Catholic emancipation

Catholic emancipation, the admission of Catholics to the positions from which they were still excluded following the Catholic Relief Acts of 1778, 1782, and 1793. Principally these were the right to hold senior government offices or be members of the privy council, to be a judge, king's counsel, or sheriff of a county, or to sit in parliament. Petitions for the removal of these restrictions were rejected by large parliamentary majorities in 1805 and 1808. From 1812, however, Lord Liverpool's Tory ministry accepted that emancipation was an open question, which ministers could support or oppose. Grattan's emancipation bill of 1819 failed by only two votes, and in 1821 an emancipation bill introduced by William Conyngham Plunket passed through the Commons. The political argument had thus been won by 1821; but the hostility of the House of Lords, and of King George IV, remained a formidable obstacle.

The establishment in 1823 of the Catholic Association began a new phase in the campaign for emancipation. The introduction of the Catholic rent transformed the association from a small Dublin‐based caucus into a mass movement with branches throughout the country. The momentum thus created was maintained by public meetings, and by the skilful use of newspapers to disseminate news of the agitation. The Catholic clergy, ex‐officio members of all branches, played a vital role as local organizers and channels of information. The rhetoric of the movement was broadened to include not just legal disabilities but grievances such as excessive demands for tithes and the partisan administration of justice. The agitation suffered a setback in 1825, with the suppression of the Catholic Association and the disagreements caused by O'Connell's acquiescence in the wings. In the general election of 1826, however, Catholic activists in several counties, despite O'Connell's initial scepticism, offered a dramatic demonstration of the power of the Catholic electorate. In Co. Waterford Villiers Stuart inflicted a dramatic defeat on Lord George Thomas Beresford, while in Cavan, Monaghan, Westmeath, and Louth large numbers of 40‐shilling freeholders likewise defied their landlords to support pro‐emancipation candidates. These successes provided the impetus for the formation in a number of counties of Liberal clubs to provide a permanent electoral organization. After another period of partial stasis during 1827 the final crisis came with O'Connell's bold decision to stand against Vesey FitzGerald in the Co. Clare by‐election of 1828. His overwhelming victory confirmed the collapse of proprietorial control over Catholic voters, and convinced Wellington and Peel that emancipation could not be delayed. However, it took several months of behind the scenes negotiation, during which Ireland seemed to come close to explosion, before the last Catholic Relief Act became law on 13 April 1829.

Bibliography

O'Ferrall, Fergus , Catholic Emancipation: Daniel O'Connell and the Birth of Irish Democracy (1985)