Thomas Russell, one of Wolfe Tone's closest friends, co-founded the Society of United Irishmen both in Belfast and Dublin. This book gives a fascinating glimpse of the years when the United Irishmen became a mass-based organisation. Increasing cooperation between Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters is traced as Russell forwarded the cause of unity through political and organisational endeavor. People began to recognize that their divisions perpetuated their own oppression. Russell's long detention in Newgate, his prison correspondence, and his internment in Scotland, are also discussed. After his release in 1802, he joined Irish emigres in Paris. In 1803, his participation in Emmet's rising led to his arrest and execution in Downpatrick. -- Publisher description