In 1792 the Presbyterian minister Thomas Ledlie Birch convened a Saintfield branch of the Society of United Irishmen, founded the year before by liberal Protestant in Belfast, and moved their first resolutions. These called for "a more equal representation of the people" in the Parliament in Dublin and the recognition of "our brethren Roman Catholics as men deprived of their just rights". Faced with growing repression, the United Irishmen launched a rebellion in 1798, which began with a largely Catholic uprising in Leinster but quickly spread to the Presbyterian Ulster.