Aftermath

Ruthless, often indiscriminate, military action followed the defeat of the United Irishmen at the Battle of Antrim in June 1798. Wherever arms or prisoners were not immediately surrendered, every dwelling in the district would be set ablaze, inhabitants flogged or put to the sword or rope, and livestock looted. It was positively dangerous for any citizen to set foot outside of their house. A price was put on the heads of the insurrection's ringleaders. Rank and file United Irishmen were obliged by the authorities to sign 'a paper of submission and repentance for past conduct'.

The Synod of the Presbyterian Church, at its annual meeting in August 1798, condemned "the inexcusable crimes of a few members of our body, whose conduct we can only view with grief and indignation," and voted £500 for national defence as a token of its loyalty to the Crown. Recent research estimates that some thirty ministers and eighteen student probationers, representing all the different Presbyterian bodies, were actively involved in the rebellion; some were hanged and many imprisoned, while others were 'removed from the kingdom by permission of the government'.

French support didn't arrive until August and by then the insurrection had been put down.