| Theobald Wolfe
Tone born in 1763 in Dublin, grew up in the
shadow of the American and French revolutions. As
a member of the Society of the United Irishmen
Tone joined in the campaign for Catholic
Emancipation but as it gained little ground he
turned to armed rebellion. Tone travelled to France in
1973 to gain French support for an Irish
uprising. In the winter of 1796 he set sail with
14,000 men only to be forced to turn back from
within a mile of the Irish coast by a storm. But
the uprising went ahead. For two weeks the rebels
held Wexford and declared a "Republic of
Ireland" before Government troops retook the
town.
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