The United Irishmen began as an open reformist
movement opposing English domination, but quickly became
underground, revolutionary, republican and the driving force
behind the great rebellion of 1798.
The origin of the movement can be traced to the
Volunteer clubs of the previous decade. The Irish Volunteers were
formed in 1778 and by the end of 1781, they had about 80,000 men.
It was out of the radical clubs of the northern Volunteer clubs
that the society of United Irishmen was born.
In 1791, a 28 year old Dublin barrister,
Theobald Wolfe Tone, travelled to Belfast for the founding of the
society of the United Irishmen. Similiar organisations followed
in Dublin and in many parts of Ireland. The United Irishmen knew
that for a successful insurrection they needed support of the
Catholic peasantry. They found a ready response among the members
of a Catholic secret society called the Defenders, influenced by
the French revolutionary ideas.
The first arrest of United Irishmen began in
1793. Wolfe Tone was expelled to America in 1795, from which he
moved to France.
In Carlow, the movement appears
to have caught on quickly. The general impression was that the
opening words of one version of the oath implied an obligation to
join as many members as possible to the system once they had been
sworn in.
' I will persevere in endeavouring to form a brotherhood of
affection among Irishmen of all persuasions.'
Men actually carried prayer books on them for
the purpose of swearing others in. Many of them involved at
committee level were masons, smiths, stonecutters, saddlers,
shop-keepers etc.
On the 19th of October Patham wrote to William
Burton stating that he had heard of several meetings in Carlow of
the United Irishmen - who were becoming more daring every day. He
stressed the need for more military. At the time there were about
3,000 members.
In County Carlow , the committee at each level of the United
Hierarchy had a treasurer and each new member was
"fined" a sum on being enrolled.
Meetings were frequently held in private
houses, inns and public houses. Meetings of larger numbers took
place in rural chapels or on estates adjoining the town
(attending wakes was the most common excuse given by men found
travelling at night without any signs of legitimate business
about them). By the spring of 1798, it was estimated to be 11,000
United Irishmen in Carlow.
To understand the Rebellion of 1798 one must
understand the conditions at the time for a Catholic peasant in
Ireland. The following is a list of some of the oppressive
conditions these people had to endure.
- Standing for parliment or local council or
voting for those who did.
- Holding positions in the civil service, on
civic boards, or in law, or commissions in the army or navy.
- Making or selling books or newspapers.
- Taking out or giving mortgages.
- Owning firearms, or a horse worth more than 5
pounds.
- Marrying a Protestant.
- They were not allowed to have thier own
schools, teach or send their children abroad to be educated.
- The owning of land by Catholics was full of
restrictions. When a Catholic died, his estate was divided
amongst his children, but if a son became a Protestant he would
inherit the entire estate.
- Registered priests were tolerated, but not
bishops, archbishops or cardinals.
After the leaders of the United Irishmen were
arrested in March of 1798, the punishment given to anyone
suspected of rebel activity by the military in the Leinster area
became increasingly severe. The government was determined to
crush the rebellion completely, using harsh methods if necessary.
The army's definition of "harsh methods" was severe to
the extreme. Malitiamen and dragoons in Cork who were found out
to have taken a local Defender oath were given sentences ranging
from 500 to 999 lashes with the whip. Not all of these floggings
were carried out completely - usually between 200 and 425 lashes
were given with the rest remitted if the culprit agreed to
service overseas for the rest of his life. Such floggings were
extremely inhumane, resulting in flesh being torn in lumps from
the body, exposing bones and internal organs.
On the 30th of March 1798 a number of districts
in Leinster were proclaimed areas in which the military could
live at "free quarters" and search for arms. In effect,
this meant that the military was let loose and were
"encouraged" in acts of great violence against all who
were supposed to be disaffected. There were virtually no
restraints at all on the troops. There only task was to obtain
the surrender of arms and to uncover local United Irishmen.
Aside from flogging other forms of torture were
used; "half-hanging", where a rope was pulled tightly
around the victim's neck and then slacked when he became
unconscious and the pitch-cap, where a brown paper cap was filled
with molten pitch and placed on the victim's head, allowed to set
slightly and then set on fire resulting in burning pitch to fall
onto the victim's face and eyes. It could usually only be removed
together with much of the victim's hair and scalp.
All forms of torture were applied indiscriminately to innocent and guilty alike, since it was felt that torture would quickly distinguish between the two. However, it was the floggings that inspired the most fear and were most effective in obtaining information quickly, together with a surrender of arms. After the proclamation on the 30th of March, the wooden triangle, upon which those to be flogged were spreadeagled, appears to have been the first erected in Athy, county Kildare. The victim was stripped naked, tied to the triangle and thier flesh cut without mercy and though some men stood the torture to the last gasp sooner than become informers, others did not. One single informer in the town was enough to destroy all the United Irishmen in it.
I found this information at Fiddlers Green one of the Links on my Homepage.