The Wexford Rebellion broke not in the securely Catholic south of the county, where there had been greater political organisation, but in the sectarian-divided north and centre which had seen previous agrarian disturbances, although here the absence of a United organisation is disputed. The trigger, it is agreed, was the arrival on 26 May 1798 of the notorious North Cork Militia. The insurgents swept south through Wexford Town meeting their first reversal at New Ross on 30 May. There followed the massacre of loyalist hostages at Scullabogue and, after a Committee of Public Safety was swept aside, at Wexford Bridge. A "striking resemblance" has been proposed to the 1792 September massacre in Paris", and it is noted that there were a small number of Catholics among the loyalists killed, and of Protestants among the rebels present. But for loyalists the sectarian nature of the outrages was unquestioned and was used to great effect in the north to secure defections from the republican cause. Much was made of the report that a Catholic priest, Father John Murphy, had commanded the rebels in their initial victory over the North Cork Militia at Oulart Hill.