James Napper Tandy

James Napper Tandy (about 1739 – 24 August 1803) was an Irish revolutionary, and member of the United Irishmen.

A Dublin Protestant and the son of an ironmonger, Tandy was baptised (as 'James Naper Tandy') in St. Audoen's Church on 16 February 1739. He went to the famous Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, south Kildare, also attended by Edmund Burke, who was eight years older.

He started life as a small tradesman. Turning to politics, he became a member of Dublin Corporation and was popular for his denunciation of municipal corruption and his proposal of a boycott of English goods in Ireland in retaliation for the restrictions imposed by the government on Irish commerce.

In April 1780, Tandy was expelled from the Dublin Volunteers (see Henry Flood) for proposing the expulsion of the Duke of Leinster. He was one of the most conspicuous of the small revolutionary party, chiefly of the shopkeeper class, who formed a permanent committee in June 1784 to agitate for reform, and called a convention of delegates from all parts of Ireland, which met in October 1784.

Tandy and John Binns persuaded the corporation of Dublin to condemn by resolution Pitt's amended commercial resolutions in 1785. He became a member of the Whig club founded by Henry Grattan, and he actively co-operated with Theobald Wolfe Tone in founding the Society of the United Irishmen in 1791, of which he became the first secretary.

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