#OTD in 1764 – Birth of United Irishmen Leader, James Hope, in Templepatrick, Co Antrim.

James “Jemmy” Hope fought in the 1798 and 1803 rebellions against British rule in Ireland and born to a Presbyterian family originally of Covenanter stock. He was apprenticed as a linen weaver but attended night school in his spare time. Influenced by the American Revolution, he joined the Irish Volunteers, but upon the demise of […]

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#OTD in 1846 – O’Connell and the Young Irelanders party split over use of physical force.

The name Young Ireland was originally used in a disparaging way to describe the group of young Repeal Association members who were associated with The Nation newspaper. At the time, the Repeal Association was campaigning for the repeal of the Act of Union 1800 between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The term was […]

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#OTD in 1791 – Demonstrations are held in Dublin, Belfast and elsewhere to commemorate the fall of the Bastille in 1789.

What is that in your hand?It is a branch.Of what?Of the tree of liberty.Where did it first grow?In America.Where does it bloom?In France.Where did the seeds fall?In Ireland. –Catechism of the United Irishmen. To Edmund Burke, the French revolutionaries were “the swinish multitude”, and his Reflections on the Revolution in France set in motion one of the […]

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#OTD in 1798 – Lord Edward Fitzgerald dies at Newgate prison from wounds sustained in the course of his arrest.

FitzGerald was one of the leading instigators of the 1798 Rebellion. Like many of his rebel colleagues, he came from a privileged background. He was the son of the Duke of Leinster and fought with the British army in the American Revolutionary War. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on 8 […]

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#OTD in 1798 – United Irish Rebellion begins in Wexford and in Leinster.

The short-lived, brutal 1798 Rebellion instigated by the United Irishmen commences when on the night of the 23rd May, the mail coaches leaving Dublin were seized – as a signal to those United Irishmen outside the capital that the time of the uprising had arrived. Founded in 1791, The United Irishmen had been inspired by […]

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#OTD in 1763 – Birth of United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, at Carton House, Co Kildare.

FitzGerald was one of the leading instigators of the 1798 Rebellion. Like many of his rebel colleagues, he came from a privileged background. He was the son of the Duke of Leinster and fought with the British army in the American Revolutionary War. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on 8 […]

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#OTD in 1764 – Birth of United Irishmen Leader, James Hope, in Templepatrick, Co Antrim.

James “Jemmy” Hope fought in the 1798 and 1803 rebellions against British rule in Ireland and born to a Presbyterian family originally of Covenanter stock. He was apprenticed as a linen weaver but attended night school in his spare time. Influenced by the American Revolution, he joined the Irish Volunteers, but upon the demise of […]

Read More

#OTD in 1846 – O’Connell and the Young Irelanders party split over use of physical force.

The name Young Ireland was originally used in a disparaging way to describe the group of young Repeal Association members who were associated with The Nation newspaper. At the time, the Repeal Association was campaigning for the repeal of the Act of Union 1800 between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The term was […]

Read More

#OTD in 1791 – Demonstrations are held in Dublin, Belfast and elsewhere to commemorate the fall of the Bastille in 1789.

What is that in your hand?It is a branch.Of what?Of the tree of liberty.Where did it first grow?In America.Where does it bloom?In France.Where did the seeds fall?In Ireland. –Catechism of the United Irishmen. To Edmund Burke, the French revolutionaries were “the swinish multitude”, and his Reflections on the Revolution in France set in motion one of the […]

Read More

#OTD in 1798 – Lord Edward Fitzgerald dies at Newgate prison from wounds sustained in the course of his arrest.

FitzGerald was one of the leading instigators of the 1798 Rebellion. Like many of his rebel colleagues, he came from a privileged background. He was the son of the Duke of Leinster and fought with the British army in the American Revolutionary War. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on 8 […]

Read More