25. Fake News of Irish Atrocities Created a Mass Panic That Swept England
Against the backdrop of memories – or fake stories – about Irish savagery, dark rumors began circulating in December 1688. Specifically, the Catholic Irish forces quartered in England were preparing to fall upon the Protestant English to massacre, rape, and loot, to avenge the ouster of the Catholic King James II. A mass panic that became known as The Irish Fright began in earnest on the night of December 13th, when news arrived at Westminster that the ravening Irish were marching on London. Fake news of preparations for atrocities were quickly followed by fake news of actual atrocities. False reports, claiming that the Irish were putting English towns to the torch and massacring the inhabitants, swiftly spread.
Terrified English in London and surrounding shires rushed to arm themselves and form militias, erect fortifications, and patrol the countryside to guard against the imminent arrival of bloodthirsty Irish. The panic finally subsided when it became clear that no atrocities had occurred. It now seems that the rumors were part of organized propaganda by opponents of James II, to discredit him and burnish his son-in-law, William of Orange. When the latter landed in England at the head of a mostly foreign army, he was not greeted as an invader. Instead, his arrival was met with raptures, as a savior not only of the Protestant faith but of the Protestants themselves from the feared Irish.