The struggle for rights (1801-1900)

The British government decided to resolve problems in Ireland by uniting the two kingdoms. To persuade the Irish Parliament to pass the Act of Union in 1800, William Pitt promised that Britain would grant political rights to Roman Catholics. The union took effect in 1801. Catholic Emancipation The union disappointed most of the Irish. Pitt's promise was not honoured, and political union did not bring economic prosperity. As the population grew, more people needed land. But the end of the Napoleonic Wars caused unemployment and made farming unprofitable. Irish industries were not able to compete with the more efficient British ones. The only part of Ireland to benefit from the union was Ulster, where the linen industry expanded and new industries grew up and prospered, based on coal and iron from Britain. The Protestants of Ulster became convinced that their prosperity depended on the union with Britain.

Daniel O'Connell, a Roman Catholic lawyer, believed that the country's problems would not receive adequate attention until Roman Catholics were allowed to sit in Parliament, and until Ireland had a parliament of its own. In 1823, he formed the Catholic Association, to work for full political rights for Roman Catholics. All of the Irish people, except the Protestants of Ulster, backed him. In 1828, O'Connell stood at a by-election in Clare, and was elected to Parliament. The government feared a revolution in Ireland if O'Connell was not allowed to take his seat. In 1829, an act was passed allowing Roman Catholics to sit in Parliament and to hold all government offices except those of regent, lord lieutenant, and lord chancellor. But, at the same time, the voting laws were changed and many tenants in Ireland lost the right to vote.

The Young Irelanders

Initially, O'Connell had the support of a group of young men called the Young Irelanders. In 1842, three of them, Thomas Davis, John Blake Dillon, and Charles Gavan Duffy, founded a newspaper, called The Nation, to awaken interest in Irish history and culture. They tried to win Protestant support, but most Protestants opposed them. They gradually came to believe in the use of force, and in 1848 a group led by William Smith O'Brien tried to raise a rebellion. They failed, and the government transported their leaders to Tasmania.

The Fenians

In 1858, exiles in the United States led by John O'Mahony formed the Fenian Brotherhood, a secret, oath-bound society that aimed to establish an Irish republic, if necessary by force. At the same time, James Stephens founded a similar organization in Dublin, called the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The two movements soon merged. At the end of the American Civil War, some disbanded soldiers joined the Fenians and other members were recruited from the British army. The Fenians smuggled ammunition into Ireland and made plans for a rising. But spies kept the government informed of their preparations and, in 1865, most of the leaders were arrested. An uprising took place in 1867, but it was soon suppressed. The Fenian movement failed, but, together with the Great Famine and the activities of Irish agrarian societies that terrorized landlords, it drew the attention of British politicians to the need for reforms in Ireland.

Home Rule and The Land League

William E. Gladstone, who became Prime Minister in 1868, was greatly influenced by these outbreaks of violence in Ireland. At first, he tried to pacify the country by passing a Land Act that gave tenants some security of tenure and by disestablishing the Church of Ireland--that is, abolishing its connection with the state. But the Irish were not satisfied and, in 1870, Isaac Butt, a Protestant lawyer, founded the Home Rule movement. It aimed to establish a subordinate parliament in Dublin to deal with purely Irish affairs, leaving such matters as defence and foreign policy to the British government. Butt was a poor leader, and the movement made little progress until 1878, when a young Protestant landlord, Charles Stewart Parnell, took control. In the following year, Michael Davitt - heroic fighter for just causes and the rights of the common people (Listen to Forgotten Hero by Andy Irvine), founded the Land League, to protect tenants against high rents and eviction. Parnell merged the two movements into an aggressive force. He gained the support of many Fenians and received substantial aid from the United States. In the House of Commons, Home Rule members obstructed the business of Parliament and, in Ireland, the Land League struck terror into the hearts of landlords. In 1881, the government, under Gladstone, passed a second Land Act, setting up courts to fix fair rents. But the demand for self-government continued. On May 6, 1882, in Dublin's Phoenix Park, Irish terrorists murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish, chief secretary of Ireland, and T. H. Burke, the undersecretary. Gladstone eventually gave way and introduced a Home Rule Bill in 1886. His party split, the bill was defeated, and Gladstone resigned. Four years later, Parnell became involved in a divorce case, and his followers split into two hostile groups that continued to quarrel even after his death in 1891. Two years later, the Liberal government under Gladstone introduced another Home Rule Bill. The bill was passed in the House of Commons, but rejected by the House of Lords. Irish Protestants bitterly opposed both of these Home Rule bills. The Conservatives, who held office from 1895 to 1905, adopted a policy of "killing Home Rule by kindness." They passed acts to enable tenants to buy their lands, the most important being Wyndham's Act of 1903, which made available 100 million pounds to enable tenants to purchase land. But the Irish people still wanted self-government.