Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) was one of the leading figures in the struggle for Irish independence. He organized the Irish Rebellions of 1798 and became one of the founding fathers of modern Irish nationalism.
Born in 1763, of Protestant faith, Theobald Wolfe Tone was one of those who believed in a new, non-monarchical system, and in an egalitarian republican Ireland for all its inhabitants, Protestant and Catholic alike. In 1793, the English government introduced reforms allowing Catholics to vote and stand for political office. Enthused by this breakthrough, some of the population joined Wolfe Tone in demanding new rights.
In 1795 he went into emergency exile, threatened with arrest for his subversive activities at the head of his association, the United Irishmen Society, and within the Dublin Catholic Committee. Returning from the United States, he landed at Le Havre on February 2, 1796, and asked to meet with the French government, asking them to intervene to drive the British out of Ireland.
At the time, Delacroix was the Directoire’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and it was with great interest that he received the man who could destabilize England. Theobald was asked to prepare a memorandum on the state of insurrection in the country, and to assess the chances of success of a French military intervention. Wolfe Tone puts forward the need to commit between 5 and 20,000 men.
The Directoire accepted Wolfe Tone’s request and organized a massive landing on the Irish coast, led on June 19, 1796 by General Lazare Hoche, commander of the coastal army. The order is formal: Hoche is to assist :
A generous country, ripe for a revolution for independence and freedom.
On the evening of December 15, 1796, in appalling weather, 13,400 men embarked on 45 ships. Mizen Head is in sight on December 21. Bouvet sailed into Bantry Bay with a few ships, while the rest of the troops, uninterested in taking on the English, stayed offshore…only to flee!
Despite these desertions, Grouchy tried to disembark, but the weather decided otherwise and the storm of December 25 finally broke the ships’ moorings. In these conditions, Grouchy had no choice but to comply with Bouvet’s orders to head for Brest.
The expedition was a fiasco, and Rear Admiral Bouvet left his post.
Theobald Wolfe Tone is back on the continent, preparing his revenge. The first attempt failed, but encouraged by his companion, General Lazare Hoche, a new landing attempt was studied. Plan A” is back on track: a mass landing.
It wasn’t until September 12, 1797 that Wolfe Tone went to Wetzlar to present his plan of attack, and in the meantime Hoche died of poisoning.
Wolfe Tone then travels to Paris where, to his surprise, he meets Barras, General Hédouville and Talleyrand (whom he had already met in exile in Philadelphia). Bonaparte had been General-in-Chief of the Army of England since October 26, and Desaix was acting General-in-Chief. Wolfe Tone offers his services and Desaix accepts. On December 21, he met Bonaparte, but the meeting was hardly fruitful, and Theobald had to be content with “come back and see me from time to time”. Frustrated, Theobald Wolfe Tone later wrote the following about Bonaparte:
We’ve met Europe’s most famous man three times, and I’m surprised how little I have to say about it.
Wolfe Tone joins the British staff in Rouen and is promoted to Adjutant General. In Ireland, meanwhile, English troops are calling out at every turn. The prisons are full of pro-independence activists, the United Irishmen Society is melting like snow in the sun from repeated assaults by the forces of Dublin Castle, and Ulster is placed under the command of General Lake… For the people, it’s the last straw.
On May 24, 1798, insurrection broke out in the north and south of the country. In Ulster, where repression is most widespread, uprisings are minimal. But in the south-east, what might be called a “jacquerie” due to the lack of organization of the revolt, resulted in the rebels taking Wicklow. But what can 20,000 men armed with pickaxes do against an army of grenadiers and cannons? In Castlebar, the Englishman Hutchinson reacted immediately, mobilizing 6,000 men and heavy artillery to put an end to the landing. The English troops will be led by the infamous General Lake.
On September 3, Humbert decided to leave Castlebar for Sligo. After a serious skirmish with English grenadiers, Humbert resigns himself to freeing Sligo and wishes to go directly to Ulster. Counties Longford and Westmeath finally rebel. Change of plan. The French will join the insurgents to storm Dublin. It’s a race between the English and Humbert’s grognards. Behind them, Castlebar was retaken by the English. Hanging follows hanging, and the Orangemen terrorists have a field day.
Humbert heads for Manohamilton, then turns due south along Lake Allen. Caught off guard, Humbert found himself at Cloone on September 7, with an exhausted army pincered in front of Lake’s army and behind them 20,000 Englishmen led by Cornwallis. The next day, Irish grunts and volunteers formed battle lines near Ballynamuck. Although Lake has a numerically equivalent army, the English are considerably fresher. It was a last stand for the French, right up to Humbert’s last cartridge. The liberators surrendered and were treated well, while the Irish were systematically massacred.
And yet, in mid-September, General Ray, the Irish revolutionary Tandy and 350 grenadiers were within sight of the Donegal coast, before turning back in the light of events. At the same time in Brest, 2800 men, including Wolfe Tone, embarked for Donegal Bay, where they will be arrested by the English fleet.
Theobald Wolfe Tone is taken to Dublin and court-martialed. “I ask,” he says, “that the court reserve for me a soldier’s death, and have me shot by a platoon of grenadiers. I request this measure of favor, rather in consideration of the uniform I wear, the uniform of brigade commander of the French army, than out of regard for my person.”
The judges then sentenced him to hang by the neck until he was dead. Rather than be hanged, Theobald chose suicide and slit his own throat in his cell. He lay dying for a week before passing away on November 19, 1798.
To unite all the people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irish for the particular denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.
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