Napoleon Bonaparte sometimes wondered if he should have done more to support Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen in 1798. During his exile on St Helena, the deposed emperor fantasised about an alternative history in which he sent the bulk of France’s army to Cork instead of Egypt. “What would England have been today?” he asked his secretary. “And the continent? And the political world?”
James Quinn’s lucid, authoritative and brilliantly concise study of the 1798 Rebellion contains a passage that answers Napoleon’s questions. A larger French expeditionary force might well have overthrown English rule here, he suggests, but only temporarily and at the cost of even more violence. This is really saying something, since the insurrection that actually happened still had a greater death toll (estimates range from 10,000 to 70,000) than its 1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916 sequels, the War of Independence, the Civil War and the northern Troubles combined.
Quinn served as managing editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography, a superb resource that remains free to everyone online. While Bloody Summer’s focus is on events rather than personalities, it displays the same academic rigour, scrupulous balance and keen eye for telling details. Described by the author as a synthesis of recent scholarship, his 113-page narrative packs in more relevant information than some books twice its length.
Quinn is particularly strong on the rebellion’s root causes, explaining why Irish revolutionaries were inspired by their counterparts’ success in America and France. He vividly depicts the main battles in Wexford, Antrim, Down and Mayo as horrific affairs with atrocities on both sides, including prisoners being flogged, hanged, piked and burned alive.
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There are judicious overviews of subjects such as the United Irishmen’s secular philosophy, the role played by women, the survivors’ mental trauma and the Act of Union which massive bribes from Westminster pushed through to tighten England’s grip on Ireland. In a final chapter about 1798’s various anniversary commemorations, Quinn examines how this military disaster has often been romanticised but is still helping to shape Irish republican ideology today.
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“Who fears to speak of ’98?” was the opening line of a popular ballad sung by 19th-century nationalists. Anyone who reads Quinn’s masterful account will certainly learn all the facts they need to discuss it with total confidence.
