The standing and influence of the Irish bar in the eighteenth century was out of all proportion to its intrinsic merits. Tone's dismissive references to his career as barrister are often taken at face value and this part of his life dealt with in a perfunctory fashion. However, Tone was still practising as a barrister on the eve of his exile from Ireland in 1795, and felt himself very much a part of the legal fraternity. Moreover, it was through his experiences at the Irish bar that his sense of alienation from the landed establishment was fully developed. It was the natural doorway to a political career for those prepared to wait. But the Irish bench and courts were packed with placemen, and to an ambitious but struggling young barrister the need for social and political connections to succeed soon became painfully apparent. Tone was too impatient to wait, too proud to defer, and he was not alone. The Irish bar also introduced him to a body of like-minded men, unwilling to follow the hierarchical route through years of docility to preferment. These were the men who would dominate the Dublin Society of United Irishmen. Tone was about to become part of that process of fracturing elites which was producing revolution all over Europe.

I

Tone and William landed at Dublin on 23 December and reached the family home in Kildare on Christmas Day. With Maria only three, Arthur seven, Fanny about five or six, Mary fourteen and Matthew seventeen, the house was filled with young voices that Christmas. But a severe winter and anxiety about their future had taken their toll of Matilda's health. Tone was shocked at how delicate she looked. Matilda fretted when Tone was away, and his two years in London cannot have been an easy time for her. Estranged from her own family, she was to develop a warm attachment to Mrs Tone.

Early in the new year Tone effected a reconciliation with the Witheringtons and took his family back to Dublin. The Revd Mr Fanning paid over the promised £500 and the Tones took lodgings nearby in Clarendon Street.