In December 1791, a wing of the Catholic Committee under the influence of the United Irishmen splits from the main body and appoints Wolfe Tone as its agent.
Unprecedented political consciousness is stirred by the petitioning, parish elections and debates surrounding a proposed Catholic Convention in the capital and vehement conservative reaction aroused.
The convention assembles at the Tailor's Hall, on December 3rd, 1792, where 223 delegates address their demand for emancipation to the king.
Central to the United Irish programme of education and propaganda is its Northern Star. Edited in Belfast by Samuel Neilson with a print run of 4,200, each copy passes through many hands and generates public support for parliamentary reform. Extracts from radical pamphlets are reprinted along with cheap editions of the seminal Rights of Man, which are discussed in reading clubs throughout the country.
The high expectations of the new pro-reform constituency are disappointed by the Relief Act of 1793, even though it extends the franchise to 200,000 of Ireland's five million subjects and permits Catholics to enter the hitherto barred offices of the magistracy, the law and the corporations.
The government is in no mood to compromise further as the outbreak of war with France in February 1793 threatens the security of Britain and Ireland. A Militia Act exploits new concessions to Catholics on the right to bear arms and in April one to two regiments are embodied in every county for service in Ireland during the war.
Opposition to the conscription of militiamen in sectors where volunteers cannot be found occasions the most extreme and widespread violence in a generation. The clashes are fomented by the Defenders, a predominantly Catholic Jacob-in-like paramilitary organisation which has grown out of inter-communal friction in 1780s Armagh and is spreading into the four provinces by 1792.
The United Irish seek to exert control over them lest they plunge the country into a premature revolution: Napper Tandy is arrested on December 23rd, 1792, after swearing the Defender oath at Castlebellingham in their Louth stronghold.
The pro-government Faulkner's Dublin Journal reports on June 1st 1793 that the Sligo Defenders have sworn to be "loyal to each other and to resist the Militia Act with all our power." Great loss of life ensues outside Wexford town, where 80 protesters are shot dead on July 13th, 1793.
Noting that Defenderism remains unbowed by harsh sentencing on the assize circuit at Drogheda, Trim and elsewhere, Judge Robert Day informs the Grand Jury of Dublin County at Kilmainham on January 14th 1794 that they have "never before known sedition stalk so publicly and confidently thro[ugh] the country."
The outlook seems bleak for Irish conservatives. Writing from Jonesborough, Co Armagh, on August 3rd 1794, the Rev Edward Hudson confirms the extent of the United Irish threat in the country. He writes: "The change in the natives here is truly astonishing. Formerly a newspaper would have been a phenomenon amongst them. At present, they may vie with the northerns in their thirst after politics. He who can read has generally a large audience about the door of his cabin, whilst he is endeavouring to enlighten his countrymen."
It is discovered in April 1794 that the republicans are encouraging their French allies to invade. The Society of United Irishmen is banned and Tone is forced into exile in America. He first visits Neilson and the charismatic Henry Joy McCracken in Belfast, who rededicate themselves to the cause of the United Irishmen on the Cave Hill.