The Cato Street conspiracy : plotting, counter intelligence and the revolutionary tradition in Britain and Ireland / edited by Jason McElligott and Martin Conboy.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 27, 2020).

On 23 February 1820 a group of radicals were arrested in Cato Street off the Edgware Road in London. They were within 60 minutes of setting out to assassinate the British cabinet. Five of the conspirators were subsequently executed and another five were transported for life to Australia. The plotters were a mixture of English, Scottish and Irish tradesmen, and one was a black Jamaican. They were motivated by a desire to avenge the `Peterloo' massacre and intended to declare a republic, which they believed would encourage popular risings in London and across Britain. This volume of essays uses contemporary reports by Home Office spies and informers to assess the seriousness of the conspiracy. This book explains the conspiracy, and why you have never heard of it.

Introduction 'We only have to be lucky once': Cato Street, insurrection and the revolutionary tradition; Jason McElligott and Martin Conboy; ; 1. When did they know? The cabinet, informers and Cato Street; Richard A. Gaunt; ; 2. Joining up the dots: contingency, hindsight and the British insurrectionary tradition; John Stevenson; ; 3. The men they couldn't hang: 'sensible' radicals and the Cato Street Conspiracy; Jason McElligott; ; 4. Cato Street in international perspective; Malcolm Chase; ; 5. Cato Street and the Caribbean; Ryan Hanley; ; 6. Cato Street and the Spencean politics of transnational insurrection; Ajmal Waqif; ; 7. State witnesses and spies in Irish political trials, 1794-1803; Martyn J. Powell; ; 8. The shadow of the Pikeman: Irish craftsmen and British radicalism, 1803-20; Timothy Murtagh; ; 9. The fate of the transported Cato Street conspirators; Kieran Hannon; ; 10. Scripted by whom? 1820 and theatres of rebellion; John Gardner; ; Afterword; Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid and Colin W. Reid

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide