DEATH OR LIBERTY: The Battle of Vinegar HillDeath or Liberty: The Battle of Vinegar Hill is a story of deceit, betrayal and brutality which tells of the tumultuous events that linked two countries on different sides of the world. In 1795 the Irish were living under severe oppression as they struggled for democratic rights while suffering the constraints of British rule. Britain was not prepared to liberate Ireland, fearing that the Irish might decide on an independent nation and make Ireland a base for England's enemies. Irish Roman Catholics sought equality, Irish Protestants sought parliamentary reform, and both groups sought economic reform. Britain′s control over Ireland′s freedom led to an Irish plan for revolution that, with the help of the French, would break the British connection and usher in democratic reform. In 1798 a campaign of British terror led to a mass rebellion in County Wexford which became known as the The Battle of Vinegar Hill. Many Irish rebels from that battle were convicted and transported to the new penal colony of Botany Bay in NSW. In 1804 these Irish convicts, again rebelling against British control, but this time on the other side of the world, instigated the first battle ever fought between Europeans on Australian soil, when the second The Battle of Vinegar Hill occurred at Castle Hill NSW. |
