People & Histories
May–October 1798

The 1798 Rebellion of the United Irishmen

Inspired by the French Revolution, the United Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, rise for an Irish republic and are crushed.

  • The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 — Thomas Pakenham, Hodder and Stoughton (1969)
  • Ireland: A History — Thomas Bartlett, Cambridge University Press (2010)
  • Modern Ireland 1600–1972 — R. F. Foster, Allen Lane (1988)

Well established rebellionidentityconflict

The Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast in 1791 by mainly Protestant radicals, among them the Dublin lawyer Theobald Wolfe Tone. Inspired by the American and French revolutions, they first sought parliamentary reform and Catholic rights, then, once suppressed, an independent republic with French help. Tone wrote that his aim was “to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter”.

  • Ireland: A History — Thomas Bartlett, Cambridge University Press (2010)
  • Modern Ireland 1600–1972 — R. F. Foster, Allen Lane (1988)
  • The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 — Thomas Pakenham, Hodder and Stoughton (1969)

The rising broke out in May 1798, after brutal disarming campaigns. It was fiercest in Wexford, where it took on a sectarian character on both sides, and in Presbyterian Antrim and Down. A small French force landed in Mayo in August but surrendered. Tone was captured and died in prison. Estimates of the dead range widely, from about 10,000 to 30,000 or more, many killed in reprisals after the fighting.

  • The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 — Thomas Pakenham, Hodder and Stoughton (1969)
  • Ireland: A History — Thomas Bartlett, Cambridge University Press (2010)
  • The Oxford Companion to Irish History — S. J. Connolly (ed.), Oxford University Press (2002)
The rebellion convinced London that Ireland had to be brought under direct control.

Why it matters today

Ireland

Wolfe Tone's dream of uniting "Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter" under "the common name of Irishman" is the founding idea of Irish republicanism, quoted by every tradition from Sinn Féin to peace-process moderates. The rebellion's songs, like "Boolavogue", are still sung.