Henry Flood (1732-91) is generally twinned with Henry Grattan in most accounts of eighteenth-century Irish history, but he possesses a strong claim to be remembered in his own right. A man of great personal courage and formidable intelligence, Flood was a classic patriot of the eighteenth-century mould. Convinced that Irish Protestants deserved to be afforded the same constitutional, political and economic rights as English Protestants, he devoted his life to the advancement of that cause. In an age of towering orators, Flood was one of the best, and he used his fabled oratorical prowess and acute political skills to extend both the agenda and the appeal of patriotism. He seemed destined for popular immortality until he accepted political office; most accounts of that difficult phase in Flood’s career err in their analysis of why he failed to prosper in office. He triumphantly re-launched his career in the early 1780s when he exercised a formative influence from the opposition benches in shaping legislative independence. Flood’s life and career also provide a fascinating perspective on local politics as he fought (literally) to retain family control of the borough of Callan; on the world of the intellectual elite in Britain as well as in Ireland; and, on a personal level, on the odyssey of one of the ablest and most controversial politicians of his generation.