A break from the past: Ireland, the French Revolution and the evolution of radical discourse, 1789-1797

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files
Date
2024
Authors
Watson, Luke
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
Irish political discourse in the 1790s was fundamentally different from that which had preceded it. The 1790s witnessed political developments which were much more extreme, and indeed much more violent, than those which characterised the 1770s or 1780s. The central event which encouraged this new trend in Irish politics, was, without a doubt, the French Revolution. To political radicals across Europe, the revolution in France - previously seen as one of the more repressed nations on the continent - seemed to herald a new age of liberty and freedom. In Ireland, which from 1783 had endured a period of relative political inactivity, the revolution drew great interest from those who sought to reform Ireland’s political system, and who increasingly viewed it as necessary to extend political involvement to a greater subset of the population. Meanwhile, for those in power in the country, the French Revolution seemed to represent their worst fears made manifest: fears of anarchy, mob rule and the total destruction of the well-ordered system which had endured for decades, if not centuries. The hopes and fears which characterised the reception of the French Revolution in Ireland thus feature heavily in the public discussions of this period. The ideologies and rhetoric emerging from France helped to push Irish political discourse in a new direction, shifting it from one which was concerned with moderate political reform and legislative and economic independence, to one which was concerned with liberty, republicanism and complete independence. This thesis seeks to trace the impact of the ideas, rhetoric and ideology emerging from Revolutionary France on Ireland, in particular discussing the ways in which it shaped Ireland’s radical community. In this regard, this thesis adopts something of a social history approach, focusing in particular on the urban radical communities of Cork, Dublin and Belfast, providing a comparative discussion of the political developments of these localities, and using these to reflect on the wider developments occurring in Ireland. Discourse is an especially ephemeral and difficult to quantify topic, and thus sources that reflect such evolving political discussions, including letters, private memoirs and newspapers are central to this research.
Description
Keywords
History , Irish history , Franco-Irish history , Social history , Eighteenth century , Political history , 1790s
Citation
Watson, L. 2024. A break from the past: Ireland, the French Revolution and the evolution of radical discourse, 1789-1797. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
Link to publisher’s version