James Napper Tandy (February 1739 – 24 August 1803), known as Napper Tandy, was an Irish revolutionary and a founder of the United Irishmen. He experienced exile, first in the United States and then in France, for his role in attempting to advance a republican insurrection in Ireland with French assistance.
Political activism
A Dubliner, a Protestant (Church of Ireland), and the son of an ironmonger, Tandy was baptised (as 'James Naper Tandy') in St. Audoen's Church on 16 February 1739. He went to the famous Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, south Kildare, also attended by Edmund Burke, who was eight years older. He then started life as a small tradesman in Dublin's inner city. He was a churchwarden at St. Audoen's in 1765, and also at another local church (either St. Bride's or St. John's) where he commissioned a new church bell bearing his name, displayed since 1946 on the floor of St. Werburgh's Church.
Turning to politics, he was elected a member of Dublin Corporation representing the Guild of Merchants, and was popular for his denunciation of municipal corruption and his proposal of a boycott of English goods in Ireland in retaliation for the restrictions imposed by the Westminster government on Irish commerce.
In April 1780, Tandy was expelled from the Dublin Volunteers (see Henry Flood) for proposing the expulsion of the Duke of Leinster. He was one of the most conspicuous members of the small revolutionary party, chiefly of the shopkeeper class, that formed a permanent committee in June 1784 to agitate for reform, and called a convention of delegates from all parts of Ireland. This met in October 1784.
Return to Ireland
Tandy accepted the offer of a corvette, (later captured by the British and renamed ), from the French government and sailed from Dunkirk accompanied by a few United Irishmen, a small force of men and a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition for distribution in Ireland. He arrived at the isle of Arranmore, off the coast of County Donegal, on 16 September 1798. A peremptory demand from the British government to detain the fugitives was acceded to despite a counter-threat from the French Directory. In 1799 HMS Xenophon, under Commander George Sayer, brought Tandy and some of his associates back to England as state prisoners.
Exile
On 12 February 1800, Tandy was put on trial at Dublin and was acquitted. He remained in prison in Lifford Jail in County Donegal until April 1801, when he was tried for the treasonable landing on Rutland Island.
Notwithstanding his vices and his lack of all solid capacity, there is no reason to suppose that Napper Tandy was dishonest or insincere; and the manner in which his name was introduced in the well-known ballad "The Wearing of the Green" proves that he succeeded in impressing the popular imagination of the rebel party in Ireland. The ballad's second verse starts:<blockquote>I met with Napper Tandy<br>and he took me by the hand.<br>And he said "How's poor old Ireland,<br>and how does she stand?"</blockquote>
In France, where his release was regarded as a French diplomatic victory, he was received, in March 1802, as a person of distinction;