William Michael Byrne
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William "Billy" Michael Byrne (1775–1798) from Glen of the Downs, County Wicklow, Ireland was a key figure in the United Irishmen in the years leading to the 1798 Rebellion against the British government.
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Byrne was one of the two sons of Colclough Byrne of Drumquin, Hackettstown and Mary Galway of Cork, a great grand-niece of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond.[1] William though was to live most of his adult life at Park Hill in the Glen of the Downs. In late 1796, he enlisted in the yeomanry - serving in the Newtown Mount Kennedy cavalry.
Revolutionary
Byrne joined the Society of the United Irishmen in spring 1797 and later that same year was appointed by the Leinster committee to organise the half barony of Rathdown. As a delegate for Rathdown barony, Byrne was a well-respected and competent figure.[1] And with the assistance of his protestant friend Thomas Miller of Powerscourt, he undertook the organisation of military and civil branches of the United Irishmen in Rathdown - recruiting 2,000 men by late 1797. In October of that year, Byrne was forced to resign from the yeomen after refusing to swear the oath of loyalty and his activities began to come to the attention of Dublin Castle. According to the informant A.B. (Thomas Murray), William had attended the inaugural meeting of the United Irishmen's Wicklow county committee in December. It was held in the Annacurra home of William's first cousin, John Loftus.
At this meeting, Byrne and was as Head Delegate for the Wicklow Committee. Thomas Murray's information tells that Byrne established networks of contacts between the Leinster committee and the Cork United Irishmen along with other contacts in Munster. Sometime in 1797, Byrne married Rosanna Hoey by whom he fathered a daughter, Mary.
