bad news. However, the dark cloud had a silver lining in that Drennan received a short report from Martha, the first direct correspondence he had from her in more than two years. Martha informed him that though the Catholic question had gone badly for the radicals, Drennan’s declaration to the French National Assembly had been adopted.
Sam has neither the time or the temper to write at present, immediately after the grand procession and the reading [sic] the declaration where Harry Joy18 has foiled him as he did in the committee last night. Your last paragraph in regard to the Catholics was lost by the previous question.19 The declaration is adopted, and the Chairman Mr. Sharman is requested to transmit a copy to the National Assembly’s president in French and English.20
Despite the failure of the resolutions regarding the Catholics, Drennan was not particularly discouraged. Over the next few weeks, he busied himself suggesting ways for the more progressive Volunteers to influence their conservative comrades. He advised that positive responses from Catholic Committees in various towns should not be published until ‘the number was sufficient to form a goodly representation’. Otherwise he worried, if the aristocratic part of the Roman Catholics knew what was happening, they might try to ‘damp down the proceedings’.21
In early October, Drennan, Tone, Russell and their Dublin network made plans to produce a twice weekly paper which they would call the National Journal. Russell was to be the editor. Tone was tasked with writing the prospectus which he produced on 4 October 1791:
The great object of the paper shall be to unite and emancipate all the people, to abolish those unjust, invidious and ruinous distinctions which bigotry in religion and politics have raised amongst us, distinctions which, however they might once have appeared justifiable by necessity, cannot longer maintain their ground against truth and reason. To accomplish this purpose little more need be done than to make the great sects which divide this country, and by dividing, ruin and degrade it know each other; and what means as an honest unbiased Paper which shall ever be fully and freely open to the abilities of all parties.22
Drennan was, of course, prepared to contribute his writing skills to the new venture and felt that there was room for two new newspapers, one in Dublin and the other in Belfast. He was, however, anxious not to write anything that might injure Harry Joy who often published his work in the Belfast Newsletter and had always been civil to him as a gentleman and a friend.
Tone’s pamphlet made a big impression on the Belfast radicals and resulted in him being invited to Belfast in early October. He arrived there on 11 October 1791 and, next day, he dined with Sam McTier, Thomas McCabe, Thomas Russell and other members of the Secret Committee. He found that the resolutions, which had not met with approval three months earlier, were now too tame and required revision and strengthening. Two days later, the Secret Committee met formally and opened their proceedings with a declaration of secrecy. Tone and Russell gave a report on the activities of the Catholic Committee in Dublin. It was agreed that the revised resolutions should be sent to Tandy in Dublin and he should be asked for his and his fellow citizens’ co-operation. When Tone recorded this meeting in his diary, he suggested that the activities of the Secret Committee would reflect great credit on the United Irishmen of ‘Belfescu’. Thus was the birth of the Society of United Irishmen and at last Drennan’s concept of a secret society of radical reformers had become a reality. Tone and his friends had just created the first political organisation in the history of Ireland which was open alike to Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. The new society was dedicated to non-sectarian democratic politics, parliamentary reform and civil liberty for all. Tone had been much impressed with the Secret Committee and found them all to be steady, sensible, clear men and extremely well adapted to serious business. This was indeed fortunate, for it was serious business they were embarked on and before it was over, many of them would suffer long terms of imprisonment and Tone and Russell would lose their lives.
On 9 November 1791, Drennan attended a meeting convened by Tandy at the Eagle Tavern, Eustace Street in Dublin, where eighteen men, Protestant and Catholic, formed a club. They called themselves the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin. They adopted the resolutions which Tone and Russell had brought from the Belfast United Irishmen. At the first meeting, a committee of six was established to draw up regulations for the new society. Tandy and Drennan were among the six appointed. Drennan proposed a solemn declaration or test, which was to be taken by every new member on admittance. We have noted already that Drennan was a great proponent of tests and that a decade earlier, he had proposed a test for the Volunteers. He had obviously come to this meeting with a well-prepared script for he succeeded in getting unanimous agreement to the following:
I, – AB in the presence of God, do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial and adequate representation of the Irish nation in parliament: and as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in accomplishing this chief good of Ireland, I shall do whatever lies in my power to forward a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, without which every reform must be partial, not national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the freedom and happiness of this country.23
Tone and Russell had not attended this first Dublin meeting but when they attended a later meeting, they both expressed their opposition to Drennan’s test which they saw as too rhetorical and argumentative. When they pushed the question to a vote, they lost by a large margin.24 Drennan felt that they were both imprudent and had made themselves unpopular and tended to treat the fellow members as instruments rather than partners. Neither Tone nor Russell was prepared to let the matter drop and they continued at a later meeting to argue against the test saying it was dangerous to exclude many who might, but for the test, wish to become members. Tandy vigorously defended the test and argued:
If the test kept them away we should do better without such men, and that it was better to have a society knit together and braced by a strong obligation, than to admit these scrupulous half-way men who would soon damp the zeal and spirit of the meeting and perhaps in some time, outvote the original members and defeat the purpose of the institution.25
However, Drennan was pleased that many of the Catholics were zealous to take the test which he thought was an indication of their sincerity, though he observed that ‘the solemnity is a thing they like, perhaps from their religion’.26 The membership of the Dublin Society grew quickly and by the end of December, it had grown from its original eighteen to ninety-six members.
9
THE FAITHFUL WOUNDS OF A FRIEND
In February 1792, after a hiatus of nearly two and a half years, Martha resumed her regular correspondence with her brother. She marked her epistolary comeback with a substantial letter to her ‘beloved’ Will. Unfortunately, the news she had was not encouraging. She began her missive in an urgent tone of near panic which continued throughout.
You are attacked in the public paper, in your character, your religion, your head and worst of all your heart, and by whom, that man who by being for years cherished as your friend, ought to have known its value ... he knows, everyone here knows you were the author of the test – and it is with pain I add, that as such, I fear you are generally reprobated by those you most esteem here ... some who have gone so far when in their cups, as to wish to see the promoters of this work hanged – and at a time they knew you to be the chief one.1
William Bruce, probably Drennan’s most valued friend and confidant of many years, attacked the United Irish test in a sermon at Rosemary Lane, from the very pulpit which Drennan’s father had once occupied. The congregation at which Bruce’s harangue was directed included Martha, Sam, Drennan’s mother and many of the friends of his youth. Not content with confining his opinions to the Meeting House, Bruce also published his Strictures on the Test taken by certain of the Societies of United Irishmen in the Belfast Newsletter.2
Martha
