The Irish Rebellion of 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798

Date 24 May – 23 September 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland. The United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions, were the main organising force behind the rebellion.

Background:

Since 1691 and the end of the Williamite war, Ireland had chiefly been controlled by the minority Anglican Protestant Ascendancy constituting members of the established Church loyal to the British Crown. It governed through a form of institutionalised sectarianism codified in the Penal Laws which discriminated against both the majority Irish Catholic population and non-Anglican Protestants (for example Presbyterians). In the late 18th century, liberal elements among the ruling class were inspired by the example of the American Revolution (1776–1783) and sought to form common cause with the Catholic populace to achieve reform and greater autonomy from Britain. As in England, the majority of Protestants, as well as all Catholics, were barred from voting because they did not pass a property threshold. Another grievance was that Ireland, although nominally a sovereign kingdom governed by the monarch and Parliament of the island, in reality had less independence than most of Britain's North American colonies, due to a series of laws enacted by the English, such as Poynings' law of 1494 and the Declaratory Act of 1720, the former of which gave the English veto power over Irish legislation, and the latter of which gave the British the right to legislate for the kingdom [5].

When France joined the Americans in support of their Revolutionary War, London called for volunteers to join militias to defend Ireland against the threat of invasion from France (since regular British forces had been dispatched to America). Many thousands joined the Irish Volunteers. In 1782 they used their newly powerful position to force the Crown to grant the landed Ascendancy self-rule and a more independent parliament ("Grattan's Parliament"). The Irish Patriot Party, led by Henry Grattan, pushed for greater enfranchisement. In 1793 parliament passed laws allowing Catholics with some property to vote, but they could neither be elected nor appointed as state officials. Liberal elements of the Ascendancy seeking a greater franchise for the people, and an end to religious discrimination, were further inspired by the French Revolution, which had taken place in a Catholic country. To read more

Belligerents

• Society of United Irishman
• The Defenders (Cosantóirí0
• French First Republic
• Kingdom of Great Britain
• Kingdom of Ireland

Commanders and leaders

• Theobald Wolfe Tone
• Henry Joy McCracken
• Lord Edward Fitzgerald
• Father John Murphy
• Jean Joseph Amable Humbert
• Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
• Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake
• Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

List of other uprisings:

• List of Irish rebellions