As the Directory set out its plans for Ireland, Tone's mission received powerful reinforcement from an unexpected source. Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur O'Connor had defected from Ireland's ruling elite and joined forces with the United Irishmen. By early June 1796 they had arrived on the Continent with instructions to open communication with the Directory and with Tone. The United Irishmen believed that uncontrolled and piecemeal popular insurgency in Ireland was drawing such a reaction from the authorities that if French help did not arrive soon organised resistance would be entirely suppressed. The nature of the disturbances which raged through Ulster, Leinster and Connacht differed from region to region, becoming more agrarian as one moved inland from the urban centres. But three things were common to all: support for the French, a growing politicisation, and alienation from the state. All three were intensified by the nature of the disturbances which flared out from Armagh and south Down from the late summer of 1796.

The ritualised sectarian conflict in these areas took on a new character with the emergence of the Orange Order in September 1795. The result was an orchestrated campaign of intimidation and expulsion of Catholics from Armagh, to which many magistrates turned a blind eye. The Castle was disturbed at such blatant association of the law with sectarianism, fearing, correctly, that it would send hordes of Catholics into the United Irishmen. But it was difficult for most of the populace to credit the Irish and English governments’ commitment to due process of the law when the irregularities themselves were legitimised by statute in the 1796 parliamentary session.

In 1795 the response of the military commander Lord Carhampton to the troubles in the west had been to clear the jails and send many untried prisoners into the navy. Magistrates elsewhere emulated this efficient remedy, and many of them faced prosecution by the turn of the year.