The Ballingarry Rising

Death of an Exile Who witnessed the attack on the Police

(The Clonmel Nationalist January 1904)

We take the following interesting clipping from an American exchange:-

"John D. McCormack, a widely known and highly respected resident of Trenton, New Jersey, for fifty years, died on December 11th 1903. The deceased had for many years conducted a Job printing establishment, and was editor and proprietor of the Potters Journal. the official organ of the pottery workers of America. In his early days he had worked at the potters bench, but had given up the business for the printers case in the early eighties.

He was a prominent figure in labour organisations, aiding every movement making for the workers improvement with voice and pen. He was a tireless worker for the church, and in the cause of charity he was ever at the front, as the good sisters in in charge of St. Francis Hospital, for instance, can testify to. But it was for his painstaking research in the interest of the early history of Catholicity in New Jersey that Mr McCormack was particularly distinguished, and many hidden or obscure records pertaining to Catholicism in the Colonial period were brought to light through his untiring efforts.

Modest and unassuming in deportment, he possessed literary ability in a marked degree, and had collected at the time of his death voluminous data which he intended publishing in a book as a history of Catholicity in New Jersey. He was a native of Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, coming here when he was only 11 years of age.

During the 'Smith O’Brien insurrection' in 1848, a squad of Policemen, numbering about fifty, were marching along a highway not far from the McCormack homestead, and finding themselves suddenly confronted by a body of insurgents led by O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher, made a dash for the house, took forcible possession of it, barricading the doors and windows. There they were held in a state of siege for several hours, when strong reinforcements coming to their aid, the besiegers withdrew, after loosing two killed of their number.

Mr McCormack had a vivid recollection of this incident, although a lad of tender years when it occurred. The sudden rush of the frightened constabulary into the little isolated home, the unavailing protests of his widowed mother against the intrusion, the screams of his terrified brothers and sisters, the shooting and general uproar, made an indelible impression on his youthful mind that the lapse of long years did not efface.

A solemn Requiem High Mass was celebrated for the happy repose of his soul, in St Marys Cathedral. He leaves a widow, two sons, two daughters, the latter being teachers in public schools."