By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
But back to 1791 and the political arena which now, as a century earlier, was to override all else. Grattan's last Emancipation Act of 1791 left, as we saw, significant areas where Catholics were still disadvantaged, and his final Bill to correct this was defeated. Things were much better, to be sure, but there was a lot of room for improvement. So much had been achieved, and expectations were high that much more could be achieved. But as the years went by, nothing was.
But then, five years after that last Act, the French Revolution broke out. The Americans had proved back in 1783 that Independence could be won from the English, and now the French were showing that the Ascendancy classes in France could be removed. By force. Many in Ireland thought that Lord Charlemont's Volunteers could do a lot more.
Among them was a man, a Protestant to boot, called Theobald Wolfe Tone. He saw.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at the French Revolution, Kildare, Catholics, Presbyterians, 'Established Church', Church of Ireland, Wolfe Tone, Napper Tandy, Rowan Hamilton, Belfast, Society of United Irishmen, French Royalist migr force, Duke of Brunswick, French Republican army, Valmy, Grattan, Independence, 'The Defenders', 1792, Leitrim, Drumkeerin, French War, William Jackson, Philadelphia, Paris, Lazare Carnot, Revolution, the Terror, Napoleon, Killala Bay, William Drennan, Earl Fitzwilliam, Henry Grattan, Penal Laws, King's Counsel, King George III, Pitt, Lord Camden, Ringsend, Dr Thomas Hussey, Catholic Bishop of Lismore, civil war, 'Peep O'Day Group', linen weaving machinery, Loughgall in County Armagh, Battle of the Diamond, Orange Order, United Irishmen, General Hoche, Martial Law, 1797, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Frescati House, Palladian Mansion, Blackrock, William Ogilvie, Lady Emily Fitzgerald, British Army, American War of Independence, Lord Rawdon, Tony Small, 'Faithful Tony', Spain, Canada, Revolutionary France, United Irishmen, Newgate Prison, Dublin, 1798, Wexford, Antrim, New Ross, Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy, Carlow, Wexford, British troops, Irish troops, Killala Bay, Mayo, Wicklow mountains, Thomas Flanagan, 'The Year of the French', General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, Ballina, General Lake, Castlebar, Connacht, Lord Cornwallis, English Militia, Hollymount, Tuam, Thomas Pakenham, Antonia Fraser, Races of Castlebar, Foxford, Boyle, Westport, Newport, Swinford, Ballinrobe, Viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, Sir John More, Ballinamuck in County Longford, Napoleon, Donegal, Lough Swilly, Wolfe Tone, 1798.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
Available in paperback and e-book editions. Click here to buy.