Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kyan, Esmond
KYAN, ESMOND (d. 1798), Irish rebel, was a landowner, residing at Monamolin, near Oulart, co. Wexford, Ireland. On the outbreak of the rebellion in Wexford, early in 1798 Kyan joined the insurgents. He commanded the rebel artillery at the battle of Arklow, where he lost an arm. Owing to this wound he was compelled to remain for some time in Wexford itself. According to the unanimous authority of contemporary writers, Kyan distinguished himself by his efforts to prevent the massacre of loyalist prisoners by the rebels on Wexford bridge. After the fall of Wexford he joined a band of insurgents who tried to penetrate the county Carlow, and took a part in the last scenes of the war in the Wicklow mountains. On the suppression of the rebellion Kyan returned home in disguise to see his relatives, but was discovered and arrested. He was executed in July 1798, after a short trial before a court-martial.
[Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; George Taylor's History of the Wexford Rebellion of 1798; Memoirs of Miles Byrne. See also Lecky's England during the Eighteenth Century, vol. viii.]