Labour of love writing biography of United Irishman Samuel Neilson

Labour of love writing biography of United Irishman Samuel Neilson

2 August 2017

A NEW biography of United Irishman Samuel Neilson will be launched next month.

Written by Down High School deputy headmaster, Ken Dawson, The Belfast Jacobin: Samuel Neilson and the United Irishmen, will be launched at the Linenhall Library on September 5, and will be followed by a talk and book signing by the author in Down County Museum the following evening.

Mr Dawson, a graduate of Queen’s University, was head of history and politics at Down High between 1997 and 2008 and has been vice-principal at the grammar school for the past nine years.

He has been researching the United Irishmen for a number of years and is the author of numerous articles on the subject. Mr Dawson also lives in Ballynahinch, close to the scene of the infamous battle that took place there in 1798 and has described the new publication as a “labour of love.”

Born in Co Down, Neilson was the son of a Presbyterian minister, the Rev Alexander Neilson of Ballyroney Presbyterian Church. He was also the editor of the radical Northern Star newspaper, published twice weekly between 1792 before its suppression five years later, 

The new book — the first-ever biography of Samuel Neilson — contains a significant amount of new and original research. It is being published by Irish Academic Press and will be available at the end of the month.

Neilson, who was a prosperous textile merchant in Belfast and an elder in Third Belfast Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Lane, was an active member of the Belfast Volunteer Company.

He was a founding member of the United Irishmen in Belfast in 1791 and played a leading role in its development.

Neilson was arrested on the same day as Thomas Russell in September 1796 and was released from prison on the grounds of ill health in February 1798. But he quickly became involved again in radical politics and was a confidante of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the United Irishmen’s commander in chief in the run up to the 1798 rebellion.

Arrested again just days after the capture and fatal wounding of Lord Edward, Neilson was imprisoned with other United Irish leaders in Fort George near Inverness between 1799 and 1802. Following his release he returned briefly and secretly to Ireland before departing for exile in the United States. He died in August 1803 at Poughkeepsie on the Hudson River.

Mr Dawson said the new publication is a “pivotal history” that illuminates the true import of Neilson’s deeds and writing, sorely obscured in all accounts of the 1798 rebellion until now.

The author said as editor of the Northern Star, Neilson was to be a principal figure in shaping the United Irishmen’s ideology before the newspaper was suppressed by the military. 

“He brought the excitement caused by the French Revolution into Irish focus, putting public dissatisfaction into words and, later, gathering the forces necessary for revolt,” he continued.

Conducting original research and drawing upon innumerable archive sources, Mr Dawson reveals

Neilson’s “formidable strength” as an organiser of radical politics, his incessant run-ins with the authorities and his central role in planning the United Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Neilson brought talk of revolution to the street, with The Belfast Jacobin a pivotal history that illuminates the true import of his deeds and writing, sorely obscured in many accounts of the 1790s.