Keith A: Not "Wolfe Tone." The episodes were set in 1803/1804 and introduced the idea of a French invasion of Ireland to hang the story together. The character "Wolf" told Hornblower just before he got killed that "while he respected Hormblower, he hated and detested all the stood for." Earlier in the story another Irishman who had been a French agent in the British navy for years, killed himself. Hornblower and the Admiral covered it up because and I quote " a quarter of the navy was Irish." The same old story really. "Boney is a tyrant" and the Brits are fighting to save civilisation.