On Monday 4 June 1798, three days before a Belfast Presbyterian, Henry Joy McCracken, lit the flame of rebellion at the Battle of Antrim, Thomas Percy, the scholarly Anglican bishop of Dromore, watched bonfires blaze on the Belfast mountains during the short summer night. Below, candles in house windows illuminated the town's streets and narrow entries in a celebration. The United Irish society had originated amongst Belfast's heavily Presbyterian population and the town had a reputation as the citadel of irish radicalism. Belfast had notoriously commemorated the French Revolution and support for the United Irishmen survived the change from a reformist to an insurrectionary organisation. Yet the fires Percy witnessed celebrated no revolution, but marked George III's birthday which the townspeople celebrated ‘with as much public rejoicing as if it was at St. James’ and even prepared ‘a most loyal address’ offering voluntary military service.

Despite the suspicions of Generals Knox and Lake, Presbyterian disaffection had never been total. Even in Belfast, some more moderate reformers and erstwhile radicals combined with the small Anglican cohort associated with the town's proprietor Lord Donegall, and joined yeomanry corps raised, despite serious United Irish opposition, in early 1797. Presbyterian support for the yeomanry was led by William Bruce, minister of the First Presbyterian Church. Bruce was a Whiggish constitutional reformer of the Charlemont variety, whose congregation epitomised Presbyterian divisions: some members remained United Irishmen but others supported their minister's line.