grandmother used to tell us about these times before she died. My mother
was born in 1799, and was the youngest daughter of her family, but her
eldest sister, my Aunt Mary, wife of Oiny Bannon, was 12 or 14 years old
at the time of the Rising, and could describe more vividly what she saw
connected with it than I can now recall incidents in the Repeal and
Young Ireland Movements.

Listening to her, I could almost fancy I could see my grandfather, Brian
O'Loughlin, leaving his home with the other Ballymagenaghy men, with
their pikes and such guns as they could muster, to join the United Irish
forces previous to the battles of Saintfield and Ballinahinch. At the
time of my visit to my mother's birthplace, my grandfather's house was
in the occupation of the family of his youngest son, Edward, and, as a
pilgrim visiting a sacred spot, I have stood on its floor, as I
afterwards did on the field of Ballinahinch itself.

My Aunt Mary used to speak of an incident which I have never read of in
any account of the battle, but I am inclined to believe there was some
foundation for what she used to tell us. In one part of the engagement
it seemed as if the bravery of the insurgents would have been crowned
with a victory as decisive as they had gained at Saintfield, when, by
some untoward circumstance, the fortunes of the day turned, and, in the
end, the United Men were defeated. Perhaps what my Aunt Mary told me may
be some explanation of the turn in the tide of battle. She used to say
that when it looked as if the United Men were carrying all before them,
a portion of their forces called out for a "Presbyterian ('Prispatairan'
she used to call it) Government," that this caused some hesitation among
the Catholics, that after this the battle went against them, and that
the day ended in disaster.