Undercover Irish – Episode 2

Henry Browne Hayes was sentenced to transportation for life.

But exile did not humble him.

In this second part of the series, we follow Hayes from Ireland to Australia — from convict ship to colonial estate — and examine how power adapts even when it is supposedly punished.

Along the way, we encounter Irish political prisoners, Freemasonry in the early colony, the Rum Rebellion, a dramatic shipwreck, and the unfinished legacy of both empire and rebellion.

And at the centre of it all remains Mary Pike.

• The convict ship Atlas and Hayes's bribed passage
• Irish political prisoners transported after 1798
• Tristram Moore and other United Irishmen in New South Wales
• Early Freemasonry in Australia
• The attempted lodge of 1803
• Vaucluse House and its convict origins
• The Rum Rebellion (1808)
• Governor William Bligh and the New South Wales Corps
• Hayes's exile to Newcastle (Coal River)
• The role of Governor Lachlan Macquarie
• The controversial pardon
• The wreck of the Isabella in 1813
• Joseph Holt's account of the disaster
• Hayes's return to Cork
• The long shadow over Mary Pike's life
• Modern-day legacies in Ireland and Australia

Undercover Irish – Episode 1

Undercover Irish | Patreon

Eolan Ryng (@undercoverirish) • Instagram photos and videos

In late 18th-century Cork, a wealthy magistrate named Henry Browne Hayes stood on the quay and watched Irish prisoners being transported to Australia.

A decade later, he would join them.

This episode explores one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in Irish history — the 1797 abduction of Mary Pike, a wealthy Cork heiress, and the fall of a man who believed the law existed to serve him.

Set against the backdrop of the Protestant Ascendancy, the Penal Laws, and the social hierarchy of pre-Union Ireland, this is a story about power, gender, class, and what happened when privilege finally collided with consequence.

• Life in Cork under the Protestant Ascendancy
• Transportation from Ireland to Australia in the 18th century
• The case of Michael Lamb — poverty and exile
• Vernon Mount and the architecture of elite power
• Financial decline and social pressure among Ascendancy families
• The abduction of Mary Pike in 1797
• The culture of "abduction clubs" among wealthy Irish men
• The pursuit led by Cooper Penrose
• The role of barber Coghlan and the Grand Parade reward houses
• The courtroom battle led by John Philpot Curran
• The precedent of Strange & Byrne
• The guilty verdict
• The sentence: transportation for life

Mary Pike was not just any young woman. She was one of the wealthiest heiresses in Cork — connected to powerful mercantile families.

When Henry Browne Hayes abducted her in an attempt to force a marriage, he assumed status would shield him.

He was wrong.

The case electrified Cork society. It raised uncomfortable questions about class, entitlement, and the treatment of women in 18th-century Ireland.

If this could happen to an heiress — what happened to women without wealth or influence?

This episode also explores the wider social order that shaped Hayes:

• Land confiscation and elite control
• The Penal Laws
• The justice system's uneven application
• The intersection of gender and class

Henry Browne Hayes was not simply an individual criminal.

He was a product of a political system that concentrated power — and protected its own.

Long before Hayes became a convict, he oversaw the transportation of others.

Irish prisoners — many convicted for poverty-driven crimes — were sent to New South Wales as part of Britain's expanding penal empire.

In one of history's sharpest ironies, Hayes would later be sentenced to the same fate.

• Vernon Mount, Cork
• Grand Parade (Sráid an Chapaill Buí), Cork
• Christ Church, South Main Street
• Shandon Street
• Early transport ships from Ireland to Australia

This is not just a tale of scandal.

It is a case study in how power behaves when challenged.

It forces us to ask:

• Was the law applied equally?
• Did wealth soften consequences?
• How were working-class women treated in the same society?
• And how much of that logic survives today?

Henry Browne Hayes is found guilty and sentenced to transportation for life.

But exile is not the end of his story.

Next time: Australia, Freemasonry, the Rum Rebellion, a shipwreck in the South Atlantic — and the long shadow of Mary Pike.

If you enjoy Undercover Irish and want to support independent Irish history storytelling, you can support the show on Patreon.

▶️ Watch the full three-part video series on YouTube:

👉 https://youtu.be/0KHrtftADsU?si=XkZpK2x22PEZC0dA

👉 https://youtu.be/Eo55vfTsj0o?si=I_PQd3YT79uo7g3B

👉 https://youtu.be/jeRabeYsImA?si=Uq-mao7MQUzI6UlZ

☕ Support the podcast on Patreon:

👉 Undercover Irish | Podcasts on Irish History, Language, Songs and Story. | Patreon

📸 Follow on Instagram for maps, photos & fieldwork:

👉 https://instagram.com/UndercoverIrish

Courtaparteen was once a living Irish village. Today, it's hidden beneath forestry.

In this episode of Undercover Irish, I explore the lost village of Courtaparteen — tracing it through historic maps, satellite imagery, and on-the-ground exploration to understand how an entire settlement could disappear from view.

This episode brings together three strands of investigation:

• Mapping Courtaparteen on historic Ordnance Survey maps and comparing them with modern satellite imagery
• Walking the abandoned village, church ruins, holy wells, and graveyard hidden within woodland
• Analysing how Courtaparteen fits into the wider social, political, and economic history of rural Ireland

Rather than vanishing in a single dramatic moment, Courtaparteen faded quietly — shaped by depopulation, land use change, and the slow erosion of rural communities. Its story is not unique, but it is revealing.

This episode looks at what remains in the landscape, what survives in records, and what happens when places are no longer seen.

🎥 This story is also available as a three-part video series on YouTube, with maps, satellite imagery, and on-location footage from Courtaparteen itself.

☕ If you'd like to support long-form Irish history, research trips, and field recordings, you can do so on Patreon.