WEXFORD REBELLION
• High point - capture of Wexford town 30 May
• No news - communications disrupted• Expecting French landing• Boat captured 2 June - Dublin not taken -
other counties failed• Decision - break out of county - New Ross,
Newtownbarry (Bunclody), Arklow
REBELLION
• Army divides
• Half marches to New Ross
• Town had been reinforced
• Attacked on 5 June - took most of town - fierce street fighting, huge casualties - rebels run out of ammunition - counter attack, rebel retreat
NEW ROSS
• Biggest battle of rebellion - 2,000 rebels dead
• Rebel army disperses - 10,000 down to 2-3,000
• Atrocity stories - Scullabogue - barn containing loyalist prisoners set on fire
ARKLOW
• 9 June attack
• As New Ross, fierce street fighting, rebels driven back
ARKLOW
• 9 June attack
• As New Ross, fierce street fighting, rebels driven back
• Decision - continue field battles or guerilla?
• Stay with field - camp near Enniscorthy
STATE CAMPAIGN
• Lull of ten days after Arklow
• Rebellion in Antrim and Down
• Advance into Wexford from North and South-west
• Vinegar Hill 21 June - victory for government - many rebels escape
FINAL EXPEDITIONS
• To provoke rebellion elsewhere
• Carlow, Kilkenny, Queen’s (Laois), return to Wexford, defeated 26 June
• Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, defeated 14 July
SECTARIAN?
• Presented as sectarian in much history writing
• Not sectarian in origin - but sectarian incidents
• Sectarian aftermath - burning of Catholic chapels - 27 in North Wexford, 15 in South Wicklow, 16 in rest of country
WHY SUCCESS AND DURATION?• Unique nature of society
• Topography
• Initial success
• Slow government response - Rebellion in Antrim and Down
WHY SUCCESS AND DURATION?• Unique nature of society
• Topography
• Initial success
• Slow government response - Rebellion in Antrim and Down
REBELLION IN ANTRIM AND DOWN• No rebellion in May 1798
• Rising in June
• Short initial success, then rapid and total defeat
• Nothing elsewhere in Ulster
UNITED IRISHMEN IN ULSTER• Founded in Belfast
• Largest membership
• State regarded Ulster as centre of sedition - focus of counter-terror campaign
WHY NOT A LARGER REBELLION?• Moderates left from 1793 on
• Aims become more radical - others leave
• Gradual disillusion with France, French Revolution - conquered territories, American shipping
STRENGTH IN ULSTER COUNTRYSIDE• Tenant farmers, weavers
• Surge after Bantry Bay
• Peak in summer 1797 - c.50,000
• Destroyed by state campaign
• Focus shifted to Leinster
• May 1798 - nothing in Ulster
WHY EAST ULSTER?
• Different to rest of Ulster
• Majority Presbyterian - up to 90%
WHY EAST ULSTER?
• Different to rest of Ulster
• Majority Presbyterian - up to 90%
• 20 ministers involved, 3 executed
• Landed elite Anglican, political power Anglican
WHY EAST ULSTER?
• Elsewhere in Ulster - more Anglican
WHY EAST ULSTER?
• Elsewhere in Ulster - more Anglican
• Popular loyalism Anglican - eg. Yeomanry corps
• North Down - difficult to establish yeomanry
REBELLION
• After arrest of leadership March 1798 - little communication with Dublin
• No rebellion in May
• Late May - Ulster leadership meets
• Younger more radical members elect leader - Henry Joy McCracken - plan rebellion
REBELLION IN ANTRIM
• Belfast not a possible target
• Antrim town - magistrates meeting 7 June - focus of attack
• Elsewhere units take own town, march on Belfast
REBELLION IN ANTRIM
• Night of 6-7 June
• Took Larne
• Attacked Ballymena
• Large force assembled near Glenarm
• Attack on Coleraine
REBELLION IN ANTRIM
• Main attack - Antrim town
• State decision - withdraw to Belfast or defend town
• State troops were reinforced
• Attack unsuccessful
• Rebels disperse
REBELLION IN ANTRIM
• Ballymena held for 3 days
• ‘Committee of Public Safety’
• State army arrives, offers amnesty
• Most take
• Similar in Glenarm
REBELLION IN DOWN
• Newtownards captured
• Bangor captured - cannon taken from ships
• Attack on Portaferry
• 9 June - ambush of state force at Saintfield - heavy losses
REBELLION IN DOWN
• Early victory in Saintfield encourages turnout (like Wexford)
• 5,000 join rebel army
• Moves to Ballynahinch 11 June
• State troops withdraw to fortified towns
REBELLION IN DOWN
• 12 June - state army leaves Belfast
• Bombards rebel camp
• 13 June Battle of Ballynahinch
• Total defeat of rebels
• Severe reprisals - dozens hanged, houses burned
REBELLION IN ANTRIM AND DOWN• Like Kildare and Carlow - brief, easily
defeated
• Fought over wide area
• Perhaps 20,000 ‘turned out’
1798 & PRESBYTERIANISM
• A Presbyterian rebellion
• Most rebels + involvement of clergy
• Overall, a minority of Presbyterians - the radical republican element
• 1798 marked end of influence of this element
1798 & PRESBYTERIANISM
• Alliance with Catholics in 1790s
• Tone’s Argument
• Failure of rebellion - two groups moved apart again
• Presbyterians gradually become anti-Catholic, conservative
1798 & PRESBYTERIANISM
• Alienation also from France
• Initially welcomed revolution
• French regime seen as more aggressive during 1790s
• Process continued after 1800 - no longer a republic, settled with papacy
PRESBYTERIANISM AFTER 1800• Settlement with state - payment of
ministers
• Evangelicalism after 1820 - missionary drives - alienate Catholic church
• Ultimately sided with Anglicans in ‘Ulster Protestantism’