Sunny Liquid Dreams

July 26, 2009

I did not go anywhere on Sunday, but locked myself in the house, scribbled away on my laptop, and was upset that I could not go outside and enjoy the nice weather. We had to write two ten-page papers: one on Irish history and the other on our internship. For the Irish history, we were given a list of prompts, and were told to choose one.

I chose to evaluate the place of Wolfe Tone, a leader of the 1798 rebellion, in history. Since I have nothing else to write about, I'm going to briefly describe his life, his role in the rebellion, and his rather gruesome death.

Wolfe Tone was the son of a Protestant coach-maker and was educated at Trinity College. During his youth, he wanted nothing more than to enlist as a soldier, but his father forced him to study, and he grudgingly entered the field of law. He married, and had several children, and all died young.

At that time, the French Revolution sent waves of both excitement through radicals and chills through the monarchial heads of government. Tone, alongside many other Irishmen, looked to France as an example.


During Tone's time, Ireland's parliament was controlled by a select few Protestants. Middle class Protestants and Catholics could not gain access to it and at first, both sought peaceful reform. Around that time, Tone became interested in politics and began to write pamphlets that advocated rights for the Catholics.

Tone held no love for Catholicism itself, but he believed that the only way to solve Ireland's problems was forge a united people under "the common name of the Irishman". He worked between Ulster Presbyterians in Belfast and the Catholic gentry in Dublin.

Unfortunately, he was in danger of being accused of high treason in 1795 for a secret memorandum that described Ireland as a country that was ready for revolution. He was allowed to flee to America.


Evenutally, Tone realized that parliamentary reform was not going to acheive his goals and he only began to advocated separatism (from Britain) as a result of his circumstances. From America, he traveled to France to convince the government to send military aid for an Irish rebellion.


His solo trip to France was successful and he sailed out with General Hoche and 14,000 men. They were due to land at Bantry Bay, but bad weather split the forces and expedition resulted in failure.


Tone attempted two more expeditions, and on the third, he was captured in 1798. He was accused of high treason, and after realizing that he would be sentenced to death, Tone asked to be shot as a prisoner-of-war. He was serving as an officer in the French army at the time, and expected to be treated as such.


However, his request was denied and he was sentenced to be hanged on November 12. However, the night before his execution, he slit his throat with a blunt knife. Since he missed his jugular vein, he did not immediately die. His wound was sewn up and he was strapped to his bed.


Tone died seven days later. The result of the 1798 rebellion was the exact opposite of his original goals. In 1800, England passed the Act of Union that formally bound both Ireland and England together.