11 July 1798: Dublin's Evening Post carries an official Castle bulletin concerning a clash at Ballygullen (Wexford) in which generals Needham and Duff converge their forces on insurgent positions on White Heaps on the night of the 4th. The rebel camp is found to be abandoned but Duff re-establishes contact with the enemy at Wicklow Gap and forces a retreat "after a few cannon shot". The column led by the habitually tardy Needham was "at too great a distance for his infantry to assist; but his cavalry joined in the pursuit, which continued for twelve hours, when [on the 5th] they were stopped on some rising ground. Here the regiments under Sir James Duff coming up, viz., the 89th, the Louth and the Leitrim [militia], with their curricle guns, the rebels were put to flight with considerable slaughter, and dispersed in all directions".
Lord Enniskillen of the Fermanagh militia writes from Baltinglass on the 6th with intelligence regarding the several hundred Dubliners with the insurgents in the mountains. Suspicion surrounds Thomas Fells "a young man who is shop keeper to Willm Humphrey of Ushers Quay, was at the battle of Blackmore Hill, and constantly carries on a correspondence between Dublin and the rebels, is often out with them". The two main Dublin factions are led by Col Francis McMahon of Aungier St and Felix Rourke of Rathcoole but well-known senior city activists Edward Rattigan of Thomas St and Southwell McClune of Abbey St are also prominent.
The constant attrition of the rump rebel forces leads to the daily consignment of prisoners to the capital. One batch arriving from Wicklow on the 7th, as noted by Saunder's Newsletter, contains "four decent looking country-women" and thousands of captive republicans are crammed into city gaols. The Columbine, Brunskill, William and Mary and other tenders have been pressed into service as auxiliary prisons in Dublin Bay but "all . . . are nearly filled with those unfortunate deluded men".
The economic devastation of Wexford and the invincible strength of crown forces there have rendered the county untenable for large-scale insurgency. Disappointment at the check at Ballygullen seemingly encourages the acceptance of amnesty terms and Brig-Gen Francis Grose informs MajGen Hunter that 1,600 men have surrendered weapons at Enniscorthy by the 8th.
Rebel leaders hold a "council of war" that day near Blessington where, after a tense debate, it is decided to send 4,000 men into Kildare and onwards to Meath and Louth. A juncture with William Aylmer's men at Timahoe and other forces is deemed essential to plans to attack Dublin. Michael Dwyer of Imaal and Miles Byrne of Monaseed remain in Glenmalure to guard those incapable of undertaking the arduous mission.
Aylmer's camp is reached on the 10th whereupon it is discovered that the few insurgents present are negotiating terms of surrender. More fall out of the column than join it on the 11th as they engulf the fortified Tyrell house at Leinster Bridge on the Kildare/Meath border outside Clonard. The yeoman defenders hold out until Col Blake arrives with 50 Northumberland fencibles and the Kinnegad and Mullingar cavalry.
Such manoeuvres convince Dean Warburton in Dublin that the "great danger of national rising seems to be over but there will be enough of it . . . to harass our troops and waste the country".