14
immediately drew up plans for revolution to commence on May 23rd. Very briefly, the intention was to isolate Dublin from the provinces while the forces of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare were to march on the capital, surprise the camp at Loughlinstown en route and with the assistance of the United Irishmen within the gates seize the offices of government. The signal for revolt was the stopping of the mail coaches. Arrangements were made to dispatch this intelligence to every part of the country; Sheares left for Cork. Fitzgerald was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United Army, a post for which his military talents, republican virtue, and gigantic courage, eminently equipped him. Alas, for the hopes of Ireland, he too was betrayed, arrested after many thrilling escapes, and conveyed mortally wounded to Newgate where he died on June the 4th, 1798.
Dr. McNevin, the most prominent Catholic United Irish leader, pays tribute to Lord Edward in these terms:
"The Irish nation could not sustain a greater misfortune in the person of one individual than befell it at the loss of Fitzgerald at this critical moment. … With unquestionable intrepidity, republicanism, and devotion to Ireland, with popularity which gave him unbounded confidence, and integrity which made him worthy of the highest trust, had he been present in the Irish camp to organise, discipline, and give to the valour of his country a scientific direction, we would have seen the slaves of Monarchy fly before the Republicans of Ireland as they did before the patriots of America. … The voluntary sacrifices he made, and the magnanimous manner in which he directed himself to the independence of Ireland, are incontestable proofs of the purity of his soul."
THE RICH BETRAY THE POOR.
On the appointed day, May the 23rd, the rising took place in almost every part of Leinster, and on the 26th, Wexford rose. But a central command no longer existed, and, deprived of effective military leadership, lacking every essential necessary to the conduct of warfare, the people, though they rallied in their thousands and fought with the courage and endurance that has characterised the struggle of our nation for freedom, inevitably failed before the technical superiority of the Crown forces. Apart from Wexford where the war assumed more formidable dimen-
