Thomas McCabe

Thomas McCabe (1739–1820), a merchant in Belfast, was an abolitionist credited with defeating a proposal to commission ships in the town for the Middle Passage, and, with his son William Putnam McCabe, was an active member of the Society of the United Irishmen.

Early life and family

Born in Lurgan in the north-east of County Armagh, He was also involved in cotton manufacture with the Joy and McCracken families. Their third child was William Putnam McCabe, a fellow Freemason,

Prior to the founding of the United Irishmen, McCabe was heavily involved in Belfast's liberal and radical community, being a leading figure in the city's anti-slavery circle. He clashed routinely with the plans of Waddell Cunningham and others to form a Belfast-based slave trading company of which he wrote, ‘May God eternally damn the soul of the man who subscribes the first guinea’. In 1786, he prevented a slave-owning shipping company from setting up business in Belfast. These exploits led Theobald Wolfe Tone to style him as the 'Irish Slave'.

The United Irishmen

In April 1791, McCabe resolved with Samuel Neilson, John Robb, Alexander Lowry and Henry Joy McCracken: to form ourselves into an association to unite all Irishmen to pledge ourselves to our country, and by that cordial union maintain the balance of patriotism so essential for the restoration and preservation of our liberty, and the revival of our trade. In October, the group invited Theobald Wolfe Tone, author of the tract Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland and his friend Thomas Russell to address a broader meeting. Fully persuaded of Tone's case that London-appointed Irish executive exploited sectarian division to balance “the one party by the other, plunder and laugh at the defeat of both,” McCabe and his friends formed themselves as the Society of United Irishmen. They would oppose "the weight of English influence" by securing an Irish parliament in which "all the people" would have "equal representation".

Anticipating government repression, two days later McCabe joined a secret directory including Neilson, William Tenant, Robert Simms and Henry Haslett. McCabe house and farm (behind the Belfast Poor House) became a regular meeting place for the United Irishmen and was attacked by Dragoons in March 1793. His son, William, acted as bodyguard to Lord Edward before his capture, and escaped to France after the revolution.

At the age of 59, Thomas would have been too old to fight. Although still highly involved in the organisation during the insurrection, he appears to have been unmolested by the authorities in the aftermath. His son William later was involved in the uprising of Robert Emmet in 1803.

Thomas is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery along with other United men such as Henry Joy McCracken, William Drennan, William Steel Dickson, the Sinclair brothers.