Irish rebellion of 1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798
Part of the Atlantic Revolutions and the French Revolutionary Wars

Battle of Vinegar Hill by William Sadler Kelvin II (1880) "Charge of the 5th Dragoon Guards on the insurgents – a recreant yeoman having deserted to them in uniform is being cut down"
Date24 May – 12 October 1798
(4 months and 18 days)
Location
Ireland
Result

Suppression by Crown forces

Belligerents
United Irishmen
Defenders
 France

 Great Britain

Commanders and leaders
William Aylmer
Myles Byrne
Thomas Cloney
Bagenal Harvey
Henry Joy McCracken
Henry Munro
Fr. John Murphy
Fr. Michael Murphy
Fr. Philip Roche
Jean Humbert
Jean Bompart
Charles Cornwallis
Ralph Abercromby
Gerard Lake
George Nugent
John Warren
Strength
50,000 United Irishmen
4,100 French regulars
10 French Navy ships[1]
40,000 militia
30,000 British regulars
~25,000 yeomanry
~1,000 Hessians
Casualties and losses
10,000[2]–50,000[3] estimated combatant and civilian deaths
3,500 French captured
7 French ships captured
500–2,000 military deaths[4]
c. 1,000 loyalist civilian deaths[5]


During the Irish rebellion of 1798 (or United Irishmen Rebellion), Irish people rebelled against the rule of the Kingdom of Ireland. The rebellion lasted four months, from 24 May to 24 September 1798, but was eventually defeated.

The Irish suffered much greater losses than the British. On the Irish side, between 10,000 - 50,000 Irish people died. On the English side, between 500 and 2,000 did.

Participants

The United Irishmen

A secret society called the United Irishmen (led by Wolfe Tone) were the main driving force in the rebellion. They were influenced by revolutions taking place in America and France around the time.

Republican France

The rebellion was aided by Republican France, which was anti-Catholic at the time. However, most Irish people were Catholics. Even though the British government was also anti-Catholic, most Irish Catholics thought the Crown was the lesser of two evils. For these reasons, the rebellion never gained much traction.

References

  1. The 1798 Irish Rebellion (BBC).
  2. Thomas Bartlett, Clemency and Compensation, the treatment of defeated rebels and suffering loyalists after the 1798 rebellion, in Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Union, Ireland in the 1790s, Jim Smyth ed, Cambridge, 2000, p. 100
  3. Thomas Pakenham, p. 392 The Year of Liberty (1969) ISBN 0-586-03709-8
  4. Bartlett, p. 100
  5. Richard Musgrave (1801). Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland (see Appendices)