Overview

A new perspective on the key battles, underlying factors, and lasting impact of the 1798 Rebellion, written by a leading Irish historian. The 1798 Rebellion was one of the bloodiest events in Irish history. Thousands of people were slaughtered in a single summer in a massive popular uprising against British rule. Thousands more were seriously injured and traumatised by the horrific violence they witnessed. Significant disturbances involved more than half of Ireland's counties, and the number of insurgents—upwards of 100,000—dwarfed those who fought in later national uprisings. Today, we still live with the ideological and practical consequences of the rebellion. This was the bloody climax of a decade of radicalism and reaction that saw the emergence of new forms of militant republicanism and popular loyalism that strongly influenced the course of Irish history. It was inspired by a desire to unite Ireland's political and religious factions, but in the end, it drove them further apart. The rebellion sought to secure Ireland's independence, but instead led directly to an Act of Union with Great Britain that determined the course of Anglo-Irish relations for two centuries. French and American revolutionary ideas were deeply embedded in this movement, and the impact of 1798 reached far beyond Irish waters. The flight, exile, and banishment of thousands of Irish people abroad ensured that its ripple effects were felt on the European continent and throughout the English-speaking world, in Britain, North America, and Australia. Bloody Summer is a fresh and comprehensive exploration of the rebellion that seeks to answer the question of not just what happened in 1798, but why it happened, and demonstrates a new, compelling account of this seismic event in Irish history.

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9781068502347

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Bloody Summer is crisply written, tightly structured and clearly the product of long familiarity with both the archival record and the interpretative debates surrounding the rebellion.' – History Ireland, March 2026 'Lucid, authoritative and brilliantly concise ... [Bloody Summer] displays academic rigour, scrupulous balance, and a keen eye for telling details' – Irish Times, December 2025 ‘Quinn’s summary, so concise and compact, will clearly be of immense service, not only to students of history at all levels, but also to those still seeking to find an understanding that contents them of Ireland’s history.’ – Irish Catholic, January 2026

Author Information

James Quinn is an historian who has written widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland, particularly in the areas of biography and historiography. He was formerly Managing Editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography and wrote many of its most important entries relating to the 1798 Rebellion. His other books with UCD Press include Young Ireland and the Writing of Irish History (2015) and John Mitchel (2008).

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