The Irish Rising of 1798

Early in 1798 the United Irishmen, seeking to end British rule in the island, planned a rising across the country with French assistance. The authorities arrested most of the leaders before their plans came to fruition, but they re-imposed control on Ireland with such ferocity that a mass rebellion occurred that, for about four weeks, routed the government forces from several key points in the county of Wexford. The rebels’ Senate for administering the area under their control has been sometimes claimed as an embryonic republic, built on lines suggested by the revolutions of America and France. Government fears of a general rising that could threaten Dublin ended after the one-sided battle on Vinegar Hill, though military operations continued for some time. The upshot was the Act of Union of 1800, which abolished the Irish Parliament and laid the foundations for Anglo-Irish relations for the next century. The origins and meaning of the rising of 1798 have been a matter of controversy and reinterpretation over the last two hundred years. It has been seen as a great nationalist rising; a democratic-republican revolution; an outbreak of sectarian violence; and a chaotic jacquerie, in which the settling of local scores played as important a role as grand political visions. What is clear is that it was a complex event, and an extremely bloody one: there were between 20,000 and 30,000 deaths in County Wexford, from a total population of 120,000.