Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murphy, Michael
MURPHY, MICHAEL (1767?–1798), Irish rebel, the son of a peasant, was born at Kilnew, co. Wexford, about 1767. Having acquired some learning at a hedge-school at Oulart, he was ordained a priest at Whitsuntide 1785, and sent to complete his education at the Irish College at Bordeaux. On his return to Ireland he was appointed officiating priest of the parish of Ballycanew in the diocese of Ferns. He is described by an unexceptionable witness (Taylor, Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 17) as a man of exemplary life, and much esteemed by persons of all persuasions. In 1798 he was still a young man, strongly built, and of a dark complexion. When the government early in that year began to take extraordinary measures for the preservation of the peace of the county, Murphy displayed great zeal in inducing his parishioners to surrender their arms and to take the oath of allegiance. On the outbreak of the rebellion he was reluctantly compelled to take up arms for his own safety (Hay, Hist. of the Insurrection, p. 88). He joined the rebels at Oulart under Father John Murphy [q. v.], whose fortunes he shared till his death at the battle of Arklow on 9 June 1798. He greatly distinguished himself by his intrepid conduct on that occasion. He was shot while leading the attack on the barricade, and his death greatly discomfited his followers, whose ardour he had inflamed by the belief that he was invulnerable. His head was struck off and his body burnt by the order of Lord Mountnorris.
[The Rev. George Taylor's Hist. of the Rebellion in the County of Wexford; Sir R. Musgrave's Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland; Miles Byrne's Memoirs; E. Hay's Hist. of the Insurrection in the county of Wexford, A.D. 1798; Froude's English in Ireland; Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century.]