#and also they didn't have any evidence because the rebels very likely tortured bird to 'convince' him to not appear in court.

[werewolfetone]

You know this is a shitpost but RR Madden talks about how there literally was at least one English guy working for Cooke who was called John Bird and who walked up to Samuel Neilson (who to be fair was drunk af at the time) in a pub in Belfast and went "hi my name is John! I am an Englishman. my friends know me as John The Englishman. can I join your Irish nationalist group" and Neilson saying yes almost led to him and McCracken both being hanged in 1796

POV it's 1797 and you're a spy in the Society of the United Irishmen