The names of the United Irishmen – Theobald Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, William Drennan, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Mary Ann McCracken – have become the stuff of legend, but the reality of what they achieved is often forgotten. In their struggle for independence from the British Crown, the United Irishmen proved unique in their embrace of all sides – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. Their ill-fated rebellions of 1798 and 1803 arguably laid the foundations for the violence that blighted Ireland until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Now, as Irish people attempt to find new ways to live in harmony across the island, the story of the United Irishmen deserves to be re-told with Gilsenan’s signature authority and great visual and aural flair. The Society of United Irishmen was founded in November 1791 in the Eagle Tavern on Eustace Street, now home to the IFI and neighbours.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn