Resurrectionists at Merrion Churchyard
By Hablot Knight Browne - https://archive.org/stream/chroniclesofcri01pelh#page/n317/mode/2up, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24087051
On a Thursday evening early in December 1828, several men, including four brothers named Ryan, gathered at the Merrion churchyard, Dublin, to watch over the grave of the brothers’ recently deceased sister.
Around the same time that Miss Ryan was buried, Arthur Flaherty, a painter of Old Merrion, was attacked and badly beaten by five men close to the churchyard. The local press was certain that Flaherty’s attackers were ‘some of the resurrectionists who are constantly prowling about that place watching for opportunities to effect their unhallowed work of stealing dead bodies.’
Bully’s Acre, the pauper burial ground at Kilmainham, was often raided by anatomy students from Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons, desperate for fresh bodies to dissect. Each student was expected to dissect at least one body in the winter, but James McCartney, the Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College, encouraged his students to ‘dissect an unlimited number of bodies.’ Daniel Donnelly, the first Irish heavyweight boxing champion, was interred in Bully’s Acre after he died in 1n 1820. Resurrectionists unearthed the great champion, stuffed his cadaver in a sack and carried it to a surgeon named Hall.
Friends of Donnelly tracked his corpse to Hall. The surgeon was threatened with death unless he returned the body; Hall swiftly acquiesced to the demand, with the proviso that he keep the boxer’s arm for medical observation.
By drawn by George Sharples, engraved by Percy Roberts - http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/44/l_041b2c914f2141ba938379b262db9542.jpg, Public Domain, Link
At the Merrion churchyard, most of the Ryan party retired to a cabin near the burial ground, leaving two of their number to act as sentinels. The group hadn’t been in the cabin long when there was a knock on the door. A body of about ten men was assembled outside the cabin. They told the Ryan party, ‘that they were “Resurrection men” and came to raise bodies as subjects for dissection.’
The visitors added that they knew the Ryans and their friends were there guarding a grave, and if the plot was pointed out to them, they would avoid it. A spokesman for the Ryans answered that although they were protecting a particular grave, while they remained there, no bodies would be disinterred.
The Resurrection men took umbrage at the Ryans response, ‘and expressed their determination to go to work at once, and raise and carry off by force, if necessary, as many bodies as they pleased, without regard or discrimination towards any one beyond another.’
Having made their intentions clear, the Resurrectionists headed for the burial ground. As they entered the churchyard, the Ryan group, armed only with sticks, stones, and fists, charged after their antagonists, and a great melee broke out.
Soon, the Resurrection men were forced to break off the fight and retreat, vowing to return. At around two o’clock on Friday morning, the Resurrectionists returned, and some of their number were armed with firearms, ‘others came prepared with pick-axes, and other instruments of their unhallowed trade.’
The Ryan party had not been idle in the hours since the initial skirmish; their numbers were bolstered by more volunteers, like their opponents, some carried pistols and fowling pieces. The grave defenders were arrayed about the churchyard when the Resurrectionists launched their attack.
The resurrectionists opened fire first; the early morning echoed to the sound of pistol shots, curses and shouts of approbation. Those of the men without firearms charged at their opponents, flailing at the enemy with whatever weapon came to hand.
A man named Ward, a member of the Ryans’ coterie of supporters, received a gunshot wound to the arm. When he attempted to discharge his own pistol, ‘the barrel…burst and shattered his right hand in a dreadful manner.’
The battle continued for ’some time’, before ‘the wretches, who had originally been the cause of this bloodshed, began to give way, and were soon after entirely driven from the premises, when they retreated towards town, bearing with them their wounded companions.’
As dawn broke later that morning, ‘the field of action…exhibited abundant proof of the fury and deadly animosity with which hostilities had been carried on.’
In the aftermath of the skirmish, ‘a strong party of the William’s- town Police, under Peace Officer McDowell,’ initiated nightly patrols in the area around Merrion churchyard.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-dispatch-sanguinary-affray/189717987/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/manchester-courier-and-lancashire-genera/189716481/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/freemans-journal-and-daily-commercial-a/189764043/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrectionists_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/1013/1256323-body-snatching-ireland-dublin-medical-students-dissection/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully%27s_Acre,_Dublin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Donnelly_(boxer)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/manchester-courier-and-lancashire-genera/189716481/
Source: Resurrectionists at Merrion Churchyard
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