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Wicklow United Irishmen 1797 - 1804 The Names of the Wicklow men were provided by Dr Ruán O'Donnell. They directly relate to his recent book titled "The Rebellion in Wicklow 1798" which contains over 440 pages. It was published by the Irish Academic Press in Dublin, 1998 ISBN 0 716 526 94 8. Quoting from the Introduction to Ruán O'Donnell & Henry Cains' book titled "Ballads & Poems of the Wicklow Rebellion 1798" (Published by Kestrel Books at Bray, 1998 ISBN 1 900 505 60 6) …… Wicklow was one of the most violent sectors in Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798 and the most consistently disturbed county in its aftermath. The pro-government loyalist community suffered the second highest property losses of any in Ireland in 1798 and remained vulnerable to rebel activity until 1804. The great struggle of the United Irishmen claimed hundreds of lives in Wicklow and resulted in the exile of many more to New South Wales, the West Indies, Prussia and elsewhere - No county sent more of its natives to the harsh penal colony of New South Wales, Australia.

At least 14,000 Wicklowmen swore the oath of the United Irishmen and a comparatively high number of them turned out to fight after the outbreak of the Rebellion in late May 1798. The vast majority had joined in the spring and early summer of 1797 when republican emissaries crossed into the county from Kildare and Dublin.

The United Irishmen were founded in late 1791 in order to unite 'protestant, catholic and dissenter' (presbyterian) in the cause of parliamentary reform. They wanted to replace the elite Dublin parliament at College Green with a democratic forum akin to those created by revolutions in America and France. Social, Political, economic and religious discrimination against catholics and presbyterians was to be abolished and the British parliament prevented from interfering in Irish affairs.

Parts of Wicklow were militarised as early as September 1797 and much of the west of the county was placed under martial law two months later. By then arms raiding and pike making, the assassination of informers and the holding of seditious meetings had transformed one of Leinster's most peaceable counties into a hotbed of republican activity. Dozens of loyalist yeomanry corps were raised in Wicklow after October 1796 and these civilian volunteers used their government arms, pay and uniforms to police their neighbours. Some yeomen were members of the Orange Order from late 1797, a new force in county politics which proved prone to extreme conduct.

The field structure of the database is:

Surname|First Name|Remarks/Nickname|Native Place

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to Dr Ruán O'Donnell for his help and advice on records relating to the 1798 Irish Rebellion.