page_title: Young Ireland
section_title: 1848 Uprising
hierarchical_section_title: Young Ireland / 1848 Uprising
caption_attribution_description: English: Image sourced Michael Doheny’s The Felon’s Track first published 1849
context_page_description: Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It began as a tendency within Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association, associated with The Nation newspaper, but eventually split to found the Irish Confederation in 1847. Young Ireland led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the rebellion's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land. From its beginnings in the late 1830s, Young Ireland grew in influence and inspired following generations of Irish nationalists. Some of the junior members of the movement went on to found the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
context_section_description: The Young Irelanders were inspired by the French Revolution, and popular uprisings in 1848 across Europe in which governments and monarchies toppled in favour of democratic reforms.
  William Smith O'Brien, the leader of the Young Ireland Party, launched an attempted rebellion in July 1848, in response to the introduction of martial law. He gathered landlords and tenants together with Young Irelanders.  O'Brien's failure to capture a party of police barricaded in widow McCormack's house, who were holding her children as hostages, marked the effective end of the revolt. Though intermittent resistance continued till late 1849, O'Brien and his colleagues were quickly arrested and convicted of sedition. Originally sentenced to death, the young men received a great outpouring of public support. The government commuted their sentences to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land, where they joined John Mitchel. The "Irish gentlemen" were assigned to different settlements to try to reduce their continued collaboration.
caption: Widow McCormack's house, later called the Warhouse
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