Whiskey, Potatoes and Paddies: Volunteering and the Construction of the Irish Nation in Northwest Ulster, 1778–1782

Abstract

On St Patrick’s Day 1778 a voluntary military association was formed in Belfast to protect the town against an apprehended French landing; soon there were companies of Volunteers throughout Ireland. By 1782 between 80 000 and 100 000 men had volunteered.1 Companies generally numbered 50 to 100 uniformed and armed men. In Ulster, in particular, they tended to be democratic — electing their officers and deciding political policy by a vote of the ranks — and although most were predominantly Protestant, some admitted Catholics, especially after 1783. Initially, companies largely confined their activities to military training yet from summer 1779 they became preoccupied with lobbying the administration to address key items on the Patriot agenda. They played a decisive role in the Patriot victories of 1779 (‘free trade’) and 1782 (‘legislative independence’) but then declined. Their decline owed much to divisions over the extension of the franchise to Catholics but there were other factors: personality driven controversies over the independence obtained in 1782 debilitated companies; the end of the American war and return of British troops deprived them of their raison d’etre; the long-awaited general election in 1783 denied them fresh opportunities to bully parliament and, finally, the emergence of the Beresford-Foster-Fitzgibbon troika confronted them with a more resolute government.