1759, Clogher, County Louth; d. 1813, Dublin) was an Irish political writer and historian also known under the pseudonym Julius Vindex, and a veteran of the 1798 Rebellion.
A linguist, with knowledge of Irish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German and Dutch, Taaffe was, with difficulty, able to support himself in Dublin as a teacher and translator.
[1] Taaffe was sympathetic to the democratic views of the United Irishmen and, as they despaired of overturning the Protestant Ascendancy in Parliament, of their turn toward insurrection.
[1] In 1799, as editor of The Shamroc, a patriotic newspaper, and as the author of pamphlets, that railed against the prospective Act of Union, Taaffe was arrested for seditious libel.
[1] In 1801 he published Vindication of the Irish nation and particularly its catholic inhabitants from the calumnies of libellers, a scathing attack on England's supposedly civilising mission.