Theobald Wolfe Tone was born into a protestant family in 1763. He went on to study law at Trinity College but always had a keen interest in politics. He wrote a pamphlet supporting the idea of Catholic Emancipation. This stated that Catholics should be allowed sit in parliament.

He followed the events of the French revolution closely and believed in its ideals of liberty for all men. In 1791 he helped to found the United Irishmen in Belfast. The United Irishmen wanted Ireland to be independent of Britain and they were willing to use violence to achieve this goal.

Tone wanted all Irishmen regardless of their religion to work together to achieve independence. When Britain and France went to war the British government became worried about the United Irishmen and declared them illegal. Tone was found to be in contact with a French agent and was as a result exiled to America. It was from here in 1796 that he went to France looking for support for a rebellion in Ireland.

The French agreed to help him and sent a fleet of ships in December of 1796. The fleet was commanded by General Hoche and had 15000 troops with it. They arrived off the coast of

Cork in Bantry Bay but were unable to land due to extreme weather conditions. They were forced to return home.

This scared the British who started to violently suppress anyone suspected of being a member of the United Irishmen. Weapons were seized and leaders arrested. Tone had also returned to France and missed most of the 1798 rebellion. He was unable to get a French force to Wexford to help the rebellion there.

He did however convince the French to once again send a fleet. He was once again aboard this fleet. As they sailed into Lough Swilly in county Donegal

they were met by British battle ships. The French force was captured and Tone was immediately recognised and sent to trial in Dublin.

He was found guilty of treason and was sentenced to death. He asked for a soldier’s execution as he was an officer in the French army. This would be death by firing squad. This was refused and instead he was sentenced to hang. Before this could happen Tone cut his own throat. It took him a week to die suffering great pain all of the time.

Tone went on to inspire future leaders of rebellions in Ireland. As he was the one who had brought the ideals of the French revolution to Ireland he became

known as the Father of Irish Republicanism.