Today in Labor History June 20, 1763: Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader, was born. He helped create the United Irishmen, a Republican organization that fought against British rule in Ireland. The United Irishmen was a relatively nonsectarian organization that united Irishmen of both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds. Wolfe Tone also led the Irish Rebellion of 1798, along with Napper Tandy, and others. The leaders of this major uprising were inspired by the French and American Revolutions. They started off strong, winning many battles. However, in the end, the British prevailed, killing up to 50,000 rebels and civilians. Wolfe Tone said, “Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men with property will not support us, they must fall. We can support ourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable class of the community: the men of no property.” The British captured Wolfe Tone in November, 1798. Scholars believe he committed suicide in prison a few days later.
While it’s refreshing to hear a revolutionary leader from that era express what sounds like socialist ideals, the Rebellion of 1798 was, by and large, a bourgeois revolution. No where in any of Tone’s speeches or writings does he condone the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, nor the seizure of their property, nor the establishment of a system controlled by the working-class. Indeed, the rebellion was led primarily by members of the capitalist class, who were fighting for their own class interests. These leaders were opposing the restraints imposed on them by England, a taxation system they considered unfair, and corruption in the Irish Parliament. As a tiny minority of the Irish population, they needed the masses of working-class people and peasants to support them in order to have any chance of winning. The leaders, including Tone, were mostly Protestant. The masses of “men of no property” were overwhelming Catholic peasants. And in order to win over this class, one of the main demands of the revolution was equal representation in Parliament for Catholics.
Unification of Catholics and Protestants during this period was not a trivial matter. There were ongoing violent confrontations between sectarian gangs, like the Peep O’Day Boys and the Orange Order (Protestant) and the Defenders (Catholic). And that sectarianism was no doubt stoked by the British in their attempts to thwart the United Irishmen.
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