Published to coincide with the major RTE series on the 1798 rising, Rebellion tells the heroic and tragic story of that fateful year. Generously illustrated in colour and black-and-white, this is the major popular account of the rising to appear in bicentenary year. Rebellion sets the events of 1798 in their context. It was an age of revolutions. America had broken free of English rule. In France, the monarchy had been overthrown. Ireland was also touched by the spirit of the age. The 1790s brought the rise of the United Irishmen, the abortive French landing of 1796 and the brutal government repression that followed. The events of 1798 itself are the heart of the book. There were risings in Leinster and east Ulster and a small French landing in Connacht which was too little too late. In all, over twenty thousand people died. The rising was a key event in the development of Irish nationalism.