20. Inspired by the success of the American Colonies, as well as by the French Revolution, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was the first attempt for more than one hundred years by the island of Ireland to break away from English control
Governed since the end of the Williamite War in 1691 under a system of institutionalized sectarianism, discriminating against the majority Irish Catholic population in favor of Anglican Protestants, in 1793 Catholics owning sizable property were finally granted the right to vote. Regarded as insufficient progress by the Society of United Irishmen, the group – comprised predominantly of Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters – sought to “break the connection with England”. Attempting to organize an invasion by France in 1796 to aide with their rebellion, the 14,000 man strong Expédition d’Irlande was forced to return home after bad weather precluded a landing.
Left to revolt alone, on May 24, 1798, the rebels attempted to seize the counties surrounding Dublin to prevent relief for the city. Successful in some areas, in County Wicklow, as news arrived of a wider rebellion, loyalists started massacring all those suspected of harboring rebel sympathies. Achieving the greatest initial success in County Wexford, loyalists amassed a force of 20,000 to march against the rebels in response and crushed them at Vinegar Hill. Resulting in the loss of greater autonomy granted to the Protestant Ascendancy in the late-18th century, as well as thirty thousand lives, the Act of Union was passed in 1800 as a response to the failed secession effort.