Belfast from Joy's Mill c. 1790 4/

Motivated by their desire for an independent Ireland & buoyed by events in France & America, United Irishmen were an group of republican radicals made up of Catholics, Anglicans, & Presbyterians centred on Belfast. 1890 image, Tone, Neilson, & Russell on Cavehill from NLI 5/

But Ed's movements during the events of 1798 are unrecorded, but we can safely presume Ulster. Various later documents agree he on trial and convicted in Belfast. J. W. Price, ship surgeon, recordes Dundalk. Was O'Hara captured after Ballynahinch? 6/

Aside: at least one Australian secondary source records him as having been captured & convicted at "Belfast, Killala, Co. Antrim." This place doesn't exist, or, it's the only linkage of Ed to the French invasion in Co Mayo. There was primary used here unavailable online. 7/

Wherever Ed was during 1798 he eventually found his way onto the Minerva with another 165 male convicts (70 "political prisoners" including Joseph Holt), 26 female convicts, 20 members of the NSW Corps, & William Cox (built the road over the Blue Mtns, below Mitchell Library) 8/

Our primary sources for the trip are J. W. Price's journal & the kinda-primary memoirs of Joseph Holt. The journey wasn't entirely straightforward, Minerva was involved in a number of harrowing encounters: 9/

On Sept 30, 1799 the Minerva was approached by two, apparently, hostile vessels. The crew engaged in a cat-and-mouse game of hastily swapping colours. I'm no naval historian, don't @ me, but Price records it as going like this: 10/

'At 1/2 ten we could see ... frigates ... not knowing what they might be, [we] hoisted Danish colours 🇩🇰, and fired a gun leeward, and at the same time ... bore down on them[. They] then hauled up their courses and we could see them, with our glasses...' 11/

'preparing for action, they then hoisted English colours 🇬🇧, and each fired a gun. ... taking down [our] Danish colours 🇩🇰, we hoisted an Egnlish Ensign 🇬🇧... they then ... hoisted Portugueze 🇵🇹, each firing a short at us;' Minerva makes a lucky escape from🏴‍☠️? 12/

The Minerva stopped off at Rio, which was the style at the time, here's a map of the voyage from Pamela Fulton's 1994 edition of Price's journal. This is a truly wonderful copy of the book. 13/

But I'm forgetting Ed & we haven't even seen him get to Port Jackson yet! Ed's trip isn't exactly quiet. Price records his implication in a mutiny plot on Sept 26. Holt suggests such a plot did exist and was almost implemented in the face of the above attack. 14/

Minerva finally landed in Sydney, 11 January 1800 about 4 months & 18 days after they left Cork. They're welcomed into a town of 2 500, 43% of whom were there at his majesty's behest. It must have been a strange world. Image of Sydney, 1800, unknown artist, Mitchell Library. 15/

Here there's disparity in the source material. Holt records that the United Irishmen, including Ed, are sort of left to their own recognizance for a time. And at least Holt is accused of spending time in 'the most seditious house in the colony.' 16/

Ed O'Hara most certainly hadn't given up on his "seditious" activities - nor getting caught. A month after arriving, 10 Feb, Price records that O'Hara was among plotters that sought to seize the Minerva ⚓️ & either turn the magazine 🔫 against the authorities or flee for home 17/

'I hope for their own sakes, they will now renounce all their political designs.' ... tough luck. In 1801 Ed stows away on an American whaler 🇺🇸🐳 which had stopped in to Sydney. The plan is to seize the vessel & return to 🇮🇪. O'Hara is here, again, involved with Tom Prosser 18/

You're other man involved is one Florence McCarty. McCarty a lawyer from Cork also aboard the Minerva appeals to Governor King to 'look over [their] imprudent step.' Quoted in Unfinished Revolution this is a further step on the slippery slope of source material leading to: 19/

Aside 2: Public historians/#twitterstorians y'all ever look for the Margarot Journals? Took me a hot minute to realise the only traces of these exist in the notes of historian G. W. Rusden. There's work to be done around this point, esp if anyone in Aus ever finds originals 20/

But let's surmise that Edward O'Hara is most committed to the United Irish cause or, at least, the cause of causing trouble for the NSW Corp💂‍♂️ - a truly noble pursuit. In early 1801, the Anne brought the colony one Phil Cunningham a Cptn with Holt at Vinegar Hill. 21/

Between 1801 and 1804 the numbers of Irish rebels sent to NSW swelled. There's one secondary source claim that our Ed was sent to Norfolk Island. I can't corroborate this. He certainly must be around before 1804, & still mixing with UI associates but Ed's not in the records. 22/

There's some scholarship on the Castle Hill Rising & Australia's Battle of Vinegar Hill: I won't rehash it here. Link to NMA & David Hunt below. I think there could be greater academic work available in the space, esp tracking down lost/new sources 23/ nma.gov.au/defining-momen…

I think there's scope to consider the motivations and connections between oppressed groups at the time. Was there influence/interplay? What did the United Irishmen think of the final days of Pemulwuy's resistance? & WHO was at the Battle of Vinegar Hill? 24/

The rising fails miserably. Ed appears to have either been there involved in the planning. Though never named, he is sent to Coal River, the Hunter Valley, soon after. McCarty is too. What just was the role of O'Hara, this lad from Belfast, in an uprising a whole world away? 25/

Edward O'Hara is pardoned in 1809. Our Ed must prosper under the reforms led by Governor Macqurie. He appears to have been a juror twice (a foreman once), he appears to be literate. Another Edward O'Hara briefly arrives but is soon sent on to Van Diemen's Land 26/

Ed returns to his prior trade soap & candle making appearing in the 1825 Convict Muster as a 'soapboiler' 🧼from Kent St & later, in the 1828 census, as a 'tallow chandler'. In this latter document we first see Ed's family.🕯️Copy of census & insert map Kent St 1836, Mitchell 27/

Edward passes away in 1834 age 65. A world away from Belfast this former United Irishman appears to have made a life and a home in Sydney as would his children Ed Jr (who ran a butchers in Prince and then George St) & Esther. 28/

It's fascinating to catch these sideways views of people who moved (or were forced to) during a time before modern record keeping began. Who would have thought an easy line could be drawn between Belfast and early Sydney? What legacy have the United Irishmen left on Syd?⚓️29/

I'd love to learn more & track down some of the gaps in Ed's story (or the source material), but for now, I better finally stop. Because while doing history is my idea of fun, I have kind of done it to death over the last two days' deep dive! Here's one for #historytwitter 30/30