Edward Hay was born, about 1761, at Ballinkeele (near Crossabeg), County Wexford, Ireland, into a Catholic family.
Hay's brother, John, was a prominent Rebel leader, who was executed near the end of the Rebellion on Wexford bridge, 26 June 1798.
It was reprinted many times, usually under the slightly altered title of "History of the Irish insurrection of 1798", presumably to appeal to a wider audience.
Most of these reprints omit Hay's 1803 Introduction and Appendix, as well as his large fold-out map of County Wexford.
However, an exact copy of his map was reprinted in Wheeler and Broadley's, "The War in Wexford: An Account of the Rebellion in the South of Ireland in 1798" (London & New York, 1910).