Today marks the anniversary of the capture of Irish revolutionary, Wolfe Tone, one of the founders of the United Irishmen and the leader of the Rebellion of 1798.
Tone was captured alongside over 2,000 French servicemen in a sea battle lasting around four hours between the French and British navy near Tory Island off the Donegal coast.
The captive officers, Tone among them, were landed and marched to Letterkenny where they had been invited to breakfast by the Earl of Cavan. Although there is uncertainty over whether this event happened in Letterkenny or Buncrana, the details remain the same.
Tone, in French military uniform, was identified by Sir George Hill, a fellow student at Trinity College. Hill entered the room accompanied by soldiers and said; “Mr Tone, I am very happy to see you” to which Tone replied “Sir George, I am happy to see you. How are Lady Hill and the family?”
Tone was removed to another room and handcuffed, declaring; “for the cause which I have embraced I feel prouder to wear these chains than if I were decorated with the Star and Garter of England”.
He was taken under an escort of dragoons, first to Derry and later Dublin where he was imprisoned in the Royal Barracks.
After his court martial on 10 November he pleaded to be given a soldier’s death by firing squad but his request was denied and he was sentenced to death by hanging. But rather than suffer this fate, he attempted suicide and died 9 days later at the age of 34.
Inspired by the American and French revolutions, the United Irishmen had initially sought democratic reform, lobbying for the vote to be extended to Catholics and to non-property holders. They had a determinedly non-sectarian outlook, their motto being, as their leading member, Wolfe Tone put it, ‘to unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman’.
Some of their early demands were granted by the Irish parliament, for example Catholics were given the right to vote in 1793, as well as the right to attend university, obtain degrees and to serve in the military and civil service.
But the organisation was banned after Britain went to war with France in 1793 and it went underground.
Crown forces attempted to terrorise any would-be revolutionaries in Ireland who might aid the French in the event of another invasion.
Their methods included the burning of houses and Catholic churches, summary executions and the practice of ‘pitch-capping’ whereby lit tar was placed on a victim’s scalp.
By the summer of 1798, the United Irishmen, under severe pressure from their own supporters to act, planned a co-ordinated nationwide uprising, aimed at overthrowing the government in Dublin, severing the connection with Britain and founding an Irish Republic.
But the rebellion failed to launch a coordinated nationwide uprising. There were instead isolated outbreaks of rebellion in county Wexford, other Leinster counties, counties Antrim and Down in the north and after the landing of a French expeditionary force, in County Mayo in the west.
Meanwhile, Wofe Tone had travelled to France where he successfully implored the French to assist Ireland in pulling down the monarchy and establishing a republic.
“If the Irish can hold out till winter, I have every reason to hope that the French will assist them effectually,” he wrote in his diary.
On 20 September he embarked for Ireland with the French fleet under Admiral Bompart intending on setting ashore in Lough Swilly but bad weather and a more powerful British fleet barred the way.
The Battle of Tory as it became known, was the last French attempt at an Irish invasion.
Wolfe Tone's body was buried with those of his ancestors in the ancient cemetery of Bodenstown near Sallins in County Kildare.