Ireland: The 1798 Rebellion and the Act of Union
Ireland: The 1798 Rebellion and the Act of Union
Examiners want causes, key events and consequences - and above all the link between the rising and the abolition of the Irish parliament.
Causes
- The Society of United Irishmen (Belfast 1791, Dublin 1792) was founded by radical Presbyterians and Catholics influenced by the American and French revolutions - Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward FitzGerald, Henry Joy McCracken. It demanded Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, then a republic.
- Government reaction: militia and yeomanry, arms raids, flogging for information, and the arrest of the Leinster leadership in March 1798.
- Sectarian tension in Armagh and the founding of the Orange Order (1795) turned a republican plan into a local sectarian war in Wexford.
Events A French landing failed at Bantry Bay (1796); Humbert landed at Killala in August 1798, too late. The main rising broke out in May; the Wexford camp at Vinegar Hill was crushed in June. About 30,000 people died.
Consequence Pitt used the crisis to push the Act of Union, passed by the Irish parliament in 1800 and in force from 1 January 1801: Ireland sent 100 MPs and 32 representative peers to Westminster, and the Irish parliament was abolished.
Worked example Why did the rising fail? Leaders were arrested, informers supplied names, the French never landed in force, arms were poor, government held the main towns, and the sectarian turn in Wexford lost moderate support.
Traps Calling 1798 a Catholic rebellion - its leadership was largely Presbyterian. Saying the Union was put to a referendum; it was carried through the Irish parliament by patronage and promises.