Life
1780-1862 [var. Miles]; b. Monacomm, Co. Wexford; he participated in preparations for 1798 Rising, fought at Oulart, Enniscorthy, Clough, Arklow and Vinegar Hill; engaged in skirmishes, and later took refuge with Michael Dwyer and Gen. Holt in glens of Wicklow; employed by his brother as timber clerk in Dublin; introduced to Robert Emmet, who sent him on a legation to France, where he later became chef de bataillon in Napoleon’s Irish Legion and served as an officer for 35 years all over the continent; d. Paris 1862, bur. Montmartre; Memoirs (1863) was prepared for publication by his widow. ODNB DIH DIB FDA
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Works
Memoirs of Miles Byrne, intro. by R. B. McDowell (Shannon: IUP 1972) [2 vols in 1; Vol. 1: xi, 356pp., vol II: iii, 356pp. [ltd. edn. 200].
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Commentary
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (1984), Memoirs of Miles Byrne, ed. by his widow (1st ed. Paris 1863; rep. Shannon 1972), incls. accounts of meetings in Paris with Tennant and Winter, and other details regarding contemporary philhellenism in the 1820s.
Mitchell R. Sharpe, ‘In October, 1802, Emmet returned to Dublin. Sometime in the middle of March, 1803, he began setting up a series of five depots or arsenals, employing some 40 people in making the weapons mentioned above. One of these was in Patrick Street, almost directly across from St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was cunningly modified with false walls and designed to produce rockets, among other weapons. It also was destined to cause Emmet's downfall, The depot was in charge of Miles Byrne, one of Emmet's most trusted lieutenants, but the rockets were made principally by Michael McDaniel, a dyer with some knowledge of chemistry, and the mysterious Johnstone (who may have been a British spy.)’ (p.5 in Sharpe, ‘Robert Emmet and the Development of the War Rocket’, Éire-Ireland, 5, 4 Winter 1970, pp.3-8, an article which contains much information regarding Byrne's involvement with Emmet.)
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References
Dictionary of National Biography lists Miles Byrne (1780-1862) [sic]; United Irishman; leader of 1798 insurrection; clerk in Dublin timberyard, 1799-1803; leader in Robert Emmet’s sedition, 1803, sent to solicit Napoleon’s help, 1803; served in Napoleon’s Irish legion, 1804-15; captain , 1810; chef-de-bataillon, 1830-35; lived latterly in Paris. NOTE DIH, var., b. Ballylusk, co. Wexford, farmer at Monaseed, joined UI, commanded pikemen at Arklow, Vinegar Hill, before joining Michael Dwyer in Wicklow; in France he entered the Irish Legion which he though would be send to Ireland but which fought on the continent; awarded Legion of Honour by Louis Phillipe, 1853; monument at Montmartre.
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