United Irishman

United Irishman
The Autobiography of James Hope

Edited with an introduction by John Newsinger

In this autobiography, James Hope, a leader in the United Irishmen, tells of his rôle in the Irish rebellion of 1798, which drew inspiration from the revolution in France, and worked against the domination of Ireland by the Anglophile minority of absentee landlords. James Hope's life is laced with the Christian metaphors of his times. He argues that those who make no use of land or resources have no right to it. The story of the rebellion tells of his travels all over Ireland and of support he garnered from both Catholics and Protestants. Hope was born in the parish of Temple Patrick, County Antrim in 1764, in to a family of Scottish Covenanters. He died in poverty almost fifty years after the rebellion. John Newsinger has annotated this text, and has written a detailed introduction which explains the development of the United Irishmen and Hope's involvement with them, and the movement's bloody defeat.