THE Republic may be about to get a second senate - and with the approval of a Government Minister or two at that.
This second senate is the brainchild of a high powered group in Co Wexford which has been given the unenviable task of raising £1,000,000 to help pay for the county's commemoration, in two years time, of the 1798 Rising.
Co Wexford started its preparations for celebrating the 98 bicentenary back in 1988 when a representative committee, Comoradh 98, was set up with the support of the county council and other local authorities. Its programme of activities was launched in when, on Bastille Day in Enniscorthy, 30,000 people gathered to celebrate the bicentenary of the revolution which inspired the United Irishmen.
Since then Comoradh 98 has acquired a headquarters, the old Christian Brothers monastery overlooking the Slaney and Vinegar Hill, which is to be turned into an ultra modern 98 exhibition and study centre under the ambitious title of Aras Naisiunta 98, the National 98 Centre.
Friends of 98
To pay for this and other projects, such as the 98 Heritage Trail, the Father Murphy Centre in Boolavogue, the Ferns Heritage Centre and the 98 Village Project in Oulart, Comoradh 98 has set about its fund raising with flair and imagination.
With an input from the county's many historians and librarians, a "Friends of 98" group has been established with patrons who include An Taoiseach, John Bruton, the former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, John Hume and Tony O'Reilly. The main fund raising vehicle will be a reconvened Wexford senate, whose 500 members will contribute £2,000 each for the honour of belonging to this historic body.
The original Wexford senate was established at the end of May 1798 when the victorious insurgents, after the capture of Enniscorthy and Wexford towns, set about implementing their part of the United Irish plan, to hold Co Wexford as a beach head for a French landing and to govern the territory in the interim.
A directory of four Protestants and four Catholics was appointed, together with a senate of 500 of the county's principal inhabitants" which met in Wexford town to ratify decisions of the directory by "the voice of the people". This civil government remained in power until June 21st, by which time the rising had effectively been quelled.
Among the achievements of the Wexford republic were the preservation of order, the institution of a food distribution system, and the establishment of a Wexford navy. This small force consisted of four oyster boats, each manned by 25 sailors and under the command of two local sea captains, named Scallan and Howlin, who were given the rank of admiral.
Wexford navy
This was no mere Gilbert and Sullivan navy. The oyster boats, equipped with captured cannon, patrolled the harbour mouth and nearby coasts, seized several schooners bound for Dublin and brought them to Wexford quays, where their cargoes of oats, potatoes and other foodstuffs were welcomed by the United Irish commissariat under Protestant landlord Cornelius Grogan.
Also captured was a cutter bound for Guinea, from which six cannon were commandeered and later used by the insurgents during the battle of Vinegar Hill.
The most spectacular exploit of the Wexford navy, however, was the arrest at sea of the yacht carrying an unsuspecting Lord Kingsborough, colonel of the notorious North Cork Militia, who, together with two of his officers, was trying to reach Wexford town unaware that it had fallen to the United Irish army.
Kingsborough was held prisoner until the town capitulated on June 21st. He played a significant role in the negotiations that led to its surrender, and, by his pleading, probably saved the town from being sacked by the victorious General Lake and his rampaging troops.
The Wexford republic and its directory and senate were shortlived. This founding experiment in Irish democracy - was deliberately obliterated - from the historical record by the victors in later years, its widespread support throughout Wexford was denied and the revolution of 98 portrayed as a mere peasant and sectarian rebellion.
Only now, as a result of research by scholars such as Prof Louis Cullen, Daniel Gahan, Brian Cleary, Dr Kevin Whelan and others, is the true picture of the organisation and sophistication of the United Irish movement in Co Wexford emerging.
Reconvened senate
It is to honour this first senate and its significance that are convened senate will meet in Wexford in 1998. The literature of Friends of 98 says the senate is being recalled as "a testament to the modernity of the ideals of the United Irishmen. In recovering the story of the Wexford republic we reappropriate a profound symbol for Irish democracy", they aver.
The senate, they continue, will be a structure that will bring together prominent men and women of the diaspora - from widely varied fields of endeavour, to act if they so wish as a permanent forum for the Irish at home and abroad to interact both intellectually and materially for the betterment of all.
This, then, is the challenging project which has already won the approval of at least two Wexford members of the Cabinet and which, it is hoped, will be ceremonially launched by the President of Ireland in Wexford in June 1998.