The wedding that never was in 1854
In the parish of Rathcormac and Bartlemy, the name ‘Black Billy’ still arouses feelings of horror. That ‘nickname’, if it could be called such, was given to Reverend William Ryder, Rector of Gortroe and Desert Church of Ireland Parish - now Bartlemy.
The Rev’d gentleman got his ecclesiastical appointment in 1834. At the time, Catholics throughout Ireland with land holdings were forced to pay a tenth of their produce to the Established Church - in other words, Roman Catholics paid dues to their Catholic clergy and were also, under British Rule, forced to pay a tithe to a church which was not theirs. In what became known as The Tithe War, individuals and groups refused to pay the tithes.
Clergymen like Ryder began to use military force to seize cattle, hay and corn in lieu of unpaid debts. Naturally, this met with much local resistance. One of the most awful and bloody massacres happened at Ballinakilla, Bartlemy on December 18th, 1834. Widow Johannah Ryan refused to pay tithes to Ryder. When he arrived with Dragoons and militia, all armed, he found the boreen to Ryan’s blocked with a cart. Several hundred people had gathered ‘ armed’ with no more than sticks and stones.
After a stand-off, Ryder gave the order to ‘fire’. In total, 12 men died, nine on the day and three later, in what has become known as the ‘Massacre of Gortroe’. An inquest was held on the bodies of the nine who died on December 18th and Ryder and his henchmen were found guilty on a charge of ‘wilful murder’. Ryder and the others were arrested but released on bail.
Later on, the criminal charges against all the accused were dropped - no one ever served a day in jail for the cold-blooded murder of the victims. Amazingly, Ryder lived on at his house in Ballinterry, unmolested, despite his awful behaviour. During the Famine, at least one of his daughters helped with a soup kitchen for local starving people.
A WEDDING – OR NOT!
Nearly twenty years after Gortroe, the following appeared on The Cork Examiner on Wednesday, October 25th, 1854 under the heading ‘Marriages’:
‘On Monday the 23rd inst at Gortroe Church, by the Venerable, the Archdeacon Ryder, assisted by the Rev. Samuel G. Young, A.M. and afterwards at Rathcormac, by the Rev’d. Charles O’Donovan RCC, David O’Connor Esq, Seneschal of Rathcormac, to Valcatina, second daughter of the late Samuel Croker, Esq, of Barleyhill in this county’.
One might have hoped that the couple lived happily ever after and that all their ‘troubles’ were little ones, but not so apparently! Someone, somewhere had decided to ‘Announce’ nuptials that in fact never took place at all. Two days later on October 27th, Mr. Ryder put quill to vellum as follows, to the editor in The Cork Examiner:
‘Ballinteer, Rathcormac Oct 27th, 1854: Sir - In the Examiner peper of last Wednesday’s date, there is an insetion of a marriage having been celebrated by me in the Church of Gortroe on Monday last. As this is an unfeeling and shameful fabrication, equally insulting to me and the lady named in the announcement, I request you will give it an unqualified contradiction in your next number, as I am determined to find out, if possible, the author of this heartless hoax. I shall thank you to let me have the manuscript that I may endeavour to find him out, and hand over the matter to my Solicitor - I am, Sir, your obedient servant - W Ryder, Archdeacon on Cloyne.’
Editor’s note - (The manuscript has been forwarded to the Archdeacon according to his desire, and we trust sincerely he may succeed in tracing the author of such a blackguard fabrication)
It looks like some person or persons unknown were playing a practical joke on Ryder, but he didn’t see the fun in it. In 1834, his solicitor got him off scot-free from a murder conviction, so presumably his ‘legal eagles’ got to the bottom of this, as he called it, ‘shameful fabrication’!
Archdeacon William Ryder died at Cobh on May 27th, 1862 and was buried in the Ross vault (his wife was Ann Ross) in Gortroe Cemetery on Thursday, May 29th. He is the only one ‘associated’ with the Gortroe Massacre buried in Gortroe Cemetery.