Ireland 432-1800 Ireland from St. Patrick to the Norman Conquest, 432-1169

In Ireland, the conservative triumvirate of John Beresford [Chief Commissioner of the Revenue (1780)], John Foster [Chancellor of the Exchequer (1784) and Speaker of the House of Commons (1785)] and John Fitzgibbon [Attorney General (1783) and Lord Chancellor (1789) held the line against the clamour for reform and intermittent, often adverse, political interference from London. Effectively forming an informal cabinet, this trio of exceptionally able politicians stifled attempts at parliamentary reform or political concessions to Catholics and adopted a stern approach to issues of law and order. They deftly utilized the Rightboy agitation to play on conservative fears for the church’s established position and polarized trenchant opposition to further extensions of the franchise and Catholic relief by presenting the latter as the prelude to the final breaking of the link with Great Britain and the destruction of the Protestant Ascendancy.

This split in Protestant political circles also impacted on the major vehicle of Catholic representation [The Catholic Committee]. Initially formed in the 1750s as an aristocratic, mercantile and clerical pressure group for the alleviation of penal legislation and the re-admittance of Irish Catholics into the political process, the committee was reconsitituted as a broadly based organization by Charles O’Connor and John Curry in the 1760s. The effective collapse of the Stuart cause, increasing Catholic political engagement with the Hanoverian establishment and the successful formation of an oath of loyalty to George III in the 1770s, precipitated an gradual relaxation of the penal code. Bishop Hervey’s act of 1774 introduced a new oath of allegiance that proved acceptable to all sides and paved the way for Luke Gardiner’s Relief Act of 1778 which enabled Catholics who had taken this oath to bequeath land to a single heir, purchase lands and take leases up to 999 years. Further measures introduced by Gardiner in 1782 allowed Catholics to buy land, except in parliamentary boroughs, and removed most restrictions affecting Catholic education and the Catholic clergy.

The Catholic Committee as constituted by O’Connor and Curry and dominated by aristocratic and conservative elements seemed contented to pursue this gradualist, minimalist approach and quiet diplomacy. However, a more militant group headed by John Keough and Edmund Byrne, some of whom had links with the recently-formed United Irishmen, effectively usurped and radicalized the movement in the early 1790s. This new radicalism fed off the awakening among English Catholics, the introduction of complete religious toleration in France in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, as well as a new radicalism that made itself apparent in Irish Catholic and Presbyterian circles. This quickly manifested itself in the pamphlets of their brilliant young secretary Theobald Wolfe Tone. In his Argument on behalf of theCatholics of Ireland (1791) he insisted on the common political interest of Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters. The culmination of the new, more aggressive strategy of the radical Committee was the Catholic Convention, or ‘Back-Lane Parliament’ which met in Tailor’s Hall, Dublin, between 3-8 December 1792 to petition the government for further Catholic relief and a total abolition of the penal code. Catholics elected delegates, mainly businessmen and country gentlemen, from all parts of the kingdom, raised subscriptions and collected signatures to present a petition directly to the king in London. Although this ‘Popish Parliament’ created resentment and alarm in conservative Protestant circles it persuaded the government to pass the Catholic Relief Act of 1793 which gave Catholics the right to vote and to hold most civil and military offices.

The elevation of Lord Fitzwilliam to the viceroyalty In January 1795 further animated Irish Catholic hopes. A Burkean Whig it was expected that he would be influenced by Grattan and thus more sympathetic to Catholic relief. Although under strict verbal instructions [the nature, content and interpretation of which has been the focus of much contemporary and scholarly controversy] neither to radically alter the Irish administration or sponsor further Catholic relief he quickly purged the anti-Catholic faction in the Irish administration [including John Beresford]. He also threw his support behind the Emancipation Bill that Grattan intended to introduce on 12 February and whose express purpose was to facilitate Catholics taking their seats in parliament. Having continually represented to London the absolute necessity of supporting further Catholic relief he interpreting London’s silence as acquiescence in his conciliatory policies. London finally instructed him not to support the Emancipation Bill and although he endeavoured to defend his actions he was forced to withdraw his support before being recalled. The ‘Fitzwilliam Episode’ had a traumatic effect on the Irish polity. The new viceroy Lord Camden vigorously opposed Grattan’s emancipation bill but tried to soften the blow by supporting the establishment of a state-funded Catholic seminary at Maynooth. It was to have a profound influence on the nature of Irish Catholicism and the subsequent Irish Catholic mission throughout the world. This sop to the Irish catholic hierarchy proved irresistable, but was a poor substitute for full emancipation in the eyes of many lay Catholics.

In spite of this, and other conciliatory measure, the ‘Fitzwilliam Episode’ dashed the hopes of Catholics, reformers and radicals. It also set in train a vicious cycle of discontent, sectarian strife between Defenders and the Orange Order and resultant repression that would culminate in the rebellion of 1798. An Insurrection Act, passed in February 1796, made it a capital offence to administer a secret oath and empowered the Lord Lieutenant and council to proclaim any district as ‘disturbed’. Magistrates in these proclaimed areas enjoyed almost unlimited powers and could send suspected traitors and other disaffected persons to the fleet. The suspension of habeas corpus further augmented these powers. Local magistrates clamoured for the establishment of a yeomanry, largely recruited by local landlords from amongst their tenantry, which was predominantly but not exclusively Protestant. By 1797 some 30,000 had been enrolled in its ranks. It quickly formed a close association with the Orange Order and attracted a reputation for gross indiscipline and rabid sectarianism.

The French Revolution and its growing radicalism of Republican France [culminating in the outbreak of war with Prussia and Austria, the execution of the king and an ensuing reign of terror] further polarized opinion between the radical Francophile Whigs under Charles James Fox and a more conservative Whig faction under the Duke of Portland who moved closer towards the Pitt ministry under the influence of Edmund Burke’s Reflections of the Revolution in France (November, 1790). This polarization also became increasingly marked in Dublin. As Conservatives flocked to the Burkeian standard some 20,000 copies of a cheap Dublin edition of Thomas Paine’s radical rejoinder The Rights of Man were sold throughout Ireland.

Animated by both the American and French Revolutions the society of the United Irish Society was founded in Belfast and Dublin between October-November 1791, with other clubs being quickly established in urban areas throughout the country. Inspired by group of radical middle-class and upper-class Protestants, Presbyterians and Catholics its political ethos combined the new radicalism of the French Revolution, with the older Whig traditions of commonwealth, parliamentary reform and patriotism. It’s main aims were the unification of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman, further parliamentary reform [including universal male suffrage] and the removal of English control over Irish affairs. The United Irishmen initially operated as a radicalizing agent in the Irish polity and countryside, disseminating radical and propaganda through its hugely successful newspaper [The Northern Star]. Indeed, the Star was a testament to the new radicalism and ingenious propagandist capabilities of its writers and editors. Beautifully produced and brilliantly edited by Samuel Neilson, a prosperous young merchant from Belfast, it contained a disproportionately large amount of Irish news and enjoyed a circulation of over four thousand copies, spreading across the nine county province of Ulster. It was only after its suppression, the arrest of its leaders and the closure of the Star in 1797 that the United Irishmen were reconstituted as a secret oath-bound society. In communication with France, it geared itself for wide spread armed rebellion which would finally break the link with Britain. In addition to the newspaper book clubs [founded across Ulster in the 1780s and quickly transmuted into United Irish societies] and womens’ societies [derisively dubbed ‘teapot societies’ by loyalists] helped to distribute and disseminate republican propagandist works such as Paine’s The Rights of Man and further fuelled the emerging radicialism. Popular chapbooks and radical catechisms such as Paddy’s Resource, Cox’s Union Star, the Children’s Catechism and a prolifieration of popular broadsheets such as ‘The cry of the poor for bread’, ‘The Temple of superstition’ all served to galvanize what Kevin Whelan has called ‘The Republic in the Village’. They utilized and cultivated an accessible, conversational style that was well suited to public readings and popular performance that, like the Jacobite poetry of the earlier eighteenth century, served to bridge the divide between orality and literature. Harp societies and other Unitied Irish initiatives served to focus attention on and celebrate Ireland’s glorious pre-colonial Gaelic past

These cultural activities provided the perfect backdrop for the ongoing military preparations. Wolfe Tone arrived in France in February 1796 to seek support from the Directory for a rebellion. A French armada of 43 vessels containing over 14, 450 soldiers with arms for 40,000 volunteers, left Brest on 16 December under the command of the brilliant young General Lazare Hoche. Hoche appearance at the head of the invasion force was an indication of how serious this invasion was being taken by the French. However, following the now characteristic intervention of the ever dependable ‘Protestant winds’ adverse weather conditions prevented the thirty-six ships which arrived in Bantry Bay from landing. The episode created panic in conservative circles, convinced the most committed sceptics of the threat posed by the United Irish ‘fifth colum’ and justified Wolfe Tone’s despairing exclamation that ‘England has had the greatest escape since the armada’. Nevertheless, it boosted numbers and morale in United Irish ranks.

The government in turn reacted swiftly and mercilessly, concentrating on the main areas of Defender influence in Ulster and north Leinster. Under General Lake they strengthened and re-deployed the army and yeomanry, proclaimed troubled areas, imposed martial law and waged an indiscriminate war on property. A reign of terror ensued, involving the yeomanry and Orange Order, and accompanied by the widespread use of flogging, half-hanging and the ‘pitch cap’. This culminated in all out sectarian assaults on Catholics in Ulster by the Orange Order which resulted in the death of over 1000 people and the expulsion of 500 more to Connaught. Although the government condemned the worst of these sectarian excesses of the Orange Order they refused to intervene. This served only to alienate the province of Ulster and push the United Irishmen further on the path towards rebellion. The United Irish leadership initially opted to proceed with their planned rising in Dublin, the precursor to a countrywide uprising. However, their well laid came unstuck with the arrest of a host of their most prominent leaders including Lord Edward Fitzgerald, The Sheares brothers and Oliver Cromwell Bond, betrayed by a plethora of well-placed informers such as Leonard McNally, Thomas Reynolds and Francis Higgins [‘The Sham Squire’].

Nevertheless risings of contrasting numerical size and military success took place throughout the country. The seizure of the mail coaches on 23/24^th May provided the signal to begin military action in the counties surrounding Dublin. These duly rose but the lack of adequate military leadership and a proper command structure, coupled with the acute shortage of siege guns and adequate field artillery, blunted their fighting prowess. However, like their Jacobite fore-bearers, they showed themselves to be particularly adept at waging guerrilla warfare using the ambush and their knowledge of the country and its terrain to great effect. At Oulart Hill the rebels scored a shattering victory over the predominantly Orange North Cork militia where the pike, the iconic weapon of the Wexford ‘Croppy’, was used to devastating effect against loyalist cavalry charges. Led by the talismanic Fr John Murphy they proceeded to attack a heavily fortified town that they seized by stampeding a herd of cattle through the terrified garrison. After suffering a number of severe setbacks at Bunclody, New Ross and Arklow the rebel army was effectively cornered in County Wexford and destroyed at Vinegar Hill. In virtual imitation of their doomed Jacobite fore-bearers at Aughrim or Culloden, they took the fateful decision to fight a pitched battle against superior forces and their infantry was decimated with cannon and grape-shot, before being finally mown down by the loyalist cavalry.

In Ulster the United Irishmen were effectively stunned into inaction by the wholesale arrest of the leadership and an increasing unwillingness on the part of of propertied Presbyterians to throw in their lot with their plebian confederates. Nevertheless, the United men of the predominantly Presbyterian counties of Antrim and Down mobilized under the leadership of Robert Monroe, Robert Simms and Henry Joy McCracken to engage in what became a sectarian struggle with the predominantly Church of Ireland loyalists of the region. The men of Down suffered a severe military setback at Ballynahinch and although their Antrim counterparts prevailed at Ballymena they finally succumbed to the loyalist foe at the Battle of Antrim.

Meanwhile Wolfe Tone continued to petition the French Directory for help and they finally agreed to send a small naval force comprising three ships of 1,100 men under the command of General Humbert that reached Killala, County Mayo on 22 August 1798. Although vastly outnumbered by the British and loyalist forces arrayed against him Humbert managed to raise a large local contingent in Connaught and routed a vastly superior force of militia and yeomanry under the hated General Lake in what became immortalized as ‘the Races of Castlebar’. Humbert finally surrendered with honourable terms at Ballinamuck, having first marching his tiny force through some 150 miles of enemy territory. These terms did not extend to his indigenous confederates and the yeomanry and the yeomanry and militia extracted bloody revenge for their humiliation at Castlebar. ‘The Year of The French/’Bliain na bhFrancach’ was over. One week after the surrender of Humbert, Wolfe Tone, accompanied by a force of 3,000 French troops, arrived off the west coast of Donegal but was quickly intercepted by the Royal Navy. He was immediately taken prisoner having been recognized by an old school friend from Trinity College. Despatched to Dublin he was immediately tried and condemned to hang [in spite of his pleas to be shot as a soldier by firing squad.] he committed suicide. His request to be treated as a soldier would reiterate from docks, gallows and prison cells from Robert Emmet to Bobby Sands. Tone, the most dynamic and energetic of the united Irish leaders, his exertions for Catholic relief in the late 1780s and early 1790s were a dress rehersal for what became his ultimate obsession the unification of Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters under the common name of Irishmen and the severing of all links with Britain.

It is conservatively estimated that some 11,000 rebels and 1,666 crown combatants died during the fighting, over 440 loyalist were killed by the insurgents and some 2,000 rebels were exiled or executed. Total casualties are computed at between 20-30,000. The rebellion ultimately failed as a result of government-sanctioned counter-terror and the coercive, brutal and often bloody disarming campaigns of the previous years. The failure of a French descent and the ultimate re-orientation of French military offensives from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean deprived the United Irishmen of much needed military, logistical financial and moral support. The rebellion also foundered as a result of the fortuitous arrest of key conspirators who subsequently turned informer which deprived the movement of decisive leadership at a critical time. These misfortunes were exacerbated by the rather cumbersome and overly hierarchical leadership structure and what ultimately proved to be a brittle alliance between the radical Presbyterians and Catholic Defenders. Nevertheless, the United Irishmen would continue to inspire a whole host of Irish revolutionaries, soldiers, writers and political commentators who remained convinced that Ireland’s political, economic and cultural salvation ultimately depended on the final severance of the link with Britain.

The Act of Union

One of the immediate political consequences of the United Irish Rebellion and its bloody aftermath was a realization on the part of Prime-Minister Pitt and his cabinet that the Protestant Ascendancy was no longer capable of governing Ireland. The new brand of ‘total war’ with Revolutionary France, the numerous invasion attempts of the 1790s and continuing invasion threats brought home the need for direct control from Westminster. Pitt became convinced that the solution of Ireland’s political ills was a legislative union between the two parliaments, accompanied by a measure of Catholic emancipation. The rebellion provided the opportunity for both. Indeed, while it was barely in progress Pitt had sounded out the king and key members of the cabinet who encouraged him to proceed. In June 1798 Lord Lieutenant Camden was replaced by Lord Cornwallis, who, in spite of his defeat at Yorktown, was a soldier of vast military and political experience who quickly restored discipline in the British military in Ireland and dispensed with the savage policy of reprisal that had been the hallmark of his military predecessor General Lake. The task of preparing Ireland for union fell on the shoulders of Cornwallis, although the major cajoling of the divided Protestant Ascendancy was the work of Lord Castlereagh, later the architect of post-Napoleonic Europe. He duly to took advantage of the weaknesses in anti-Unionist ranks and broke down their opposition by a mixture of argument, bribery and intimidation.

The major weapon in the anti-unionist arsenal was public opposition to the union. Dublin feared the threat to its position as capital and the influence of its powerful mercantile, legal, commercial and financial interests resounded throughout the kingdom. Others were motivated by Patriot sentiment and a fear that the Imperial Parliament would not maintain the Protestant Ascendancy. Opposition newspapers and pamphlets trumpeted their cause, while the ever-dependable Dublin mob fêted and cheered the anti-unionists as they hissed and stoned it their opponents. Although Cornwallis maintained that ‘the mass of the people of Ireland do not care one farthing about the union’ many Catholics supported the measure, believing that Pitt, Castlereagh and Cornwallis would deliver on their promise of Catholic emancipation. The Catholic Church hierarchy, horrified by the excesses of the French and Irish Revolutions and placated by the foundation of Maynooth, provided an invaluable ally for the government. Their support lessened the danger of an alliance between the anti-unionists and the greater Catholic populace and it gave the appearance of popular Catholic quiescence in legislative union. Pitt’s pandering to the anti-emancipationist clique around Lord Clare guaranteed that there would be no chance of a Catholic relief bill during the life of the Irish parliament but the Catholic Church, gentry and middle classes expected that he would nonetheless deliver. Nevertheless, a coterie of Catholic barristers led by the young Daniel O’Connell broke ranks with their co-religionists and condemned the impending legislative union due to the lack of explicit promises for their support.

Presbyterians, instrumental in securing legislative independence in 1782, were expected to join the opposition. However, their reaction against the excessive revolutionary principles of the United Irishmen, their traumatic experiences of military rule and government reprisal and the continued threat of French invasion all combined to lure them away from their United Irish experiment and back under the conservative umbrella. Castlereagh’s promise to increase the regium donum, a government subsidy to Presbyterian ministers and the prospect of increased economic development arising from closer commercial ties with Great Britain, coupled with government propaganda and intense negotiation, enticed the waverers into the government’s camp. To stifle previous opposition to the measure Castlereagh and Cornwallis dismissed anti-Union members of the Irish government and lured prospective supporters with promises of compensation for loss of offices and electoral influence, future political favours and generous patronage and financial compensation. Even the dramatic intervention of a pale and ailing Henry Grattan, clad in his volunteer uniform and speaking with all the fire and eloquence of his 1782 campaign for legislative independence, failed to shake the pro-union phalanx that Castlereagh had assembled.

Identical measures drawn up in the respective Irish and Westminster parliaments facilitated Irish representation in the two houses of the Imperial parliament. The new political entity would be known as the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’. Its parliament would be constituted in the same way as the British Parliament. In future, four clerical and twenty-eight lay peers, elected for life by the Irish peerage, would sit in the upper house. Ireland would send one hundred members to the lower house, two for each county, two for the cities of Dublin and Cork, one for Trinity College and 31 for each of the other cities and boroughs of Ireland. The Anglican Church and the Church of Ireland were united and the king’s British and Irish subjects would have the same privileges in matters of commerce. Initially, however, the two countries would have separate financial systems and national debts but these would coalesce in 1817 under a scheme whereby import duties would be effectively scrapped and Ireland made responsible for 2/17ths of Imperial expenditure.

The Union failed dismally to incorporate Ireland into the Imperial British state as evidenced by the emergence of popular O’Connellite agitation for Catholic emancipation, the fruits of Catholic support for the union which had been denied by George III. This movement would later be moulded into a formidable mass movement of politicized Catholics [led by O’Connell] with the express purpose of repealing the union with Britain, which, in turn would animate the constitutional agitation for Home Rule under Isaac Butt, Charles Stuart Parnell and John Redmond in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.. The failure of mass agitation and parliamentary of O’Connell and Parnell prompted the militant republican Young Irelanders and Fenians to emulate the United Irish forbearers in attempting to violently sever Ireland’s links with Britain. Indeed, the Irish question, constitutional agitation for home rule and the re-emergence of militant republicanism under the guise of the Irish volunteers and Sinn Féin would continue to both tax the efforts and dog the political careers of many British politicians until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921.