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 History of Ireland since 1815

History of Ireland since 1815

Ireland, it will be seen from this brief review, had a large share in the party politics of the nineteenth century. The Catholic Emancipation question almost broke up the Tory party in 1829, and the Irish famine, the immediate cause of the repeal of the Corn Laws, completely broke it up in 1846. Differences in the cabinet about the Irish question led to the retirement of Lord Grey in 1834, and to the wrecking of the Liberal party in 1886. Politics at times, as Lord Salisbury once said, have meant Ireland and nothing else. The energies of British statesmen have been absorbed in endeavours to find solutions for Irish grievances, or in devising Acts - of which over sixty were passed between 1800 and 1885 - for dealing with Irish disorders.

For thirty years after the battle of Waterloo Daniel O’Council is the great figure in Irish history. He was a Roman Catholic, and made a great reputation, in his early days, as a criminal lawyer. Subsequently he took up Irish politics, and became the undisputed leader of the Irish people. As an orator to a mass meeting he was unsurpassed; he could, it was said, convulse an audience with laughter, move it to tears, or rouse it to the most passionate excitement. A humorous, good-natured, hospitable man, he had many elements of nobility, if also of weakness, in his character. His influence was nearly always used in favour of constitutional agitation ;m
It may be remembered that Roman Catholics in 1815 were still excluded from sitting in Parliament and from holding various offices. O'Connell’s first efforts were directed to getting these disabilities removed. In 1823 Informed, in alliance with the Irish priests, a Cathlic Association, which had branches in nearly every parish, and to the expenses of which the great mass of Catholics contributed. Through this association the Catholics in Ireland were organized. They began to vote only for Protestants who were in favour of emancipation. Meetings took place all over the country, and on one day in 1828 no fewer than two hundred were held. Finally O'Connell, though a Catholic, stood for County Clare as a candidate for Parliament, and won such enthusiastic support that In-was elected without opposition. Of course he could not take his seat, but he announced his intention of standing for every constituency where a vacancy occurred. The excitement increased, and Ireland seemed to be on the verge of revolution. Wellington's Tory ministry felt that they must yield, and the Catholic Emancipation Bill was at last passed in 1829. O'Connell consequently entered Parliament, and took a prominent part in the debates preceding the Reform Bill of 1832.

Disraeli, in his early days, once summed up the Irish problem as being that of "a starving people, an alien Church, and an absentee aristocracy". The alien Church was the next subject attacked by O'Connell after the Reform Bill had been passed. The great mass of the population in Ireland was Catholic; yet the Protestant Church was the established one, and Catholic peasants had to pay tithes for its sup port. A war was waged against the tithes. Tithe collectors and even tithe payers were attacked and sometimes murdered. A stringent Coercion Act1 was passed by the Whig Government in 1833, one clause of which forbade people to be out-of-doors in disturbed districts between sunset and sunrise. The disorders, however, still continued. But when Lord Melbourne came into office in 1835 a sudden calm occurred. A tacit understanding was arrived at, and O'Connell supported the Government. The ministry, in return, ruled Ireland in a sympathetic spirit, largely through the efforts of Drummond, the under-secretary, whilst O'Connell's influence was seen in regard to the policy pursued and the bestowal of patronage. A law was passed by which tithes were to be paid by the landlord and not by the tenant; and the immediate grievance felt by the peasant was thus met Irish municipal government was reformed, and an Irish Poor Law system introduced.

Chronology
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