When Prof Daniel Gahan launched his latest book, Rebellion! Ireland in 1798, the gathering in Tailors Hall in Dublin included historians, writers, archivists, local politicians and members of Comoradh, the committee co-ordinating the bicentennial commemorations in Co Wexford.
But the most colourful contribution came with a colour party from Co Wexford. Perhaps those dressed as redcoats may have shared a cupla focail: the pikemen included solid Protestant farmers like Ken Hemmingway from Templeshanbo.
The symbolism goes beyond mere curiosity. It is a common tradition in many a Wexford family that there was an easy way of telling who was friend or foe on the battlefield: men in redcoats who spoke Irish with a Cork accent and said Catholic prayers were definitely soldiers; but if they spoke English and were Protestants, they probably supported the United Irishmen.
In the north-east, many an Orangeman proudly boasts that his ancestors were "out in '98". And while the Orange Order plans to commemorate the Battle of Ballynahinch, it is worth remembering that George Ogle and other prominent Orangemen after the Rising opposed the Act of Union, while a United Irishman like John Philpot Curran could accept the union when he became Master of the Rolls.
There is a false and unhappy myth that in Ulster the Rising was mainly a Presbyterian affair, while in Wexford it involved mainly Catholics led by priests like Father John Murphy.
The myth about Catholic predominance in Wexford first arose at the beginning of the last century, with Cruickshank's racist cartoons, depicting the leaders of the Rising as simian peasants bent on blood-curdling vengeance. At the same time, many Wexford Protestants were emigrating to Canada, or were anxious to maintain political silence.
Memories of Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, Matthew Keugh, the Grogans, the Harveys and the Hattons were suppressed, and others were allowed to distort the significance of the more bloody and wretched events of the Rising, including the massacres on Wexford Bridge and the burning of Scullabogue barn.
In 1898, 1938 and again in 1948, the commemorations in Co Wexford were, for all intents, parades of Catholic triumphalism. Helped by popular ballads by P.J. McCall and the distorted views of Father Patrick Kavanagh in his Popular History in 1870, the pluralist nature of the Rising and its leadership was soon forgotten. In popular myth, the leaders of the Rising were no longer Harvey, Keugh and the carefully balanced Council of Wexford, equally Catholic and Protestant, but priests like Father Murphy.
Those twists and turns to history helped Thomas Pakenham to dismiss 1798 as essentially a peasant rising. It was forgotten by many that the uniting slogan of the United Irishmen was "Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter". In that slogan Dissenter meant, essentially, Presbyterians, while Protestant referred specifically to members of the Church of Ireland.
In Down and Antrim, there are strong memories of the part played by Presbyterian clergymen, including the Rev James Porter of Greyabbey, who was executed in 1798, and the Rev Dr William Steele Dickson of Portaferry, who was arrested on the eve of the Battle of Ballynahinch and ended his life in exclusion and poverty.
It has been argued that the Presbyterians who supported the Rising were, in the main, from the liberal "New Light" school of thinking. But the Rev William McMillan points out that conservative or "Old Light" Presbyterian ministers also took part, including the Rev Sinclair Kilburn of Belfast, the Rev James Glendy of Maghera and the Rev Henry Henry of Connor.
With the emphasis of many historians on Presbyterian and Catholic clergy, like William Steele Dickson or John Murphy, the Protestant, or Church of Ireland, contribution is often forgotten, apart from occasional references to the up bringing of Lord Edward FitzGerald or Wolfe Tone.
But the Wexford Rising, both in the events that sparked it and in its leadership, was intimately associated with the life of both the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church, even if there were few Presbyterians in the county to make the full complement of "Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter".
The spark for the Rising in Co Wexford may have been provided in Carnew on May 25th, 1798, with the pitch-capping, flogging and massacre of 28 prisoners, including the Protestant William Young. Certainly the opening shots in Co Wexford were fired close to Oulart when Father Murphy led a raiding party on Kyle Glebe. Among the dead were the rector of Kilmuckridge, the Rev Robert Burrowes, whose brother was a prominent United Irishman and lawyer for Robert Emmet, and some of the rector's parishioners, including one James Comerford.
The founding and leading members of the United Irishmen in Co Wexford who were prominent Protestants included the president of the Wexford Council, Bagenal Harvey, and the governor of Wexford Town, Matthew Keugh; and four of the eight members of the council were Protestants: Harvey, Keugh, Nicholas Grey and William Hatton.
Nor was the Church of Ireland contribution to the leadership of the Rising confined to Wexford and Dublin. In the north-east, Betsy Gray and Henry Monro, heroes of the Battle of Ballynahinch, were members of the Church of Ireland. When Dickson was deported, the 20 prisoners on the ship consisted of four Catholics, six Presbyterians and 10 members of the Church of Ireland, including Thomas Russell, the "man from God knows where". Later Russell, who was a devout Anglican all his life, received Holy Communion "with great devotion" before his execution.
The 1798 commemorations must not be monopolised by Protestants, Catholics or Dissenters, or seen as a threat to the Orange tradition. As the Rev Brian Kennaway pointed out last week, the Rising and the Orange Order had shared origins in calls for civil, political and religious liberty.
Bishop John Neill told Ferns Diocesan Synod a few weeks ago that the commemorations have a potential for building trust. He pointed to the sensitive handling of the Famine commemorations, which were marked by an awareness of wrongs done and hurts received, and by "an attempt to get behind popular mythology and to move towards healing and reconciliation".
As we approach the 1798 bicentenary, the same spirit is needed. There is nothing to fear in confronting memory, when it is undertaken in the context of trust and of reconciliation, understanding and peace.
Patrick Comerford is an Irish Times journalist. He is a contributor to the newly published Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter (editor, Liam Swords, Co- lumba Press)
John Waters is on leave