The United Irishmen

Timeline

• 1690 — William III’s victory at the Boyne.
• 1692 — Catholics excluded from the Irish Parliament.
• 1695 — Beginning of the Penal Laws against Catholics.
• 1704 — Test Act against Protestant dissenters (Presbyterians).
• 1720 — Act declaring the right of the British Parliament to pass laws for Ireland.
• 1775 — American War of Independence begins.
• 1778 — Volunteer Movement comes into existence.
• 1780 — Restrictions on Irish trade removed.
• 1782 — Irish Parliament’s independence to make its own decisions conceded by the British Parliament.
• 1789 — The French Revolution begins.
• 1791 — Societies of United Irishmen founded in Belfast and Dublin.
• 1793 — Outbreak of war between Britain and France.
• 1794 — The Government represses the United Irishmen, driving it underground as a revolutionary organisation.
• 1795 — Protestant Peep O’Day Boys and Catholic Defenders clash in County Armagh, leading to the formation of the Orange Order.
• 1796 — A French fleet arrives at Bantry Bay with Tone on board but fails to make a successful landing. Many Protestants in Ulster join the Yeomanry to protect the country against invasion and rebellion.
• 1797 — General Lake sets out to disarm Ulster.
• 1798 — United Irish rising in Wexford and Kildare (May to June), and in Antrim and Down (June to July).