DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

1773 The Tea Act called for the colonists to use only tea from the British East India Company and to pay a tax on it.

The Boston “Tea Party”, at Griffin’s wharf, where many who participated were Irish “Indians” who dumped the British East India Tea into the harbor. In the other colonies they simply refused to let the ships unload the tea to the point the tea spoiled on the ships.

The British response were the “Intolerable Acts”, a series of punitive acts that precipitated the American Revolution.

1774 Colonel Andrew Lewis, an Irishman, defeated the Shawnee Indians at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River opening the way to the Northwest Territory.

A dispute arose between the colonies of Connecticut and Pennsylvania over Delaware. The two sides were called the “Yankees” and the “Pennyites”. Irish leaders were on both sides. Colonel Zebulon Butler led the “Yankees” of Connecticut, and a Colonel Plunkett led the Pennsylvania “Pennyites.”

Meeting of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Many of the delegates were Irish or Scottish born. John Hancock of Irish heritage was elected President of the Congress. Charles Thomson,who was born in Maghera, County Derry was elected Secretary of the Congress. Thomson would later design the Great Seal of the United States.

John Sullivan, whose people were from Limerick, led a band of militia to take Fort William and Mary at Newcastle, New Hampshire. One hundred barrels of gunpowder, 15 light cannon, and many small arms were taken. The gunpowder captured was later used by the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

1775 Daniel Boone and other Irish including McGradys, Harlands, and McBrides settle Kentucky.

James Sullivan founds Limerick, Maine

The records of the Presbyterian Church in America show there were 100 Ulster Irish communities to which they had sent missionaries located in Virginia and Maryland. There were another 75 in South Carolina and Georgia and 50 more in North Carolina for a total of 225.

In efforts to politically work out a settlement before the American Revolution both John Adams and Benjamin Franklin offered plans for a representative Parliament that included both the Colonies and Ireland. John Adams wrote, “Ireland too must be incorporated….”

Franklin wrote describing such a Parliament as a, ” firm league of friendship with other colonies of Britain’s Empire, notably Ireland.”

Lexington and Concord were two conflicts in the Massachusett’s towns named, between Massachusett’s militia and British soldiers sent to destroy militia military stores, and to arrest some American leaders, among them John Hancock. Many Irish were among the Minutemen including General John Greaton with 150 men most of whom were Irish.

John Bacon, a man whose family came from Dublin, was among the Minutemen killed. Another Irishman there was Hugh Cargill. He had come from Ballyshannon, Ireland destitute, he built a business and died, at age 60 in Concord, having led a good life in America. But from his gravestone he tells us of his loneliness for Ireland:

How strange, O God that reigns on high.
That I should come so far to die!
And leave my friends where I was bred,
To lay my bones with strangers dead!

The British troops withdrew to Boston after the events at Lexington and Concord.

William Pitt, Edmund Burke, Colonel Barre, Richard Brisley Sheridan, all spoke against using military force against the colonies in the British Parliament, Henry Grattan did the same in the Irish Parliament.

Colonel Barre was one of the founders of The Sons of Liberty. Another founder was the Reverend Francis Allison.

The Siege of Boston, among the American leaders there were Richard Montgomery and John Sullivan.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, present were 800 New Hampshire militia most of whom were Irish serving under Irishman John Stark. Others present were General John Sullivan, Major Andrew McClary, and Henry Knox.

Meeting of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. John Hancock was again elected President and Charles Thomson was again elected Secretary.

In June, a special committee of the Congress composed an address to the people of Ireland:

Your nation has produced patriots, who have nobly distinguished themselves in the Cause of humanity and America.

Henry Gratton assumes the role of leader of the “Patriots” from Henry Flood in the Irish Parliament.

Data available for this year show that Anglicans controlled over 90% of the land in Ireland. The Anglican establishment controlled the military, government, and educational institutions, as well as the courts.

Jeremiah O’Brien, whose father came from Cork, captures the British schooner, Margretta in Machias Bay, Maine. He and his five sons captured the two British ships sent to rescue the Magretta.

Patrick Henry in a speech to get Virginia to join the revolution told the gathered members of a Virginia convention to discuss the matter:

I know not what course others may take,
but as for me, give me liberty
or give me death.

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