Belfast 1798

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Belfast and Donegal.

1791. Society Of United Irishmen founded by Samuel Neilson, Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy McCracken and Thomas Russell. Belfast now has 2,209 houses occupied by 18,320 people.

1795. Seventy branches of the United Irishmen represented at a meeting in Belfast.Tone McCracken etc reafirm their resolve to free Ireland on McArts Fort. Rev. Thomas Ledlie Birch, Saintfield, has articles published in the "Northern Star", one of which declares, " Kings are the butchers and scourges of the human race, revelling in the spoils of thousands whom they have made widows and orphans"
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Thomas Russell’s A letter to the people of Ireland on the present situation of the country, (Belfast). Russell's central theme is the necessity for union among Irishmen of all religious backgrounds. Relief of Catholic grievances was lost not because Protestants were ungenerous but because excessive trust had been placed in "men of the first lordly and landed interests in Ireland who shamefully and meanly deserted the people". When, as in 1793, Catholic demands were insistently pressed, the Whigs entered common cause with the government against the Catholics. "No persons reviled the Rights of Man or the French Revolution, or gabbled more about anarchy, and confusion, and mobs, and United Irishmen, and Defenders, and Volunteers, or coincided more heartily in strengthening the hands of that government which they had opposed, and reviting the chains of the people . . . that the gentlemen of the opposition." The aristocracy were "fungus productions who grow out of a diseased state of society and destroy as well the vigour and the beauty of that which nourishes them". Slavery was the issue of "the greatest consequence on the face of the earth". The slave trade created barbarism and misery; it prevented the spread of civilisation and religion. It was "a system of cruelty, torment, wickedness and infamy . . . the work of wicked demons rather than men". He concluded: "The great object of mankind should be to consider themselves as accountable for their actions to God alone, and to pay no regard or obedience to any men or institution, which is not conformable to his will." The pamphlet was signed "Thomas Russell, an United Irishman".

1798, Martial Law proclaimed by Gen. Nugent, no one is allowed in or out of Belfast except to market. Volunteers surrender their cannon , Battle of Antrim is led by Henry Joy McCracken, Battle of Ballynahinch By Henry Munro June 13: United Irishmen led by Henry Monro defeated at Ballynahinch, Co Down. Monro executed at Lisburn, 15 June. July 7

Henry Joy McCracken hanged outside Market House, High Street, Belfast .Other Old Belfast executions at that spot included those of John Storey, printer at the Northern star, James Dickey, barrister from Crumlin , Dickey was captured on the Divis Mountain where he hid out after taking a heroic stand at the Battle of Antrim. J. Byers, cattle drover, Saintfield, Hugh Graham, (Grimes), and William McGill . All but McCracken were beheaded and had their heads spiked, and for over a month put on public exhibition at the Market House.As Henry Joy was led to the gallows he witnessed the decaying heads of his comrades on display. He left behind a daughter which he had with Mary Bodle, a peasant girl who lived near Cavehill.

Whitesidetown renamed Andersonstown after the Whiteside family who were dispossessed through their leanings to the principles of United Irishmen.
Thanks to Joe Graham. Great Belfast Historian.
The life and times of a group of 18th century revolutionaries has been marked with a new work of public art which has gone on permanent display in Belfast.
The four paintings in the city’s Cathedral Quarter depict the history of the Society of United Irishmen - a movement co-founded by Wolfe Tone that sought to create an independent Ireland free from English rule in the 1790s.
They have been erected in the newly-restored Warehouse Lane in the Four Corners area where Belfast members of the society met in secret over 200 years ago, calling themselves the Muddlers Club.
Warehouse Lane, which links Waring Street and Exchange Place, marks the latest phase in the regeneration of the historic section of the city.
The artwork, by local painter Michael O’Neill, is part of the regeneration which later this month will see the opening of a new £15m hotel and a bar and restaurant.

Among the scenes captured in the paintings is one of Belfast United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken saying goodbye to his sister before being led to the gallows to be hung for his part in the 1798 rebellion.
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Michael O’Neill said: “I was keen that the four paintings should reflect the breadth of thinking of the United Irishmen and their full legacy in the fields of knowledge, culture, radical liberalism and sheer human courage.
“At the heart of their thoughts and actions lay love of their fellow countrymen and a desire for equality.”

Thomas Russell and friends study the first issue of the Northern Star newspaper
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The paintings, two of which will be illuminated at night, were unveiled by Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.
“The regeneration of this historic Four Corners site and the commissioning of this art is another excellent example of how the private sector can work with government to deliver top quality development in a very important part of Belfast’s city centre,” Ms Ritchie said.
“This art, Warehouse Lane, the Premier Inn hotel and the 4 Corners Bar and Restaurant that will open on this site in the coming weeks, are a further sign that the heart of this city can once again be vibrant and dynamic, not just during the day, but in the evenings also.”

Thomas Russell and Edward Bunting meet Mary Ann McCracken
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Henry Joy McCracken was tried for treason on 17 July 1798 and hanged in Cornmarket in Belfast on the same day.
His sister, Mary Ann, had a doctor standing by in case there was still life in the body after it was cut down, but the move was in vain.
McCracken was buried at St George’s Church in High Street, but his remains were later transferred to the Clifton Street cemetery a short distance away.
Henry Joy McCracken was born in High Street, Belfast on 31 August 1767.
A member of a prominent Presbyterian family, he was interested in radical politics from an early stage and in 1791 he joined with Thomas Russell and others to form the first Society of United Irishmen in Belfast.
The founders, claiming to be The Muddlers Club, secretly formed the society in Peggy Barclay’s Tavern in Sugarhouse Entry, a narrow passageway between High Street and Waring Street that was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during a bombing raid in the spring of 1941.
Composed mainly of Presbyterians, the aims of the society were initially constitutional - a union of all Irishmen to counter English influence, a radical reform of Parliament and the inclusion in that Parliament of people of all religious persuasions.
However, by 1795 government repression had changed a party of constitutional reformers into a society of determined revolutionaries.
In 1796 McCracken was imprisoned for over a year in Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.
When the insurrection broke out in June 1798, he was made general of the forces mustered at Donegore, which then attacked Antrim town.
They were defeated by government troops and, after a month on the run, McCracken was captured in Carrickfergus while trying to escape to America.
Henry Joy

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Belfast 1798

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