Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An excessively rare 1859 Constabulary Medal (Ireland) awarded to First Head Constable J. Crowley, Irish Constabulary, an ‘active and indefatigable officer’ who played an important part in apprehending offenders during the Great Hunger/Potato Famine and the subsequent Young Ireland Revolt of 1848, arresting Terence Bellew McManus on board a ship bound for Boston

Constabulary Medal (Ireland), 1st type, ‘Reward of Merit Irish Constabulary’, the reverse engraved ‘Presented by His Excellency the Earl of Carlisle as a reward for Distinguished Police Service & Exemplary Conduct 22nd. Novr. 1859.’ and the edge engraved (First Head Constable John Crowley) with integral top silver riband buckle, edge nicks, nearly extremely fine £3,000-£4,000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, April 1913.

John Crowley was born in co. Cork in 1818 and worked as a bootmaker before joining the Irish Constabulary on 6 September 1836. He served with both the County and Cork City Police, and was advanced to Constable (insignia of a Sergeant) on 1 February 1841, and Second Head Constable (insignia of a military Warrant Officer) on 2 April 1846. During the course of his career he gained 33 Favourable Reports as well as 4 Chevrons for bravery or gallant conduct. Many were for the detection and arrest of robbers or burglars, recovering stolen property or fighting fires. One Approbation granted in the last quarter of 1848 is of particular interest: ‘Cork East Riding, 2nd Head Constable John Crowley No. 2164 [Grant from Reward Fund] Award. Tact and efficiency in the capture of a noted political offender’ (p/n 16,700 refers).

In 1848, disgusted by the widespread starvation resulting from potato blight, mass evictions of tenant farmers and the refusal of the British government to halt the extensive export of food from Ireland, William Smith O’Brien, an Irish Member of Parliament, and other Young Ireland activists resolved on struggle as the means to restore the autonomous Irish parliament and government that had been abolished by the 1801 Act of Union. O’Brien was an idealist. Inspired by the wave of revolutions that toppled governments across Europe in early 1848, he hoped to unite all sections of Irish society to reject British rule. The British government started to arrest his supporters and try them for Treason-felony. O’Brien decided to act, summoning the Young Irelanders to rise in revolt. The reaction from the executive administration in Dublin was immediate. ‘It was Crowley who brought direct from Dublin Castle, travelling express, the proclamation offering £500 for the apprehension of Smith O’Brien, which further stated that it was supposed “the said Smith O’Brien was then encamped with the rebel army somewhere on the borders of the Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny”. Head Constable Crowley was for many years stationed in Cork, and will still be remembered by some of our readers.’ (Cork Historical and Archaeological Society Journal, Volume IX August 1903 No 58 p 94 ‘The Silver Medal of the Royal Irish Constabulary’ by Robert Day refers).

As a result, on 29 July 1848, a force of 47 policemen attempted to arrest O’Brien at Ballingarry. Faced with a hostile horde, they took refuge in a large two-story farmhouse. A constable fired at O’Brien while he was attempting to negotiate and an exchange of fire between police and rebels went on for hours, before the rebels gave up, dispersed, and their leaders fled. O’Brien was arrested a few days later. Thomas Bellew McManus, the only Young Ireland leader who had stuck with O’Brien at Ballingarry, disappeared, despite being the focus of an intensive manhunt.

On 30 August 1848 the Cork police boarded an American ship that was about to set sail for Boston. They were looking for a criminal who had absconded. However, Head Constable Crowley recognised the heavily disguised McManus among the passengers, brought him ashore without causing a diplomatic incident with the United States, and arrested him to stand trial for treason. Both O’Brien and McManus were transported to Australia, but McManus later escaped and emigrated to America. Crowley was promoted 1st Head Constable in August 1850.

Only two Constabulary Medals (to Sub-Inspectors Cox and Trant) were directly awarded for the Young Ireland Revolt, but Robert Day makes a convincing case that Crowley’s actions in 1848 provided much of the justification for the decision to grant him some of the four Chevrons which, under the R.I.C. Reward of Merit Regulations as modified in May 1856, entitled him to receive this excessively rare Medal. Crowley’s Constabulary Medal was only the third one to be granted. It is unique in being the only one ever awarded on the basis of accruing Chevrons, as opposed to being awarded on the basis of a single act of great merit. Crowley was presented with his Constabulary Medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at a full parade of the police force in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on 22 November 1859, just before his retirement. He was pensioned on 1 December and died, aged 54, on 3 August 1872.