Showing The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down by A. T. Q. Stewart

(The Summer Soldiers provides a poignant account of the courage, carnage, and cruelty on all sides of the conflict. In one momentous week in Antrim and Down, a shaky coalition of idealistic Presbyterians and Catholics (with shared economic and political interests) tried to wrest power from the Ascendancy, in the cause of the Rights of Man and the independence of Ireland. Stewart presents a moving hour-by-hour account of the United Irishmen -- most armed with peat spades, reaping hooks, and pitchforks -- who fought with courage and idealism, but were defeated by confusion and betrayal)