OK, now I see a good summary of what led to the indemnity bill, and have learned from it that there's a Doyle in this story also.
http://forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/archive/index.php/t-3660.html
Mad, bad and Irish
FLOGGING FITZ
Thomas Judkin FitzGerald was High Sheriff of Tipperary in 1798.He must have been a prophetic choice for the post in the year of the Rebellion when the activities that gave him his nickname were commonplace.However the Sheriff carried out his duties with such dedication as to make them remarkable in a brutal phase of Irish history.
FitzGerald was from Co.Cork but resided near Cashel in Co.Tipperary.When appointed Sheriff he took it as his mission to purge the county of rebellion,though in truth there was little evidence of a populace ready to rise.In fact a small group of United Irishmen were planning to attack the town of Clonmel in July of 1798 but the plan was betrayed by an informer and the leaders arrested.
Despite the fact that he was supposed to be an instrument of the law not much guilt or proof of it was required to fall foul of the Sheriff.In modern terms he was a dangerous psychopath who was known to have men flogged for not taking off their hats as he rode by or merely because they looked like croppies to him.What was worse he was a law unto himself-judge,jury and executioner.
His practice was to ride into a town or village with an escort of soldiers and “purify” the town.So in the village of Clogheen the inhabitants were forced to kneel in deference to the Sheriff while the local innkeeper, Jeremiah McGrath,was flogged. In Clonmel town anybody suspected of being a rebel was arrested and on market days tied to the back of a cart,which was then pulled the length of the main street, from the Main Guard (a building in the town center) to the West Gate of the town.Two soldiers flogged the unfortunate man as he was pulled along.Peasant or gentleman made no difference to Fitz. Bernard Wright was a teacher of French who almost died from a flogging. Happily he later sued the Sheriff and was awarded £500 in damages.
Flogging Fitz visited the town of Carrick on Suir on June 22nd 1798,the day after the Battle of Vinegar Hill,though nobody in town had yet heard of the battle.On the evidence of a prisoner from Clonmel Jail,Stephen Devany,who was,ironically enough,serving a sentence for perjury twelve men of the town were arrested.They included the Parish priest,a Protestant merchant named Matthew Scott,Daniel and Patrick Boyle who were cloth merchants and Francis White another prominent merchant,David Wells and Francis Doyle a 27 year old draper.Despite the intervention of Rev James Smyth,the local Protestant Clergyman,Captain Laurence Jephson of the local yeomanry and Charles Wall a prominent landowner,four of the prisoners were summarily flogged in the market place.Francis Doyle seems to have suffered the most brutal treatment.He was tied to a ladder and given 50 lashes on the back while FitzGerald harangued the townspeople.Fainting under the lash he was revived and given another 50 lashes to the lower body after his trousers were cut off.Not unnaturally Doyle sued FitzGerald.
The case was heard in Clonmel Assizes,opening before Lord Avonmore on the 9th of April 1801.Having already been sued by Bernard Wright and with other cases pending,FitzGerald had petitioned Parliament to push through an Act of Parliament granting him legal immunity for any act committed in suppressing the rebellion.No doubt throughout the country there were many more like Tipperary’s High Sheriff because the outcome was the Indemnity Act which,despite the sympathy of Judge and Jury,ensured that Doyle lost his case.To add insult to injury he had to pay double the costs to the defendant as well as his own legal bill.In all he had to pay £700.In order to vindicate his name Doyle had the transcripts of the trial published privately in 1808.His friends in Carrick on Suir helped with subscriptions but the family financial situation was probably always desperate as his only son Peter died a pauper in 1845.
In contrast, Flogging Fitz was created a Baronet and awarded a pension. He died in 1810.
Howling mad and very, very bad.
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