[Lafayette C Curtis]

What kind of "pike" did the Irish insurgents use during their 1798 rebellion and what tactics did they employ in conjunction with this weapon? I'm asking this because I've seen an artist's rendition of the Irish pike that looks more like a halberd than anything else (like this)--and it doesn't seem to tally with a couple of paintings that depict the Irish pike as plain unadorned long spears deployed in the manner of a traditional Swiss-style pike charge (like this). Should I trust the former source, the latter, or neither?

[Sean Flynt]

Until now, I though everything I've seen in relation to the Irish "pike" referred to these small halberd heads on long hafts (I'm sure I've seen these hafted very long). A quick check online turned up contemporary images of more traditional pikes in the Irish Rebellion (makes perfect sense, as they're easy to produce) as well as the halberd I've most often seen referred to as a "pike" in the Irish context. The term may have been used interchangeably. the last image below shows the head of an American polearm of the same period. They were still called halberds here.