Ulster Rises First: Sectarian Slaughter and the Dragooning of Ulster
While the British leadership in Dublin had feared declaring martial law initially, the commander of the forces in Ulster had no such problem.
General Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (1744 - 1808)
Originally Governor of Limerick, Lake was promoted to command of the forces in Ulster, where he set about brutally dealing with the nascent rising there. He believed in his own maxim - “Nothing but terror will keep them in order” - and made good on his boast, ordering that anyone not in the service of the Crown relinquish any weapons they had, and had the leadership of the Belfast United Irishmen arrested and executed. He let loose the feared and hated Yeomanry - the “Yeos” - who burned houses, raped and tortured, flogged and hanged people, often without trial, or without evidence at a trial. Only Catholic and other dissenters were targeted, and some of the Yeos were in fact of the Orange Order.
His savagery knew no bounds, and was “untroubled by legal restraints or by his troops’ actions” as he essentially harrowed the north, in a wave of violence and repression which became known to history as “the dragooning of Ulster”. One particular punishment his men used was called “pitch-capping”, a process by which a thick piece of paper soaked in pitch (tar) was stuck to someone’s forehead and set alight. They also practiced “shearing”, in which a victim’s earlobes were cut off, for some reason.
General Sir Ralph Abercromby, who was appointed to command of Ireland, tried to restore order, horrified at the butchery his predecessor had wrought on the country, but found himself blocked by Dublin Castle, who were still shaken by the almost-invasion by France which had only been prevented due to the Irish weather, and they gave their tacit approval and endorsement to Lake’s inhuman methods. Abercromby, disgusted, returned to England, leaving Lake to it. Rather ironically, and extremely unfortunately for the Irish, Lake was chosen as his replacement. He now had complete control over the island, and lost no time in bringing his barbaric methods of suppression south.
Critics warned that his brutal treatment of the Irish would force their hand into rebellion, not stay it. They were right.