Introducing the Gun to Irish Politics.
The Volunteers Part 1: 1778-1789.
It is impossible to enter into the history of eighteenth century Ireland without covering the Irish Volunteer Corps. This, much like other topics in Irish history - the 1798 Rebellion, the Great Famine and Catholic Emancipation to name a few - are all topics which are necessary to cover but require much more, time and depth. I had planned for this blog to be released months ago and have in all honesty been writing it since late September - eventually I succumbed to writing it in two parts.
I was reluctant in the sense that it reads like, and resembles a history essay as opposed to a history blog. Alas, it forms the backbone of the next blog which will cover what I originally set out to do - the Volunteers and the French Revolution. So please, enjoy this piece placing the Volunteers within their own context and consider it a launchpad for a much more focused Part Two, told from the perspective of first hand witnesses in Belfast in 1792.
In 1778 the Volunteers Corps were established in response to the American Wars. Ireland had until this point held the single largest concentration of British garrisons in the Empire. As a result of the outbreak of the American War of Independence these troops were reassigned to the war effort leaving Ireland vulnerable. There was a long-standing fear of invasion of Great Britain by France or Spain through its weaker and insubordinate back door, Ireland. The Volunteers were established in response to these stoked fears of invasion. It is important to highlight that they were local initiatives, not governmental – meaning Dublin had little to no control over them and it was later remarked that an opportunity had been missed.
They came to be known as ‘Grattan’s Volunteers’ in time because of the role they played in the institution of significant political reforms, the likes of which had not been seen for nearly a century. These reforms ushered in a new Irish Parliament under the tutelage of Henry Grattan. Volunteer Regiments were incredibly democratic in structure, they did not adopt the traditional military hierarchy of commissioned officers over those in the ranks. Officers were either elected from the ranks or by a committee whose membership rotated frequently.
The Volunteer Regiments developed into political clubs, each corps forming its own debating society. They became breeding grounds for progressive and enlightenment thought, and they came to use their influence to press the government for reform. The Volunteer’s demographic was largely Protestant only, in keeping with the Penal Laws in place since the beginning of the century stating that no Catholic could arm themselves.
By the late 1770s, not only was the Catholic Question reopened as a result of the American Wars - so to was the constitutional relationship of Ireland and Britain. From the British defeat at Saratoga and the introduction of France to the war in 1778 - a period of near continual crisis in Anglo-Irish relations persisted.
When it became clear that no invasion was forthcoming the Volunteers began to look home-bound and affect political change. Initially many were cautious about having such a significant extra-parliamentary body, ungoverned and unregulated – but as time went by they were looked on with respect and honour. The political potential of such a large and well organised movement was not lost on some though, as Tom Bartlett, a leading historian of the field said ‘the Volunteers had successfully imported the gun into Irish politics’.
Within the Irish parliament there was a group of ‘Patriots’ who opposed the subservient nature of Ireland’s relationship to Great Britain. Many of these patriots participated in Volunteering such as Henry Grattan, Henry Flood and the Duke of Leinster. The membership of these two groups swelled to create an immense political pressure group of nearly 40,000 members.
Suddenly Great Britain was facing trouble on both fronts, at the furthest reaches of the empire and on their own front door. What the Volunteers allowed for was pressure by demonstration – utilising their numbers in parades and marches to show officials the military strength they could muster in a worst-case scenario. In Dublin 1779, they demonstrated outside the House of Parliament on College Green with banners hanging from artillery guns proclaiming ‘Free Trade or this’, referring to their cannon and ‘Free trade or a Speedy Revolution’.
Acknowledging this new domestic presence as a threat, the Navigation Acts in Ireland were repealed. Ireland was now allowed to trade freely within the empire except for regions under the monopoly of the East India Company. Up to this point, for Ireland to participate in imperial trade, goods had to land in England and be re-exported to Ireland - thus rising prices. Ireland in other words was looked upon as another colony within the Empire - separate from Great Britain, it’s separation from a single British market is one of many ways that this is illustrated.
From 1779 on, the American Wars began to turn against the British and by 1782 was well and truly lost. Following the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, the end result was a foregone conclusion – it was just a matter of officially writing up terms in a treaty. It is in 1782 that we see Volunteering fervour at its peak – at the Dungannon Convention. At the convention, pledges were made in favour of a resolution for legislative independence for the Irish Parliament while proclaiming their loyalty to the crown – thus far any law passed in Dublin could be vetoed by Westminster.
The resolutions, widely agreed by corps from across the country were presented to the government – the result was the repeal of the Declaratory Act and sever modifications to Poynings Law. The Irish parliament would have legislative initiative going forward and would carry the status more akin to a dominion than a colony or sister kingdom.
What the Volunteers largely allowed for and what it reinforced the Patriots in parliament to do, was to express a sense of Protestant nationalism to its greatest extent. The Protestant Ascendancy held a monopoly on political capital, they could vote, participate in public office and powerful professions - and they could legally arm themselves. The Volunteers can be viewed as a perfect culmination of Protestant Nationalist expression - independent of Westminster, but by far the single most powerful demographic in Ireland.
As will be seen later – the Volunteers welcomed reform and adjustments to the Penal Laws targeting Catholic’s, as did many in parliament, but only to a point. The movement in 1782 of the Dungannon Convention and the parliamentary Patriots was for Irish independence within the Empire – free trade, legislative independence and the removal of absurd laws targeting Presbyterians and Catholics. Once this was achieved there was little to no appetite for further easing of Penal Laws, never mind full political emancipation of Catholics.
After 1782 Volunteer influence and participation experience a sharp decline and divisions in the practice became noticeable. There became a clear delineation between moderate reformers and those desirous of further meaningful reform. While many sought for the reform of the Anglo-Irish relationship and achieved exactly that, many also sought to reform the Irish Parliament itself – to break the monopoly of the small Protestant elite had on parliamentary access. Despite alterations to the Penal Laws, Presbyterians were largely still not permitted to enter parliament as well as Catholics.
Further Conventions were held in 1783 in Dungannon and Dublin – in search of radical reform including resolutions such as annual parliaments, redistribution of parliamentary seats and Catholic suffrage. The turnout was poor and divisions over the resolutions resulted in a watered-down version of the original proposals. Henry Flood, dressed in full Volunteer regimentals brought the proposals to the College Green parliament where they were resoundingly refused by MPs who ‘refused to register the edicts of another assembly, or to receive proposals at the point of a bayonet’.
Thus died any further reform efforts, the Volunteers would recede over the coming decade into relative obscurity, remaining a place for people to engage in political debate and military pageantry. It would not be until 1789-90 that these groups became active again. The French Revolution energised many in Ireland who viewed the rising up of the Third Estate as a new dawn for Europe and the world over.
P.S. As we kick off 2023 - if you are a continued subscriber, I want to take a moment to thank you for your enduring support. It has been roughly 6 months since I began this journey, and I could never have anticipated the support I have received. If you are new, welcome! I do hope you have all enjoyed – this topic required so much detail that I decided to make it a two part series. Join me next time when I will return to the Volunteers and how they reacted to the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Further Readings:
Allan Blackstock, Double Traitors? The Belfast Volunteers and Yeomen 1778-1828 (Belfast, 2000).
P.J. Marshall, The Oxford History of the British Empire: Vol. 2 The Eighteenth Century (1998).