The Society of United Irishmen has spread…
1797 CE
The Society of United Irishmen has spread throughout Ireland and has at least two hundred thousand members by 1797.
The Establishment responds to widespread disorders by launching a counter-campaign of martial law from March 2, 1797.
It uses tactics including house burnings, torture of captives, pitchcapping and murder, particularly in Ulster as it is the one area of Ireland where large numbers of Catholics and Protestants (mainly Presbyterians) have effected common cause.
The pitchcapping process involves pouring hot pitch, or tar (mainly used at the time for lighting purposes), into a conical shaped paper "cap", which is forced onto a bound suspect's head and then allowed to cool.
Less elaborate versions include smearing a cloth or piece of paper with pitch and pressing onto the head of the intended victim.
The torture is usually preceded by the crude shearing of the victim's hair.
The effect on the skull of this controlled form of local boiling somewhat resembles scalping, earlier known from the North American colonies.
Pitch has long, even in antiquity, been used (like other hot liquids, even melted metal) to pour into a victim's orifices.
However, both those techniques are usually faster and often lethal, so less suitable as torture proper, rather as capital punishment.
The military in Belfast also violently suppress the newspaper of the United Irishmen, the Northern Star, in May 1797.