The establishment of the republic in France was a world-shattering event that introduced a heretofore unknown break into the political order: after the United States, France became a republic, and in the Three Kingdoms the English, Scottish and Irish reformers regained hope that a democracy was possible. The historiography concerning Ireland at this precise moment of upheavals has for a long time held that the reformers were moderate constitutionalists, and that the Irish Catholics were under-politicized. In contrast with these assertions, a thorough re-examination of the available sources enables to propose another narrative of this pivotal moment between the fall of the French royalty and the beginning of the French Wars: the cosmopolitism that lies at the heart of the republican project – the “Atlantic Republic” – is a direct threat to the political and imperial British order, and perhaps more importantly republicanism becomes the impetus for an insurrection of all the discontents in Ireland.