The Waterford Experiment

This chapter describes the historical context which led to the formation of the New Geneva settlement. Attacked as anarchists and democrats by the French during the eighteenth century, the Genevan rebels were invited to come to Britain. Britain offered to help to create a New Geneva, proving that it remained supportive of liberty, whatever the republicans in America might declare. The plan, of course, was not simply to abandon an old city and to found a new one. The move was accompanied by great expectations, for the transformation of Ireland, for the growth of wealth and of virtue and for the reform of the empire of Britain itself. In short, the transfer of republicans from Geneva was expected to inaugurate an era of radical reform and reformation. The result was a remarkable experiment at the ancient city and significant port of Waterford in southern Ireland. New Geneva was established at the site of a village called Passage, located near Waterford. The settlement was to be peopled by rebels.