Young Ireland - 1848 Uprising

1848 Uprising

The group's turn to violence was prompted by widespread deaths due to the 1845 Irish potato blight, government inaction, and the evictions of numerous tenants from the land by some landlords. At the same time, the Young Irelanders were inspired by the French Revolution, and popular uprisings in 1848 across Europe in which governments and monarchies toppled in favor of democratic reforms.

William Smith O'Brien, the leader of the Young Ireland Party, launched an attempted rebellion in July 1848, in response to British repression and the introduction of martial law. He gathered landlords and tenants together with Young Irelanders. O'Brien's failure to capture a party of police barricaded in widow McCormack's house, who were holding her children as hostages, marked the effective end of the revolt.”, Though intermittent resistance continued till late 1849, O'Brien and his colleagues were quickly arrested and convicted of sedition. Originally sentenced to death, the young men received a great outpouring of public support. The government commuted their sentences to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land, where they joined John Mitchel. The "Irish gentlemen" were assigned to different settlements to try to reduce their continued collaboration.