Henry Grattan

The Irish statesman and orator Henry Grattan (1746-1820) led the nationalist fight for Ireland's legislative independence from England, for parliamentary reform, and for Catholic emancipation.

Henry Grattan distinguished himself at Trinity College, Dublin, where he acquired his passion for the classics and for eloquent oratory. He left the university in 1767 and was called to the Irish bar in 1772. With another Irish patriot, Henry Flood, Grattan contributed articles to the nationalist Freeman's Journal. They were at first great friends and united in the Irish cause. Grattan entered Parliament in 1775, the same year in which Flood lost his position as parliamentary leader by accepting the office of vice-treasurer of Ireland. Grattan's eloquence quickly allowed him to move into the leadership that Flood had vacated.

The American Revolution helped bring Irish matters to a head, and in 1778-1779 Britain finally granted some of the concessions to Irish trade for which Grattan and Flood had worked. Grattan's greatest efforts then went toward securing Ireland's legislative independence. He made speech after speech in Parliament, declaring that Ireland had as much right to its freedom as the English king had to his crown. Hard-pressed by defeat in America and alarmed by the convention of the Volunteers, an Irish nationalist organization at Dungannon, in 1782 England granted legislative independence and ended penal laws against Catholics. The Irish Parliament recognized Grattan's primary role in securing its liberty and granted him £50,000, a sum which made him financially independent. The free Irish legislature, which lasted only 18 years, was called Grattan's Parliament.

With their chief object thus achieved, the Irish patriots fell into disagreement over some of their other goals. Grattan and Flood were themselves both Protestants, but they differed on Catholic emancipation. Grattan believed in the future of a unified nationalist Ireland and wished to grant Catholics full civil liberties; Flood, however, wanted to guarantee Protestant ascendancy by withholding from Catholics the rights to vote and hold office. Both wanted to reform the corrupt Irish legislature, but they differed on methods. They also disagreed over disbanding the Volunteers, which Grattan desired and Flood opposed.

In Parliament, Grattan at first generally supported the administration but moved into opposition as he saw governmental intransigence against the reforms he wanted, especially tithe commutation. He steadily refused office, lest it appear that he had sold out to government. He continued to attack parliamentary corruption and to support Catholic emancipation. The latter was moving closer under the guidance of William Pitt the Younger, but the rashness of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795 made it impossible. In the face of growing disorders, Grattan made a final appeal for reforms and emancipation. His efforts failing, he seceded from the legislature (1797) but returned to Parliament to speak against the Union (1800).

For the last 15 years of his life Grattan sat in the Union House of Commons, frequently urging Catholic emancipation and once (1813) coming near success. He died in 1820 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Further Reading

Roger J. McHugh, Henry Grattan (1936), and Stephen Gwynn, Henry Grattan and His Times (1939), are the best modern biographies. William Edward Hartpole Lecky's biographical essay on Grattan occupies more than 200 pages of his Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, vol. 1 (3d ed. 1903). General histories for background include Edmund Curtis, A History of Ireland (6th ed. rev. 1950), and J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland (1952; rev. ed. 1958). □

Grattan, Henry (1746–1820), the most noted of the 18th‐century patriots. The son of a Dublin lawyer and MP, he was called to the Irish bar in 1772 and entered parliament in 1775, sitting first for Lord Charlemont's borough of the same name and later, from 1790, for Dublin city. In 1778–9, already a leading patriot spokesman, he responded eagerly to the opportunities provided by the Volunteer movement and the free trade agitation. The concession of ‘legislative independence’ in 1782 was a personal triumph, marked by a Commons resolution to vote him £50,000 for the purchase of a landed estate. However, the renunciation controversy almost immediately afterwards permitted Henry Flood to undermine Grattan's popularity. Having tried to support government as an independent member, Grattan returned to opposition over the Commercial Propositions in 1785. The regency crisis completed his re‐emergence as a patriot leader, now active in the new Irish Whig Party. Though alarmed by the French Revolution, and hostile to the United Irishmen, he was increasingly critical of what he saw as government's blindly reactionary response to popular disaffection, particularly after the recall of Fitzwilliam. He withdrew from parliament in 1797, returning in 1799 to oppose the Act of Union.

Although he had earlier spoken against permitting Catholics to purchase land, Grattan added to the resolutions prepared for the Convention of Dungannon a call for the relaxation of the penal laws. In 1793, after some hesitation, he advocated full Catholic emancipation. In 1804 he commenced a second parliamentary career, entering the Westminster parliament to support the renewed Catholic agitation. He remained until his death a leading parliamentary advocate of emancipation, as well as a prominent Whig spokesman on other issues. However, his support for the veto as a means of reassuring Protestant opinion put him increasingly at odds with O'Connell and other Catholic leaders.

Nineteenth‐century constitutional nationalists looked back to the Irish parliament of 1782–1800 (despite Grattan's own almost permanent position on its opposition benches) as ‘Grattan's parliament’. The government of independent Ireland, less sympathetic to this particular brand of Irishness, refused in 1943 to preserve his house intact. Modern assessments see Grattan as representative of the Protestant patriotism undermined by the religious and political polarization of the 1790s. They also note the lack of administrative ability that made him a natural opposition politician, the extent to which some of his famous speeches were rewritten for posterity, and the opportunism occasionally evident in his advocacy of popular causes.

Bibliography

Kelly, James , Henry Grattan (1993)

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. 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. 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.

Grattan, Henry (17461820) Irish statesman, a champion of Irish independence. He was born and educated in Dublin, where he trained as a barrister and entered the Irish Parliament in 1775. A brilliant orator, he led the movement to repeal Poynings' Law, which made all Irish legislation subject to the approval of the British Parliament. After considerable agitation the British government yielded and repealed the Act (1782). He also strongly opposed the Act of UNION (1801), which merged the British and Irish parliaments. In 1806 he became member for Dublin in the British House of Commons and devoted the rest of his life to the cause of CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.

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.