In August 1898, when the centenary celebrations of the Rebellion of 1798 approached their climax, George McSweeney wrote: ‘of all the leaders of the United Irishmen perhaps there was no career more remarkable than Joseph Holt, and yet there is no actor in the great drama of ‘98 to whom it is harder to assign … Read more
On 26 May 1798, the very day on which rebellion erupted in Wexford, a despondent Wolfe Tone offered to serve Bonaparte in India. He had just heard the rumour that the Toulon fleet was bound for the East and not for England. Learning some days later that Lord Edward Fitzgerald had been arrested, he recorded … Read more
On 7 June 1798, Father James Coigly, a shadowy United Irishman from County Armagh, was hanged on Pennington Heath. On hearing this news in Paris, Theobald Wolfe Tone, no friend of priests and of this one in particular, wrote ‘if ever I reach Ireland and…we establish our liberty, I will be the first to propose … Read more
In the 200 years that have elapsed since the 1798 Rebellion the reasons for its failure have been frequently addressed by historians. That the rebels were unable to take Dublin at the outset of the rebellion has been seen as crucial by some historians, for this deprived the rebellion of a focus and prevented the … Read more
For most people, historical knowledge is constituted by the oral and the visual. The oral tradition transmits a sense of tradition and belonging creating an identity which is buttressed by visual representations which help lodge potent images in the mind. Both oral and visual traditions are essentially backward looking, helping form a link with the … Read more