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and be obliged to perform the duties of a citizen; then will commence the reign of true equality, and talents and industry having fair scope, the aristocracy fostered by English tyranny will insensibly be undermined."
("Address to the People of Ireland." Life of T. W. Tone, Vol. 2, 1826 edition.)
Again we read in the Catechism of the United Irishmen:
"Q.—How shall we arrive at the blessings so certain from independence?
A.—By a union of all the people.
Q.—Do you mean the privileged orders in this union?
A.—No: were we to wait their concurrence, our delivery would be as distant as the general death of nature.
Q.—Who do you mean should compose this favourite object?
A.—Every man that is oppressed, every man that labours, every honest man of every religion, every man who loves, and whose love of his country raises the human mind above other trifling distinctions, and loses the petty idea of sects in the name of Irishman."
But the coming together of the oppressed within the nation irrespective of creed was not a matter of weeks or months, but the culmination of a historic process extending over decades. The two great sections of the people, the Catholics and the "Dissenters," lived as much apart as if they were two distinct castes, and before they spoke in one voice for liberty, tireless work had to be done by the most conscious and liberal thinkers. To extirpate prejudices deeply rooted in the centuries and nourished by fear-born ignorance of one another was the achievement of the most enlightened minds and bravest hearts our nation has given to humanity.
The first demand, on a national scale, for civil and religious liberty, came from the Volunteers.
We have seen that because the Irish Parliament was subject to the British legislature, English penal tariffs had been imposed on Irish trade. But with the outbreak of the American war of independence, the opportunity of the Irish trading classes presented itself.
One evening in the year 1778 an American sloop, "The Ranger," commanded by Paul Jones, cruised leisurely around Belfast Lough. Out of this incident arose citizen defence corps to protect our shores from "foreign" invasion. The Volunteer Army soon numbered 100,000
