Catholic Committee

Catholic Committee. The first body established to give formal representation to Catholic interests in the 18th century was a Catholic Association (1756) composed of Dublin business interests and mainly concerned with commercial privileges. In 1760 Charles O'Conor and John Curry established a more broadly based Catholic Committee, but prior to the 1790s this was only sporadically active. From 1791, however, a more militant group, headed by John Keogh and Edward Byrne, seized control of the committee, provoking the secession in December 1791 of a conservative faction headed by Lord Kenmare. Several of the new leadership had links with the United Irish movement, and in 1792 Edmund Burke's son Richard was replaced as secretary by Tone. The culmination of the new, more assertive strategy was the Catholic Convention held in December 1792. The committee dissolved itself following the Catholic Relief Act of 1793, reappearing briefly in 1795 when Fitzwilliam's appointment seemed to hold out the promise of further gains. A new Catholic Committee (formally the General Committee of the Catholics of Ireland) was established in May 1809 to continue the campaign for Catholic emancipation, but was suppressed in 1811 under the Convention Act, after seeking to broaden its base by adding elected delegates to its membership.