United Irishmen in training [graphic]

"Outside a country ale-house ruffians are practising their weapons at close range on the effigy of a British soldier which is spiked on a spear (left): helmet, coat stuffed with straw, top-boots. One man levels a spear, another fires a misshapen pistol, a third, who is bare-legged, with a headsman's axe in his belt, fires a blunderbuss whose large bullets fall to the ground. In the foreground (right) a woman turns the handle of a grindstone on which a man sharpens a sword; on the ground is a pile of weapons: swords, daggers, spears, muskets, and a pistol. Behind (right) men with pikes and spears gather round the inn-door, which is inscribed 'True French Spirits'. They drink; the landlord fills a glass from a small keg. All wear tricolour cockades. The (pictorial) sign over the door is 'Tree of Liberty' (see BMSat 9214, &c). In the background are a broken paling, trees, and a mountainous sky-line."--British Museum online catalogue