Revolutionary Dublin, 1795–1801

The letters of Francis Higgins to Dublin Castle

Thomas Bartlett

This study seeks to assess the role of informers in the 1790s in Ireland, and it does so in two ways. First, it offers a detailed assessment of the dozen or so leading informers who were in constant communication with Dublin Castle during the revolutionary decade; and second, it provides for the first time a full, annotated text of the extant 158 letters written during the years 1795 to 1801 by Francis Higgins, one of the most effective of the Castle's secret correspondents. It was Higgins who was largely instrumental in the capture of the United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and, as these letters attest, he provided his handler, Under-Secretary Edward Cooke, with much other vital information on the United Irish circles in Dublin.

Information, however, needs to be processed so that it can become 'intelligence' and this study poses questions about the Castle's receptivity and sensitivity to the material pouring into it on a near-daily basis. The volume concludes with three appendices: Dublin Castle's own assessment of its knowledge of the United Irishmen in 1795; the letters of Higgins' chief agent, Francis Magan; and lists of the United Irishmen who surrendered in Dublin in September 1798.

Thomas Bartlett is one of Ireland's leading historians, and Professor of Modern Irish History, at University College Dublin.