The United Irishmen Uprising of 1798: A New Project

"Until... on Vinegar Hill... the final conclave.

Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.

The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.

They buried us without shroud or coffin

And in August... the barley grew up out of our grave."

- Séamus Heaney, "Requiem for the Croppies". 

Battle of Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy, Wexford. 

There comes a time in many historical gamers' lives when they are drawn to the Napoleonic era. Since the very beginning of wargaming, the period has ranked among the most popular of subjects, and not without good reason. The Napoleonic Wars were a time of great personalities, ridiculously ostentatious uniforms and the clash of recognisably modern nations. They are a Europe-spanning tale of an almost legendary quality.

But I'm not going to do Napoleonics the usual way. I'm not going to drive the French out of Spain or try to take Moscow. I won't be painting big units of richly adorned troops. The subject I've chosen didn't even involve Napoleon that much. The 1798 Rebellion would perhaps be best described as a part of the French Revolutionary Wars instead. 

It recently struck me that I became interested in each of the historical armiess I've painted through personal or cultural connections to them. My Ulster Cycle army was the result of years spent reading Irish myth, and seeing it reflected in the land around me. My interest in Ethiopian history arose from family connections to the country. The Irish members of the International Brigades left for Spain from a port right next to where I live. 

I have many connections to the United Irishmen's Uprising. It is commonly seen as a defining aspect of the identity of Wexford, my home county. At school, I used to eat lunch on the site of an arms factory that supplied the rebels! My mother's workplace is at the foot of Vinegar Hill, the site of the United Irishmen's final defeat. You couldn't go anywhere in Wexford without passing a memorial of some kind to the rising.

The importance of the rebellion to Irish history is immense. It began the tradition of Irish republicanism and the belief in Ireland as a sovereign nation of united peoples. It is difficult to imagine an independent Ireland without the uprising, as despite its failure it laid the ideological groundwork for later Irish republican movements.

The Ireland of the 18th Century was home to a fiercely divided society. Since the Plantations of the Tudor era, the power of Gaelic Ireland had been destroyed, and the mostly Anglican planters had been installed in positions of power. These were known as the Protestant Ascendancy. The majority, who identified as Irish and who were overwhelmingly Catholic, were subject to harsh Penal Laws, which imposed great restrictions on political and civil rights as a means to deter rebellion. Presbyterians possessed more rights than Catholics, but were not granted equality with Anglicans.

The United Irishmen were founded as a parliamentary reform group in these circumstances. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a young Presbyterian lawyer, was among their founders. His stated aim was "To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter". It was not long before the United Irishmen became a revolutionary movement, inspired by the French Revolution. The seeds of the "Tree of Liberty" had indeed fallen in Ireland.

Wolfe Tone, "Father of Irish Republicanism". 

For this project I am going to build two armies for Sharp Practice. I have tried a few TooFatLardies games in the past, and I really like their style. I think that the focus on individual leaders will work well for this period.

I'm going to use 28mm models from Trent Miniatures, who specialise in the French Revolutionary Wars period. They're nice, chunky miniatures in an old school style. They often come with multiple heads or weapons, despite being metal figures. This allows a bit more customisation. 

A beautiful sight

I've been painting some 3D printed 1/1200 scale ships to represent the "Expédition d'Irlande" launched by the French to aid the rebels. I had initially thought they would be a standalone project, but I might as well do the land troops as well. It might be fun to connect the two together in a campaign. I'll be showing them off in a future post!