ection>
MAY TYRANTS TREMBLE
In memory of Philip Casey, 1950–2018,
poet, novelist and friend.
MAY TYRANTS TREMBLE
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM DRENNAN,
1754–1820
Fergus Whelan
First published in 2020 by
Irish Academic Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© Fergus Whelan, 2020
9781788551212 (Cloth)
9781788551229 (Kindle)
9781788551236 (Epub)
9781788551243 (PDF)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the
above publisher of this book.
Typeset in Garamond Premier Pro 11/14 pt
Jacket front: William Drennan’s sketch of Blaris executions.
Courtesy of the National Archive of Ireland.
Jacket back: William Drennan (c.1790), Robert Home, 1752–1834
© National Museums Northern Ireland, Collection Ulster Museum.
Cover design: edit+ www.stuartcoughlan.com
CONTENTS
Introduction: Brazen Walls of Separation
2. Non-Subscribing Presbyterian
3. Drennan’s Religious Outlook
7. Amongst the Dublin Dissenters
9. The Faithful Wounds of a Friend
10. Edmund Burke
11. The Hounding of Priestley and Paine
12. Drennan, Burke and the Penal Laws
13. Belfast: A Nest of Republicans
14. Citizen Soldiers to Arms!
15. The Merits of Personal Courage
16. The Secret Committee
17. ‘There Never was a Belfast Mob’
18. Earthquake in the Mercantile World
19. Love and Matters of Honour
20. A Heart as Dangerous as His Pen
21. Spies, Entrapment and Gaol Break
22. The End of the Dublin Society
23. ‘My Heart Does Not Tremble’
24. Cruel and Ignoble Calumnies
25. Death in the Highlands
26. The Smell of a Great Gaol
27. ‘Frigid Neutralist’
28. Remember Orr!
29. Martial Law
30. Man of Letters
31. A Personal Union with England
32. Let Irishmen Remain Sulky
33. The Emmet Family Tragedy
34. Letter to Charles Fox
35. The Natural Leaders
36. Belfast Monthly Magazine
37. Last Letters and Death
Conclusion: Revolution, Reform and Violence
Sources
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank Sheila Hanley, Theresa Moriarty, Dr Sylvia Kleinman, Dr Patrick Walsh, David O’Brien, Raymond O’Regan, Aaron McIntyre, Ray Naughton and Dr Jim Smyth for their help. I wish also to thank the staff of the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archive of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland and the staff of Trinity College Library, particularly the very helpful people in Early Printed Books.
INTRODUCTION: BRAZEN WALLS OF SEPARATION
This is an account of the life of William Drennan (1754–1820) physician, poet and political radical. Drennan was a founding member of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen in 1791. The new Society lamented ‘the brazen walls of separation’ which had been erected amongst the inhabitants of Ireland by distinctions of rank, property and religious persuasion.1 Drennan composed the Society’s test which had as its purpose ‘the forwarding of a brotherhood of affection, a communion of rights and a union of power amongst Irishmen of every religious persuasion’.2 Many of the Society’s addresses were drafted by Drennan and he was a prolific writer of prose, poetry and pamphlets. He was by far the most active and able literary propagandist with no equal in the Dublin United Irish Society.
Drennan began his writing career in 1780 with an open letter to Edmund Burke (1729–1797) condemning the Irish-born English politician for his hostile reaction to the trade concessions Lord North’s government had made to Ireland. Time and again for the rest of his career Drennan used the device of an open letter to prominent public figures as