2. CONTESTING HISTORY OPPOSING VOICES 7: Peasant Uprisings or Terror Campaign? Conflict in Rural Ireland, 1750-1798

3. Conflict in Rural Ireland, 1750- 1798 Post 1745: key questions of Catholic loyalty to the Crown and the repeal of Penal Laws Post 1745: key questions of Catholic loyalty to the Crown and the repeal of Penal Laws 1756-63: Seven Years War 1756-63: Seven Years War 1756: Formation of the Catholic Association 1756: Formation of the Catholic Association 1760: Formation of the Catholic Committee 1760: Formation of the Catholic Committee 1760s: Whiteboy (Buachaillí Bána) outbreaks in Munster – against enclosure, high rents for potato plots, & Tithes – oath-taking society 1760s: Whiteboy (Buachaillí Bána) outbreaks in Munster – against enclosure, high rents for potato plots, & Tithes – oath-taking society 1763: Oakboys in Ulster – against County Cess & Tithes 1763: Oakboys in Ulster – against County Cess & Tithes 1766: Fr Nicholas Sheehy executed 1766: Fr Nicholas Sheehy executed 1770-2: Steelboys in Ulster 1770-2: Steelboys in Ulster

4. Conflict in Rural Ireland, 1750- 1798 1775-6: American War of Independence 1778: Volunteers formed 1778-82: start of the repeal of the Penal Laws 1784: outbreak of violence between Catholic and Protestant weavers in Armagh Triangle Protestant Peep-o-Day boys – raiding houses of Catholics Catholic Defenders 1780s: Rightboys - for Tithe reduction Peep-o-Day boys recruited by Protestant gentry into volunteers Defenderism became an underground secret society

5. Conflict in Rural Ireland, 1750- 1798 1789: French Revolution 1791: United Irishmen formed 1795: Orange Order founded 1798: Rebellion General causes: General causes: Economic: rising population, land shortage, growing poverty – agrarian discontent Economic: rising population, land shortage, growing poverty – agrarian discontent Political: disaffected local elites, disgruntled Catholics at failure to pursue reform to its full extent Political: disaffected local elites, disgruntled Catholics at failure to pursue reform to its full extent Social: radical education – French ideas – sense of Irishness Social: radical education – French ideas – sense of Irishness

6. Conflict in Rural Ireland, 1750- 1798 Further Reading: Bartlett, Thomas, The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation: The Catholic Question 1690-1830 (Dublin, 1992). Donnelly, J. S., ‘The Whiteboy Movement, 1761-5’, Irish Historical Studies, xxi (1978-9), 20-59. Donnelly, J. S., ‘Irish agrarian rebellions: the Whiteboys of 1769-76’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 83, section C (1983), 293-332. Magennis, Eoin, ‘’A “Presbyterian Insurrection”? Reconsidering the Hearts of Oak disturbances of July 1763’, Irish Historical Studies, xxxi (1998-9), 165-87.