Society of the United Irishmen: Encyclopedia II - Society of the United Irishmen - The United Irishmen and Sectarianism

Society of the United Irishmen - The United Irishmen and Sectarianism

The United Irishmen was a staunchly non-sectarian body which sought to unite all Irishmen, regardless of religion or descent. Many among their ranks were former Defenders, a term applied to many loosely connected, exclusively Catholic, agrarian resistance groups. Many of these men, as well as their Presbyterian counterparts in Ulster, had been shaped by the sectarianism that was prevalent in eighteenth century Ireland, and it was no mean feat to persuade Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter to put aside their differences and view each other simply as fellow Irishmen.

This project met with remarkable success but it was quickly recognised by the establishment that sectarianism was a useful ally in the fight against the United Irishmen. The formation of the Orange Order in 1795 was to prove particularly useful as it provided the Government with allies who had detailed local knowledge of the activities of their enemies. The brutal disarming of Ulster in 1797, where the United Irish had successfully radicalised both Protestant and Catholic saw thousands of Catholics driven from counties Antrim, Down and Armagh with the murder, torture and imprisonment of hundreds of Protestants suspected of United Irish sympathies.

However during the course of the 1798 rebellion the opposite of what the United Irishmen were about occurred at Scullabogue in County Wexford when scores of Loyalists and their wives and children were burnt alive in reprisal for atrocities by the Crown forces (see Scullabogue Barn Massacre), although some of the attackers and at least seven of the victims were Catholic. Such massacres were ruthlessly exploited in the following years by loyalist politicians to cement the sectarian divide and to ensure the loyalty of Protestants to the English Crown. The fact that the vast majority of the estimated 30,000 people who lost their lives during the rebellion were victims of British and Loyalist troops was blithely ignored.

A minority of the Defenders did not reject completely their previous anti-Protestant outlook. John Tuite, known as Captain Fearnought, of County Meath was one of these. Tuite was "sworn to both acts" in 1795, that is he took first the Defender and then the United Irish oaths, but his Defender oath had pledged him "to quell the nation of heresy" (i.e. the Protestant Ascendancy) as well as to "dethrone all kings, and plant the tree of liberty" (the aims of the United Irishmen). In contrast many of the most dedicated leaders of the rebellion were Protestant, e.g Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Anthony Perry, James Hope and remained steadfastly committed to the concept of a non-sectarian United Ireland.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The United Irishmen and Sectarianism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki