Society of the United Irishmen

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

1 Foundation
2 1798 Rebellion
3 The United Irishmen and Sectarianism
4 After the rebellion
5 See also
6 External link

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Foundation

They held their first meeting on October 18, 1791 in Belfast and 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.

Although the 20th century campaign to remove Ireland from the United Kingdom was led mainly by Roman Catholics, the society was formed largely by Protestants. Leading figures in the society were William Drennan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, Henry Joy McCracken, Lord Edward FitzGerald and Robert Emmet. The Orange Order was founded in 1795 with the aim of promoting Protestant pro-British loyalism, in part as a reaction against the anti-sectarianism of the United Irishmen.

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1798 Rebellion

The movement went underground from the mid-1790s as they became more determined to force a revolt against British rule. They forged links with the revolutionary French government and a French fleet set sail for Ireland in 1796, under General Hoche. It spent days in sight of the Cork coast, but weather conditions meant it could not land. The British government hanged and transported many of the society's leaders in response. With promises of French aid the United Irishmen instigated a rising against British rule in 1798, the rebellion of 1798. However the campaign did not go well and by and large the insurgents were defeated. Wolfe Tone was exiled in France when the insurrection began but as events turned against the United Irishmen he chose to return to Ireland with a French fleet with 3,000 men.

The fleet was intercepted by the British Navy and Wolfe Tone was captured in Donegal Bay. Upon his capture he 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." Wolfe Tone committed suicide in prison shortly afterwards, to cheat the noose.

The revolt was suppressed and the decision was made to close the Irish Parliament resulting in the Act of Union 1800 that created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This was largely due to British worries that the French would continue to use Ireland as a staging-post from which to attack Britain, and a recognition that the "bigotry" (to quote Prime Minister William Pitt) of the Protestant Parliament in Dublin had only contributed to sedition in Ireland.

The United Irishmen formed the beginning of organised Irish republicanism against British rule and the campaign for Irish independence.

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The United Irishmen and Sectarianism

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.

This project met with remarkable success but 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.

However during the course of the 1798 rebellion the opposite of what the United Irishmen were about occurred at Scullabogue in County Wexford when scores of Loyalists and their wives and children were burnt alive in reprisal for atrocities by the Crown forces (see Scullabogue Barn Massacre), although some of the attackers and at least seven of the victims were Catholic. Such massacres were ruthlessly exploited in the 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 30,000 people 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.

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After the rebellion

The United Irishmen were severely persecuted in the years following the rebellion although a final attempt to revive their fortunes was made in 1803 by Robert Emmet. The British Government sought to avoid a repetition of the non-sectarian vision of Irish unity of the United Irishmen by savage repression of republicanism, along with tolerance of sectarianism. Political activity in the first half of the 19th century, was largely based on these religious divisions such as Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association, and the Tithe War. Catholics continued to be discriminated under the Union until Daniel O'Connell achieved Catholic Emancipation in 1829.

Some Presbyterian members of the Society of United Irishmen, later became reconciled to Unionism because they were offered inclusion into corridors of power and an end to the corrupt Ascendancy-based Dublin Government. Others transferred their previously radical alliegances to Freemason societies which became widespread in Ulster during the 19th century. As a result of the failure of the United Irishmen's vision to unite "Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter" in an independent Irish Republic, the course of Irish history has been a legacy of religious division which has largely endured to the present day.

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