In recent writing on the radical political movements of the 1790s in Ireland, the United Irishmen in particular, a new emphasis has been placed on their mobilization of popular printed propaganda in their campaigns for politicization and change. The first scholar to address this issue comprehensively was James Donnelly in 1980, according to whom ‘the unique degree of support which [the United Irishmen] enjoyed was also largely owing to the effectiveness, the appeal of their propaganda.’ Donnelly's article explored the various genres within this propaganda, such as ballads, prophecies and satires, and its variety of material formats, from the newspaper to the single printed sheet.

Donnelly's example was followed, and the subject further developed, in the 1990s by Nancy Curtin and Kevin Whelan. All of these authors, while emphasizing the importance of printed propaganda as a vehicle for politicization, were at the same time aware of the limitations of such a campaign and the obstacles it faced. Foremost among these was the determined opposition of the state. There were continual seizures of printed material and arrests for distribution of seditious publications, and the offices of the United Irish newspaper, the Northern Star, were destroyed by the Monaghan Militia in 1797. The obstacles were also cultural and material, however, notably in the realms of literacy and language.

Printed propaganda depended on literacy for its effect, and reading ability was unevenly spread among the United Irishmen's target audience, in particular those whom Tone called ‘the men of no property’.