Petitions, Pamphleteering, and Thomas Paine: The International Networks of the Exiled United Irishmen, 1798–1800

Muiris MacGiollabhuí explores the ways in which the United Irishmen's use of pamphlets and petitions—classic instruments of eighteenth-century politicking—played an important role in their transition from rebellious subjects in Ireland to Painite cosmopolitans in the United States. This process, one of deradicalization, was informed by an international network of thinkers, from Thomas Paine to James Callender. The United Irishmen drew inspiration from Painite cosmopolitanism and applied it in the United States, and in doing so, helped lay the groundwork for a new political identity that stressed their legitimacy as American subjects.