(3) Daniel O’Connell, Catholic emancipation,

repeal & Young Ireland 1800s-1840s

1) Daniel O’Connell & Catholic emancipation, 1800-1820s

2) Repeal of the Union
3) Young Ireland and nationalism
 1) Daniel O’Connell & Catholic emancipation, 1800-1820s

• Act of Union radically changes political landscape:

-Protestants in a small minority in IRL,
-Protestants in a majority in UK.

• Church of Ireland united with Church of England

(Anglicans)

• Act of Union a security measure against foreign

invasions & revolution

• Westminster oath of supremacy against Catholics

• Emancipation of Catholic next logical step

• Yet, emancipation provokes Protestant hostility

• King George III against emancipation

• Protestant liberals like Henry Grattan & Catholic

Committee not successful
• Catholic question is burning issue in 1800-1820s

• PM Robert Peel (Tory) favourably disposed

• “Second Reformation” (evangelical drive)

• Prolonged economic crisis & famine 1817

• Persistent agrarian unrest:

-Rockite movement (1821-24), “Captain Rock” (mythical
Irish hero), Munster, sectarian.
• 1820s, rise of Daniel O’Connell:
-wealthy Kerry family,
-educated in France & witnessed French revolution,
1789,
-against Act of Union,
-lawyer,
-extraordinary political operator.

• Catholic Association, 1823:

-Catholic clergy involved,
-”Catholic rent” (one penny a month),
-mass movement,
-fairs & social life,
-monster meetings.
• Catholic Association suppressed by government in 1825

• New Catholic Association founded.

• O’Connell wins parliamentary election in Clare, 1828

• Reluctant government lifts oath of supremacy:

-risk of serious unrest avoided.

• Emancipation (1829), Duke of Wellington:

-Catholics can sit in parliament,
-Catholics can hold most public office jobs,
-Catholic franchise limited by property qualification
(80% of Catholic cannot vote).

• The “Liberator”
 2) Repeal of the Union

• Government & parliament in London

• IRL has separate administration in Dublin Castle

• British authorities distance themselves from sectarian

celebrations (Battle of the Boyne, St Patrick’s etc.)

• British economic competition intense for IRL:

-development of industrial revolution in GB,
-textile industries in Dublin decline,
-Belfast’s linen factories & distilleries increase.
• Population growth in IRL:
-1800: 5 million
-1821: 6.8 million
-1841: 8.2 million

• Rich oral Irish culture

• The supernatural coexists with Catholic Church

• Irish widely spoken, but English progressing

• Increasing GB coercive administration:

-1836: Constabulary Act, 5,000 men,
-1868: Royal Irish Constabulary, 11,000 armed men (by
1900).
• By 1850, literacy has much improved:
-commerce,
-politics,
-administration.

• Literacy in English hand in hand with education

• About 560,000 attend so-called “hedge schools” in 1824:

-protects Irish language,
-generally anti-GB.

• National School system introduced in 1831:

-standardise education,
-desire to get rid of hedge schools.
• O’Connell & “Repeal of the Union”!

• Mismanagement of IRL by GB

• Tithe War (1830-1833)

• Re-establishing Irish parliament in Dublin

• Repeal Association, 1840

• Monster meetings (theatrical spectacles)

• Monster meetings taking place in symbolic places like Hill

of Tara (Meath)
• Repeal is not republican, but self-government

• Monster meetings attracts many, but how many?

-Castlebar, 15,000 or 300,000?
-but impressive and threatening.
-only one monster meeting in (Protestant) Ulster.

• GB authorities confront O’Connell:

-Clontarf, Dublin, Oct. 1843,
-meeting declared illegal & O’Connell backs down,
-blow to O’Connell’s prestige.

• O’Connell’s career now declining; death in 1847

• Protestants worried by Irish Catholic display of power &

alliance of Catholic Church with masses
 3) Young Ireland and nationalism

• In 1842, Young Ireland (nationalist group), inspired by

similar events in Italy (Giuseppe Mazzini):
-Thomas Davis, John Blake Dillon, George Gavan Duffy
& John Mitchell
-newspaper The Nation.

• Initially in favour of O’Connell and repeal:

-criticise his Catholic attitude towards educational
reform,
-against fusion of Catholicism & constitutional Irish
nationalism (in parliament),
-Irish Protestants fear mass Catholic nationalism.
• PM Robert Peel & Queen’s colleges of Belfast, Cork and
Galway, 1845:
-denounced by Catholic hierarchy as “godless”,
-O’Connell with hierarchy,
-Young Ireland in favour.

• Catholic University of Ireland (private, 1851-1909)

• Unlike O’Connell, Young Ireland does not exclude
violence for political aims or independence

• Young Ireland inspired by French Revolution in 1848:

-revolt a fiasco, only in County Tipperary (William Smith
O’Brien),
-ongoing famine (1845-1852),
-leaders transported to Australia.

• Significance of Young Ireland:

-a different cultural history of IRL, one that Catholics
and Protestants could share.

• But death of O’Connell & Young Ireland overshadowed by

Great Irish Famine (1845-1852).