Rebellion in Wicklow: General Holt’s Personal Account of 1798.
Author: O’SHAUGHNESSY, Peter (Editor).
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998. 176 pages. Paperback.
“Here, published for the first time, is the account, in his own words, of one of the most active of all the United Irish military leaders. It focuses almost entirely on County Wicklow and is full of local reference and colour.
Joseph Holt was around 40 years old at the time of the 1798 rebellion. A comfortably-off tenant farmer, he threw his lot in with the rebels more out of a sense of grievance than for idealistic reasons. He came to the fore after the main Wexford battles, as captain, colonel and general, and successfully operated as a guerrilla leader from the shelter of the Wicklow mountains. He held out long after the main rebellion had ended, before surrendering to the authorities in November 1798. He was deported, but eventually returned in Ireland.
A sanitised version of his memoirs was published in 1838. This new edition is the first full and accurate transcript of the Irish part of his memoirs. The editor has provided link narratives, notes and substantial appendices.”
ISBN: 1851823662