The hanging of Henry Joy McCracken at the Market House at the junction of Corn Market and High Street.
One of the most famous Belfast hangings was that of Henry Joy McCracken, the United Irishman, in 1798. At that time most of Europe was witnessing a general political upheaval and Ireland was by no means any different from the rest. The government of the time imposed a rigid clampdown after several small rebellions were organised throughout the country. In Belfast Henry Joy McCracken was one of the last United Irishmen to be publicly executed at High Street. McCracken was related to the noted Joy family, a well to do business family at that time and founder of the Belfast Newsletter. He was charged with treason relating to his part in the rising at Antrim but the Crown Attorney, John Pollock, hoped to do a deal with McCracken. In return for incriminating evidence against other
Insurgents, especially the name of the leader of the Antrim Rebellion, in whose place he had acted, the Crown would offer him a term of banishment instead of execution. McCracken declined the offer and after his court-martial at the Belfast Exchange at noon on July 17th he was sentenced to death at 5 p. m.
As Henry Joy was led to his death at High Street, the grim reminder of the previous week’s executions were still in evidence for all to see. Three weeks beforehand James Dickey, an attorney from Crumlin, had been executed. Four days later John Storey, a Belfast printer, met a similar fate. Then Hugh Graham and Henry Byres were executed at the beginning of July for their part in the Rebellion at Ballynahinch. With the exception of Graham all the men had been decapitated after being hanged. Their heads were then placed on spikes and placed up on the Market House. A horrific site for the citizens of Belfast. In the case of Henry Byres he had been convicted of stealing cattle from Nicholas Price for the United Irishmen. In a cruel twist of fate it was Price who actually led him to the gallows.
Like Hugh Graham, Henry Joy was not decapitated. After the execution, his body was cut down and was given over to Mrs. Burnside, a family friend. The body was immediately taken to the McCracken house at Rosemary Lane and it is stated that a close friend of the family, James Mc Donnell who studied artificial respiration, and Mr. McCluney, their ‘apothecary’, were immediately summoned. Nothing could be done to resuscitate the body and it was interred at St. George’s Churchyard later that same evening in accordance with the orders of the military who oversaw the execution.
The old Exchange Building where McCracken stood trial. This building still stands at the foot of Donegall Street.
In ‘The Town Book of Belfast’ there appears a report on the finding of a well made wooden box at Mount Collyer, the property of Mr. John Thompson the City’s Assessor, not far from the old fort at Milewater Bridge. To their horror the box contained the decayed remains of a hu-
Man skull. It was believed that this head was one of those which had been spiked on the Market House in 1798. Why was the box found at Mount Collyer? A very good friend of those who were executed was a certain Dr. William Hamilton Drummond who had a school at
Mount Collyer from 1805-1815. It was believed at the time of the discovery that Dr. Drummond had quite probably been the owner of the mysterious box.
Henry Joy McCracken’s bones, or what were believed to be his remains, were later unearthed in 1902 during reconstruction work on the site of the old graveyard at St. George’s Church in High Street. These remains were placed in a coffin and removed to the home of Francis Joseph Bigger, a local antiquarian. On May 12th 1909, the remains were re-interred in the grave of his sister, Mary Ann McCracken, in the burial ground at Clifton Street. A sealed glass phial placed inside the coffin reads;
"These bones were dug up in the old graveyard in High Street in 1902 and from several circumstances believed to be those of Henry Joy McCracken. They were reverently treated and were placed here by Robert May of Belfast 12 May 1909 when the monument was placed to his beloved sister."
Mary Ann McCracken
World History
