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Ireland 1778–1803

The French Revolution and the United Irishmen

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 2

Overview

Original aims of the United Irishmen, northern Star and three leaders of the reorganised United Irishmen besides Tone.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How large did the United Irishmen claim to be by 1797?

Numbers

How was the French Revolution received by radicals in Belfast?

Numbers

Which book of Thomas Paine's shaped Irish radical opinion?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How was the French Revolution received by radicals in Belfast?

    Model answer

    Belfast radicals celebrated the fall of the Bastille with Volunteer parades, most famously on 14 July 1791, and used the occasion to demand parliamentary reform and Catholic relief at home.

  2. 2

    Which book of Thomas Paine's shaped Irish radical opinion?

    Model answer

    Paine's Rights of Man, published in 1791, sold in thousands in Ulster and gave Irish radicals the language of natural rights and representative government.

  3. 3

    What did Wolfe Tone argue in An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland?

    Model answer

    Tone argued in 1791 that no reform of parliament could ever succeed while Protestants and Catholics stayed divided, and that Catholics were no longer any danger to Protestant property or liberty.

  4. 4

    When and where was the Society of United Irishmen founded?

    Model answer

    The first Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast on 14 October 1791.

  5. 5

    What were the original aims of the United Irishmen?

    Model answer

    The society sought a radical reform of parliamentary representation, the removal of Catholic disabilities, and the union of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman.

  6. 6

    What was the Northern Star?

    Model answer

    The Northern Star was the Belfast newspaper of the United Irishmen, launched in January 1792 and edited by Samuel Neilson, which carried radical argument to a wide readership across Ulster.

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