Irish Literature in Transition, 1780-1830

"There can be few places better to begin to trace the fluid entanglements of literature and history circa 1800 than with the case of Robert Emmet's rebellion. Despite the suppression of the United Irish rebellion and the passing of the Act of Union, the legacies of violence continued into the new century. While some emigrated to the United States and to Europe, many of the leading United Irishmen were removed from Dublin in 1799 and imprisoned in Fort George, a Jacobite-era artillery fortification near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Built after the Battle of Culloden, with impregnable walls overlooking the Moray Firth, Fort George was a place of prolonged, 'bitter and vengeful' confinement for convicted United Irishmen including Thomas Russell, Arthur O'Connor and Thomas Addis Emmet.60 These men maintained connections with the remaining member of the United Irish society, including Robert Emmet, who rendezvoused with his brother Thomas Addis Emmet, sisterin- law and their children in Amsterdam and instigated plans to set up headquarters in Brussels. French support was not forthcoming, however: Napoleon Bonaparte had just sent a fleet to San Domingo in an effort to regain Fren