Society of United Irishmen

The Society of the United Irishmen was a republican political organisation in eighteenth century Ireland that sought independence from Great Britain.

Foundation

The French Revolution in 1789 had put paid to the prevalent belief among Irish Protestants that Catholics were inherently conservative and incapable of progressive political change. Liberal members of the Protestant Ascendancy had long pleaded the cause for political reform Catholic emancipation unsuccessfully which convinced many observors that parliament would never grant this demand while still under the control of a Protestant Ascendancy. In 1791 Theobald Wolfe Tone published his “Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland” which maintained that religious division was a tool of the elite to "...(balance) the one party by the other, plunder and laugh at the defeat of both" and put forward the case for unity between Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. Tone's pamphlet was hugely influential and the interest it arose prompted the first meeting of the proposed new brotherhood to be held in Belfast on October 18, 1791 in Belfast which passed the following three resolutions:

That the weight of English influence in the Government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce
That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed is by a complete and radical reform of the people in Parliament
That no reform is just which does not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion.

Attendees at the first meeting were mainly Protestant including William Drennan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, and Thomas Russell but true to their resolutions, speedily forged links with the Catholic population and helped to set up the Catholic Committee which was the first body set up for Catholics to fight the Penal Laws.

Movement spreads

Dublin soon followed Belfast's example by founding it's own branch of the United Irishmen on 9 November. The movement quickly developed a strategy of spreading its ideals by means of pamphlets, leaflets, newspapers, ballads, "catechisms," and travelling emissaries. The Northern Star of Belfast was especially successful, both commercially and politically and had a wide readership until it's suppression in 1797. The spread of the society was watched with growing alarm by the authorities and it was banned in 1793 following the declaration of war on France. William Drennan was arrested for sedition in 1794 and though he was eventually acquitted, the prospect of similar treatment forced most of the leadership to retire, go underground or into exile to avoid arrest and trial.

1793-97

The movement went underground from the mid-1790s as they became more determined to force a revolt against British rule but the leadership was divided into those who wished to wait for French aid before rising and the more radical elements who wished to press ahead regardless. However, the suppression of a bloody preemptive rebellion which broke out in Leitrim in 1793 led to the former faction prevailing, and links were forged with the revolutionary French government with instructions to wait sent to all the United Irish membership.

In 1794, William Drennan became the first leader to be arrested and tried for sedition as the authorities began to react to the growth of the United Irishmen. In 1795, the Orange Order was founded as an auxilary military force to counteract the spread of the United Irishmen on the ground and the loyalty of the hierarchy of the Catholic church was bought with the founding of Maynooth college the same year. A French fleet carrying 15,000 troops set sail for Ireland in 1796, under General Hoche and spent days in sight of the Cork coast, but weather conditions meant it could not land. The British government responded to this near escape by sweeping up much of the United Irish leadership and engaging in a brutal anti-insurrection campaign, particularily in Ulster, which tried to break the movement by the widespread use of terror.

1798 Rebellion

By early 1798, the United Irish membership on the ground were under severe pressure, suffering from the terror of the roving campaign of disarmament while under instructions to do nothing until the arrival of French aid. In March 1798, the bulk of the leadership were arrested and pre-emptive risings had already broken out in Tipperary but indecision still divided the rump leadership. Finally, the unrelenting pressure forced the militant faction to the fore set the date for a general uprising on 23rd May. However, information from informers led to the arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald on 18th May and foiled the plan to take Dublin that was the central core of the planned rebellion.

Although most of the United Irish leadership could not directly participate in the fighting, tens of thousands of followers took to the field and the resulting rebellion was severely hampered by the lack of leadership. The campaign met with little success except in Wexford and the weeks of extreme violence saw the rebellion degenerating at times into tit-for-tat sectarian massacres. The eventual arrival 1,000 French troops in county Mayo in August was too little and too late to turn the tide for the United Irishmen. In October, Wolfe Tone himself was captured when a supporting French fleet of 3,000 troops was intercepted and defeated by the British Navy near Lough Swilly.

Upon his capture Wolfe Tone famously said, "From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish nation, and felt convinced, that while it lasted, this country would never be free or happy. In consequence, I determined to apply all the powers which my individual efforts could move, in order to separate the two countries." After being denied a soldier's death by firing squad, Wolfe Tone cheated the hangman by cutting his throat.

The suppression of the rising was followed by a period of renewed repression but the United Irishmen still managed to survive as a functioning clandestine organisation. The decision to abolish the Irish Parliament resulting in the Act of Union 1800 that created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played on sectarian hopes and fears and was to gradually erode the United Irishmen by playing Catholic against Protestant. This was despite the original recognition that the "bigotry" (to quote Prime Minister William Pitt) of the Protestant Parliament in Dublin had only contributed to sedition in Ireland.

The failure of Robert Emmett's rebellion in 1803 triggered the effective collapse of the Society of United Irishmen and the first half of 19th century saw sectarianism replace separatism as the touchstone for political unrest in Ireland. Not until the Young Ireland movement in the 1840's was any attempt made to resurrect the non-sectarian ideals of United Irishmen but the juncture between Catholic and Protestant was not regained as Protestant were drawn closer to a "British" identity through fear of having a perceived position of privilege eroded by the slowly growing political power of the Catholic majority. As a consequence, organised republican resistance to British rule and the campaign for Irish independence has ever since been largely confined to the Catholic population and seen as a threat by the Protestant population.

The United Irishmen and Sectarianism

Although the United Irishmen was a staunchly non-sectarian body which sought to unite all Irishmen, regardless of religion or descent many among their ranks were former Defenders, a term applied to many loosely connected, exclusively Catholic, agrarian resistance groups. Many of these men, as well as their Presbyterian counterparts in Ulster, had been shaped by the sectarianism that was prevalent in eighteenth century Ireland, and it was no mean feat to persuade Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter to put aside their differences and view each other simply as fellow Irishmen. Although the project met with remarkable success it was quickly recognised by the establishment that sectarianism was a useful ally in the fight against the United Irishmen. The formation of the Orange Order in 1795 was to prove particularly useful as it provided the Government with allies who had detailed local knowledge of the activities of their enemies. The brutal disarming of Ulster in 1797, where the United Irish had successfully radicalised both Protestant and Catholic saw thousands of Catholics driven from counties Antrim, Down and Armagh with the murder, torture and imprisonment of hundreds of Protestants suspected of United Irish sympathies.

Religious division and hatred was therefore never completely buried and during the course of the 1798 rebellion United Irish rebels pepretrated several sectarian massacres, most notoriously in County Wexford at Scullabogue and Wexford Bridge. While sectarianism undoubtedly played a part in many murders during the rising, religion was often taken as a signifier of loyalty or disloyalty by both sides and the fact that often, Protestants were amongst the perpetrators and Catholics among the victims of rebel massacres, indicate that victims lost their lives for being perceived as loyalist as opposed to purely religious reasons. Such subtleties were ignored in the aftermath as the memory of such massacres was simplified and exploited in following years by loyalist politicians to cement the sectarian divide and to ensure the loyalty of Protestants to the English Crown. The fact that the vast majority of the estimated 15,000-30,000 people of both religions who lost their lives during the rebellion were victims of British and Loyalist troops was blithely ignored.

A minority of the Defenders did not reject completely their previous anti-Protestant outlook. John Tuite, known as Captain Fearnought, of County Meath was one of these. Tuite was "sworn to both acts" in 1795, that is he took first the Defender and then the United Irish oaths, but his Defender oath had pledged him "to quell the nation of heresy" (i.e. the Protestant Ascendancy) as well as to "dethrone all kings, and plant the tree of liberty" (the aims of the United Irishmen). In contrast many of the most dedicated leaders of the rebellion were Protestant, e.g Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Anthony Perry, James Hope and remained steadfastly committed to the concept of a non-sectarian United Ireland.

External link

Original Declaration of the United Irishmen
Declarations and Tests of United Irishmen, from Memoirs of William Sampson (attorney), 1817