Wolfe Tone certainly requested French help for his rebellion. It seems that the French Foreign minister was a rabid Anglophobe and was frothing at the mouth to help! Two such invasions were planned one through Galway with about 5,000 troops, which never materialised and one through Cork again comming to nought. These were in 1797! In 1798 General Humbert landed at Kilala, Co. Mayo with about 200 troops and was initially sucessful but on meeting much larger British forces took a hiding and eventually helped the british Imperial forces round up rebels who had managed to flee. The story is recreated in Tom flanagan's novel 'The Year Of The French' and was serialised on RTE (Irish National Television) under the same name! Was such an invasion ever really a runner and if so how would Ireland have fared as a French colony, quite badly I suspect!