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

Eve-of-rebellion arrests
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, led by … See more

Casualties
In what was to be the most widely read account of the rebellion since its centenary, The Year of Liberty (1969), Thomas Pakenham (overlooking … See more

New System of Organisation
A year later, in May 1795, a meeting of United delegates from Belfast and the surrounding market … See more

Hoche's expedition December 1796
In 1795, from American exile Tone had travelled to Paris where he sought to convince the French Directory that Ireland was the key to … 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 … See more

The United Irishmen and the Defenders were male fraternities. There is little record for the Defenders, but for United Irishmen it is clear that women nonetheless played an active role in the … See more