Henry Grattan

Henry Grattan , 1746-1820, Irish statesman. A lawyer, he entered (1775) the Irish Parliament and soon became known as a brilliant orator. Aided by Britain's preoccupation with the American Revolution and its fear of the revolutionary potential of the Irish volunteer army (see Ireland ), Grattan led the successful fight for abolition of the restrictions on Irish trade and the repeal of Poynings's Law (see under Poynings, Sir Edward ). Having thus gained nominal legislative independence for the Irish Parliament, he worked to eliminate the system by which English patrons continued to control it, advocating Catholic Emancipation as the only means for making the Irish Parliament truly representative. The Catholic Relief Act (1793) gave Catholics the right to vote in Ireland, but hopes raised in 1795 that Catholics would be allowed to sit in Parliament were soon dashed, and Grattan retired (1797) in indignation at the government's policy. In 1800, on the last day of the debate on the parliamentary union with England, Grattan appeared in the Irish Parliament and made the greatest speech of his career in opposition to the Act of Union. He sat in the British Parliament from 1805, taking little part except to support Catholic Emancipation.

Bibliography: See G. O'Brien, Anglo-Irish Politics in the Age of Grattan and Pitt (1986).

Grattan, Henry (1746–1820). Statesman. Grattan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the Irish bar in 1772. Returned to the Irish Parliament in 1775 for Charlemont, he rapidly gained a reputation as an orator and became a leader of the patriot group, pressing for Irish legislative independence, granted in 1782. He was later given £50,000 by the Irish Parliament for his services to the nation and the period 1782–99, the high-water mark of the protestant ascendancy, was known as Grattan's Parliament. In 1790 he founded the Irish Whig club and was elected for Dublin, denouncing parliamentary corruption and advocating concessions to the catholics. He was in England for the 1798 rebellion but was elected to the Dublin Parliament in 1800 in time to protest against the Act of Union: what the minister proposed to buy could not be sold—liberty. In 1805 he was persuaded to enter the Westminster Parliament for Fitzwilliam's borough of Malton and from 1806 to 1820 represented his old seat in Dublin. He declined office and strove continuously for catholic emancipation, his hopes remaining unrealized. A brilliant orator, a man of integrity and political consistency, Grattan died in London and was buried in Westminster abbey. ‘What Irishman’, wrote Sydney Smith, ‘does not feel proud that he has lived in the days of Grattan … he thought only of Ireland, lived for no other object.’

Richard A. Smith

Grattan, Henry (1746–1820) Irish statesman. He entered the Irish Parliament in 1775. A compelling orator, he became leader of the Patriotic Party. In 1782, Grattan helped to obtain legislative independence. He strongly opposed the Act of Union (1801), which merged the Irish and British Parliaments. As a member of the Westminster Parliament (1805–20), Grattan fought for Catholic Emancipation.