Fergus Whelan Livres

Despite the rich sources available, Society of United Irishmen founder and leader William Drennan is long overdue a comprehensive biography. May Tyrants Tremble fills that gap with significant new research to demolish the historical consensus that, after being acquitted at his 1794 trial for sedition, Drennan withdrew from the United Irish movement. In fact, as Fergus Whelan demonstrates using new archival material, Drennan remained a leading voice of Presbyterian radicalism until his death in 1820 and his ideals, along with those of Wolfe Tone and other pivotal United Irishmen, formed the basis of Ireland's republic. From the outset, Drennan had produced United Irish literary propaganda and Whelan offers new evidence that Drennan was 'Marcus, ' author of the most seditious material published in Dublin in 1797 and 1798. The prevailing view that Ulster Presbyterian Drennan was an anti-Catholic bigot is also shown to be baseless; on the contrary, throughout his life Drennan championed Catholic Emancipation. Whelan also shines a light on one of the great mysteries of Irish history: what happened to Presbyterian republicanism after 1798? May Tyrants Tremble repositions Drennan firmly as the father of Irish democracy, whose vision for a republic has shaped the very soul of modern Ireland.

The hidden history of the Protestant Dissenters whose Dublin congregations were established by officers of Cromwell's army and who went on to contribute their republican ideas to the revolutionary movement established in 1791, the United Irishmen. The research is based substantially on previously hidden records.

Born into the Anglo-Irish landowning class, Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1751-1834) led a colourful life. This biography tells of how, heavily influenced by the radical John Jebb, he made waves throughout his career, weathering the wrath of his own class to champion the causes of the poor and oppressed. It also traces the evolution of liberal Presbyterian opinion in Ireland, as they pondered their defeat in 1798 and sought new ways of pursuing the goals of religious freedom and political democracy