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The Origins and Transformation of Early Irish Republicanism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Marianne Elliott
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The history of Irish republicanism has always suffered from an excessive concentration on its later phases. But much light can be thrown on its essential characteristics by a closer examination of its origins. A full understanding of such a contradictory movement would require an investigation of the mutations in public consciousness during the last three centuries. But most historians agree in tracing its origins to the United Irish Society of the 1790's, when the attitudes and conditions which were to dictate the future course of republicanism and loyalism were crystallised. In the light of recent events in Ireland interest in the United Irishmen has revived. However, even recent research has failed to explain satisfactorily the swift transformation of the United Irishmen's secular republicanism by the traditional fears and aspirations of the Catholic population. Nor has anyone attempted to answer the very basic question of how large sections of a non-political and essentially loyal peasantry could in the short period of the 1790's have acquired many of the fundamental traits of later separatist movements. Already by the turn of the century popular oral culture, latterly dominated by themes taken from Gaelic mythology, speaks instead of dead rebel heroes, of the English oppressor and the Protestant enemy. This new anti-English flavour in popular culture is particularly significant; English rule in Ireland had not been seriously questioned since the twelfth century, and the failure of the Bruce invasion in the fourteenth century was an indication of general Irish indifference to the nature of central government, provided life's daily routine remained undisturbed. This attitude characterised Irish thinking for the next four centuries, and like peasant communities elsewhere, the Irish remained essentially apolitical and parochial in outlook. They were scarcely the material from which a movement of national liberation could be fashioned.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , December 1978 , pp. 405 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1978

References

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18 The evidence indicating increasing support for revolutionary measures amongst the peasantry in the late 1790's is overwhelming, though it is clear that few had considered the implications of a French-supported rebellion. See State of the Country Papers 1015–18 for innumerable references to rural support for a French invasion, especially 1015/7, 9A, 32; 1016/7; 1017/10, 12,37; 1018/3, 15; see also Kent County Record Office, Maidstone, U.840/0.144/8; HO 100/63/205–06, 64/168–72 and 66/50; A Complete CoUection of State Trials, ed. by Howell, T. B. (33 vols; London, 1809–1828), XXV, cc. 754–67.Google Scholar Although peasant disloyalty was a novel development in the 1790's, the events of 1798 ensured its continuation and hopes that France might help overturn English rule remained evident throughout the Napoleonic wars.

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23 “The Lament of O'Gnive”, quoted in Croker, Popular Songs, op. cit., p. 23.

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26 Clarke and Edwards, loc. cit., pp. 196–237.

27 See table, also Brown, J. N., “Nationalism and the Irish Peasant, 1800–1848”, in: The Review of Politics, XV (1953), p. 403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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29 The population statistics for 1732 are taken from An Abstract of the Numbers of Protestant and Popish Families in the Several Counties and Provinces of Ireland Taken from the Returns made by the Hearthmoney office in Dublin, 1732–33 (Dublin, 1734)Google Scholar; those for 1766 from Wakefield, , An Account of Ireland, II, p. 587Google Scholar; and those for 1834 from the First Report of the Commission on Public Instruction, Ireland (London, 1835), pp. 9–35Google Scholar, McCulloch, J. R., A Statistical Account of the British Empire, 2nd ed. (2 vols; London, 1839), II, p. 311Google Scholar, and De Beaumont, G., L'Irlande Sociale, Politique et Religieuse (2 vols; Pars, 1839), II, p. 390.Google Scholar Estimates of Ireland's population in the eighteenth century are notoriously defective; for example, Connell, K. H., The Population of Ireland, 1750–1845 (Oxford, 1950), p. 12Google Scholar, increases many estimates, notably the oft-quoted figures of D. A. Beaufort in 1792, by as much as a million. Most estimates were calculated by multiplying hearth-tax returns by a notional figure of five persons per household.

30 Wakefield, , An Account of Ireland, II, pp. 359–62Google Scholar, outlines the manner in which the latent fears in Irish society became exaggerated during this period.

31 Aspects of Irish Social History, op. cit., pp. 171–76.

32 The war between England and revolutionary France commenced in February 1793.

33 Kerrane, “The Background of the 1798 Rebellion in Co. Meath”, op. cit., ch. II; Report from the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, March 1793, HO 100/43/91–94; A Complete Collection of State Trials, op. cit., XXV, cc. 749–84.

34 Burke to unknown, 10 November 1792, HO 100/34/224; see also Col. Doyle to the Prince of Wales, 15 February 1792, National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Ms. 54A/76.

35 The Diary of Thomas Russell for 1793, Rebellion Papers 620/21/23; Extracts of various letters of information relating to the late Insurrection, May-June 1793, HO 100/44/115–18; Reports of Disturbances in Ireland, March-August 1975, Kent County Record Office, U.840/0.144/9.

36 Kerrane, , “The Background to the 1798 Rebellion”, p. 6.Google Scholar Kerrane sees official repression as the main cause of increasing popular support for republicanism. See also Westmoreland to Dundas, 25 May 1793, HO 100/43/321–28, and Dr McDonnel to R. R. Madden, 1842, Trinity College, Dublin, Ms. 873/381.

37 Dublin Evening Post, 15 November 1792; Hobart to Nepean, 8 June 1793, HO 100/34/134; Mrs McTier to Dr W. Drennan, 3 August 1794, Public Record Office Northern Ireland, Belfast, T 765/520; Hobart to Nepean, 19 October 1792, Private Official Correspondence VIII A/1/3/239, State Paper Office.

38 [Benoist] to Lebrun, 1 December 1792, and Memoir on Ireland, December 1792, Correspondance Politique Angleterre 584, ff. 9–11, 408–11; also report by Col. Oswald on his mission to Ireland, 11 June 1793, ibid., 587, ff. 167–68.

39 Westmoreland to Dundas, 29 March 1793, HO 100/43/145–51.

40 The Treaty of Limerick was concluded between the Irish Jacobite forces and the supporters of William of Orange in 1691. It guaranteed toleration to the Catholics, but its terms were not honoured by the Protestant victors.

41 State Trials, XXV, c. 754.

42 Ibid., cc. 757, 761.

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47 In 1793 two French missions were despatched to Ireland, one led by William Duckett, the other by Col. Eleazer Oswald, see Correspondance Politique Angleterre 586, ff. 391–92, and 587, ff. 167–68, for their reports; also memoir by Duckett, 1 November 1793, Archives Historiques de la Guerre, B112.

48 For accounts of increased arming in Ireland, see HO 42/22/153, 181, 316, 318; 42/23/214; 100/42/69–70. For the negotiations with France, see correspondence between Lebrun and [Benoist], December 1793, Correspondance Politique Angleterre 584, ff. 9–11, 98–99; correspondence with and concerning Ferris, the Irish agent, July-August 1793, ibid., 586, ff. 296–300, 306–07.

49 HO 100/43/1–4, 43/321 and 331, and 44/5 for official correspondence on the “insurrection” of the winter and spring of 1793.

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51 Kerrane, , “The Background to the 1798 Rebellion”, pp. 70–76.Google Scholar

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53 Correspondence concerning the mission of Col. Oswald, Correspondance Politique Angleterre 587, ff. 167–68, 170, 176; 588, ff. 267–70.

54 Information sent to E. Cooke, February-August 1793, Rebellion Papers 620/20/72 and 21/27–38; The Life of T. W. Tone, ed. by son, his, Tone, William T W. (2 vols; Washington, 1825), I, pp. 112, 120Google Scholar; Memoir of A. H. Rowan, 2 October 1794, Correspondance Politique Angleterre 588, ff. 262–64.

55 Kerrane, , “The Background to the 1798 Rebellion”, pp. 50–53Google Scholar, and Lecky, , Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, III, pp. 225, 231.Google Scholar

56 Letters of Fitzwilliam to Portland, January-February 1795, HO 100/46/259-–6.

57 Camden to Portland, 5 March 1796, HO 100/63/215–21.

58 State Trials, XXVI, cc. 437–62; Dr W. Drennan to Mrs McTier, 31 August 1795, Public Record Office Northern Ireland, T 765/579; Copy of a Paper-writing found […] at Cavan 21 June 1795, HO 100/58/201–03; T. Pelham to J. King, 1 March 1796, HO 100/63/205–06.

59 Estimates of the number of Catholics to take refuge in other counties range from 180 to 700 families (approx. 900–3,500 individuals). See Kent County Record Office, U.840/ 0.151/4 and 173/1; also Senior, Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, op. cit., p. 30.

60 HO 100/64/168–72.

61 Ibid.

62 For official anxieties that such measures might appear to sanction sectarian attacks, see correspondence between Portland and Camden, March-November 1796, HO 100/62/81, 153–63, 200–01 and 337–39; also 100/63/142–55 and 177–80 for correspondence on the Insurrection Act in particular; The Speech of […] Earl, John of Clare, […] in the House of Lords of Ireland […] on a motion made by the Earl of Moira, […] February 19, 1798 (Dublin, 1798)Google Scholar; Senior, , Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, pp. 51–80Google Scholar; Lecky, , Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, III, pp. 37–39, 47–48 and 89–96.Google Scholar

63 Croker, Researches in the South of Ireland, op. cit., pp. 350–63; Powell, , “The Background to the Wexford Rebellion”, pp. 139–97Google Scholar; Kerrane, , “The Background to the 1798 Rebellion”, pp. 92–99Google Scholar; Lecky, , Ireland in the Eighteenth century, III, pp. 97–100, 125–27, 131–33, 236–77Google Scholar. Pakenham, T., The Year of Liberty (London, 1969)Google Scholar, gives a detailed account of this process before and during the Rebellion of 1798; also Carlow in '98, The Autobiography of William Farrell of Carlow, ed. by McHugh, R. J. (Dublin, 1949), pp. 68, 74.Google Scholar

64 W. O'Hagan, Memoir on the Origins of […] Ribbonism (undated, c. 1838), Colonial Office Papers, Ireland, 904/7; see also National Library of Ireland, Ms. 13,842, for an example of a Caravet Oath, April 1799; State of the Country Papers 1403/17; Lewis, , On Local Disturbances in Ireland, p. 168Google Scholar, note; Stewart, , The Narrow Ground, p. 120.Google Scholar

65 For further information on the division, see Elliott, M., “The United Irishmen and France, 1792–1806” (D.Phil, thesis, Oxford University, 1975)Google Scholar; see also Report from the Secret Committee of the Irish House of Lords (Dublin, 1798), p. 23Google Scholar, and various references in the Rebellion Papers 620/10/12/53, 18/14, 31/89, 36/226/7 and 37/45.

66 Evidence suggests that the divisions between the Protestant United Irishmen and the Catholics had already taken place before the Rebellion, though it was actually the more moderate Catholics who started the retreat: Andrew Newton to unknown, 9 February 1798, Rebellion Papers 620/35/130. For the later revulsion of the Ulster Protestants at the character of the Rebellion, and dismay at the attitudes of their Southern colleagues, see the correspondence between R. R. Madden and Dr McDonnel, 1843, Trinity College, Mss 873/378 and 381; Lord Annesley to unknown, 19 July 1804, State of the Country Papers 1030/30; Maria Duff to Mrs Clarke, 26 August 1798, Public Record Office Northern Ireland, D 1108/B/1–93.

67 Castlereagh to Portland, 3 June 1799, HO 100/87/5–7.

68 This is a recurrent theme in Gibbon, The Origins of Ulster Unionism, op. cit.