Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lightenment provided ideas of freedom, and the Revolutionary Age emboldened the Irish
masses. Irish nationalists were inspired by budding democratic revolutions in America
(1776) and France (1789). The Irish say, “The Tree of Liberty sprouted in America, blos-
somed in France, and dropped seeds in Ireland.” Increasingly, the issue of Irish independ-
ence was less a religious question than a political one, as poor, disenfranchised colonists
demanded a political voice.
In Dublin,
Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745), the dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, published
his satirical
Gulliver's Travels
with veiled references to English colonialism. He anonym-
ously wrote pamphlets advising, “Burn all that's British, except its coal.”
The
Irish Parliament
was an exclusive club, and only Protestant male landowners
could be elected to a seat (1 percent of the population qualified). In 1782, led by
Henry
Grattan
(1746-1820), the Parliament negotiated limited autonomy from England (while
remaining loyal to the king) and fairer treatment of the Catholics. England, chastened by
the American Revolution (and soon preoccupied with the French Revolution), tolerated a
more-or-less independent Irish Parliament for two decades.
Then,in1798,camethebloodiestIrishRebellion.InspiredbytheAmericanandFrench
revolutionary successes and buoyed by an “if they can do it, so can we” attitude, a band
of Irish idealists rose up and rebelled. The
United Irishmen
(whose goals included intro-
ducing the term “Irishman” for all Irish, rather than labeling people as either Protestant
or Catholic) revolted against Britain, led by
Wolfe Tone
(1763-1798), a Protestant Dublin
lawyer. Tone, trained in the French Revolution, had gained French aid for the Irish cause
(though a French naval invasion in 1796 already had failed after a freakish “Protestant
wind” blew the ships away from Ireland's shores). The Rebellion was marked by bitter
fighting—30,000 died over six weeks—before British troops crushed the revolt.
England tried to solve the Irish problem politically by forcing Ireland into a “Union”
with England as part of a “United Kingdom” (
Act of Union,
1801). The 500-year-old Irish
Parliament was dissolved, with its members becoming part of England's Parliament in
London. Catholics were not allowed in Parliament. From then on, “Unionists” have been
those who oppose Irish independence, wanting to preserve the country's union with Eng-
land.
