Above : Illustrating Picture Of Samuel Neilson In A Meeting

The progress of the French Revolution was watched with great interest in Ireland. Many of the Catholic gentry had spent some years of their youth at one or other of the French colleges, or had relatives or friends serving in the Irish Brigade. These, as a rule, sided with the Royalists, especially when news reached them of the terrible excesses of which the extreme section of the revolutionists had been guilty. The bishops and clergy also, fearing the spread of the anti-religious spirit of the Republican Party, constantly warned their flocks against the wild and criminal ideas which prevailed in France. We have seen that the Irish Parliament, which may be regarded as voicing the opinions of the upper and middle classes of the Episcopalian Protestants, almost unanimously supported the British Government in its declaration of war against the Republic.

Above : Painting Of Daniel O’Connell

We have seen how discouragement had come upon the Catholics after the successive failures of the petitions which they addressed to Parliament in the first two decades of the century, praying for the removal of their remaining disabilities. They were now to find amongst the men of their own faith a leader, who, using methods not hitherto employed, would bring about the triumph of their cause.