Saturday, March 17, 2012

A cordial union among all the people...



In September of 1791, strongly influenced by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, and the French Revolution, Thomas Wolfe Tone and what would become known as the Society of United Irishmen, published "Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland" making the case for Catholic, Protestants, and Dissenter unity.  Stating in their first resolution, "That the weight of English influence in the Government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce."  The movement spread across Ireland and by 1797 there were 200,000 members.  The British/Irish establishment responded with martial law and tactics such as house burnings, torture, pitchcapping, murder and the violent suppression of the United Irishmen newspaper The Northern Star

Society of United Irishmen 
Catechism
What is that in your hand?  It is a branch.
Of what?  Of the Tree of Liberty.
Where did it first grow?  In America.
Where does it bloom?  In France.
Where did the seeds fall?  In Ireland.


 
  
"Equality
It is new strung and shall be
heard"

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