ABSTRACT
The third chapter will describe various aspects of the Rockites’ political notions and contextualise them in the local and national politics of the day. The Rockites were unique among the Irish disturbers in their strong millenarian beliefs which enabled them to have such wild schemes as launching a general rising. However, stressing the millenarian aspect too much is misleading. Rockites’ political notions did not originate in the millenarian prophecy to which great importance has been attached by historians. While Rockites used phrases tinged with Jacobitism, they also appealed to the memory of the 1790s, styling themselves as the descendants of the United Irishmen. In addition, such national issues as the Catholic question and its O’Connellite politics also influenced Rockite thinking.
