The Clockmaker’s Rebellion: The Life of William Putnam McCabe In the turbulent landscape of late eighteenth-century Ireland, where the air was thick with the scent of revolution and the whispers of insurrection, the life of William Putnam McCabe unfolded as a dramatic tapestry of political fervor and meticulous craftsmanship. Born in Belfast in 1776, McCabe was a man caught between two worlds: the clandestine, high-stakes maneuvering of the Society of United Irishmen and the quiet, disciplined precision of the horologist’s workshop. His very name, carrying the middle name of the American her…