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Home History of Ireland, 1689-1815 1689-1815; Part 6 |
1689-1815; Part 6Fitzwilliam's proposal and consequent recall mark, it has been said, a fatal turning-point in Irish history. The " United Irishmen" developed into a secret and treasonable society, composed almost entirely of Roman Catholics, and working for the total separation of Great Britain and Ireland. Their intrigues with the French resulted in Hoche's expedition to Bantry Bay in 1796, which - fortunately for Great Britain - failed. Moreover, the atrocities of the United Irishmen on those who opposed them embittered the feeling of the more extreme Protestants, and led to the formation of the " Orangemen", who retaliated by showing great cruelty to the Roman Catholics. Finally, the condition of Ireland became so alarming that in 1797 orders were given for the disarmament of Ulster; and soldiers, of whom the Welsh and Germans acquired the worst reputation for their inhuman brutality, marched over the country, breaking into houses, and intimidating and sometimes torturing persons to make them give up their hidden arms (It was not only in Ulster that the search for arms took place. The High Sheriff of Tipperary, Thomas FitzGerald, achieved an unenviable notoriety through the brutality of his methods, especially in the case of a harmless teacher of French called Wright. FitzGerald suspected him of being secretary to the United Irishmen in Tipperary, and ordered him to be flogged and then shot. When fifty lashes had been administered, an officer present asked the reason for the flogging. The High Sheriff, in reply, handed him a note written in French which had been found in Wright's possession, and said that though he could not understand, the language, the officer would find in it "what will justify him in flogging the scoundrel to death". The officer, who could read French, found the note perfectly innocuous, and told FitzGerald - nevertheless FitzGerald did not stop the flogging, but ordered Wright to have one hundred more lashes, and then threw him into prison).In 1798 came the Irish Rebellion. The leaders of the rebellion had as their ostensible objects Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform. But the peasants who joined in the Rebellion did so, for the most part, for other reasons. They felt the grievance of the payment of tithe very acutely. They had been led to believe, partly through old prophecies, that the time had come for Ireland to retrieve her nationality and to separate from Great Britain. And, above all, they thought, as in 1641, that the Protestants were trying to exterminate them and their religion, and they rose to protect their own lives (It was popularly believed that the secret oath taken by an Orangeman was: "I will be true to the king and government, and I will exterminate, as far as I am. able, the Catholics of Ireland"). The Rebellion, however, did not prove a formidable affair. Ulster had been effectually disarmed, and was still subject to the severe exercise of martial law. The leaders of the Irish Catholics, including a heroic figure in Lord Edward Fitzgerald, had been seized shortly before the Rebellion broke out (Lord Edward FitzGerald was one of the seventeen children of the first Duke of Leinster. He served in the American War of Independence and was severely wounded, his life only being saved by a negro, who afterwards became his devoted servant. Subsequently FitzGerald was in Paris during part of the Revolution, attended the debates of the Convention Assembly, and was imbued with revolutionary ideas. He joined the United Irishmen on his return, and was one of the organizers of the rebellion. A price was put on his head by the government, and through treachery he was seized in a feather-dealer's house in Dublin. He killed one of his captors, but was himself severely wounded, and died shortly afterwards in prison). Moreover, though some French soldiers landed, they arrived too late to be of any service and had to retire. Consequently the Rebellion only affected two counties, Wicklow and Wexford, and it lasted little more than a month, the rebels being defeated at New Ross and Vinegar Hill. |
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