Ireland 1691–1801
Encyclopedia
Ireland
1691–1801 was marked by the dominance of the so-called Protestant Ascendancy
. These were the descendants of British colonists who had settled in the country in the wake of its conquest by England and colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland
(See Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691). During this time, Ireland was an autonomous Kingdom with its own Parliament, but the vast majority of its population, Roman Catholics, largely descended from the native Irish, were excluded from power and land ownership under the Penal Laws. The period begins with the defeat of the Catholic Jacobites
in the Williamite War in Ireland
in 1691 and ends with the Act of Union
, which formally annexed Ireland to the United Kingdom
in 1801.
) and for a temporary iron industry in the course of the 17th century, Irish estates turned to the export of salt beef, pork, butter, and hard cheese through the slaughterhouse and port city of Cork
, which supplied England, the British navy and the sugar islands of the West Indies. The bishop of Cloyne
wondered "how a foreigner could possibly conceive that half the inhabitants are dying of hunger in a country so abundant in foodstuffs?" In the 1740s, these economic inequalities, when combined with an exceptionally cold winter and poor harvest, led directly to the famine of 1740-1741, which killed about 400,000 people. In the 1780s, due to increased competition from salted-meat exporters in the Baltic and North America
, the Anglo-Irish landowners rapidly switched to growing grain for export, while the Irish themselves ate potatoes and groats.
Peasant secret societies became common in 18th century Ireland as the only means of tenant farmers to redress grievances against their landlords. Such groupings went by names like the Whiteboys
, the Rightboys, the Hearts of Oak and the Steelboys. Issues that motivated them included high rents, evictions, enclosure of common lands and payment of tithes to the established
Church of Ireland
(most of the peasantry being Catholics). Methods used by the secret societies included the killing or maiming of livestock, tearing down of enclosure fences and occasionally violence against landlords, bailiffs and the militia. Rural discontent was exacerbated by the rapidly growing population - a trend that would continue until the Great Famine of the 1840s.
Great economic disparities existed between different areas of the country,with the north and east being relatively highly developed and involved in export of goods, whereas much of the west was roadless, hardly developed and had a cashless subsistence economy.
- the King's Governor of Ireland and by the Irish Parliament. The Parliament in earlier centuries had met only when called by the Lord Lieutenant (previously called Lord Deputy) or by the monarch himself. However, from 1700 onwards, the Irish Parliament demanded that it meet every two years as of right and then it declared itself to be permanently in session. This mirrored the advance of powers of the Parliament of England, after the Glorious Revolution
. The Parliament had the right to pass or change legislation, but the Lord Lieutenant ran the country on a day to day basis. Moreover, the Irish parliament could not pass legislation not already passed in the English Parliament as result of Poynings' Law (1494).
, support for the Stuart dynasty by Gaelic
and Catholic Ireland, had been utterly defeated in the Williamite war in Ireland
which ended in 1691. The defeat of the Catholic landed classes in this war meant that those who had fought for James II had their lands confiscated (until a pardon of 1710). The outcome of the war also meant that Catholics were excluded from political power. Power was confined to the Protestant ruling class
- known as the Protestant Ascendancy
- which enforced its position by the passing of Penal Laws against members of other religions. As a result of these laws, the percentage of Catholic-owned land fell from around 14% in 1691 to around 5% in the course of the next century. One reason for this was the conversion of Catholic gentry to Protestantism to keep their lands. Another reason was the Penal laws stipulation that Catholic owned land could not be passed on intact to a single heir. This made many Catholic landholdings unproductive and caused them to fall out of Catholic hands over several generations. This period of defeat and apparent hopelessness for Irish Catholics was referred to in Irish language
poetry as the long briseadh - or "shipwreck". Protestant pamphlets emphasised the positive aspects of the Glorious Revolution; liberty from absolutism
, the preservation of property and a degree of electoral power.
Presbyterians, who were concentrated in the northern province of Ulster
and mostly descended from Scottish settlers, also suffered from the Penal Laws. They could sit in Parliament but not hold office. Both Catholics and Presbyterians were also barred from certain professions (such as law, the judiciary and the army) and had restrictions on inheriting land. Catholics could not bear arms or exercise their religion publicly.
In the early part of the 18th century, these Penal Laws were augmented and quite strictly enforced, as the Protestant elite were unsure of their position and threatened by the continued existence of Irish Catholic regiments in the French army committed to a restoration of the Jacobite
dynasty. From time to time, these fears were exacerbated by the activities of Catholic bandits known as rapparees and by peasant secret societies such as the Whiteboys
. However, after the demise of the Jacobite cause in Scotland at Culloden
in 1745, and the Papacy's
recognition of the Hanoverian dynasty in 1766, the threat to the Protestant Ascendancy eased and many Penal Laws were relaxed or lightly enforced. In addition, some Catholic gentry families got around the Penal Laws by making nominal conversions to Protestantism or by getting one family member to "convert" in order to hold land for the rest of his family, or to take a large mortgage on it.
From 1766 Catholics favoured reform of the existing state in Ireland. Their politics were represented by the "Catholic Committees" - a moderate organisation of Catholic gentry and Clergy in each county which advocated repeal of the Penal Laws and emphasised their loyalty. Reforms on land ownership then started in 1771 and 1778-79.
agitated for a more favourable trading relationship with England, in particular abolition of the Navigation Acts
that enforced tariffs on Irish goods in English markets, but allowed no tariffs for English goods in Ireland. From early in the century, Irish parliamentarians also campaigned for legislative independence for the Parliament of Ireland
, especially the repeal of Poynings' Law that allowed the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland. Many of their demands were met in 1782, when Free Trade was granted between Ireland and England and Poynings' Law was amended. Instrumental in achieving reform was the Irish Volunteers
movement, founded in Belfast
in 1778. This militia, up to 100,000 strong, was formed to defend Ireland from foreign invasion during the American Revolutionary War
, but was outside of government control and staged armed demonstrations in favour of Grattan's reforming agenda.
For the "Patriots", as Grattan's followers were known, the "Constitution of 1782
" was the start of a process that would end sectarian discrimination and usher in an era of prosperity and Irish self-government. Conservative loyalists
such as John Foster
, John Fitzgibbon
and John Beresford, remained opposed to further concessions to Catholics and, led by the 'Junta', argued that the "Protestant Interest" could only be secured by maintaining the connection with Britain.
Partly as a result of the trade laws being liberalised, Ireland went through an economic boom in the 1780s. Canals extended from Dublin westwards and the Four Courts and Post Office were established. Dublin's granite-lined quays were built and it boasted that it was the 'second city of the empire'. Corn laws were introduced in 1784 to give a bounty on flour shipped to Dublin; this promoted the spread of mills and tillage.
for Catholic seminarians.
Some in Ireland were attracted to the more militant example of the French Revolution
of 1789. In 1791 a small group of Protestant radicals formed the Society of the United Irishmen
in Belfast
, initially to campaign for the end to religious discrimination and the widening of the right to vote. However, the group soon radicalised its aims and sought to overthrow British rule and found a non-sectarian republic. In the words of Theobald Wolfe Tone
, its goals were to "substitute the common name of Irishman for Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter" and to "break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils".
The United Irishmen spread quickly throughout the country. Republicanism was particularly attractive to the Ulster
Presbyterian community, being literate, who were also discriminated against for their religion, and who had strong links with Scots-Irish American
emigrants who had fought against Britain in the American Revolution
. Many Catholics, particularly the emergent Catholic middle class, were also attracted to the movement, and it claimed over 200,000 members by 1798. The United Irishmen were banned after Revolutionary France in 1793 declared war on Britain and they developed from a political movement into a military organisation preparing for armed rebellion. The Volunteer
movement was also suppressed. However, these measures did nothing to calm the situation in Ireland and these reforms were bitterly opposed by the "ultra-loyalist" Protestant hardliners such as John Foster
. Violence and disorder became widespread. Hardening loyalist attitudes led to the foundation of the Orange Order
, a hardline Protestant grouping, in 1795.
The United Irishmen, now dedicated to armed revolution, forged links with the militant Catholic peasant society, the Defenders
, who had been raiding farmhouses since 1792. Wolfe Tone, the United Irish leader, went to France
to seek French military support. These efforts bore fruit when the French launched an expeditionary force of 15,000 troops which arrived off Bantry Bay in December 1796, but failed to land due to a combination of indecisiveness, poor seamanship, and storms off the Bantry
coast.
Thereafter, the government began a campaign of repression targeted against the United Irishmen, including executions, routine use of torture, transportation to penal colonies and house burnings. As the repression began to bite, the United Irishmen decided to go ahead with an insurrection without French help. Their activity culminated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798
. When the central core of the plan, an uprising in Dublin, failed, the rebellion then spread in an apparently random fashion firstly around Dublin, then briefly in Kildare, Meath, Carlow and Wicklow. County Wexford in the southeast then saw the most sustained fighting of the rebellion, to be briefly joined by rebels who took to the field in Antrim
and Down
in the north. A small French force landed in Killala Bay in Mayo
leading to a last outbreak of rebellion in counties Mayo, Leitrim
and Longford
. The rebellion lasted just three months before it was suppressed, but claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. Being the largest outburst of violence in modern Ireland, 1798 looms heavily in collective memory and was commemorated extensively in its centennial and bicentennial anniversaries.
The Republican ideal of a non-sectarian society was greatly damaged by sectarian atrocities committed by both sides during the rebellion. Government troops and militia targeted Catholics in general and the rebels on several occasions killed Protestant loyalist civilians. In Ulster
, the 1790s were marked by naked sectarian strife between Catholic Defenders
and Protestant groups like the Peep O'Day Boys
and the newly founded Orange Order.
Largely in response to the rebellion, Irish self-government was abolished altogether by the Act of Union
on 1 January 1801. The Irish Parliament, dominated by the Protestant landed class, was persuaded to vote for its own abolition for fear of another rebellion and with the aid of bribery by Lord Cornwallis
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
. The Catholic Bishops, who had condemned the rebellion, supported the Union as a step on the road to further Catholic Emancipation
.
Some historians argue that there were two cultures existing side by side in 18th century Ireland, which had little contact with each other. One was Catholic and Gaelic, the other Anglo-Irish
and Protestant. In this period, there continued to be a vibrant Irish language
literature, exemplified by the Aisling
genre of Irish poetry
. These were dream poems, typically featuring a woman representing Ireland who pleaded with the young men of Ireland to save her from slavery and oppression. Many Irish language poets clung to a romantic attachment to the Jacobite cause, although some wrote in praise of the United Irishmen in the 1790s. Other, non-political poetry could be quite sexually explicit, for example the poem Cuirt an Mean Oiche (the Midnight Court). Gaelic poets of this era include Aogán Ó Rathaille
and Brian Merriman
.
Anglo-Irish writers were also prolific in this period, notably Jonathan Swift
author of Gulliver's Travels
and the liberal political thinker Edmund Burke
. One intellectual who crossed the cultural divide was John Toland
, an Irish speaking Catholic from Donegal
, who converted to Protestantism and became a leading philosopher in intellectual circles in Scotland, England, Germany and Bohemia.
Much of Ireland's finest urban architecture also stems from this era, in particular Georgian Dublin
.
that had ruled the country for 100 years was beginning to be challenged by an increasingly assertive Catholic population, and was ended by the Act of Union
that created the United Kingdom from January 1801. The violence of the 1790s had shattered the hopes of many radicals that the old sectarian divisions in Irish society could be forgotten. Presbyterians in particular largely abandoned their alliance with Catholics and radicals in the 19th century. Under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell
, Irish nationalism
would in the future be a more exclusively Catholic phenomenon. Many Protestants saw their continued pre-eminence in Irish society, and their hopes for the Irish economy, as being guaranteed only by the Union with Britain and became unionists.
History of Ireland
The first known settlement in Ireland began around 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers arrived from continental Europe, probably via a land bridge. Few archaeological traces remain of this group, but their descendants and later Neolithic arrivals, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, were...
1691–1801 was marked by the dominance of the so-called Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
. These were the descendants of British colonists who had settled in the country in the wake of its conquest by England and colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland
Plantations of Ireland
Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands....
(See Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691). During this time, Ireland was an autonomous Kingdom with its own Parliament, but the vast majority of its population, Roman Catholics, largely descended from the native Irish, were excluded from power and land ownership under the Penal Laws. The period begins with the defeat of the Catholic Jacobites
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
in the Williamite War in Ireland
Williamite war in Ireland
The Williamite War in Ireland—also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish as Cogadh an Dá Rí —was a conflict between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland...
in 1691 and ends with the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
, which formally annexed Ireland to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1801.
Economic situation
In the wake of the wars of conquest of the 17th century, Irish antagonism towards England was aggravated by the economic situation of Ireland in the 18th century. Throughout the century English trade with Ireland was the most important branch of English overseas trade. The Protestant Anglo-Irish absentee landlords drew off some £800,000 in the early part of the century, rising to £1 million, in an economy that had a GDP of about £4 million. Completely deforested of timber for exports (usually to the Royal NavyRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
) and for a temporary iron industry in the course of the 17th century, Irish estates turned to the export of salt beef, pork, butter, and hard cheese through the slaughterhouse and port city of Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, which supplied England, the British navy and the sugar islands of the West Indies. The bishop of Cloyne
George Berkeley
George Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism"...
wondered "how a foreigner could possibly conceive that half the inhabitants are dying of hunger in a country so abundant in foodstuffs?" In the 1740s, these economic inequalities, when combined with an exceptionally cold winter and poor harvest, led directly to the famine of 1740-1741, which killed about 400,000 people. In the 1780s, due to increased competition from salted-meat exporters in the Baltic and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, the Anglo-Irish landowners rapidly switched to growing grain for export, while the Irish themselves ate potatoes and groats.
Peasant secret societies became common in 18th century Ireland as the only means of tenant farmers to redress grievances against their landlords. Such groupings went by names like the Whiteboys
Whiteboys
The Whiteboys were a secret Irish agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming...
, the Rightboys, the Hearts of Oak and the Steelboys. Issues that motivated them included high rents, evictions, enclosure of common lands and payment of tithes to the established
State religion
A state religion is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state...
Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
(most of the peasantry being Catholics). Methods used by the secret societies included the killing or maiming of livestock, tearing down of enclosure fences and occasionally violence against landlords, bailiffs and the militia. Rural discontent was exacerbated by the rapidly growing population - a trend that would continue until the Great Famine of the 1840s.
Great economic disparities existed between different areas of the country,with the north and east being relatively highly developed and involved in export of goods, whereas much of the west was roadless, hardly developed and had a cashless subsistence economy.
Irish Parliament and politics
In this period, Ireland was governed by the Lord Lieutenant of IrelandLord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
- the King's Governor of Ireland and by the Irish Parliament. The Parliament in earlier centuries had met only when called by the Lord Lieutenant (previously called Lord Deputy) or by the monarch himself. However, from 1700 onwards, the Irish Parliament demanded that it meet every two years as of right and then it declared itself to be permanently in session. This mirrored the advance of powers of the Parliament of England, after the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
. The Parliament had the right to pass or change legislation, but the Lord Lieutenant ran the country on a day to day basis. Moreover, the Irish parliament could not pass legislation not already passed in the English Parliament as result of Poynings' Law (1494).
The Penal Laws
The Irish Parliament of this era was almost exclusively Protestant in composition. Catholics had been barred from holding office in the early 17th century, barred from sitting in Parliament by mid-century and finally disenfranchised in 1727. JacobitismJacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
, support for the Stuart dynasty by Gaelic
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
and Catholic Ireland, had been utterly defeated in the Williamite war in Ireland
Williamite war in Ireland
The Williamite War in Ireland—also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish as Cogadh an Dá Rí —was a conflict between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland...
which ended in 1691. The defeat of the Catholic landed classes in this war meant that those who had fought for James II had their lands confiscated (until a pardon of 1710). The outcome of the war also meant that Catholics were excluded from political power. Power was confined to the Protestant ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
- known as the Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
- which enforced its position by the passing of Penal Laws against members of other religions. As a result of these laws, the percentage of Catholic-owned land fell from around 14% in 1691 to around 5% in the course of the next century. One reason for this was the conversion of Catholic gentry to Protestantism to keep their lands. Another reason was the Penal laws stipulation that Catholic owned land could not be passed on intact to a single heir. This made many Catholic landholdings unproductive and caused them to fall out of Catholic hands over several generations. This period of defeat and apparent hopelessness for Irish Catholics was referred to in Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
poetry as the long briseadh - or "shipwreck". Protestant pamphlets emphasised the positive aspects of the Glorious Revolution; liberty from absolutism
Absolutism (European history)
Absolutism or The Age of Absolutism is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites...
, the preservation of property and a degree of electoral power.
Presbyterians, who were concentrated in the northern province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
and mostly descended from Scottish settlers, also suffered from the Penal Laws. They could sit in Parliament but not hold office. Both Catholics and Presbyterians were also barred from certain professions (such as law, the judiciary and the army) and had restrictions on inheriting land. Catholics could not bear arms or exercise their religion publicly.
In the early part of the 18th century, these Penal Laws were augmented and quite strictly enforced, as the Protestant elite were unsure of their position and threatened by the continued existence of Irish Catholic regiments in the French army committed to a restoration of the Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
dynasty. From time to time, these fears were exacerbated by the activities of Catholic bandits known as rapparees and by peasant secret societies such as the Whiteboys
Whiteboys
The Whiteboys were a secret Irish agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming...
. However, after the demise of the Jacobite cause in Scotland at Culloden
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
in 1745, and the Papacy's
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
recognition of the Hanoverian dynasty in 1766, the threat to the Protestant Ascendancy eased and many Penal Laws were relaxed or lightly enforced. In addition, some Catholic gentry families got around the Penal Laws by making nominal conversions to Protestantism or by getting one family member to "convert" in order to hold land for the rest of his family, or to take a large mortgage on it.
From 1766 Catholics favoured reform of the existing state in Ireland. Their politics were represented by the "Catholic Committees" - a moderate organisation of Catholic gentry and Clergy in each county which advocated repeal of the Penal Laws and emphasised their loyalty. Reforms on land ownership then started in 1771 and 1778-79.
"Grattan's Parliament" and the Volunteers
By the late 18th century, many of the Irish Protestant elite had come to see Ireland as their native country. A Parliamentary faction led by Henry GrattanHenry Grattan
Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain.-Early life:Grattan was born at...
agitated for a more favourable trading relationship with England, in particular abolition of the Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
that enforced tariffs on Irish goods in English markets, but allowed no tariffs for English goods in Ireland. From early in the century, Irish parliamentarians also campaigned for legislative independence for the Parliament of Ireland
Parliament of Ireland
The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed in Dublin from 1297 until 1800. In its early mediaeval period during the Lordship of Ireland it consisted of either two or three chambers: the House of Commons, elected by a very restricted suffrage, the House of Lords in which the lords...
, especially the repeal of Poynings' Law that allowed the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland. Many of their demands were met in 1782, when Free Trade was granted between Ireland and England and Poynings' Law was amended. Instrumental in achieving reform was the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers (18th century)
The Irish Volunteers were a militia in late 18th century Ireland. The Volunteers were founded in Belfast in 1778 to defend Ireland from the threat of foreign invasion when regular British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight across the globe during the American War of Independence...
movement, founded in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
in 1778. This militia, up to 100,000 strong, was formed to defend Ireland from foreign invasion during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, but was outside of government control and staged armed demonstrations in favour of Grattan's reforming agenda.
For the "Patriots", as Grattan's followers were known, the "Constitution of 1782
Constitution of 1782
The Constitution of 1782 is a collective term given to a series of legal changes which freed the Parliament of Ireland, a Medieval parliament consisting of the Irish House of Commons and the Irish House of Lords, of legal restrictions that had been imposed by successive Norman, English, and later,...
" was the start of a process that would end sectarian discrimination and usher in an era of prosperity and Irish self-government. Conservative loyalists
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
such as John Foster
John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel
John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel was an Irish peer and politician.He was the son of Anthony Foster of Louth, an Irish judge . He was elected Member of Parliament to the Irish House of Commons for Dunleer in 1761, a seat he held until 1769...
, John Fitzgibbon
John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare
John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare PC , later known as Earl of Clare or Lord Clare, was Attorney-General for Ireland in 1783, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1789, in which capacity he was first promoted to the Irish peerage.He was a controversial figure in Irish history, being described...
and John Beresford, remained opposed to further concessions to Catholics and, led by the 'Junta', argued that the "Protestant Interest" could only be secured by maintaining the connection with Britain.
Partly as a result of the trade laws being liberalised, Ireland went through an economic boom in the 1780s. Canals extended from Dublin westwards and the Four Courts and Post Office were established. Dublin's granite-lined quays were built and it boasted that it was the 'second city of the empire'. Corn laws were introduced in 1784 to give a bounty on flour shipped to Dublin; this promoted the spread of mills and tillage.
The United Irishmen, the 1798 Rebellion and the Act of Union
Further reforms for Catholics continued to 1793, when they could again vote, sit on grand juries and buy freehold land. However they could neither enter parliament nor become senior state officials. Reform stalled because of the French war (1793), but, as the French republicans were opposed to the Catholic Church, in 1795 the government assisted in building St. Patrick's College in MaynoothMaynooth
Maynooth is a town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to a branch of the National University of Ireland, a Papal University and Ireland's main Roman Catholic seminary, St. Patrick's College...
for Catholic seminarians.
Some in Ireland were attracted to the more militant example of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789. In 1791 a small group of Protestant radicals formed the Society of the United Irishmen
Society of the United Irishmen
The Society of United Irishmen was founded as a liberal political organisation in eighteenth century Ireland that sought Parliamentary reform. However, it evolved into a revolutionary republican organisation, inspired by the American Revolution and allied with Revolutionary France...
in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, initially to campaign for the end to religious discrimination and the widening of the right to vote. However, the group soon radicalised its aims and sought to overthrow British rule and found a non-sectarian republic. In the words of Theobald Wolfe Tone
Theobald Wolfe Tone
Theobald Wolfe Tone or Wolfe Tone , was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members of the United Irishmen and is regarded as the father of Irish Republicanism. He was captured by British forces at Lough Swilly in Donegal and taken prisoner...
, its goals were to "substitute the common name of Irishman for Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter" and to "break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils".
The United Irishmen spread quickly throughout the country. Republicanism was particularly attractive to the Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
Presbyterian community, being literate, who were also discriminated against for their religion, and who had strong links with Scots-Irish American
Scots-Irish American
Scotch-Irish Americans are an estimated 250,000 Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who immigrated to North America primarily during the colonial era and their descendants. Some scholars also include the 150,000 Ulster Protestants who immigrated to...
emigrants who had fought against Britain in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. Many Catholics, particularly the emergent Catholic middle class, were also attracted to the movement, and it claimed over 200,000 members by 1798. The United Irishmen were banned after Revolutionary France in 1793 declared war on Britain and they developed from a political movement into a military organisation preparing for armed rebellion. The Volunteer
Irish Volunteers (18th century)
The Irish Volunteers were a militia in late 18th century Ireland. The Volunteers were founded in Belfast in 1778 to defend Ireland from the threat of foreign invasion when regular British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight across the globe during the American War of Independence...
movement was also suppressed. However, these measures did nothing to calm the situation in Ireland and these reforms were bitterly opposed by the "ultra-loyalist" Protestant hardliners such as John Foster
John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel
John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel was an Irish peer and politician.He was the son of Anthony Foster of Louth, an Irish judge . He was elected Member of Parliament to the Irish House of Commons for Dunleer in 1761, a seat he held until 1769...
. Violence and disorder became widespread. Hardening loyalist attitudes led to the foundation of the Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
, a hardline Protestant grouping, in 1795.
The United Irishmen, now dedicated to armed revolution, forged links with the militant Catholic peasant society, the Defenders
Defenders (Ireland)
The Defenders were a militant, vigilante agrarian secret society in 18th century Ireland, mainly Roman Catholic and from Ulster, who allied with the United Irishmen but did little during the rebellion of 1798.-Origin:...
, who had been raiding farmhouses since 1792. Wolfe Tone, the United Irish leader, went to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to seek French military support. These efforts bore fruit when the French launched an expeditionary force of 15,000 troops which arrived off Bantry Bay in December 1796, but failed to land due to a combination of indecisiveness, poor seamanship, and storms off the Bantry
Bantry
Bantry is a town on the coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies on the N71 national secondary road at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km to the west...
coast.
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
. When the central core of the plan, an uprising in Dublin, failed, the rebellion then spread in an apparently random fashion firstly around Dublin, then briefly in Kildare, Meath, Carlow and Wicklow. County Wexford in the southeast then saw the most sustained fighting of the rebellion, to be briefly joined by rebels who took to the field in Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
and Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
in the north. A small French force landed in Killala Bay in Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
leading to a last outbreak of rebellion in counties Mayo, Leitrim
County Leitrim
County Leitrim is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the county...
and Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
. The rebellion lasted just three months before it was suppressed, but claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. Being the largest outburst of violence in modern Ireland, 1798 looms heavily in collective memory and was commemorated extensively in its centennial and bicentennial anniversaries.
The Republican ideal of a non-sectarian society was greatly damaged by sectarian atrocities committed by both sides during the rebellion. Government troops and militia targeted Catholics in general and the rebels on several occasions killed Protestant loyalist civilians. In Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, the 1790s were marked by naked sectarian strife between Catholic Defenders
Defenders (Ireland)
The Defenders were a militant, vigilante agrarian secret society in 18th century Ireland, mainly Roman Catholic and from Ulster, who allied with the United Irishmen but did little during the rebellion of 1798.-Origin:...
and Protestant groups like the Peep O'Day Boys
Peep O'Day Boys
The Peep o' Day Boys was a Protestant secret association in 18th century Ireland, active in the 1780s and '90s and a precursor of the Orange Order.-Origins:The Peep-of-day Boys arose in the year 1784, in County Armagh, Ireland...
and the newly founded Orange Order.
Largely in response to the rebellion, Irish self-government was abolished altogether by the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
on 1 January 1801. The Irish Parliament, dominated by the Protestant landed class, was persuaded to vote for its own abolition for fear of another rebellion and with the aid of bribery by Lord Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. The Catholic Bishops, who had condemned the rebellion, supported the Union as a step on the road to further Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
.
Culture
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
and Protestant. In this period, there continued to be a vibrant Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
literature, exemplified by the Aisling
Aisling
The aisling , or vision poem, is a poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry...
genre of Irish poetry
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...
. These were dream poems, typically featuring a woman representing Ireland who pleaded with the young men of Ireland to save her from slavery and oppression. Many Irish language poets clung to a romantic attachment to the Jacobite cause, although some wrote in praise of the United Irishmen in the 1790s. Other, non-political poetry could be quite sexually explicit, for example the poem Cuirt an Mean Oiche (the Midnight Court). Gaelic poets of this era include Aogán Ó Rathaille
Aogán Ó Rathaille
Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, also spelt Aogán Ó Rathaille or Anglicised as Egan O'Rahilly , was an Irish language poet. He is credited with creating the first fully developed Aisling poem.-Early life:...
and Brian Merriman
Brian Merriman
Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre was an Irish language poet and teacher. His single surviving work of substance, the 1000-line long Cúirt An Mheán Oíche is widely regarded as the greatest comic poem in the history of Irish literature.-Merriman's life:Merriman appears to have...
.
Anglo-Irish writers were also prolific in this period, notably Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
author of Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
and the liberal political thinker Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
. One intellectual who crossed the cultural divide was John Toland
John Toland
John Toland was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment...
, an Irish speaking Catholic from Donegal
Donegal
Donegal or Donegal Town is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. Its name, which was historically written in English as Dunnagall or Dunagall, translates from Irish as "stronghold of the foreigners" ....
, who converted to Protestantism and became a leading philosopher in intellectual circles in Scotland, England, Germany and Bohemia.
Much of Ireland's finest urban architecture also stems from this era, in particular Georgian Dublin
Georgian Dublin
Georgian Dublin is a phrase used in the History of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings,# to describe a historic period in the development of the city of Dublin, Ireland, from 1714 to the death in 1830 of King George IV...
.
Legacy
This period in Irish history has been called "the long peace" and indeed for nearly one hundred years, there was little political violence in Ireland, in stark contrast to the previous two hundred years. Nevertheless, the period 1691-1801 began and ended in violence. By its close, the dominance of the Protestant AscendancyProtestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
that had ruled the country for 100 years was beginning to be challenged by an increasingly assertive Catholic population, and was ended by the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
that created the United Kingdom from January 1801. The violence of the 1790s had shattered the hopes of many radicals that the old sectarian divisions in Irish society could be forgotten. Presbyterians in particular largely abandoned their alliance with Catholics and radicals in the 19th century. Under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...
, Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
would in the future be a more exclusively Catholic phenomenon. Many Protestants saw their continued pre-eminence in Irish society, and their hopes for the Irish economy, as being guaranteed only by the Union with Britain and became unionists.
Sources
- Thomas Bartlett, Kevin Dawson, Daire Keogh, Rebellion, Dublin 1998
- James Smyth, The Men of No Property - Radical Politics in Ireland in the 1790s
- J.G Simms, War and Politics in Ireland 1649-1730, London 1986
- Fernand Braudel, The Perspective of the World, vol III of Civilization and Capitalism. (1979, in English 1985)
- R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600-1972
- Guy BeinerGuy BeinerGuy Beiner is a historian of the late-modern period. He is a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel.-Life and works:Guy Beiner is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD from the National University of Ireland...
, Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory, Madison Wisconsin 2007.