United Irishmen United States

Among the thousands of political refugees who flooded into the United States during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, none had a greater impact on the early republic than the United Irishmen. They were, according to one Federalist, "the most God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." "Every United Irishman," insisted another, "ought to be hunted from the country, as much as a wolf or a tyger." David A. Wilson's lively book is the first to focus specifically on the experiences, attitudes, and ideas of the United Irishmen in the United States.Wilson argues that America served a powerful symbolic and psychological function for the United Irishmen as a place of wish-fulfillment, where the broken dreams of the failed Irish revolution could be realized. The United Irishmen established themselves on the radical wing of the Republican Party, and contributed to Jefferson's "second American Revolution" of 1800; John Adams counted them among the "foreigners and degraded characters" whom he blamed for his defeat.After Jefferson's victory, the United Irishmen set out to destroy the Federalists and democratize the Republicans. Some of them believed that their work was preparing the way for the millennium in America. Convinced that the example of America could ultimately inspire the movement for a democratic republic back home, they never lost sight of the struggle for Irish independence. It was the United Irishmen, writes Wilson, who originated the persistent and powerful tradition of Irish-American nationalism.

Among the thousands of political refugees who flooded into the United States during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, none had a greater impact on the early republic than the United Irishmen. They were, according to one Federalist, "the most God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." "Every United Irishman," insisted another, "ought to be hunted from the country, as much as a wolf or a tyger." David A. Wilson's lively book is the first to focus specifically on the experiences, attitudes, and ideas of the United Irishmen in the United States.Wilson argues that America served a powerful symbolic and psychological function for the United Irishmen as a place of wish-fulfillment, where the broken dreams of the failed Irish revolution could be realized. The United Irishmen established themselves on the radical wing of the Republican Party, and contributed to Jefferson's "second American Revolution" of 1800; John Adams counted them among the "foreigners and degraded characters" whom he blamed for his defeat.After Jefferson's victory, the United Irishmen set out to destroy the Federalists and democratize the Republicans. Some of them believed that their work was preparing the way for the millennium in America. Convinced that the example of America could ultimately inspire the movement for a democratic republic back home, they never lost sight of the struggle for Irish independence. It was the United Irishmen, writes Wilson, who originated the persistent and powerful tradition of Irish-American nationalism.

The 1790s, coloured by revolutions in France and North America, were to see the birth of republicanism in Ireland and the emergence of radical Presbyterianism in the north. This decade is increasingly being considered as one of the most formative in modern Irish history. This book includes fresh interpretations of the period by 22 distinguished international historians, all contributors to the 1991 conference marking the bicentenary of the founding of the Societies of United Irishmen in Belfast and Dublin. These scholarly evaluations give a fascinating composite portrait of 1790s Ireland, a crucible of nationalism, nascent 19th century democratic politics and social and cultural change. They make a significant contribution to the study and understanding of Irish history. -- Publisher description.

Provides a lavishly illustrated overview of the 1798 rebellion as well as an exciting historical analysis written by one of Ireland's leading specialists on 1798 and its effects.

Fergus Whelan reveals the hidden history of the Protestant Dissenters whose Dublin congregations were established by officers of Cromwell's army and who went on to contribute their republican ideas to the revolutionary movement established in 1791, the United Irishmen. This book discusses the relationship between Irish and British republicanism; of the role of Unitarians in Britain, Ireland, and the United States; and of Edmund Burke, revealed here as a mean-minded and anti-democratic bigot. The research is based substantially on previously hidden records of the Dublin Unitarian Church.