8 December 2014

Act of Union 1801

Union of Great Britain and Ireland

This text is a legal document stating the union between Great Britain (England,
Wales and Scotland) and Ireland. The act is an agreement to create a new nation
under the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was presented
in the English Parliament at Westminster (there was a complementary Act written to
be passed by the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin) . The act was passed by the
Parliament of England in August1800, under the reign of George III, King of England
and Ireland since 1760, who signed it. The Act came into force on 1st January 1801.
Since 1561, Ireland had been ruled by English kings although Ireland was an
independent nation with its own rules and Parliament in Dublin. It was independent
but somehow it was controlled by the King of Great Britain and supervised by the
Kingss cabinet in England. Most of the Irish people were Catholic, reason for being
excluded from any political power.
The French Revolution in 1789 made a great impact in places beyond the
frontiers of France. The new French ideas of democracy and the thought of getting
rid of kings and aristocracy appealed to the Irish, who had resentments against the
British.
In1798 the Irish nationalist organisation , the United Irishmen, attempted a
rebellion to break from the English monarchy, a radical reform of the Parliament
including getting more freedom to practise catholicism in Ireland.
The British Prime Minister, William Pitt, was concerned about the religious and
political conflicts in Ireland. William Pitt thought that the best solution to resolve all
the Irish threats was a full union with Ireland. The union would make both countries
stronger and with more economic opportunities.

Initially the Irish Catholics welcomed the idea of the union because they saw it
like a golden opportunity to get more reforms and less restrictions to practise their
faith. But many Irish Protestants saw it as an intrusion of British in the Irish affairs.
The main ideas of the six first articles of the Act can be summarised as follow:
1. The Creation of a new state called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and
the Act of Union will come into force on 1st January 1801. ( The union of the two
states meant a new flag to represent the new nation. The adopted flag, called The
Union Jack, added the saltire cross of St. Patrick to the flag of Great Britain)
2. The second article talks about the succession of the Crown and it confirmed that the
the succession of the crown remain without any changes.
3. The Act abolished the Parliament of Ireland. At Westminster the Irish will be
represented by four religious or spiritual Lords, 28 temporal lords elected for life and
100 MPs in the House of Commons ( two for each County of Ireland, two for the City
of Cork, two for the City of Dublin, one for the University of Trinity College, and one
for each of the thirty one most important cities, towns and boroughs).
4. The Church of England and the Church of Ireland will be united into one Protestant
Episcopal Church named the United Church of England and Ireland. The fifth
article also ratify the independency of the Church of Scotland.
5. From the date that the act came into force there will be free trade between Ireland
and Britain. The customs union was created, so a free trade area between the
two countries was established. Ireland and England will have the same privileges in
all treaties with foreign powers.

CONSEQUENCES
For the Irish people, Westminster seem far away from them. The union did not
solve , any of the resentments in Ireland over land, religion or politics. Ireland's
economic problems were also ignored. Instead of helping to solve Irish economic
problems, the act increased the sense of indignation in Ireland.

Pitt knew that social and economic reforms were very important, as was
Catholic Emancipation. But George III refused to allow full emancipation so Pitt
resigned in protest because he wanted to follow the Act of Union with some reforms
and Catholic Emancipation.
Some Peers opposed concessions to Roman Catholics, as did the King,
because of religious prejudices. The threat of potential violence together with
patriotic desire against Catholics ended with Pitts plan of full Catholic Emancipation.
The Act created more conflicts rather than bringing benefit for Ireland. The
benefits that Irish Roman Catholic wanted with the union vanished.
PERSONAL OPINION
It was a treaty between two entities, and for each of these is held advantages
and disadvantages. For the British it was a beneficial agreement: they gained control
of the religious and political conflicts in Ireland and guarantied the continuation of the
monarchy in the British Isles. On the other hand, the Irish could have felt let down
and their hopes could have been dismissed.
In my opinion the text is a very essential prerequisite for understanding not only
the current political and economic situation in the Republic of Ireland but also in
Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
This Treaty was a watershed in the history of the two countries, which could
have gone one of two ways:
1. With the adoption of the Treaty: Full integration (United Kingdom becoming a much
larger and stronger country).
2. With the rejection of the Treaty: Fallen apart and left two completely distinct
countries (such as England and France) with Irish (Gallic) spoken in Ireland (Eire)
and English in England.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://spartacus-educational.com/PRunion.htm
http://www.parliament.uk
http://www.historytoday.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1800
http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/
http://lyceumbooks.com/pdf/PeoplesBritishIslesII_Chapter_15.pdf
http://www.libraryireland.com/JoyceHistory/Union.php
http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614673/Act-of-Union