page_title: Irish Volunteers (18th century)
section_title: Dungannon Conventions
hierarchical_section_title: Irish Volunteers (18th century) / Dungannon Conventions
caption_attribution_description: English: A print of a painting commemorating the Dungannon Convention of 1782
context_page_description: The Volunteers were local militias raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778. Their original purpose was to guard against invasion and to preserve law and order at a time when British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight abroad during the American Revolutionary War and the government failed to organise its own militia. Taking advantage of Britain's preoccupation with its rebelling American colonies, the Volunteers were able to pressure Westminster into conceding legislative independence to the Dublin parliament. Members of the Belfast 1st Volunteer Company laid the foundations for the establishment of the United Irishmen organisation. The majority of Volunteer members however were inclined towards the yeomanry, which fought and helped defeat the United Irishmen in the Irish rebellion of 1798.
context_section_description: On 28 December 1781, members of the Southern Battalion of the County Armagh Volunteers (who formed the First Ulster Regiment) convened and resolved for a meeting in the "most central town of Ulster, which we conceive to be Dungannon", in which delegates from every volunteer association in the province of Ulster were requested to attend. The date of this meeting was pencilled in for "the 15th day of February next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon."
  On the arranged date, 15 February 1782, delegates from 147 Volunteer corps arrived at the Presbyterian church, at Scotch Street, Dungannon for what would become known as the "Dungannon Convention of 1782". This church has formerly been the favourite meeting place of the Presbyterian Synod of Ulster and later the supreme ecclesiastical court of Irish Presbyterians. After the Volunteer convention it was afterwards known as the "Church of the Volunteers", although some later writers claim the actual meeting place was the Church of Ireland parish church at Drumglass.
  This church was used for the next three conventions of Ulster Volunteer corps: 21 June 1782, with delegates from 306 companies attending; 8 September 1783, with delegates from 270 companies; and almost a decade later on 15 February 1793, when the "fires of patriotism that marked the birth of the movement were burning low", which the meeting "failed to kindle them anew".
caption: A print of a painting depicting the Volunteer Dungannon Convention at Dungannon Church, on 15 February 1782
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