More people die during the rebellion of 1798 than die in the 1916 rising, the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Civil War and the Northern Irish Troubles combined. The Orange Order emerges from sectarian clashes in County Armagh where it takes on a sort of territorial quality. Wexford was still in transition from the Irish language to the English so we underestimate how far traditional Irish notions survived alongside newer French ideas that were pushed by the United Irishmen. Was anything along the line of did the English regret not being brutally enough? I think they probably regret at the fact that the rebellion got completely out of hand and sought lots of military power in Ireland for much longer than from their perspective should have
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the momentum behind rebellion in Ireland in 1798, the people behind the rebellion and the impact over the next few years and after. Amid wider unrest, the United Irishmen set the rebellion on its way, inspired by the French and American revolutionaries and their pursuit of liberty. When it broke out in May the United Irishmen had an estimated two hundred thousand members, Catholic and Protestant, and the prospect of a French invasion fleet to back them. Crucially for the prospects of success, some of those members were British spies who exposed the plans and the military were largely ready - though not in Wexford where the scale of rebellion was much greater. The fighting was initially fierce and brutal and marked with sectarianism but had largely been suppressed by the time the French arrived in August to declare a short-lived republic. The consequences of the rebellion were to be far reaching, not least in the passing of Acts of Union in 1800.
The image above is of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763 - 1798), prominent member of the United Irishmen
With
Ian McBride
Foster Professor of Irish History at Hertford College, University of Oxford
Catriona Kennedy
Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York
And
Liam Chambers
Head of Department and Senior Lecturer in History at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Producer: Simon Tillotson