UNITED IRISHMEN

• 1791-4 - open reformist organisation

• Suppressed 1794 - by 1795 a secret military revolutionary organisation

UNITED IRISHMEN

• Strategies after 1795

• Infiltrate state forces - militia

• Ally with Defenders

• Propaganda campaign

• Military alliance with France - Bantry Bay expedition December 1796

STATE RESPONSE

• Purge militia

• New forces - Yeomanry 1796

• Intelligence - surveillance, informers

• Counter-insurgency, counter-terror - from late 1796 martial law, torture, houseburning

REBELLION OF 1798

2 issues

• Timing - long after French expedition

• Location - Wexford, largest rebellion - also Antrim, Down, Kildare - but north Leinster, south Ulster quiet

TIMING

• After Bantry Bay, December 1796 - surge in recruitment in United Irishmen

• Numbers doubled, even tripled in early 1797

• Most counties - 10-15,000 sworn - eg Kildare early 1798 - 12,000 (on paper)

United Irish dilemna• Wait for French - but French less

interested• Proceed with armed rebellion

State dilemna• Concentrate troops against invasion• Disperse troops against guerillas

• 1797 - mainly state counter-terror

• Disrupted United Irish organisation in east Ulster - then moved into south Ulster, then through Leinster

• Extent of disruption --> geography of risings

LOCATION OF REBELLION

• Areas of insurgency 1796, 1797 –south Ulster, West Ulster, East Munster, North Leinster – don’t rise

• Areas with longer tradition of violence – Armagh, East Munster – don’t rise

• Main rebellion - Wexford - quiet before 1798

WEST ULSTER

• Derry - radical republican presence from early 1790s

• Bastille day parades from 1790

• Rights of Man (Paine) printed 1791

• United Irishmen late 1796: Derry 8,000, Tyrone 6,500, Donegal 3,000 - rapid rise in 1797

WEST ULSTER

• Attacks through 1796-7

• Divided on strategy - leadership more cautious - merchants, some landowners

• ferocious counter-insurgency – whipping, house burning, suspension of normal law

• No rebellion

MUNSTER

• Disturbed since 1760s - Whiteboys, Rightboys

• United Irish organisation in 1790s

• Possibly 50,000 in Co. Cork 1798

MUNSTER

• Tipperary – United Irishmen organised by Catholic gentry

• Supposed commander – Hervey Moores – ex-Austrian army

• Some activity – eg Cahir March 1798 – taken over for a few hours by men in black uniforms – all guns seized

• As in Ulster – leadership divided – and counter-terror

MUNSTER

• Two short risings – late, after defeat of main rising in Wexford

• Clonakilty 19 June ‘Battle of the Big Cross’ – ambush of militia by several hundred UI – 30 or 40 UI killed

• Slievenamon July – maybe 100 killed

UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• Initially strongest in East Ulster• State terror concentrated there -

organisation seriously disrupted• Focus shifts to Leinster• Centred in Dublin• Strong presence in ring around

capital - Meath, Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow

UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• Rebellion to begin in Dublin

• Seize capital

• Surrounding counties rise and converge on Dublin

• Decision repeatedly postponed - rumours of French preparation

• March 1798 - meeting of Leinster committee to decide on rising

• Government warned - arrested entire leadership

• 30 March - martial law for entire country - houses burnt, torture, flogging, arrests

• Created fear of general massacre

• Rebellion now necessary - or annihilation

UNITED IRISH NATIONAL STRATEGY• 24th May

• Rebellion in Dublin

• Seizure of mailcoaches - signal to other counties

• But - Dublin flooded with troops - no success

KILDARE 24 MAY

• Naas attacked by 1,000 men - attack defeated, 100 dead

• Prosperous - successful attack - 30-50 militia killed

• Clane attacked by 300 - defeated

• Kilcullen - attack successful initially, then counterattacked - 150-300 dead

KILDARE 24 MAY

• Ballitore captured by several hundred - joined by a few thousand - army defeated, hundreds killed

• State forces withdraw to fortified towns - Naas, Athy

• Kildare town taken by 2,000 without fight

KILDARE 25 MAY

• Monasterevan attacked by 1,500 - defeated by militia

• Rathangan attacked, taken

KILDARE 26 MAY

• Rebels control South Kildare

• What next? Dublin not risen, Carlow and Meath rebellions defeated

• Victory by default - state withdrew to towns, did not always engage

• When fighting took place, artillery of state a deciding factor

KILDARE AFTER 26 MAY

• Rebels began surrendering

• Some freed, some killed

• Many did not surrender, made camps in bogs, guerilla warfare until mid-June

MEATH

• Attacks on Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne, Ratoath

• Main battle - Hill of Tara

• 4-5,000 United Irishmen on 26 May

• Good defensive position

• Rebels attacked yeomanry, defeated

• 350 rebels killed

CARLOW

• Attack on Carlow town 26 May

• Defeated

• Account in your document pack

• William Farrell - sadlier

• Written in 1830s

• By participant - but not given in court

REBELLION IN WEXFORD

• Largest rebellion

2 puzzles

• Why in Wexford? Quiet beforehand

• Why so successful? Rebels held county for 3/4 weeks

NOT TROUBLED BEFORE

• United Irishmen centred in Belfast and Dublin

• Defenders strongest in South Ulster, North Leinster

• Little agrarian protest in 18th century

• Few reports to government in 1790s

STANDARD EXPLANATION

• Catholic nationalism in late 19th and 20th centuries - Catholic rebellion - led by Fr. Murphy - responding to state provocation

• Unionist historians shared explanation

STANDARD EXPLANATION

• But - religious divide not political divide

• Protestant rebels, rebel leaders

• Catholic Church strongly anti-rebel - Bishop Caulfield of Ferns

RELIGIOUS ELEMENT

• Wexford had an unusual religious configuration

• Major English settlement in 1620s and 1630s - Protestant farming class

• North Wexford/South Wicklow - largest Protestant population outside Ulster

RELIGIOUS ELEMENT

• Surviving Catholic gentry - network of landowning families - trade - contact with France

• Overall - religious divisions in all social classes

• Catholic question explosive

• Tension at elections in 1790s

RELIGIOUS ELEMENT

• Political division on religious question - but not on religious lines

• Liberal Protestants - United Irishmen

• Conservative Catholics - sided with state

• Younger radical Catholics - United Irishmen

ECONOMIC FACTOR

• North Wexford - barley area, main producer of malt

• War - end of bounties on barley and malt

• Wartime taxation

• Severe difficulty by 1798

OUT OF THE BLUE?

• Major militia riot 1793

• Orange lodges founded from summer 1797 in North Wexford, South Wicklow

• November 1797 - 16 parishes declared to be in state of rebellion

• Counter-terror campaign - April 1798

REBELLION

• No message from Dublin

• Confused mobilisation 26-7 May

• Early success - contrast to Kildare, Carlow

• State troops not visible - scattered garrisons - few troops east of river Slaney

REBELLION

• Mobilisation without interference

• Oulart hill

• Militia attack 27th May - heavily defeated

• Encourages ‘turn out’

• State troops retreat to towns - Enniscorthy, Arklow, Wexford

REBELLION

• 28th May - rebels took Enniscorthy - army of c.6,000

• Greater success than elsewhere

• Had time to gather army - took fortified town

• Capture of Enniscorthy encourages mobilisation in west of county

REBELLION

• 30th May - capture of Wexford town• Some luck - ambushed militia force -

took cannon• Wexford garrison surrendered town• Encourages turnout in S. Wexford• Entire county under rebel control -

only one to have succeeded