A great pilgrimage could be made next year around the 1798 sites for the bicentenary: Donegore, Antrim town, Wexford Bridge, Vinegar Hill, Killala, Ballynahinch in County Down and other points not forgetting the earlier Bantry Bay. Has any publisher got in mind the issuing of a short life of Wolfe Tone? Bulmer Hobson produced a short paperback about 1919, and in 1937 Sean O Faolain gave us an abridged and edited version of Tone's own autobiography. O Faolain put it succinctly: "He was the sort of man who must have dreamed as often of the gaiety as of the comfort he could bring to Ireland, should his plans succeed." And: "His personality, the man himself, is a definition of Irish Republicanism. It is the only sensible definition that exists."
Yet Marianne Elliott, in her fine 1989 book Wolfe Tone: Prophet of Irish Indepen-dence, says he never made any claim to be "the father of Republicanism", but rather saw himself, after independence, as going back to his pre-1795 role as conciliator and bridge between Catholics and the Presbyterians. He frequently writes of his mission as fulfilling the personal debt to his friends of the Catholic Committee.
Was Tone a good lawyer - his first calling? Would he have made a good farmer when in exile in America? He gets his good friend Thomas Russell (The Man From God Knows Where) to send him seed, including "5 lbs common furze seed and 2-3 quarts of haw stones". But he was soon back in Paris, seeking aid from the French. His diary: "1796, Paris March 17th, St Patrick's Day. Dined alone on the Champs Elysses. Sad! Sad!"
In earlier days, back in Belfast there had often been wild nights after the politicking. "1791 October 23rd, Sunday. Went to the Donegal Arms and supped on lobsters. Drunk. Very ill-natured to P.P. P.P. patient Mem. To do so no more. Went to bed. P.P. with nonsense. Fell asleep." P.P. was Russell, his great friend. Tone gave nicknames to all his associates. Russell was P.P Clerk of this Parish; Tone himself was Mr Hutton; Whitley Stokes of TCD was The Keeper (of the College Zoo); Thomas Addis Emmet was The Pismire. There was a whole cast of pseudonyms. O Faolain writes with great gusto and understanding. Nelson published.