Thomas McCabe (United Irishmen)

Thomas McCabe (1739 - 1820), a merchant in Belfast, was an

Early life and family

Born in

Thomas was one of the founding members of the Belfast Charitable Society, Clifton House, Belfast in 1774. In the 1770s, McCabe and John McCracken installed machinery in the Clifton House, known then as Belfast Poor House, enabling it to become the first cotton spinning mill in the town. An important member of Belfast's mercantile and industrial middle class, he donated £100 to the building of a new White Linen Hall in 1782, to act as a centre for the bustling linen industry in the city. Another important benefactor to the building of the hall, was fellow future United Irishman, Gilbert McIlveen.^[5]

Prior to the founding of the United Irishmen, McCabe was heavily involved in Belfast's liberal and radical community, being a leading figure in the city's anti-slavery circle. He clashed routinely with the plans of

In April 1791, McCabe resolved with Samuel Neilson, John Robb, Alexander Lowry and Henry Joy McCracken:^[1]

to form ourselves into an association to unite all Irishmen to pledge ourselves to our country, and by that cordial union maintain the balance of patriotism so essential for the restoration and preservation of our liberty, and the revival of our trade.

In October, the group invited Theobald Wolfe Tone, author of the tract Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland and his friend Thomas Russell to address a broader meeting. Fully persuaded of Tone's case that London-appointed Irish executive exploited sectarian division to balance “the one party by the other, plunder and laugh at the defeat of both,” McCabe and his friends formed themselves as the Society of United Irishmen. They would oppose "the weight of English influence" by securing an Irish parliament in which "all the people" would have "equal representation".^[8]

Anticipating government repression, two days later McCabe joined a secret directory including Neilson, William Tenant, Robert Simms and Henry Haslett. McCabe house and farm (behind the Belfast Poor House) became a regular meeting place for the United Irishmen and was attacked by Dragoons in March 1793.^[1]

As the society replicated among working men and women who there had maintained their own democratic ("Jacobin") clubs, and among tenant farmers long organised in secret fraternities, McCabe and others determined upon a republican insurrection for which they hoped to obtain French assistance. McCabe was involved in procuring arms including canon that belonged to the Belfast Volunteer companies. By 1797, having neglected his business affairs and facing financial difficulties he moved back to Lurgan.^[1]

1798 Rebellion and later life

In March 1798, most of the leadership of the

In May, the rising began in Kildare. It spread to other counties in Leinster before rousing United men in Ulster. The meetings to plan the attack on Antrim were held in McCabe's house. During and after the insurrection, his shop in North St was repeatedly attacked by government troops.^[9] His son, William, acted as bodyguard to Lord Edward before his capture, and escaped to France after the revolution.

At the age of 59, Thomas would have been too old to fight. Although still highly involved in the organisation during the insurrection, he appears to have been unmolested by the authorities in the aftermath. His son William later was involved in the uprising of Robert Emmet in 1803.

Thomas is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery along with other United men such as Henry Joy McCracken, William Drennan, William Steel Dickson, the Sinclair brothers.^[9]

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