Michael Dwyer, born in Wicklow, Ireland, in 1772, was 26 when the 1798 Rising against English rule began. He led the English on a merry dance until December 1803, when he surrendered on condition he and his colleagues be sent to America. The English reneged and sent them to Botany Bay aboard the Tellicherry in 1806.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie gave him a full pardon in 1814. Dwyer died 11 years later, aged 53, and was buried in Sydney's Devonshire St cemetery (where Central Station now stands).
In the lead up to the centenary of the uprising, the Irish community in Sydney campaigned to have a memorial erected for the Wicklow Chief and his colleagues. The £2000 needed was raised by the Irish in Sydney, country towns in NSW and in Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand.
On 22 May 1898, Dwyer's remains, and that of his wife's, were moved from Devonshire St to the memorial in Waverley. It was the largest funeral Sydney had seen with 400 horse-drawn carriages following the hearse in a procession of 10,000 people watched by 100,000 others.
Grave of Michael Dwyer - Wicklow Chief Waverley cemetery Irish memorial, Sydney Source: Irish Wattle
Useful links for your own research:
[3] Waverley Cemetery, NSW transcriptions & index, Randwick Library[4] Waverley & South Head Cemetery Transcriptions, Findmypast AU
[5] Waverley Council Local History Fact Sheets
[6] Waverley Cemetery Who's Who
[7] Society of Australian Genealogists :: Camperdown Cemetery guide
