Joe Offer, in Maria Ledbetter's journals, which stretched through parts of the 18th and the 19th centuries, she mentions that it was considered a sign of a United man to refuse to drink, because they were afraid of "talking" in drink.

The United Irishmen could be seen as analogous to modern American liberals. They were adamantly against religious sectarianism, and shared a desire for Irish independence and for a more egalitarian society. Founded by Ulster Presbyterians (who were also seen as 'Dissenters' outside the Protestant (ie Anglican) Church, they included people of all religions.

After the 1798 Rising, as you certainly know, there was a bloodbath in which tens of thousands of these people - well known to their neighbours and to the administration for their liberal, nationalist and egalitarian ideas, were captured and judicially murdered or lynched.