More than 80 Irish soldiers were believed to have planned to rendezvous at the gunpowder magazine of Fort Townshend, before fragging their officers and murdering several leading townspeople on April 20.

On the night of April 24, 19 Irish soldiers (consisting of 11 fencibles and twelve artillerymen led by James Murphy and Sergeant Kelly) gathered at the Fort Townshend gunpowder magazine, where they discovered that 30 fellow mutineers from Fort William were unable to join them (their commander, Thomas Skinner, had ordered them to be temporarily detained in response to the rumors).

James Louis O’Donel, the Catholic Bishop of St. John’s, having got wind of what was afoot, had enjoined his missioners to "oppose with all the means in their power all plotters conspirators, and favourers of the infidel French", cautioning that "the aim of this conspiracy is to dissolve all bonds, all laws by which society is held together".

Bishop O'Donel, who denied allegations that the Sunday plot included assassination at church, thought plunder and escape to America were the objectives.

[1] [2] The abortive mutiny may have been less a United Irish plot, than an act of desperation in the face of brutal living conditions and officer tyranny.