# What is "felon-setting" (Irish history) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835 "2016-12-16T03:33:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/1 "2016-12-16T03:33:45Z")
No, Google is not helping to provide a definition, but the reference shows up in many links, but they seem to assume the reader already knows the definition. NB: The links are mostly about something used to supposedly harry Republicans in the Troubles, although I first came across it in reference to the rebellion of 1798. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/2 "2016-12-16T03:45:47Z")
Acting as a police informant against rebel/republican activities or activists. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/3 "2016-12-16T03:53:38Z")
Rabble-rousing. It’s like “setting the dogs” on someone, or inciting a lynch mob., It’s when someone usually a newspaper editor, publicizes the names of people and intimate that they have been involved in nefarious activity. They’ll also use purposefully inflammatory words to “set” people off after them. Like saying “The three thugs” instead of “The three young men.” Felon-setting puts people in danger of vigilante attacks without benefit of a court hearing. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/4 "2016-12-16T05:24:49Z")
I have never heard the term used in the sense of public accusation offered by TruCelt. The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition of the term, which is “thief taker”, though the term appears to be obsolete in the context of all but political felonies since the mid-nineteenth century. The OED also notes that the term is “Anglo-Irish”. And, in the entry on _felon-setting_, they offer this possibly helpful quote from the _Guardian_ in 1970: “Felon setting is a peculiarly Irish term, which recalls a deep and ancient hatred of the informer, a central figure in Irish history. It is felon setting to whisper to the Guards or the Special Branch about what the boys are up to. To some, apparently, it was felon setting for Jack Lynch to pass the documents in the arms affair to the Attorney-General.” ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/5 "2016-12-16T12:21:06Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Felon-setting puts people in danger of vigilante attacks without benefit of a court hearing. That defines the 19C usage. In 20C , it was used only in political sense. basically its the Ireland equivalent of Godwin’s law. Godwin’s law, any internet discussion that goes on long enough will have one party call the other party Hitler. Ireland felon-setting law - any speech from a politician in Ireland and Northern Ireland about the politics of the UK running Northern Ireland involves calling the politicians on the other side a criminal (or saying they are to blame for criminal acts.) To grok the meaning of “Felon setting” see > **[A History of Felon-Setting - Indymedia Ireland](http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101803)** > > A History of Felon-Setting: > > Felon-Setting has a long and not very honorable place in Irish history. British imperialists have used various tactics to impose their rule in Ireland for centuries. Demonisation, Criminalisation and Felon-Setting has... ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/6 "2016-12-17T14:14:21Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Rabble-rousing. It’s like “setting the dogs” on someone, or inciting a lynch mob., It’s when someone usually a newspaper editor, publicizes the names of people and intimate that they have been involved in nefarious activity. > > They’ll also use purposefully inflammatory words to “set” people off after them. Like saying “The three thugs” instead of “The three young men.” > > Felon-setting puts people in danger of vigilante attacks without benefit of a court hearing. On this, specifically about specific vigilante attacks, I’ve seen “get the wind up” as an Anglo expression. “get/put the wind up somebody (British & Australian informal) to make someone feel anxious about their situation.” [cite](http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+the+wind+up) Eg, from _Finnegans Wake_, "“if I get the wind up what do you bet in the buckets of my wrath I mightn’t even take it into my progromme.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/7 "2016-12-20T20:46:37Z")
From the context I was getting: > [@UDS](#): > > Acting as a police informant against rebel/republican activities or activists. This sounds closest to the 1 > [@TruCelt](#): > > Rabble-rousing. It’s like “setting the dogs” on someone, or inciting a lynch mob., It’s when someone usually a newspaper editor, publicizes the names of people and intimate that they have been involved in nefarious activity. > > They’ll also use purposefully inflammatory words to “set” people off after them. Like saying “The three thugs” instead of “The three young men.” > > Felon-setting puts people in danger of vigilante attacks without benefit of a court hearing. > [@Isilder](#): > > That defines the 19C usage. > > In 20C , it was used only in political sense. > basically its the Ireland equivalent of Godwin’s law. > Godwin’s law, any internet discussion that goes on long enough will have one party call the other party Hitler. > > Ireland felon-setting law - any speech from a politician in Ireland and Northern Ireland about the politics of the UK running Northern Ireland involves calling the politicians on the other side a criminal > (or saying they are to blame for criminal acts.) > To grok the meaning of “Felon setting” see > > [A History of Felon-Setting - Indymedia Ireland](http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101803) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-felon-setting-irish-history/774835/8 "2016-12-20T20:49:25Z")
From what I gathered reading between the lines. > [@UDS](#): > > Acting as a police informant against rebel/republican activities or activists. This definition seems closest to the 18th century one. Not sure why it needs a separate term? > [@TruCelt](#): > > Rabble-rousing. It’s like “setting the dogs” on someone, or inciting a lynch mob., It’s when someone usually a newspaper editor, publicizes the names of people and intimate that they have been involved in nefarious activity. > > They’ll also use purposefully inflammatory words to “set” people off after them. Like saying “The three thugs” instead of “The three young men.” > > Felon-setting puts people in danger of vigilante attacks without benefit of a court hearing. This sounds more like current usage. > [@Isilder](#): > > That defines the 19C usage. > > In 20C , it was used only in political sense. > basically its the Ireland equivalent of Godwin’s law. > Godwin’s law, any internet discussion that goes on long enough will have one party call the other party Hitler. > > Ireland felon-setting law - any speech from a politician in Ireland and Northern Ireland about the politics of the UK running Northern Ireland involves calling the politicians on the other side a criminal > (or saying they are to blame for criminal acts.) > To grok the meaning of “Felon setting” see > > [A History of Felon-Setting - Indymedia Ireland](http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101803) That’s another one of those that keeps using the term without defining it. It gets to the point only in the conclusion. In this sense, is it similar to the causes of the [blanket protest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_protest)?