International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

James Napper Tandy gained fame as a flamboyant radical during the era of the United Irishmen and the Great Rebellion of 1798 . He was born in the late 1730s – the exact year is unknown – into a Protestant family in Dublin; his father was an ironmonger. In adulthood Napper Tandy at first made his living as a land agent and rent collector. He joined the Corporation of Dublin and gained popularity for his denunciation of municipal corruption. He was an early recruit to the Dublin Volunteers, a branch of the extragovernmental military movement inspired by the American Revolution that exerted armed pressure on the Irish government to make political concessions. He was an active opponent of Poynings' Law and the Declaratory Act, both of which limited the autonomy of the Irish parliament. As a popular advocate of parliamentary reform, he became widely admired for his opposition to aristocratic dominance of the Irish parliament. Napper Tandy enthusiastically greeted the French Revolution . While he did not play a part in the formation of the Society of United Irishmen, he did join the organization soon after its formation, becoming the first secretary of its Dublin branch. His outspokenness made him a target of government repression, forcing him into exile. He joined Wolfe Tone in Philadelphia in 1795, and then traveled on to France. When the Great Rebellion erupted in 1798, the ... log in or subscribe to read full text