James Hope (Ireland)
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James "Jemmy" Hope (25 August 1764 – 10 February 1847) was a radical democrat in Ireland who organised among tenant farmers, tradesmen and labourers for the
Society of the United Irishmen A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...
. In the Rebellion of 1798 he fought alongside
Henry Joy McCracken Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican executed in Belfast for his part in leading United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Convinced that the cause of representative government in Ireland could not be a ...
at the
Battle of Antrim The Battle of Antrim was fought on 7 June 1798, in County Antrim, Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between British troops and Irish insurgents led by Henry Joy McCracken. The British won the battle, beating off a rebel attack on Ant ...
. In 1803 he attempted to renew the insurrection against the
British Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
in an uprising coordinated by Robert Emmett and the new republican directorate in Dublin. Among United Irishmen, Hope was distinguished by his conviction that "the fundamental question at issue between the rulers and the people" was "the condition of the labouring class".


Early life and family

Hope was born in
Mallusk Grange of Mallusk, or Mallusk, is a village and townland (of 933 acres) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Mallusk is within the urban area of Newtownabbey, and it is also within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is situated i ...
(parish of
Templepatrick Templepatrick (; ) is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast, and halfway between the towns of Ballyclare and Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim. It is also close to Belfa ...
),
County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
. His father, John Hope, a Scottish highlander and linen weaver, had emigrated from Scotland rather than compromise his
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
Covenanter Covenanters were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. It originated in disputes with James VI and his son C ...
faith. At age ten Hope was hired on a nearby farm. On winter evenings his master would make him sit "while he read in the Histories of Greece and Rome, and also Ireland, Scotland and England." Hope recalls that, together with comments on the news of the day, this turned his attention "early to the nature of the relations between the different classes of society". Labouring on the land, at a time when in Antrim the tenant
Hearts of Steel The Hearts of Steel, or Steelboys, was an exclusively Protestant movement originating in 1769 in County Antrim, Ireland due to grievances about the sharp rise of rents and evictions. The protests then spread into the neighbouring counties of Arm ...
led a violent resistance into the exactions of the largely
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
landlords, Hope came to believe that "The Most High is lord of the soil; the cultivator is his tenant". Landlords who interceded in this relationship were oppressors. Hope was later apprenticed as a linen weaver, then as a journeyman, while continuing his education at night classes. He married Rose Mullan, the daughter of a master weaver. Her brother, Luke Mullan, was a United Irishman. They had 4 surviving children, Luke Mullan Hope (1794–1827), editor of the ''Rushlight'', Henry Joy McCracken Hope (1809–1872), writer of some religious verse, Robert Emmet Hope (1812–1864) and a daughter, Mathilda Hope. Rose died on 25 May 1831. Hope described her as a "gifted" woman who "with every advantage of mind and person, she was everything in this world to me, and when I lost her my happiness went to the grave with her".


Irish Volunteer

In the wake of the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, Hope joined the
Roughfort Roughfort is a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Craigarogan and the Newtownabbey Borough Council area. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census it had a population of 216 people. References N ...
Corps of the
Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...
. By his own account, his "connection with politics began in the ranks of the Volunteers": they were "the means of breaking the first link in the penal chain". He identified the source of the country's poverty and distress.
As a people, we were excluded from any share in framing the laws by which we were governed ... By force the poor were subdued and dispossessed of their interests in the soil; by fiction, the titles of the spoilers were established; and by fraud on the productive industry of future generations, the usurpation was continued.
In the Belfast Volunteer Review in 1792, marking the third anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, Hope paraded not with his Roughfort Corps but with 180 green-cockaded civilians from Carmoney and Templepatrick (common people who may not have been able to afford the costs of equipping themselves for the Volunteer ranks). They carried aloft a banner designed by Hope and painted by his brother-in-law with the inscription; "Our Gallic brother was born on the 14th July 1789; alas we are still in embryo. Superstitious galaxy. The cause of the Irish Bastille; let us unite to destroy it." It was in the Volunteers that Hope first met
Henry Joy McCracken Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican executed in Belfast for his part in leading United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Convinced that the cause of representative government in Ireland could not be a ...
and Samuel Neilson. After the Volunteer movement split on the question of full and immediate Catholic emancipation and was suppressed by the government in 1793, he joined them in the
Society of the United Irishmen A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...
, albeit with some reservation. He "lamented that we should shrink from an open declaration of our views into conspiracy".


United Irishman

Hope concluded that in some quarters the movement for reform had been "merely between commercial and aristocratical interests, to determine which should have the people as its prey". In 1795, he took the United Irish pledge or “test” to "persevere in endeavouring to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion", and "to obtain an equal, full and adequate representation of all the people of Ireland". But by then, the Society was abandoning its hopes for parliamentary reform. Increasingly, thoughts turned toward insurrection and to prospects for assistance from the new
French Republic France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Hope quickly established himself as a prominent organiser and was elected to the northern committee in
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
. Together with
Thomas Addis Emmet Thomas Addis Emmet (24 April 176414 November 1827) was an Irish and American lawyer and politician. In Ireland, in the 1790s, he was a senior member of the Society of United Irishmen as it planned for an insurrection against the British Crown ...
in Dublin, he accounted Neilson and McCracken and Thomas Russell in the north the only United Irish leaders who "perfectly" understood the real causes of social disorder and conflict: "the conditions of the labouring class". For Hope, Belfast was the centre in
Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
of a "factitious system" in which ultimately there was but:
...three parties: those whose industry produced the necessaries of life, those who circulated them, and those whose subsistence depended on fictitious claims and capital, and lived and acted as if men and cattle were created solely for their use and benefit...
In this Hope was perhaps closest to Russell. Commenting on growing trades union activity in Belfast and the surrounding districts in the pages of the movement's paper, the ''Northern Star'', Russell urged "combinations" (labour unions) not only for tradesmen but also for labourers and cottiers. In the spring of 1796, Neilson sent Hope to
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
to help organise the workers in the capital. Himself working as a cotton weaver, Hope first recruited textile workers in
Balbriggan Balbriggan (; , ) is a suburban coastal town in Fingal, in the northern part of County Dublin, Ireland. It is approximately 34 km north of the city of Dublin, for which it is a commuter town. The 2022 census population was 24,322 for Bal ...
. Then, targeting illegal workers’ combinations, he helped the spread of the organisation, with a considerable Protestant artisan membership, south of the river into the Liberties. When the rising came in May 1798, and it was clear that the city's garrison would prevent a United Irish demonstration in the capital, many of these workers quit the city to join the rebel standard in the countryside. Hope also travelled to counties in
Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
and
Connaught Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine ...
and into the
Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Where the mountai ...
, disseminating literature and organizing localities. In one week alone, he travelled over 700 miles. In the midst of the
Armagh Disturbances The Armagh disturbances was a period of intense sectarian fighting in the 1780s and 1790s between the Ulster Protestant Peep o' Day Boys and the Roman Catholic Defenders, in County Armagh, Kingdom of Ireland, culminating in the Battle of the ...
. working in parallel with Father
James Coigly Father James Coigly (''aka'' James O'Coigley and James/Jeremiah Quigley) (1761 – 7 June 1798) was a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland active in the republican movement against the British Crown and the kingdom's Protestant Ascendancy. He ...
, he sought to reconcile the
Peep o' Day Boys The Peep o' Day Boys was an agrarian sectarian Protestant association in 18th-century Ireland. Originally noted as being an agrarian society around 1779–80, from 1785 it became the Protestant component of the sectarian conflict that emerge ...
to their traditional enemies, the Catholic
Defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...
in the cause of what was simply called "The Union".


1798 rebellion

Hope noted that union membership of "rich farmers and shopkeepers" ebbed under the pressure of martial law but flowed again on a wider popular tide after the attempted French landing at Bantry in December 1796 made real the prospect of French assistance. From December to May 1797 membership in Ulster alone increased fourfold, reaching 117,917. When the call to arms finally came in the north in June 1798, however, he recognised that many of the wealthier union men had "staked more than was really in them". Hope "remained steadfast" and led a "Spartan band" of weavers and labourers who covered the retreat of the rebels under the command of
Henry Joy McCracken Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican executed in Belfast for his part in leading United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Convinced that the cause of representative government in Ireland could not be a ...
at the
Battle of Antrim The Battle of Antrim was fought on 7 June 1798, in County Antrim, Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between British troops and Irish insurgents led by Henry Joy McCracken. The British won the battle, beating off a rebel attack on Ant ...
. Hope managed to rejoin McCracken and his remaining forces after the battle at their camp upon
Slemish Slemish, historically called Slieve Mish (), is a hill in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies a few miles east of Ballymena, in the townland of Carnstroan. Tradition holds that Saint Patrick, enslaved as a youth, was brought to this area ...
mountain. The camp gradually dispersed, and the dwindling band of insurgents were then forced to go on the run. Hope successfully eluded capture, but McCracken was captured and executed on 17 July. Upon the collapse of the general rising, Hope refused to avail of the terms of an
amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...
offered by
Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805) was a British Army officer, Whigs (British political party), Whig politician and colonial administrator. In the United States and United Kingdom, he is best kn ...
on the grounds that to do so would be "not only a recantation of one’s principles but a tacit acquiescence in the justice of the punishment which had been inflicted on thousands of my unfortunate associates".


1803 rising

In the aftermath of the rebellion young militants, chief among them
Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...
(the younger brother of Thomas Addis Emmet) and
William Putnam McCabe William Putnam McCabe (1776–1821) was an emissary and organiser in Ireland for the insurrectionary Society of United Irishmen. Facing multiple indictments for treason as a result of his role in fomenting the 1798 rebellion, he effected a numb ...
(son of the Society's founder member, Thomas McCabe) sought to reorganise United Irishmen on a strict military-conspiratorial basis, with its members chosen personally by its officers, meeting as the executive directory. They were in contact with Thomas Russell and William Dowdall, detained as state prisoners in Fort George. The immediate aim of the reconstituted society was, in conjunction with simultaneous republican risings in Ireland and England to again solicit a French invasion. To this end, McCabe set out for London and Paris in December 1798. Hope led a precarious existence, employed for a period by the leading Defender, Charles Hamilton Teeling, as overseer of his bleach green at Naul, north of the city, and then, until September 1803, with his wife running a small haberdasher's shop in the city. But when Russell returned from Fort George and brief exile, he was drawn into plans being co-ordinated with McCabe in Paris by
Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...
and
Anne Devlin Anne Devlin (1780 – 18 September 1851) was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican who in 1803, while his ostensible housekeeper, conspired with Robert Emmet, and with her cousin, the rebel outlaw Michael Dwyer to renew the Irish Rebellion o ...
(ostensibly his housekeeper) and others on the new Dublin executive. They were organising a new republican insurrection to be triggered by the seizure of
Dublin Castle Dublin Castle () is a major Government of Ireland, Irish government complex, conference centre, and tourist attraction. It is located off Dame Street in central Dublin. It is a former motte-and-bailey castle and was chosen for its position at ...
. In February 1803, hopes of being assisted by a rising of the heavily Irish-infiltrated United Britons network in London and in the mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire were blasted by the arrest and execution of
Edward Despard Edward Marcus Despard (175121 February 1803), an Irish officer in the service of the British Crown, gained notoriety as a colonial administrator for refusing to recognise race as a distinction in English law and, following his recall to London, ...
and by the repression that followed. Meanwhile, despite McCabe's seeming favour with Napoleon, a renewed French attempt upon Ireland remained an uncertain prospect. Hope made contact with
Michael Dwyer Michael Dwyer (1 January 1772– 23 August 1825) was an insurgent captain in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, leading the United Irish forces in battles in Wexford and Wicklow. Following the defeat and dispersal of the rebel hosts, in July 1798 ...
(Devlin’s cousin), who still maintained rebel resistance in the Wicklow Mountains, and in April 1803 helped arrange two lengthy conferences with Emmett in
Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside (Dublin), southside suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in County Dublin. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16, 16. It is between the Lo ...
. Emmett promised, but proved unable, to provide Dwyer with arms. Hope headed north seeking to raise Antrim. But those districts of Antrim where he had previously found "the republican spirit, inherent in the principles of Presbyterian community, kept resistance to arbitrary power still alive" refused the call. Russell was similarly rebuffed when attempting to raise the standard in the Defender country of south Down. Meanwhile in Dublin, events were driven by the accidental detonation of the rebel arms depot in Patrick Street which had made the military conspiracy public. After a brief street battle on the evening of 23 July, in which he had recoiled from the sight of a
dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...
being pulled from his horse and piked to death, Emmett called the rising off.


Later years

Hope evaded the authorities' attention in the ensuing repression by securing employment with a sympathetic friend from England in Belfast where he eventually benefitted from a political amnesty in 1806. He continued to work as a weaver, wrote poetry and his memoirs. He also collaborated with Mary Ann McCracken, in assisting the historian R. R. Madden research his monumental ''The United Irishmen, their lives and times'' (1842-1860, 11 Vols.). Looking back on the United Irish struggle, he noted that on once "the people’s cause was finally lost, (at least in that struggle), ... tonly remained for the enemy to attack the memory of the dead, and the characters of the living, and to slander all who had dared to resist their cruelty". Hope had his doubts about
Daniel O'Connell Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...
, not least his association with the
laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( , from , ) is a type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies or regulations). As a system of thought, ''laissez-faire'' ...
liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
of his English Whig allies -- Hope's own thinking increasingly paralleled the cooperative teaching of
Robert Owen Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement, co-operative movement. He strove to ...
. But in the 1840s, well into his seventies, he chaired meetings of O'Connell's
Repeal Association The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland. The Association's aim was to revert Ireland to ...
. This sought to reverse the 1800 Acts of Union and restore an independent Irish parliament.


Death and commemoration

Hope died at No 1 Lancaster Street, Belfast, in 1847 aged 83 and was buried, in the
Mallusk Grange of Mallusk, or Mallusk, is a village and townland (of 933 acres) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Mallusk is within the urban area of Newtownabbey, and it is also within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is situated i ...
cemetery,
Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area ...
. The headstone was raised by his friends, Henry Joy McCracken’s sister Mary Ann, and the
Shankill Road The Shankill Road () is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for about from central Belfast ...
United Irishman Israel Milliken. The historian
Richard Robert Madden Richard Robert Madden (22 August 1798 – 5 February 1886) was an Irish doctor, writer, Abolitionism in the United Kingdom, abolitionist and historian of the United Irishmen. Madden took an active role in trying to impose anti-slavery rules in ...
, who had encouraged Hope to write his memoirs, supplied the inscription:
Sacred to the memory of James Hope ... One of nature's noblest works, an honest man. ... In the best era of his country's history a soldier in her cause, and in the worst of times, still faithful to it: ever true to himself and those that trusted in him. He remained to the last unchanged and unchangeable in his fidelity.
Underneath is the outline of a large dog, which is said to have brought Hope and his comrades provisions when they were hiding following the Battle of Antrim. The biographer of his friend, Mary-Ann McCracken, Mary McNeill, says of Hope; "He represented the almost inarticulate aspirations of the strongly revolutionary element among the Presbyterian labourers both rural and urban: he was indeed the most radical of the United Irishmen". The historian A.T. Q. Stewart, considered Hope "a pioneer socialist before socialism had been articulated as a political creed'. The Ulster poet
John Hewitt John Hewitt may refer to: * John Hewitt (priest) (died 1588), English Roman Catholic priest and Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929 * John Hewitt (antiquary) (1807–1878), English official * John Hill Hewitt (1801–1890), newspaper editor * John ...
likewise classed Hope with William Thompson as one of "the brave old pre-Marx Marxists of Ireland". The memory of Hope is celebrated by Left
republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, but where his social radicalism places him in relation to the subsequent development of
Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...
is disputed. Sean Cronin, former Chief-of-Staff in the
anti-Treaty IRA The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...
, proposed that Hope had been to 1798 "what
James Connolly James Connolly (; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was a Scottish people, Scottish-born Irish republicanism, Irish republican, socialist, and trade union leader, executed for his part in the Easter Rising, 1916 Easter Rising against British rule i ...
was to 1916" -- the reprise of Emmet's rebellion in which the socialist leader tied labour's cause to Irish statehood. When an Ulster History Circle
Blue Plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
marking Hope's birthplace (and installed with the support of the
Ulster-Scots Agency The Ulster-Scots Agency (''Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch'') is a cross-border body for Ireland which seeks to "promote the study, conservation and development of Ulster-Scots as a living language, to encourage and develop the full range of its atte ...
) was smashed in 2014, the Unionist mayor of
Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area ...
, Fraser Agnew, argued that in identifying him with contemporary Irish Republicanism the vandals had shown their ignorance: "Jemmy Hope was a good Presbyterian man. He wanted the working class to unite for better conditions, he was a champion of ordinary people". James Hope is portrayed by Des McAleer in Pat Murphy's 1984 film ''Anne Devlin''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope, James 1764 births 1846 deaths Irish Presbyterians People from Templepatrick Protestant Irish nationalists Ulster Scots people United Irishmen 18th-century Irish people 19th-century Irish people Activists from County Antrim