Irish highwaymen

Rapparees or raparees (from the Irish ropairí, plural of ropaire, whose primary meaning is "thruster, stabber", and by extension a wielder of the half-pike or pike), were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Royalist side during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) and the Jacobite side during the 1690s Williamite war in Ireland. Subsequently, the name was also given to bandits and highwaymen in Ireland – many former guerrilla fighters having turned to armed robbery, cattle raiding, and selling protection against theft to provide for themselves, their families, and their cla