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Theobald Wolfe Tone and the historians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

James Quinn
James Quinn*
Affiliation:
Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy
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Type
Review article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 125 , May 2000 , pp. 113 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2000

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Footnotes

*

Theobald Wolfe Tone. By Thomas Bartlett. Pp 89. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, for the Historical Association of Ireland. 1997. IR£6 paperback. (Life and Times Series, no. 10)

The life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, compiled and arranged by William Theobald Wolfe Tone. Edited by Thomas Bartlett. Pp lii, 991. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 1998. £40 hardback; £20 paperback.

The writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, vol. I: Tone’s Career in Ireland to June 1795. Edited by T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods. Pp xl, 540. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1998. £72.80.

Belmont Castle: or, Suffering sensibility, by Theobald Wolfe Tone and divers hands. Edited by Marion Deane. Pp 143. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 1998. IR£7.99 paperback.

References

1 See, for example, his obituary in Freeman’s Journal, 24 Nov. 1798.

2 Elliott, Marianne, Wolfe Tone: prophet of Irish independence (New Haven & London, 1989), p. 418Google Scholar.

3 The National Sept. 1845; Matilda Tone to Dr John Gray, 18 Dec. 1843 (N.L.I..MS 1791/24-7).

4 Foster, R.F., W. B. Yeats: a life, i: The apprentice mage (Oxford, 1997), pp 145, 148, 179Google Scholar.

5 Pearse, P.H., The separatist idea (Dublin, 1916), pp 4, 15Google Scholar; idem, How does she stand? (Dublin, 1915), pp 3, 4Google Scholar.

6 During the height of the War of Independence Bulmer Hobson produced editions of his letters and his Life: The letters of Wolfe Tone, ed. Hobson, Bulmer (Dublin, [1921])Google Scholar; The life of Wolfe Tone, ed. idem (Dublin, 1920). A copy of the Life was among Roger Casement’s possessions in Brixton prison; this is now in the National Library of Ireland. See also O’Malley, Ernie, The singing flame (Dublin, 1978), p. 141Google Scholar.

7 See O’Sheehan, J., The story of Theobald Wolfe Tone (Dublin, 1925)Google Scholar; Ireland, Denis, Patriot adventurer: extracts from the memoirs and journals of Theobald Wolfe Tone, selected and arranged with a connecting narrative (London, 1936)Google Scholar; Blacam, Aodh de, The life story of Wolfe Tone set in a picture of his times (Dublin, 1935)Google Scholar. Other sympathetic biographies of Tone include Alice Milligan, Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone (Belfast, 1898)Google Scholar.

8 De Blacam, Tone, pp 7, 211, 217–18.

9 The autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, ed. O’Faolain, Seán (London, 1937), p. xxvGoogle Scholar.

10 Moran, D.P., The philosophy of Irish Ireland (Dublin, 1905), p. 40Google Scholar; McCabe, Leo, Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen: for and against Christ (London, 1937), pp 5, 20Google Scholar.

11 Froude, J. A., The English in Ireland (3 vols, London, 1872-4), iii, 9–10, 191Google Scholar.

12 Molony, J. Chartres, Ireland’s tragic comedians (Edinburgh & London, 1934), p. 138Google Scholar.

13 MacDermot, Frank, Theobald Wolfe Tone and his times (London, 1939), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

14 Dunne, Tom, Theobald Wolfe Tone, colonial outsider: an analysis of his political philosophy (Cork, 1982), p. 11Google Scholar.

15 Elliott, Tone, p. 419.

16 Curtin, Nancy J., ‘The Belfast uniform: Theobald Wolfe Tone’ in Éire-Ireland, xx, no. 2 (summer 1985), pp 40–69Google Scholar.

17 Among these are The life of Theobald Wolfe Tone (London, 1828)Google Scholar; Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, written by himself and extracted from his journals (London, 1831)Google Scholar; The life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, written by himself (Dublin, 1846)Google Scholar; The life of Theobald Wolfe Tone (Glasgow, 1876)Google Scholar; The autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, ed. Barry O’Brien, R. (2 vols, London, 1893)Google Scholar; The life of Wolfe Tone, ed. Hobson, Bulmer (Dublin, 1920)Google Scholar; The autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, ed. O’Faolain, Seán (London, 1937)Google Scholar; Aonghusa, Proinsias Mac and Ríagáin, Liam Ó (eds), The best of Tone (Cork, 1972)Google Scholar; Cronin, Seán and Roche, Richard (eds), Freedom the Wolfe Tone way (Tralee, 1973)Google Scholar.

18 Tone to Matilda Tone, 20 Oct. 1791 (Tone, , Writings, , ed. Moody, , McDowell & Woods, i, 144)Google Scholar. For a skilfully edited edition of Russell’s fragmentary journals see Journals and memoirs of Thomas Russell, 1791–5, ed. Woods, C.J. (Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar.

19 Tone, Life, ed. Bartlett, p. xxxiii.

20 Ibid., pp 112–13, 450.

21 Ibid., p. 582.

22 Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, p. xx.

23 A review of the conduct of administration during the seventh session of parliament (Dublin, 1790)Google Scholar; Elliott, Tone, p. 85.

24 Spanish war! An enquiry how far Ireland is bound, of right, to embark in the impending contest on the side of Great Britain? (Dublin, 1790)Google Scholar, repr. in Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 54, 59.

25 An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland (Dublin, 1791)Google Scholar, repr. ibid., i, 127.

26 Dr Hugh MacDermot to Owen O’Conor, 21 Nov. 1791 (ibid.); MacDermot, Tone, p. 77.

27 Tone, Life, ed. Bartlett, p. 46.

28 Ibid., p. xli.

29 Ibid., p.575.

30 Ibid., pp 199, 482.

31 Tone et al., Belmont Castle, ed. Deane, p. 5.

32 Dunne, Tone, pp 23, 47; Elliott, Tone, p. 84; Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, p. xx.

33 MacDermot, Tone, p. 269; Elliott, Tone, pp 106, 126; Dunne, Tone, p. 17.

34 Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 104.

35 Elliott, Tone, p. 106; Dunne, Tone, p. 50.

36 Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 455.

37 Bartlett, Tone, p. 67. This work builds on points already made in Thomas Bartlett, ‘The burden of the present: Theobald Wolfe Tone, republican and separatist’ in Dickson, David, Keogh, Dáire and Whelan, Kevin (eds), The United Irishmen: republicanism, radicalism and rebellion (Dublin, 1993), pp 1–15Google Scholar.

18 Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 213.

19 Dunne, Tone, p. 52; Curtin, ‘The Belfast uniform: Theobald Wolfe Tone’, p. 51.

40 Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 213.

41 Tone, Life, ed. Bartlett, p. 494.

42 Greaves, C.Desmond, Theobald Wolfe Tone and the Irish nation (Dublin, 1989), p. 7Google Scholar. A number of other works also make strong claims for Tone as a social radical, for example Cronin & Roche (eds), Freedom the Wolfe Tone way, pp 54–5, 73–4; Ellis, P.Berresford, A history of the Irish working class (London, 1972), pp 74-6Google Scholar; Hewitt, Mark, 1798 the year of revolution: Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen (Belfast, 1998)Google Scholar.

43 Dunne, Tone, pp 18, 35; Curtin, ‘The Belfast uniform: Theobald Wolfe Tone’, p. 65; Elliott, Tone, pp 286, 418; Bartlett, Tone, p. 69.

44 Elliott, Tone, pp 129, 286.

45 Ibid., p. 220; A short answer by a Liberty Boy to A brief caution to the Roman Catholics of Ireland ([Dublin?], 1792)Google Scholar, repr. in Tone, Writings, ed. Moody, McDowell & Woods, i, 162–4; To the manufacturers of Dublin, by a Weaver, Liberty ([Dublin?], 1793)Google Scholar, repr. ibid., pp 419–21.

46 Tone, Life, ed. Bartlett, pp 120, 494; see also ‘Address to the people of Ireland’, repr. ibid., pp 691–708; ‘An address to the peasantry of Ireland by a traveller, 1796’, repr. ibid., pp 709–14.

47 Dunne, Tone, p. 11.

48 Tone, Life, ed. Bartlett, p. 516.

49 Quoted in MacDermot, Tone, pp 12–13.

50 Quoted in Elliott, Tone, p. 224. Jonah Barrington had a similar opinion of Tone: he regarded him as ‘too light and visionary ... it is my belief that Tone would not have succeeded in any steady civil profession. He was not worldly enough, nor had he sufficient common sense for his guidance’ (Barrington, Jonah, Personal sketches of his own times (3rd ed., 2 vols, London, 1869), i, 153)Google Scholar.