Here we can behold the great machine in motion : the Belfast Monthly Magazine, 1808-1814

Abstract

As England’s first colony, Ireland’s experience is of great significance to wider colonial studies. Similarities exist between settler societies such as Australia, Canada and Ireland in terms of economic structures and demographic tensions; however the colonial experience of Ireland is unique as it was England’s first colonial enterprise and therefore something of an ongoing experiment, and also because of its proximity to the home island. Nowhere else was England’s appropriation of overseas territory followed by an attempt to amalgamate it into domestic lands.This thesis discusses aspects of colonialism, political-religious dissent and education in Belfast in the immediate post-Union period (1801-1814). The commentary is couched in a study of The Belfast Monthly Magazine, a small publication that ran from 1808-1814 which provides a contemporary account of Belfast reformers who had witnessed the period of rebellion and union and continued to promote “real whig” principles in its aftermath. William Drennan (1754-1820) undertook the publishing venture jointly with John Templeton (1766-1825) and John Hancock (1762-1823). Drennan was a co-founder of the United Irishmen, Templeton was a well-known botanist and former United Irishman, and Hancock was a linen merchant and former member of the Society of Friends. The Proprietors, as they referred to themselves in their publication, reported on continental politics and their observations on the ongoing Napoleonic wars were largely informed by their experiences of civil unrest over the previous three decades.