Henry Joy McCracken

Henry Joy McCracken
Born	(1767-08-31)31 August 1767 Belfast, Ireland
Died	17 July 1798(1798-07-17) (aged 30) Belfast, Ireland
Cause of death	court-martialled and hanged for treason
Occupation	Textile manufacturer
Movement	Society of United Irishmen

Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican executed in Belfast for his part in leading United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Convinced that the cause of representative government in Ireland could not be advanced under the British Crown, McCracken had sought to forge a revolutionary union between his fellow Presbyterians in Ulster and the country's largely dispossessed Catholic majority. In June 1798, following reports of risings in Leinster, he seized the initiative from a leadership that hesitated to act without French assistance and led a rebel force against a British garrison in Antrim Town. Defeated, he was returned to Belfast where he was court-martialed and hanged.