The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 - Hardcover

Pakenham, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812930886 ISBN 13: 9780812930887

Publisher: Crown, 1998

Synopsis

Now available for the first time in trade paperback: the newly revised, definitive account of the most important event in Irish history--the rebellion of 1798.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this title

Review:

Still stinging from the loss of its American colonies, England in the 1790s suddenly found itself facing a danger next door as Irish revolutionaries, aided by the France of Napoleon Bonaparte, threatened rebellion. At the end of 1796, a French fleet attempted to land thousands of soldiers on the Irish coast with the intent of driving English rule from Ireland, but the plan was ruined by poor planning and worse weather. Within two years, an uprising by a revolutionary group, the United Irishmen, broke out, and Ireland was racked by a summer of widespread fighting, which climaxed when another French force actually landed and fought battles against British troops.

This abridged "bicentennial edition" of Thomas Pakenham's definitive work on the 1798 uprising, The Year of Liberty, tells the story quickly, making good use of contemporary illustrations, including maps and paintings of the fighting as well as reproductions of revolutionary proclamations. What the rebels and their French allies hoped would be a year that would see Ireland set free turned utterly tragic, as both sides committed atrocities and the Marquis Cornwallis, who had surrendered Yorktown to Washington during his service in America, took command of the British forces and tried to restore order. In the end, the French general and his troops surrendered, were treated with honor, and sailed back to France, while the Irish rebels who fought with them were hunted down and slaughtered, and the causes of Catholic emancipation and Irish independence suffered setbacks that would not be overcome for decades. --Robert McNamara

From the Inside Flap:

e for the first time in trade paperback: the newly revised, definitive account of the most important event in Irish history--the rebellion of 1798.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0812930886
• ISBN 13: 9780812930887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 120