THE 1798 REBELLION IN IRELAND
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1. Background to the Rising
Protestant Ascendancy
The American Revolution and the Volunteers
The United Irishmen and the Catholic Convention
Popular politics and Defenderism
Loyalist reaction
The Orange Order and the founding of Maynooth
The recall of Fitzwilliam
Bantry Bay and the 'dragooning of Ulster'
2. The Rebellion
The United Irishmen go-it-alone
Wexford
3. Effects of the Rebellion
Double defeat
1. Background to the rebellion
The last decade of the 1700s was a most important time in Irish history.
Republicanism and
Loyalism both found real identity, the Orange Order and Maynooth College
were both
founded as the century ended with the rebellion in Ireland and the
subsequent Act of Union.
The repercussions of these events define Irish history even up to the modern
day.
The rebels were very influenced by the effects of uprisings in America,
France and Australia.
They seized the opportunity to try to create a society not based on religion
but based on
democratic principles and freedom of expression. This policy was to prove
popular with Irish
people of different creeds who all wanted the same thing, freedom from
English rule.
This philosophy was to provide a means whereby counter-revolutionaries could
try to
disrupt the organisation by inciting sectarian hatreds and fears within the
movement.
Protestant ascendancy
The social and political systems in Ireland in the 1790s was such that the
vast majority of
the population of over 5 million people were excluded. Only the ruling
Protestant class,
comprising of about 10% of the population, were entitled to vote or to sit
in parliament. The
vast majority of the land in Ireland was owned by Church of Ireland
emigrants from
England. Ireland was independent in theory but in practice it was ruled by
the English
parliament who severely restricted the growth of the Irish economy. The
presbyterian class
were also excluded and many emigrated to America to seek out a more
favourable situation.
The effects of worldwide revolution
It is not surprising, therefore, that when the American colonists revolted
against British
government in the 1770s, they found a sympathetic ear amongst their kin in
Ireland. In
1778 France, Britain's traditional enemy, entered the war on the American
side, thus
threatening Ireland with invasion. The British government was caught without
an army to
defend Ireland, since its regular troops had been sent to America, nor the
revenue to raise
an alternative, due to the economic dislocation caused by the war. An Irish
Protestant army,
the Volunteers, was raised to fill the breach, financed locally.
Unfortunately for government
it became the focus for various grievances, both political and economic. A
convention of
Ulster Volunteers (predominantly Presbyterian) at Dungannon in 1782 demanded
parliamentary reform (a broadening of the franchise and the abolition of
'rotten' boroughs)
and Catholic emancipation (the abolition of remaining anti-Catholic laws).
However a
national Volunteer convention the following year split on the Catholic
question and
Volunteering declined thereafter.
The United Irishmen and the Catholic Convention
The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 with its ideals of liberty,
equality and
fraternity provided fresh impetus to the reform movement in Ireland. In the
autumn of 1791
Societies of United Irishmen were founded in Belfast and Dublin with the
twin aims of
parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. The leading ideologue was
Theobald Wolfe
Tone, a Church of Ireland lawyer from Dublin, who, having witnessed the
disarray of the
Volunteers on the Catholic question years earlier, was determined to forge a
united reform
movement of the various denominations. In addition he increasingly focused
critical
attention on the cornerstone of the existing Irish political system, 'the
connection with
England', although his evolution into fully fledged separatist and
republican was to take a
while longer. He found willing allies amongst the middle class leaders of
the Catholic
Committee who had recently displaced their more conservative land-owning
predecessors.
Determined to push more aggressively for concessions from government the new
Catholic
Committee appointed Tone as their secretary and over the course of 1792
mobilised for a
'Catholic Convention' held in the Tailors' Hall, Dublin in December. The
Convention
presented its demands directly to the London government, over the head of
the implacably
hostile Dublin administration. The London government, anxious to maintain
the loyalty of
the Catholic majority in the face of the impending war with revolutionary
France, conceded
almost all of the demands, except the right of Catholics to sit in
parliament.
Popular politics and Defenderism
The Catholic Convention had a politicising effect out of all proportion to
the 233 delegates
who directly participated. The delegates were elected in a series of
meetings that reached
down to parish level involving broad sections of the people in political
activity for the first
time. At the same time the country was awash with a deluge of political
pamphlets. In
particular the campaign politicised and broadened the horizons of the
Defenders. This
shadowy organisation first made its appearance in County Armagh in the late
1780s as a
defence against the arms raids on Catholics of the 'Peep o' Day Boys',
forerunners of the
Orange Order, who, as a symbol of Protestant supremacy, were anxious to
maintain the ban
on Catholics bearing arms. By 1792/93 Defenderism had spread throughout
south Ulster
and north Leinster (it had even penetrated into Dublin City), and its
propaganda had
become more articulate and socially radical in tone. Throughout this period
Tone, Samuel
Neilson, Thomas Russell, and other radical United Irishmen, established
contact with them
which was to provide the basis for a mass-based revolutionary United Irish
organisation
later in the decade.
Loyalist reaction
Meanwhile the upholders of the status quo in Ireland were not idle in the
face of these
challenges. Along with the carrot of concessions to Catholics went the stick
of repression:
the gunpowder act which placed restrictions on firearms; the militia act,
which envisaged a
largely Catholic rank-and-file home defence force officered by Protestants,
and which
provoked widespread disturbances; and the convention act, which outlawed any
repeat of
December 1792's 'Back Lane parliament'. The latter in particular stymied
United Irish plans
for a repeat of that success on the issue of parliamentary reform. An Ulster
convention,
dominated by United Irishmen, demanding parliamentary reform met at
Dungannon in
February 1793 just before the convention act was passed. The Dublin Society
of United
Irishmen was dispersed in May 1794, a fate shared by like-minded reform
movements in
England and Scotland. In the circumstances of Britain's war with
revolutionary France
demands for reform were equated with subversion. The war acted as a
pressure-cooker
polarising the situation even further and Ireland became a crucial theatre
in this wider
ideological struggle. At grassroots level the struggle was joined by the
Defenders who
became increasingly bold in their actions. As law-and-order deteriorated in
the countryside
government repression intensified, culminating in commander-in-chief
Carhampton's brutal
campaign against the Defenders in 1795. Liberal Protestant opinion was
outraged at the
scale of the illegalities many suspected Defenders were transported without
a trial. The
government response was the insurrection act which retroactively enshrined
Carhampton's
activities in law.
The Orange Order and the founding of Maynooth
Sectarian hostilities flared up anew in County Armagh, culminating in the
expulsion of
thousands of Catholics and in the foundation of the Orange Order, dedicated
to the
maintenance of Protestant ascendancy. Under landlord and government
sponsorship it
spread rapidly over the following years providing the government with a
mass-based
counter-revolutionary alternative to the United Irishmen. A more subtle
variation of the
overall counter-revolutionary strategy was the foundation of a Catholic
seminary at
Maynooth. Catholic seminarians would no longer be obliged to get educated in
France where
many of them had developed an enthusiasm for the revolution. Thus the
government
cultivated the support of a Catholic hierarchy itself fearful of the spread
of 'French
principles'.
The recall of Fitzwilliam
Early in 1795 the arrival of Fitzwilliam as lord lieutenant had raised
Catholic hopes only for
Those hopes to be dashed by his sudden recall having over-stepped his brief.
His successor
Camden reinstated the policy of defending Protestant Ascendancy at all
costs. The United
Irishmen, meanwhile, had continued to meet clandestinely under various
guises. The recall
of Fitzwilliam removed whatever lingering hope they may have entertained for
constitutional
reform. The Catholic Committee dissolved itself (on the basis that 'there
was no longer a
Catholic question only a national question'); a new constitution was drawn
up for a single
mass-based revolutionary United Irish organisation; and Tone was dispatched
to France (via
America) to solicit military aid for an armed revolution.
Bantry Bay and the 'dragooning of Ulster'
By the end of 1796 Tone's mission had borne fruit in the form of the
dispatch of 16,000
French troops under General Hoche to Bantry Bay. Bad weather and bad French
seamanship, however, prevented the landing of the force which in all
probability could have
liberated the country. Within Ireland, meanwhile, the United Irishmen had
build a
formidable underground network, especially in Ulster where they claimed
100,000 armed
and organised men. While they waited confidently for another French invasion
attempt,
government forces went on the offensive. Throughout the spring and summer of
1797 the
army under General Lake, augmented by the Orange Order, was let loose on the
people of
Ulster. The 'dragooning of Ulster' effectively disarmed and crippled United
Irish organisation,
especially in the middle and south of the province.
2. The rebellion
The United Irishmen go-it-alone
By the winter of 1797/98, with hopes of a renewed French attempt fading, the
United
Irishmen were forced to adopt a go-it-alone military strategy focused on
Dublin. Their
organisation was strengthened in and around the capital and it also expanded
in south
Leinster. The planned insurrection was to have been a three-phased affair:
the seizure of
strategic positions within Dublin city; co-ordinated with the establishment
of a crescent of
positions outside in north County Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow; and
backed up by the
engagement of government forces in the counties beyond to prevent
reinforcement.
Disaster struck on 12 March 1798 with the arrest of most of the Leinster
leadership. Further
arrests on the very eve of the rising in May effectively decapitated the
movement. The
seizure of Dublin from within was aborted; as they waited for orders that
never came,
United Irish positions outside the city succumbed one by one; of the
counties beyond, only
in Wexford did the United Irishmen meet with success. A fortnight later (7-9
June), despite
the mauling at the hands of Lake's forces the year before, the United
Irishmen of Antrim
and Down managed to rise up but they too were quickly defeated.
Wexford
The Wexford insurgents met with a string of early successes but were
ultimately prevented
from spreading the insurrection beyond their own county by defeats at New
Ross (5 June)
and Arklow (9 June). Massive government forces began to move in for the
decisive military
showdown at Vinegar Hill, outside Enniscorthy (21 June). Although the
insurgents suffered
defeat, the bulk of their forces escaped encirclement and carried on the
struggle for another
month, one group in the Wicklow mountains and the other in a 'long march'
into the
midlands before being worn down and forced to surrender. A month later (22
August) over
a thousand French troops under General Humbert landed at Killala, County
Mayo, but it was
too little too late. Despite some initial successes, including a spectacular
victory at
Castlebar, Humbert and the United Irishmen who flocked to his standard were
defeated at
Ballinamuck, County Longford (8 October). The insurrection of 1798 was over.
3. Effects of the Rebellion
The defeat of the United Irishmen also signalled the end of Protestant
Ascendancy in Ireland
as the Act of Union of 1800 abolished the parliament in College Green and
moved all
authority back to the parliament in London.
Some United Irishmen welcomed this development as the first step on the road
to
parliamentary reform as did many of the Catholic peasantry who envisaged
their election in
the English parliament. Catholic Emancipation followed in 1929 by which time
the context
had changed from being a wholly national issue to being a Catholic issue.
The United Irishmen ideals of a non-sectarian democracy became obscured by
the politics of
the ballot box based on religion. The rebellion of 1798 heightened the
awareness to the
Catholic peasantry of the situation that they were in and showed them that
there may be
alternatives to be won.
Daniel O'Connell, the Irish Famine, Parnell, Davitt and the land reform
movements, all did
the same thing as the majority of people in Ireland demanded more and more
freedom and
privilege.
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