Michael Dwyer of Imaal

Michael Dwyer of Imaal, Wicklow, joined the United Irishmen in the spring of 1797 and fought as captain of a Talbotstown rebel corps during the 1798 Rebellion. Having seen action […]

Emmet’s military technology

Robert Emmet’s interest in the use of sophisticated ordnance perplexed many United Irish contemporaries, not least Wexford hero Thomas Cloney, who deemed them a waste of resources. Cloney’s point was […]

“The dog that didn’t bark”: the North and 1803

In 1803 the North was very much the dog that didn’t bark. Robert Emmet’s verdict on the Dublin insurrection—‘there was failure in all: plan, preparation and men’—applied to an even […]

“A more general and rooted spirit of disaffection”: the 1803 rising in Kildare

In the aftermath of the 1803 rebellion Robert Emmet frankly admitted that ‘To change the day was impossible for I expected the counties to act, and feared to lose the […]

Mentioning the War: the Bureau of Military History

CK:    What is the nature of this collection? VL:    The Bureau of Military History was established by the government in 1947 with the remit of gathering material relating to the […]