17989898 Rebellionrebellion Inin Irelandireland
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Originally from Red & Black Revolution - see http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/rbr.html TheThe 171717989898 rebellionrebellion inin IrelandIreland In June of 1795 several Irish Protestants gathered on top of Cave Hill, overlooking This article by Andrew Flood was first Belfast. They swore " never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the published (1998) in Red & Black authority of England over our country and asserted our independence". Three Revolution. It is based on a years later 100,000 rose against Britain in the first Irish republican insurrection. much longer draft which Andrew Flood examines what they were fighting for and how they influenced includes discussion of the modern Irish nationalism. radical politics of the period and the pre-rebellion In 1798 Ireland was shook by a mass rebellion for democratic rights and organisation of the United against British rule. 200 years later 1798 continues to loom over Irish Irishmen. This can be read politics. The bi-centenary, co-inciding with the ‘Peace process’, has at- on the internet at tracted considerable discussion, with the formation of local history groups, http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/andrew/1798.html the holding of conferences and a high level of interest in the TV documen- taries and books published around the event. on land and sea, their hairbreadth es- It is rightly said that history is written by trated by the treatment of two portraits of capes and heroic martyrdom, but have the victors. The British and loyalist histo- prominent figures in the rebellion. Lord resolutely suppressed or distorted their rians who wrote the initial histories of the Edward Fitzgerald had his red cravat2 writings, songs and manifestos.”3 rising portrayed it as little more than the painted out and replaced with a white one. In short, although the name of the United actions of a sectarian mob intent on massa- Father Murphy had his cravat painted out Irishmen was honoured, their democratic cring all Protestants. Later reformers and replaced with a priest's collar! Within ideas were buried even before the forma- sought to hide the program of 1798 to unite parts of republicanism and the left there tion of the 26 county state. Irishmen regardless of creed. After 1798 have been attempts to rescue this history, they turned to the confessional politics of starting with the memoirs of United Irish- In the 1840’s Ireland once again fell under mobilising Catholics alone. Daniel men like Myles Byrne who chose exile over the influence of a wave of international O’Connell, the main architect of this policy, compromise. But, all too often, this history radicalism. They sought to uncover the went so far in 1841 as to denounce the has been crushed beneath histories de- real aims of the 1798 rebellion. The repub- United Irishmen as “... wicked and signed to fulfil the needs of the British and lican organisation of the 1840’s, the Young villianously designing wretches who fo- Irish ruling class. Irelanders “celebrated the United Irish- mented the rebellion”.1 men not as passive victims or reluctant James Connolly neatly described the Irish rebels, but as ideologically committed revo- So the first response to the Loyalist history nationalist version of 1798 thus lutionaries with a coherent political strat- in Ireland was an alternative but parallel “The middle class “patriotic” historians, egy”.4 They placed a marker on the grave history produced to suit a Catholic nation- orators, and journalists of Ireland have of the key United Irishmen leader, Wolfe alist agenda. Both of these agendas neatly ever vied with one another in enthusias- Tone, at Bodenstown. Paying homage at dovetailed in showing the rising as a fight tic descriptions of their military exploits the grave is an essential annual rite for for “faith and fatherland”. This is illus- any party wishing to claim the republican legacy. These different histories mean that even within republicanism there was little agree- ment about what the real legacy of 1798 was. In 1934 when Protestant members of the Republican Congress arrived at Bodenstown with a banner proclaiming ‘Break the connection with capitalism’ they were physically assaulted and driven off by IRA members. Of particular note is the way the women of 1798 have either been written out of his- tory altogether or exist only as the faithful wives of the nationalist histories and the blood crazed witches of the loyalist ac- counts. Like other republicans of that period the United Irishmen - for the most part - did not see a role for women, al- though “one proposal was made that women Originally from Red & Black Revolution - see http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/rbr.html The complete subjection the peasantry were subjected to is hinted by a traveller through Ireland at the time who wrote Irish Labour History web “A landlord in Ireland can scarcely in- vent an order which a servant, labourer, or cottier dares to refuse to execute. ... A poor man would have his bones broken if page and email list he offered to lift a hand in his own defence . Landlords of consequence http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/ireland_history.html have assured me that many of their Irish labour history discussion list cottiers would think themselves hon- oured by having their wives and daugh- 9 If you are interested in Irish history and would like to ters sent for to the bed of their master." discuss labour and radical history with others then this There were famines in 1740, ’57, ’65 and list is for you. It is unmoderated but people who ’70. The first of these alone killed 400,000.10 persistently post off topic messages will be removed. The arrival of capitalism had seen the Subscribe by sending a blank message to beginnings of a working class. There were [email protected] , at least 27 labour disputes in Dublin from (you can unsubscribe by mailing 1717 to 1800 and the formation of the early [email protected]) trade unions had started11 . “There were 50 combinations in 27 different trades in Dub- should have the vote as well”5 . Neverthe- occurred in Wexford in the south, and An- lin in the period 1772-95. There were at less a number of women, including Mary trim and Down in the north. Elsewhere least 30 food riots ... in the period 1772- 12 Ann McCracken, played an important role there were minor skirmishes. By the au- 94..” from an early period in promoting the or- tumn - despite a small French landing - the This atmosphere of revolutionary ideas on ganisation, and a Society of United Irish- rebellion had been defeated, tens of thou- the one hand, and brutal oppression on the women was established in 1796.6 sands were dead and a reign of terror had other, was the climate in which the United spread over the country. In the run up to the rebellion, women were Irishmen were born in 1791. This initially reformist organisation, at first composed particularly active in subverting the Mili- Origins of the rising tia. They would swear in soldiers and also of the Protestant middle class was to choose The 1798 rising occurred at a unique mo- spread rumours that the troops were going within a few years to take the path of ment in world politics, the point at which to be sent abroad. Women were active in launching a democratic and anti-colonial parliamentary democracy (and capitalism) the rebellion, not just in ‘traditional roles’ revolution. was replacing absolute monarchy (and feu- of medical aid etc., but also in quite a dalism). The American Revolution of 1771- Leadership Vs masses number of cases as combatants. However, 81 and the French Revolution of 1789 were almost all of these roles seem to be ones According to the Report of the Secret Com- the key inspirations for those who were to that individual women demanded and mittee of the House of Lords - shortly before lead the rebellion in Ireland. Wolfe Tone fought for, there is little evidence of any the United Irishmen were founded - Tone, described how “the French Revolution be- serious effort on the part of the United Samuel Neilson and others in the north came the test of every man’s political creed, Irishmen to mobilise women. circulated a Secret Manifesto to the Friends and the nation was fairly divided into two of Freedom in Ireland. Towards the end An overview of the Rebellion great parties – the aristocracy and demo- this contained a description of past move- crats”.8 In the Autumn of 1791, societies of United ments that was to prove prophetic as a Irishmen were formed in Belfast and Dub- To this was added the severe oppression description of events in 1798 lin. Initially the organisation limited itself the majority of Irish people lived under. “When the aristocracy come forward, the to calling for democratic reforms including The country was bitterly divided , two wars people fall backwards; when the people Catholic emancipation7 . In response to had been fought in the previous century come forward, the aristocracy, fearful of popular pressure, the British government with the combatants split along religious - which effectively ruled Ireland - initially lines. The native Catholic landowning granted some reforms. This period of re- class had been forced either to surrender form ended in 1793, when war broke out their lands or to convert to the Anglican between revolutionary France and Brit- religion. In parts of the country, in particu- ain. lar the North-East, even the ordinary Catholic tenants had been forced off the In December of 1796 the United Irishmen land, to be replaced with Presbyterian came the nearest they would to victory, ‘planters’ brought over from Scotland.