By Seán O’Beirne

The 1790’s were an awful period in Irish history. Inspired by the success of the American War of Independence and Revolution, the writings of Thomas Paine and the French Revolution, Irish Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters (primarily Presbyterians) joined together to form the United Irishmen and demand their independence from Britain and its monarch, George III. These Irishmen had much in common with their American brethren; family ties, religion, service in America, Irishmen in Washington’s army.

The planned Rebellion of 1798 was a failure. Rebels in Ulster were crushed by the British army, the leaders in Dublin were betrayed and arrested. Brief success in south-east Leinster ended in loss and slaughter. French help in Connacht led to initial success and then defeat at Ballinamuck.

Some of the patriots are mentioned by Jane O’Beirne in her letters; see below. She was not a supporter, being part of the Establishment and the Established Church. Emancipation for Catholics, one of the goals of the rebels, did not come until 1829; thirty years later. However, one major result of the failed Rebellion was the Act of Union of 1800 which closed the Irish parliament and moved the government of Irish affairs to Westminster. The statelet of Northern Ireland today is a direct descendant.

Thomas Addis Emmet was born in Cork, April 24, 1764. He graduated Trinity College Dublin with a baccalaureate, studied medicine at Edinburgh where he received an M.D., then attended Temple, London to study law. He was called to the Irish Bar. He joined the United Irishmen and was arrested on March 12, 1798. After four years in prison and two years exile in France, he was permitted or forced to emigrate to the United States. In 1804 he joined the New York Bar. He distinguished himself by eloquently pleading for the liberty of slaves caught taking refuge in New York. He was Attorney General for New York from 1812 to 1813. In 1815 he argued a case before the US Supreme Court. He was counsel to Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat and co-executor (with William Morton) of the will of Thomas Paine who wrote “Common Sense,” etc. On November 14, 1827 he collapsed while arguing a case in Circuit Court in New York and died that night. In a strange turn of events, he was buried in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Chapel on Broadway in New York City; the very church where Thomas Lewis O’Beirne preached in September 1776 early in the American Revolution. Near Emmet’s grave is a commemorative window to the memory of General Richard Montgomery (1736 - 1775) born in Swords, Dublin and one of Washington’s generals. Robert Emmet, Irish patriot, was a younger brother.

John Sweetman (1752 - 1826) was a wealthy Dublin brewer, and one of the few Catholic shareholders of the Bank of Ireland at its founding. He was an United Irishman and was arrested on March 12, 1798. While in jail, Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the most important leaders of the United Irishmen movement, gave his pocket book to fellow prisoner Sweetman before taking his own life. The pocket book is now in the National Museum in Dublin.

William Sampson was born in Derry, January 27, 1764. He was a member of the Irish Bar and of the United Irishmen. He was exiled to the US and became a member of the New York Bar. In the US he famously and successfully defended a Catholic priest being required to disclose secrets told to him in confession and wrote a treatise on the doctrine of the confessional. He was an Irish born Protestant. He died December 28, 1836.

Oliver Bond was born in 1760 in Ulster. He was a prosperous wool merchant in Dublin and a member of the United Irishmen. He was arrested March 12, 1798. He was sentenced to be hanged for his part in the Rebellion. He died suddenly at Newgate prison in 1798. Some say he was murdered in the yard. He’s buried in St. Micah’s Church, Dublin.

From the Chronology of Irish History, www.chirl.com, are these extracts:  

1797
* In the Kilworth Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, Robert King (Viscount Kingsborough, soon to be 2nd Earl of Kingston) shoots dead Colonel Henry FitzGerald, the illegitimate son of his wife’s brother. The background is that FitzGerald had seduced and abducted Kingsborough’s daughter, Mary; he had then fought a duel with Kingsborough’s son, Robert King, in which neither party was injured; FitzGerald had shot himself non-fatally some days later. After Mary King had been restored to her family, FitzGerald had pursued her to Mitchelstown. At the time of the shooting he was struggling with Robert King (Jr), who had gone to the hotel with his father and broken down FitzGerald’s door.  

1798
* On their introduction into Co. Wexford in April, the troops of Viscount Kingsborough (George King, son of 2nd Earl of Kingston) organize an Orange Party and are said to have introduced pitch-cap torture to the county. Kingsborough himself will be captured by a party of Wexford rebels (who dupe him into boarding their ship) and marked for execution; his life will be spared through the intercession of Roman Catholic clergy
* Robert King (Jr) is tried at Cork Assizes for the murder of Colonel Henry FitzGerald; he is acquitted on 12 April.

* The 2nd Earl of Kingston is tried amid great pomp by the Irish House of Lords (18 May) for the murder of Colonel Henry FitzGerald. An executioner stands beside Kingston with an immense axe, painted black except for two inches of polished steel, and held at the level of the defendant’s neck. However, no witnesses appear for the prosecution, and Kingston is acquitted.  

1731
 * Charles Tottenham, MP for New Ross, gives the casting vote against giving a surplus of £60,000 to the British government, having ridden some 60 miles and entered the House of Commons in his boots and travel-stained clothes. ‘Tottenham in his boots’ will become a popular Patriot toast (MPs were expected to dress formally for parliament).