Named for its mythical leader "Captain Rock," avenger of agrarian
wrongs, the Rockite movement of 1821-24 in Ireland was notorious
for its extraordinary violence. In "Captain Rock," James S.
Donnelly, Jr., offers both a fine-grained analysis of the conflict
and a broad exploration of Irish rural society after the French
revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Originating in west Limerick, the Rockite movement spread quickly
under the impact of a prolonged economic depression. Before long
the insurgency embraced many of the better-off farmers. The
intensity of the Rockites' grievances, the frequency of their
resort to sensational violence, and their appeal on such key issues
as rents and tithes presented a nightmarish challenge to Dublin
Castle--prompting in turn a major reorganization of the police, a
purging of the local magistracy, the introduction of large military
reinforcements, and a determined campaign of judicial repression. A
great upsurge in sectarianism and millenarianism, Donnelly shows,
added fuel to the conflagration. Inspired by prophecies of doom for
the Anglo-Irish Protestants who ruled the country, the
overwhelmingly Catholic Rockites strove to hasten the demise of the
landed elite they viewed as oppressors.
Drawing on a wealth of sources--including reports from policemen,
military officers, magistrates, and landowners as well as from
newspapers, pamphlets, parliamentary inquiries, depositions, rebel
proclamations, and threatening missives sent by Rockites to their
enemies--"Captain Rock" offers a detailed anatomy of a dangerous,
widespread insurgency whose distinctive political contours will
force historians to expand their notions of how agrarian militancy
influenced Irish nationalism in the years before the Great Famine
of 1845-51.
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