Creatures from Under a Rock

[H2O Man]

21. It was at a time

when it was as illegal to teach Irish Catholics to read & write, as it was to teach those in the US held in slavery. Hence, Richard held classes out along the hedges lining the roads. He wasn't the only one, of course, and he taught much more than that. Some of his writings are in the Royal Irish Academy. He was the poet of the United Irishmen in the 1798 uprising, sentenced to hang. But he was eventually released.