Loyalist Reaction

As the women were turning over the bodies on the Curragh, one by one, Duff was hailed as a hero in Dublin in consequence of reopening the lines of communications between Dublin and Limerick. The ultras were furious with Dundas. It was said that, Great blame for holding any parley with them has been laid to the general officers. So much so that it was said it would occasion a Parliamentary inquiry. The realities were much more discomforting; the conflict being undoubtedly lengthened with the dispersion of the rebels throughout and their loss of faith in government promises of protection.

Richard Griffith, whose actions had saved Clane on 24 May, wrote to Pelham in June. A mild critic of government policy he had realised that, From the first breaking out of the rebellion to this hour, I would have advised a continual attack on the rebels, instead of which we have suffered the scoundrels to feed upon the fat of the land. Castlereagh complained to Pelham how, In Kildare the rebellion has degenerated into a plundering banditti. They have left the gentlemen and rich farmers neither furniture or stock of any kind. Teeling called it a species of fugitive warfare Lecky a predatory guerilla war: whatever the description, the rebels had adopted a hit and run campaign consistent with their military capabilities in consequence of the terrain and their arms.