By Aengus O'Snodaigh

With the bicentennial celebrations of the United Irish policy of 1798 fast approaching we can expect an avalanche of books on the period to grace the bookstores. Many will be reprints, incomplete or rushed works seeking to cash in on the occasion.

With that in mind - and as always the cynic - I picked up John Killen's new book, but upon reading it I can say that there is nothing easy in compiling a book of contemporary documents. The skill in such compilation is to be non-partisan when selecting material which would otherwise remain outside the grasp of the reading public except through visits to the national archive or such like. To be biased would take away from the value which contemporary accounts have in creating for the reader a greater understanding of the period in question, allowing a more vivid picture to develop in their minds of what really happened and to whet their appetite for further investigation.

A word of caution though to the reader: contemporary accounts are not history per se, but a guide to help evaluate accounts of the period. This would be one crib I have with Killen; his volume does not provide for the uninitated explanatory notes or biopics which would help the reader place the accounts in their historical context (for example, who was Marquis Cornwallis, General Lake, William Orr, etc.).

As with his The Famine Decade Contemporary Account 1841-1851, John Killen has once again presented us with a delightful collection of snippets from the past, a treasure trove of information which can be extracted form the acts, declarations, resolutions, court reports, diary entries, newspaper footage, private and public correspondence, poems and sketches.

The book covers the founding of the United Irishmen on 18 October 1791 where a young Dublin barrister, Theobald Wolfe Tone, prepared a set of resolutions which were adopted as the raison d'etre of the society.

``We think it our duty, as Irishmen, to come forward, and state what we feel to be our heavy grievance, and what we know to be its effectual remedy. We have no national government; and we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland...

``[We] require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland [and] a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in parliament... [We acknowledge] that no reform is practicable, efficacious, or just, which shall not include Irishmen or every religious persuasion.''

Also included are: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen; The Felony Act; The Resolution of the Orange societies of Ulster 1797; Lord Edward Fitzgerald's plans for guerrilla warfare; the new Lord Lieutenant Lord Cornwallis's report of the ``State of present inactivity'' in July 1798 where he states:

``The Irish militia [under his control] are totally without discipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor wretches either with or without arms come within their power; in short murder appears to be their favourite pastime.''

Or, the French General Sarrazin's Mayo Manifesto; General Humbert's report to the Executive Directory of events leading to what the British regarded as a ``shameful'' - Castlebar; Plans for the Union, Wolfe Tone's trial account and later Robert Emmet and Thomas Russell; Henry Grattan's ``inflammatory'' speech against the Union which was carried by 138 votes to 96, and which states:

``That the said kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January, which shall be in the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever, be united into one kingdom, by the name of ``the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,''

Robert Emmet's final words also appear ``When my country takes her place amongst the nations of the earth, then and then only can my character be vindicated: then only may my Epitaph be written.''