at the dawn of the 17th century Europe is caught in the Maelstrom of religious War Irish Chieftain had allied with Catholic Spain against England for 9 years the Protestant armies of Elizabeth I fought the Irish and their Spanish [Music] allies the final Irish defeat came in ster where the mighty gelic Hugh O'Neal and other nobles were scattered into Exile in Catholic Europe but out of sight was not out of mind their presence on the continent Stokes English Protestant fears would the Earls attempt to return and stir the people to Rebellion England's attempt to solve the Irish problem would unleash unprecedented change [Music] the country would witness Savage bloodletting as it became a Battleground in Europe's religious wars it would feel the full force of dramatic upheavals Beyond her Shores in America and in France Ireland was about to be launched into a long age of revolution [Music] the olster Earls are gone but the people are still Gaelic still Catholic in English Minds olster is dangerously unst T and it's here that a new king will attempt a radical solution social engineering on a massive scale King James I would plant thousands of protestant settlers on the lands of the exiled Gaelic Lords the land was parceled out in blocks of up to 2,000 acres by the time six counties were colonized only one quarter of the land of olster remained in Irish hands the town the Planters called London Derry was to become a Protestant Citadel these Planters lived in an age of expansion English ships also carried settlers to America and here in Derry on the banks of the River foil they would Forge a Protestant identity different from anything seen in Ireland before [Music] these were not land grabbing Aristocrats but small Traders and farmers and they had come to stay was about establishing something identifiably British it was about setting up bonds uh defended um dwellings uh bringing the number of Planters in setting up Market TS Road networks modernizing uh and making it clearly identifiable as a place that was part of uh England and Scotland to help pay for the plantation James turned to the commercial Guilds of the city of London these companies already backed settlements in America to the tailor butchers Drapers goldsmiths being asked to go to dangerous olster Plantation was sold as a commercial opportunity this book of maps from 1620 to shows how the settlements took shape this is a piece of of cartography from long ago but it's you know as anybody who has lived in Northern Ireland During the period of the troubles to actually see this in a sense the beginning of it all yes it's quite a inspiring it really is it brings you right back to the heart of it and you see really what was the Genesis of an awful lot of the issues and Northern Ireland of course we can see when we look on the pages here um where they they run through the number of people who are for example freeholders on this territory one English men on this property 16 natives 186 that's the mathematics of disaster isn't it in a sense that is one of the major issues with the London Dairy Plantation was that there remained a huge number of native gillick Irish tenants on the lands you we've got normal Stone houses which would have housed the early settlers and then these cabins they're very much what we would envisage to have been native Irish housing some Gaelic Irish worked for the new Masters rented land from them outnumbered the settlers couldn't create a Protestant land for a Protestant people that sense of insecurity is part of and cons continues to be a part of the Protestant psyche for a very long time originally part of the idea had been to segregate to build this will be the British population and the Irish will be kept apart but that of course proved actually almost impossible because no matter how hard the London companies might try to attract somebody in London it wasn't something that was very attractive so the whole problem was getting the numbers of people and settlers here on the ground in order to actually secure Plantation but from across the narrow channel between Ireland and Scotland came thousands of settlers who would rescue the plantation there had been a long tradition of Scots migration to olster but these were Presbyterians strict Calvinists viscerally opposed to Roman Catholicism these are people who have been victims of religious persecution in 17th century Scotland they certainly see themselves as a chosen people or an elect Nation their world consists of trials and tribulations and deliverances and that means that they're tested by God and in Ireland of course they're tested by God in the form of the threat posed by the Catholic [Music] population the Reformation had created the most enduring division in Irish history these Presbyterians would never be assimilated into galic society like earlier settlers in Ireland the native Irish were bewildered like a flock without a Shepherd wrote a poet of the time the native Irish are tremendously angry and resentful of what they see happening uh with the uler plantation their leaders have been driven into Exile they've been forced out of their homes in many instances and they have this population arriving over both from England and Scotland that have different culture different language different traditions and of course a different religion a Gaelic poet writing in the 17th century described the settlers as the crafty false peeving sect of Calvin and he predicted a day when they would be driven from Irish Shores The Writer's bitter tone reflected a traumatized Irish world in the rest of Ireland Catholics still controlled around 70% of the land but they face the constant threat of losing their Estates after Charles the ascended to the throne in 1625 his officials in Ireland sought to expand the plantations until conflict closer to home ended their Ambitions by 1640 in Parliament there was a challenge to Charles's kingly powers and his more moderate brand of protestantism from religious Puritans like Oliver Cromwell in Scotland religious allies of the Puritans rebelled against Charles Parliament refused to finance the king's war against fellow Protestants events now move towards a war of Charles 3 Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland the Irish Catholic Elite was alarmed by this crisis in Parliament they'd lost land and Power but at least under Charles there was a degree of religious tolerance now faced with the prospect of a militant Protestant Parliament they would Rebel the uprising was planned for the 23rd of October 1641 the rebels failed to capture Dublin Castle Center of English control in Ireland poorly planned betrayed by informers the Rebellion descended into Anarchy the attempted coup now became something utterly different across Ireland it was the people who were dictating the pace of events and in olster it would unleash a spasm of Rage from the dispossessed the native Irish now turned on the Protestant planters as one Insurgent told a group of settlers we have been your slaves all this time now you shall be ours here in PTO down Irish Rebels rounded up Protestants from the surrounding farmlands 100 men women and children were forc marched through the countryside and brought to this spot on the banks of the river ban at the point of swords and Pikes they were forced to strip naked and driven into the cold water nearly all perished ported down would become a defining event in The Narrative of olster [Music] loyalism that Terror dogel wrote The Poet John hu at the back of all our thoughts the government retaliation was [Music] Savage almost immediately we get indiscriminate reprisals by government forces against the civilian population in Ireland men women and children are killed in their hundreds indeed thousands during the early months of the Rebellion by government forces across 17th century Europe stories of atrocity abounded in the wars of religion but in Ireland the government systematically collected evidence from Protestant survivors all 33 original volumes are kept here at Trinity College in Dublin now there's some pretty lurd stuff in here how much of it can we believe you get people whose throats are are slit who are H shot in front of their wives and children babies on Pikes people being roasted alive some of these are witness statements but often we get second or third hand accounts as well this is ideal material for a propagandist h and there's an explosion of print material in London from late 1641 onwards it has a huge impact on Oliver Cromwell he was highly outraged by what he saw was going on in Ireland and he was determined to intervene at some stage by 1642 in Ireland a Catholic Confederacy was in Rebellion the pope had even sent a cardinal with money and weapons but English attention was diverted from Ireland as the struggle between King Charles and Parliament erupted into Civil War after 7 years and nearly 200,000 deaths the king Was Defeated he was executed in January 1649 Parliament had triumphed and Oliver Cromwell emerged as commander of the army but the royalist threat had not vanished the king's followers now regrouped in Ireland allied with the rebellious Catholics in the mind of Oliver Cromwell it would be hard to imagine a more toxic Alliance and he was dispatched to Ireland to destroy it he comes to Ireland with an absolutely clear philosophy that philosophy is I will terrorize those who resist me and I will give generous terms to those who surrender drada County Lo in Irish memory it is a place forever Shackled to the name of Oliver Cromwell on September the 11th 1649 Cromwell and his army of 12,000 men began to lay Siege to the town the English royalist commander of the Garrison Sir Arthur Aston proclaimed that the man who could take drada could take [Music] hell he hadn't met Oliver Cromwell Cromwell demanded the surrender of the joint English and Irish Garrison when this was refused the bombardment began [Music] a breach was made in the town walls but the first assault was beaten back by The Defenders fwell then sees himself having to take command he leads the second charge himself he has to going to get past the bodies of his friends and colleagues so he comes in we have to imagine him going Street by Street uh house by house even clearing the town killing anyone he encounters which will certainly include civilians almost 3,000 men were slaughtered virtually the entire Garrison and many after they had surrendered Cromwell said being In the Heat of the action I forbade them to spare any who were under arms in the town any priests found were murdered and the commander of the Garrison Sir Arthur Ashton was beaten to death with his own wooden leg several hundred civilians were killed but the English and Irish Defenders were the main Tet targets of execution that is done as Cromwell himself makes clear by knocking them on the head that's to say they're clubbed to death he beats their brains out he beats their brains out because it saves bullets you know you got a long campaign in front of you you don't waste bullets here at St Peter's Church cromwell's men Set Fire to the [Music] building they killed soldiers and civilians alike as they tried to flee the flames [Music] trada was an act of Vengeance against English royalists and the Irish whom Cromwell blamed for the massacre of Protestants its military aim was to terrorize other garrisons into abandoning resistance but a later English politician who would wrestle with the Irish Question had no doubt about the nature of cromwell's Legacy said Winston Churchill he cut new Gulfs between the Nations and Creeds upon us Soul still lies the curse of Cromwell at waxford his army committed another Massacre but many garrisons surrendered Cromwell was back in England by mid 1650 leaving the Army under the command of his son-in-law Guerilla bands now staged hitandrun attacks cromwell's Army responded with ferocity [Music] the serious loss of life really takes place after cromwell's departure much of it induced by the cromwellian soldiers themselves they simply destroy the infrastructure of the country they raised crops they drove people out their homes they burned down buildings they deliberately targeted the civilian population in a very systematic [Music] way the uprooting of populations was a common feature of European war in this period but what happened next would change Ireland's social order [Music] irrevocably in 1652 parliament in London passed the act of settlement a radical Bill decreeing that the rebel Catholic nobility were to lose their Estates and be exiled to the poor regions west of the River Shannon [Music] one of cromwell's generals came here to the Buren in the west of Ireland inspected the landscape and then remarked approvingly there is not water enough to drown a man wood enough to hang one nor Earth enough to bury him to hear and to the fastnesses of kuk the Irish nobility were to be banished in the telling of the Irish story this is cromwell's enduring Legacy go to hell or Conor but his attitudes were more complex does Cromwell deserve his uniquely monstrous reputation here no he's not the most anti- Catholic of Englishman he thinks he knows Ireland and he doesn't think it's necessary to be so severe and so he spends most of the 1650s trying to make the the settlement less severe than his successors by blaming it all on him you let the English more generally off the hook a handful of large land owners survived but the grand narrative was of dispossession by the end of the 1650s only around 15% of land remained in Catholic hands gway would become the only remaining County with a Catholic landowning [Applause] majority across the country a new Protestant ruling class was being installed but English dreams of a settled AR IR land have always been Hostage to external events the country was never the calm laboratory of colonial experiment now dramatic events in Europe and in England itself would reverberate West and drag Ireland to the Forefront of conflict once more this crisis would begin in a Europe dominated by a kingly Colossus Louis the 14th Catholic King of France he terrified his neighbors with his territorial desires and built monuments to his own Glory like the great Palace of Versailles his neighbors both Catholic and Protestant found themselves Drawn Together in shifting military alliances against the expansionism of Louie by the standards of contemporary monarchy Louie had a conspicuous sense of his own greatness once when angered by some Misfortune he asked has God forgotten everything I have done for him but Lou power was about to be challenged by a man who would become a hero to the Protestant cause in Europe and an icon of enduring power to the Protestants of Ireland Prince William of Orange Protestant leader of of the Dutch Republic resisted French attempts to conquer his country William is not a dogmatic man but he does feel that there is a sort of free world which is predominantly Protestant which has to be defended but I think it's important to realize that defending protestantism doesn't mean fighting Catholicism uh it means fighting France William is drawn to Ireland by an English crisis Cromwell is long dead and the monarchy restored but King James II is a Catholic and when his son is born in 1688 the nightmare of protestant England a Catholic Dynasty is at hand haunted by the memory of past persecutions Protestant noblemen asked William to invade England and reestablish a Protestant monarchy for William Protestant England would be a valuable Ally in his war with King Louie soon after William landed in Devon James led to France early in 1689 Parliament offered the Dutch King William the English Throne which he duly accepted but his exiled enemy King James was busy conspiring with the French King and preparing to fight back Louis the for understands that if he really wants to hurt William he needs to destabilize his position on the British Isles um and supporting James is a good way of doing that [Music] with Lou's help James raised an Army in France and sailed for Ireland on March 12th 1689 he landed here at canale in County Cork this Catholic King landed with about 1200 French troops but soon thousands of Irishmen were rallying to his flag they were willing to support an English king because they believed he would grant them religious freedom and return confiscated lands to the dispossessed the arrival of James signaled The Rebirth of hope James marched through Cork and on towards Dublin by April his army was besieging London Derry one of the last bastions of protestant resistance but the Defenders closed the city Gates and they remained shut until the Garrison was released Ed after 105 days of Siege their slogan of No Surrender would echo through the [Music] centuries this escalating crisis brought William himself to Ireland with a large army he would face King James here on the banks of the river Bo on the 12th of July 1690 this was a battle about European English and Irish power struggles and both armies were diverse Germans Dutch Danes English French and Irish prepared to fight tell me about the Battle the williamite plan was to push a part of their army in the face of the Jacobite Army across the river and at the same time swing another part of the army around behind jackaby lions and cut them off from retreat in a to envelop or destroyed the push across the river was relatively successful however the arm of the pincer failed to close on the retreating Franco Irish Army so most of the Franco Irish Army the Jacobite Army escaped intact describe for me the scene at the end of the day what does James do when he sees the battle has turned against him James not to put to find a point on this took hearts for Dublin and by fleeing he implicitly admitted that the battle of the bo was for him the deciding event his cowardice is condemned he's described as Sheamus Haka the the James the shite who lost Ireland to William the Bo and the battles that followed were important but only as part of a wider European power struggle in Ireland however his victory ensured the survival of protestant Supremacy and among the Protestants of olster this Dutch king with his multinational Army would be acclaimed as a savior and his victory at the bo commemorated each July how do you think William would have viewed orange marches orange triumphalism the kind of thing that we've seen historically in Ireland I think he would have been uncomfortable with it William loathed uh public festivities um he didn't like marches in the first place the moment he entered London in 1689 when the English people were cheering him they were actually carrying sticks with oranges he thought it was nonsensical he took a detour avoided the [Applause] crowds to the vanquished Irish Catholics William offered generous terms but his successors ignored the Promises by the end of the williamite wars the Catholic Elite in Ireland had either been wiped out driven into Exile or abandoned any resistance the people who' led the great rebellions against Elizabeth against Cromwell had been thoroughly defeated and in their place came a new ruling ascendancy the Irish ascendancy means the privileged Irish we're talking about from the late 17th through the 18th century privilege is as in every European Onan regime privilege is associated with religious profession to be a member of the ascendancy to be privileged you're Protestant but unlike the rest of Europe in Ireland the state religion was that of the minority throughout the 18th century this Protestant ascendancy monopolized power and wealth its Grandes emerged from a range of backgrounds from Novo and nobility there was a surge in construction of Grand public and private buildings there were New Road networks and canals Ireland offered opportunity for men of the right Faith to be a member of the ascendancy does not mean that you're only let's say the descendants of cromwellian expropriators it can mean that you're from a Catholic Family who has cleverly converted at the right time in this country of men on the make the story of William Connelly offers a striking parable of the possible in ascendency Ireland this is castletown house and it was built by Connelly in 1722 at the height of his Fame he was one of the most powerful political figures of his day and he was the son of a family that had converted to the Protestant faith [Music] William Connelly was the speaker of the Irish House of Commons for nearly 15 years and on his death he owned 100,000 acres of land with an annual income of [Music] £17,000 he was born an inkeeper son a house like this would have cost an absolute Fortune at the time where did Cony get his money he got it in Wheeling and dealing in land speculation in the area around Derry where he took um a lot of the um land which had been confiscated um during the williamite wars from Catholics with something as Grand as this what is Connelly saying to the rest of ascendency Ireland to keep political power he needed a place where people could come and be received so this was set up really as a second Court outside Dublin so con's preing here at one level but he's also very cleverly looking after his cronies making sure that what he wants politically happens he is but and it's not very dissimilar from what might happen today you bring all the people you want to influence together in one room you give them lots of wine you give them lots of food and then you decorate it with examples of your good taste connell's political Associates would have been brought down here to be entertained and to view this house and to understand just how civilized a person Connelly was the masters of the ascendancy would help to make Dublin a city of the Enlightenment the great Statesman at Ed Burke learned the art of oratory here Jonathan Swift created literary masterpieces tell me about the impulse behind this remarkable transformation of Dublin in the 18th century well it's it's the usual forces money and power because uh the country was beginning to Boom at that point we had an independent Parliament uh in college green and the great families because the parliament was here here and because the commercial capital of Ireland was here they would have their houses in streets like this even though there are states might be in the countryside so they would come up stay in their tow houses attend Parliament have balls in Dublin castle and design their new [Music] houses in 1741 the composer George Frederick handle was invited to Dublin after being asked to compose a special work in Aid of the city sick the result was one of the most famous pieces in the entire Cannon of classical music the [Music] Messiah hallelujah hallelujah this Arch is All That Remains of ne's Music Hall where handle's Messiah was first performed on the 13th of April 17 42 so great was the demand for tickets that gentlemen were told to come without their swords and ladies without their Hoops so that there might be more room for all handle was delighted with the quality of the Dublin voices in his choir and with the response of the audience drawn as he put it from Persons Of Distinction of this generous Nation for the ascendancy it must have seemed an affirmation of status after this how could condescending English visitors dismiss them as mere [Music] provincials but handle was alert to another music as he walked the streets of Dublin he heard the tunes of itinerant Irish musicians he even transcribed one of them a Melancholy a called the poor Irish boy it was music far removed from the Georgian salons of Ireland it evoked a country where the material prosperity of the ascendancy simply never reached between 1739 and 1741 famine and disease killed up to 400,000 people The galic Poets and the musicians who had once served the Catholic nobility evoked a world in [Music] turmoil when I listen to the songs of this period period and examine the preoccupations the political preoccupations uh of people what you get again and again is a sense of a society that feels it's been disinherited well they we disinherited for a start off that's the first thing and secondly it would be very unusual uh with such a vast disinheritance not to have that emotionally actually coming through there's also another strange interesting very very special tradition uh which speaks even more I think of the psyche of the moment of the 17th and 18th centuries and that's the music of the Harpers with the collapse of Gaelic uh Society aristocratic Society you have these itinerant Harpers these nomadic Harpers so the world that paid for them that sustained them gone gone so they had to look for patronage and of course they logically looked to the the new land owners of the big houses the Anglo Irish owners of the big houses so the key person in that is taro Caroline who was born in 1670 he died in 1735 and he was right in the middle of that period and he was by far the most famous now he's in Between Worlds you see and that's why he's interesting uh because if you listen into Carin you can hear the Gaelic aristocratic past you can hear the hidden Ireland present uh and you can also hear the world of the Anglo Irish aristocracy all in there [Music] from the early 18th century restrictions on Catholics have been strengthened under the so-called penal laws a charter for the defense of protestant power that the main name of the pain laws was to ensure that Catholics would never get back into a position where they would have power over the Protestants and take revenge which had happened in the 17th century good evening everyone and indeed you're all very welcome to this sacred place the mass Rock in Tom hagard County Wexford but religious oppression only served to make the Catholic priesthood more powerful in rural Ireland were forbidden to under the penal laws Catholics were banned from Parliament and public office back then they were barred from voting and from running schools here at Mass rocks just like this one behind me but Catholic Worship itself was never banned in fact as the 18th century progressed the Catholic Church grew in strength a great Seminary was built with Government funding here at Manu in County kildair it would become the largest seminary in the world [Music] the true significance of the penal laws was not religious but economic Catholics were not allowed to buy land and if an existing Catholic land owner died his property had to be divided among all his children and that would ensure that no big land owner would survive a handful of the Catholic Elite had held on to their Estates but the majority of rural Catholics became tenant of protestant landlords among some of these wrote the English traveler Arthur Young there was a habit of [Music] tyranny it's easy to imagine ascendancy Ireland as a country with one rigid divide Catholic poor and Protestant overlords but within those terms Catholic and Protestant there existed many different aspirations there was an emerging cast Catholic middle class people like the young lawyer Daniel oconnell whose family had held on to its lands and who had later become a leading figure in the story of Ireland others were the children of merchants and Traders like Thomas Moore the son of a Dublin grer who had become the most popular poet of his day ascendency Ireland couldn't live in a bubble sealed apart from this large active vibrant Catholic culture all around you there were transactions between Protestants and Catholics on all sorts of levels there was far more of a coming and going and far more of a complexity to Irish Society in the 18th century than has often been allowed by historians Protestant Ireland too was a varied landscape not all Grande landlords iner Presbyterians were also victims of the penal laws their Calvinism was condemned by the established Anglican church and like Catholics they were forced to pay for the upkeep of Anglican ministers discrimination prompted many to look Beyond Irish Shores Ireland was now part of a rapidly expanding British Empire and that Colonial expansion offered space for those wanting to escape poverty and persecution at Belfast docks and the other olster ports begins one of the great themes of the story of Ireland [Music] immigration we were used to the idea of Irish immigration to the United States being a Catholic phenomenon but the first people to come here in any sizable numbers were olster Presbyterians between 1717 and 1776 more than a quarter of a million of them cross the Atlantic to the new world from the port of Philadelphia they traveled hundreds of miles west and south along an old Indian Trail that became known as the Great Wagon Road [Music] many came to the frontiers of the new America Virginia's Shen andoa Valley this is the oldest Presbyterian Church still standing in Virginia founded in 1740 many of the congregation can trace their ancestry back to the first wave of olster Scots who settled in this [Music] area what kind of character do they bring to this place oh I think they were a very sturdy independent people they had already made a transition from one country to another when they moved from Scotland to Ireland and so they were perfectly willing to cross an ocean takes a certain amount of of endurance of Courage of faith of forward-looking they're good qualities for Pioneers to have some of these Ultra Scots settlers become what are known as the hillbillies they head for the mountains well the people that came to be known as Hillbillies were the people who lived somewhat On The Fringe of the Scotch Irish Community who moved up into the hills and the hollers in more remote areas they got a reputation for being kind of a lawless Bunch who were outside the [Music] mainstream they were often associated with moonshine the olster Presbyterians had arrived in a dynamic environment the borders of America were continually expanding there was also a growing sense that Americans should govern themselves and not be behold Holden to a foreign King in 1775 Americans rebelled against the rule of King George III the olster Presbyterians joined the American war of independence to what extent was freedom of religious expression a crucial part of their decision to join the revolution I think it was an important contributing factor the whole opportunity that the constitution offered with the Bill of Rights to have freedom of religion was something they wholeheartedly supported in 1780 oler Scots militian played an important role on the American side in a famous victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain they helped to defeat a larger Force loyal to the crown an eyewitness account of the battle was published in the Belfast New newsletter it also printed personal letters from relatives in America in one such letter a young woman writes you will undoubtedly laugh at me when I assure you I often wish to be a man with what pleasure would I take up arms with my Brave countrymen and like them glory in fighting for my [Music] Liberty by 1783 the American revolutionaries had finally defeated the British and won Independence the American colonists have proved that Britain is not invincible and that message will have a powerful impact in Ireland inspiring across section of opinion Catholic and Protestant radical and moderate all of them questioning ever more loudly how Britain governs their country in Ireland it will be a period of Reform and fear Protestant volunteer groups are formed loyal to the crown but demanding more power for the ascendancy Parliament and a greater Irish share of Imperial trade a committee of influential Catholics supported by reformist Protestants succeeds in gaining voting rights but British government concessions to cast iics unsettle ascendancy grandees who fear the loss of their power and in rural Ireland change creates uncertainty Catholics and Protestants join sectarian secret societies the Ireland of the late 18th century swirls with contrary Ambitions and ideas nothing is settled or inevitable but the Deep fissures in society are about to be exposed Ireland stands on the ver verge of cataclysm once again it is events abroad which will provide the spark in 1789 bloody Revolution convulsed France the king and thousands of his nobles were dispatched to the guillotine in the name of a secular [Music] Republic monarchies and the privileged classes throughout Europe looked on with horror but the French Revolutionary Cry of Liberty equality and fraternity inspired a group of idealists in Ireland what was happening here the destruction of an Imperium was watched avidly by educated young men in Ireland suddenly the unimaginable became possible a world of inherited privilege transformed into a society of the free where reason would over Prejudice to the revolutionaries of France it wasn't just the monarchy or the aristocracy but also the established church that was part of a structure of tyranny that had to be [Music] destroyed in Belfast these developments were watched with excitement by a group of radicals they were Presbyterians who now set out to unite all IR Irishman in the cause of Liberty they were shaped by revolutionary ideals and the intellectual ferment of the Age of Enlightenment they produced an alliance that would have seemed Unthinkable Protestant intellectuals from the south Catholic middle class and the descendants of olster Planters it is these Presbyterians who here in Belfast in 1791 found the first organization dedicated to Breaking the link with Britain they called themselves the United Irishmen and they sought a secular Irish Republic they Allied themselves with the Catholic Committee in peaceful agitation but events in Europe propell them from activism to Revolution in 1793 England and France went to war the pro- French United Irishmen were outlawed here at Cave Hill overlooking Belfast in June 1795 a group of Irish Protestants gathered to swear an oath never to desist in our efforts until we subvert the authority of England over our country and assert our independence but there is a fundamental crisis they do not speak for all Protestants and in rural areas sectarian clashes between what are called Catholic Defenders and Protestants were escalating The Defenders were drawn from the impoverished Catholic peasantry rural Ireland is very poor in the later 18th century you have secret societies you have rural gangs of agrarian agitators you have an underworld in a sense of descent making its feelings felt through violence desperate Protestant groups now come together to form an organization that will be crucial in Ireland's history the Orange Order the voice of protestant fear but an idealistic young Protestant lawyer from Dublin hoped that even the orangeman might eventually be won over to the United Irish cause Theobald wolf tone would become the most articulate proponent of Irish Independence he was very vivacious very clever quite quickly he moves on from the law to become a political pamphleteer he begins to analyze the wrongs of Ireland and one of the main wrongs was that the vast bulk of the populace was excluded from all political rights in other words the Catholics as one of the most high-profile United Irishmen tone was forced to L Ireland in the Fateful year of 1795 government plans to give Catholics full political rights had been abandoned under pressure from the Protestant ascendancy tone made his way to revolutionary France to seek military help for an Irish Revolution on May the 2nd 1796 tone was called to meet the leaders of the French directory it's easy to imagine Tone's excitement this is his moment from Backstreet meetings in Belfast and Dublin he's come to the center of international Revolution walking into the Splendor of the palet de Luxembourg he said he felt as if it were all a dream waiting to greet him was the great military tactician and founder of the revolutionary Army Lazar Carno tone deliberately ignored the sectarian reality in Ireland when he spoke to carau he told him that all the people were unanimous in favor of France and eager to throw off the Yoke of England he asked me then R tone what I wanted an armed Force arms and some money tone comes out into the jardan de Luxembourg outside the um the P he's walking around it's a beautiful Summer's evening listening to music coming out um he's don't forget he's been in really high level discussion so he's a bit um um overwhelmed by them and then the head of the military Bureau comes out and says it's done it's a great we're sending an invasion Force to Ireland with a top French General and tone just had this moment I've succeeded this is what I wanted Tone's meeting precipitates one of the most dangerous threats to England by revolutionary France 15,000 French troops in 43 ships arrived off the west coast of cork in December 1796 with only 11,000 British troops in the area a French Victory looked imminent tone came tantalizingly near to his dream of Landing a French army in Ireland we were close enough to toss a biscuit ashore he said but bad weather and the indecisiveness of commanders scuppered his hopes the French turned for home England he wrote has had its luckiest Escape since the Armada in Dublin Castle this aborted Invasion sparked panic and a brutal Crackdown was ordered a campaign of Terror was carried out by the Army and government militias the crack down that had happened in Ireland had been rather indiscriminate in that the the the forces responsible had treated civilians Ordinary People as if they were Rebels but by doing that you had a big influx of Catholics in the united Irish were a very different kind of person that had joined the United Irish before the United Irish Army numbered around 100,000 men inspired both by idealism and Desperation Ireland's Revolution was planned for the early summer of 1798 but in May many of the United Irish leaders were arrested destroying hopes of a coordinated Rebellion localized fighting erupted United Irishmen Rose in kildair Carlo Longford wicko me to the West in mayo and to the North in anaman down the first significant Rebel victory was at Alert in County Wexford where over a 100 government soldiers were killed alert was quickly followed by the rebel capture of Wexford town and then scy but sectarian fear was deepening the United Irish include large numbers of Catholic Defenders the Orange Order supports the government where the violence breaks out the question is whose sense of rebellion will predominate will it be that of the secular minded United Irish intelligence here with their French ideas or will it be that of the if you like more deeply rooted more ancient antipathies that the Defenders have kept in their worldview the sectarian divisions which had been papered over by the United irishman's talk of universal Brotherhood now exploded into the open in olster workingclass and Rural Protestants woke to their old fear of overthrow by the Catholics and they rallied to the Crown militia attacks on civilians helped to heighten sectarianism in the ranks of the United Irishman the ideal of fraternity across the religious divide was [Music] fraying most of the rebels were tenant farmers and they had inherited a a long tradition of grievance about Protestant newcomers taking over land about sectarian conflict about the new orange order these are people fighting for themselves armed with Pikes and some inferior muskets the rebels at New Ross faced government troops equipped with Cannon the rebels pour down these little streets take over the middle of the Town very quickly and but then they come up against gun imp placements they were simply moaned down by grape shot and chain shot maybe only 3,000 Rebels attacked the town maybe less and 1500 people almost certainly died in 12 hours which is astonishing the United Irish Army was inspired both by revolutionary idealism and more local animosities and as the reality of defeat dawned hatred would lead some to sectarian Massacre over 100 Protestant men women and children were rounded up and locked in a barn at skullo once it became clear the battle was going against the rebels an order came that the barn should be set on fire there was still maybe up to 100 people in it crowded into it and they had been there for days in sweltering heat they were told to let nobody Escape essentially this group kept the people in inside including women and children in the barn while they were consumed by Flame one of the United Irish leaders miles burn called what happened here at skog a lamentable disgrace carried out by cowardly Ruffians a rising which started with the ideal of uniting Catholic and Protestant had ended here in sectarian Butchery the rebellion was now entering its final phase by the end of the summer 30,000 people were dead as for Wolf tone he was captured on a French boat off the coast of Ireland brought to trial in Dublin tone began to realize what had been Unleashed that summer it's so poignant and so sad he says for for a fair and open War I was prepared that it has disintegrated into Mayhem and assassination and bloodshed I am sincerely sorry this is not what I had [Music] wanted he was sentenced to death but cheated the Executioner by cutting his own throat tone the Martyr would become an icon for future generations of Irish nationalists but the revolution had ended all hope of uniting Catholic and Protestant and it would prompt Britain to launch its most radical attempt to solve the Irish Question in next week's program the age of Union and the rise of Catholic power