Editing Classical republicanism (section)

====Ireland====
{{Main|Irish republicanism}}

Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, the [[Society of United Irishmen]] was founded in 1791 in Belfast and Dublin. The inaugural meeting of the United Irishmen in Belfast on 18 October 1791 approved a declaration of the society's objectives. It identified the central grievance that Ireland had no national government: "...we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland..."<ref>Denis Carroll, ''The Man from God knows Where'', p. 42 (Gartan) 1995</ref> They adopted three central positions: (i) to seek out a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance essential to preserve liberties and extend commerce; (ii) that the sole constitutional mode by which English influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament; (iii) that no reform is practicable or efficacious, or just which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion. The declaration, then, urged constitutional reform, union among Irish people and the removal of all religious disqualifications.

The movement was influenced, at least in part, by the French Revolution. Public interest, already strongly aroused, was brought to a pitch by the publication in 1790 of [[Edmund Burke]]'s ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'', and Thomas Paine's response, ''[[Rights of Man]]'', in February 1791.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}} Theobald [[Wolfe Tone]] wrote later that, "This controversy, and the gigantic event which gave rise to it, changed in an instant the politics of Ireland."<ref name="Henry Boylan p.16">Henry Boylan, Wolf Tone, p. 16 (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin) 1981</ref> Paine himself was aware of this commenting on sales of Part I of ''Rights of Man'' in November 1791, only eight months after publication of the first edition, he informed a friend that in England "almost sixteen thousand has gone off – and in Ireland above forty thousand".<ref>Paine to John Hall, 25 Nov. 1791 (Foner, Paine Writings, II, p. 1,322)</ref> Paine may have been inclined to talk up sales of his works but what is striking in this context is that Paine believed that Irish sales were so far ahead of English ones before Part II had appeared. On 5 June 1792, [[Thomas Paine]], author of the ''Rights of Man'' was proposed for honorary membership of the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen.<ref>Dickson, Keogh and Whelan, The United Irishmen. Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion, pp. 135–137 (Lilliput, Dublin) 1993</ref>

The fall of the [[Bastille]] was to be celebrated in Belfast on 14 July 1791 by a Volunteer meeting. At the request of [[Thomas Russell (rebel)|Thomas Russell]], Tone drafted suitable resolutions for the occasion, including one favouring the inclusion of Catholics in any reforms. In a covering letter to Russell, Tone wrote, "I have not said one word that looks like a wish for separation, though I give it to you and your friends as my most decided opinion that such an event would be a regeneration of their country".<ref name="Henry Boylan p.16"/> By 1795, Tone's republicanism and that of the society had openly crystallized when he tells us: "I remember particularly two days thae we passed on Cave Hill. On the first Russell, Neilson, Simms, McCracken and one or two more of us, on the summit of McArt's fort, took a solemn obligation...never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted her independence."<ref>Henry Boylan, Wolf Tone, pp. 51–52 (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin) 1981</ref>

The culmination was an uprising against [[British rule in Ireland]] lasting from May to September 1798 – the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]] – with military support from revolutionary France in August and again October 1798. After the failure of the rising of 1798 the United Irishman, John Daly Burk, an émigré in the United States in his '' The History of the Late War in Ireland'' written in 1799, was most emphatic in its identification of the Irish, French and American causes.<ref>Dickson, Keogh and Whelan, ''The United Irishmen. Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion'', pp. 297–298 (Lilliput, Dublin) 1993</ref>