In the last decades of the 18th century, the British Crown in Ireland faced growing demands for constitutional reform. The
The … See more

A year later, in May 1795, a meeting of United delegates from Belfast and the surrounding market towns responded to the growing repression by endorsing a new, and it was hoped more resistant, "system of organisatio… See more

In 1795, from American exile Tone had travelled to Paris where he sought to convince the French Directory that Ireland was the key to breaking Britain's maritime stranglehold. His "memorials" on the situation in … See more

In early 1798, a series of violent attacks on magistrates in County Tipperary, County Kildare and King's County alarmed the authorities. They were also aware that there was now a faction of the United Irish leadership, … See more

Connacht, in the far west, the poorest of the Irish provinces, was drawn into the rebellion only by the arrival on 22 August of the French. About 1,000 French soldiers under General Humbert landed at Kilcummin, County Mayo. … See more

In what was to be the most widely read account of the rebellion since its centenary, The Year of Liberty (1969), Thomas Pakenham (overlooking 1741, the famine "year of slaughter") wrote:
The rebelli… See more