LARKIN, John. Ed. by. The Trial of William Drennan on a Trial for Sedition, in the Year 1794 and his Intended Defense.

Dublin: I.A.P., 1991. Medium octavo. pp. 139. Brown paper boards, titled in gilt. Some notes on final blank. A fine copy in fine dust jacket.
In 1794, William Drennan, then chairman of the United Irishmen, was brought to trial on nine counts
of having written and published a seditious libel. This account of the trial, originally published at the
time, provides a microcosm of the dynamic currents of change sweeping Ireland in this revolutionary
era; the hopes and fears generated by the French revolution; the desire for a greater say in the
governing of Ireland; and the fears of many of a foreign invasion of Ireland. This new, re-set edition
contains an introduction which sets the trial in its historical context and has as an appendix the Defence
Drennan wrote in 1794 and published in 1812 and 1815.
Professor John Larkin’s introduction, a notable contribution to Irish legal history studies, describes
Drennan’s background and the personalities involved in his trial and highlights the development of
radical Presbyterian consciousness in the 1790s

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