The petition on 1805 was the first time O’Connell came into prominence of Irish politics as one of the framers. The petition was in favour of removal of Roman Catholic disabilities, this was of course rejected. However O'Connell's influence among Irish Catholics increased considerably in the years following the 1805 Petition. He became the leader of the radical wing on me new Catholic Board which was set up in 1811; and gradually he began to win support for his point of view among members of the Catholic middle class and the bishops.
- The 1821 catholic emancipation Bill
In Ireland too during this period the Catholic cause made little headway. The leaders of the Emancipation campaign, who were mainly members of the Roman Catholic upper class, were unwilling to seek active popular support and were cautious and conciliatory in their dealings with the authorities. They were now prepared to support a compromise Emancipation Bill which, while granting political and civil rights to Catholics, also included what became known as the 'veto'. This would allow the British government the right to vet ecclesiastical appointments to the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom in order to ensure that only 'loyal' clerics were appointed. In 1821 a Catholic Emancipation Bill (including the veto) actually obtained a majority in the House of Commons, but was inevitably rejected by the House of Lords. In many ways this was a turning point for O'Connell and the cause he represented. 'Twenty years ... have passed away', he said, 'and we are still slaves'. Faced with the permanent hostility of the Crown and the House of Lords, he believed that the Emancipation movement in Ireland must now reconsider its aims and methods if the deadlock was to be broken.
- The Catholic Association 1823 – 1828
The Catholic Association was formed by O'Connell and his supporters in 1823 as a constitutional organization for the achievement of Catholic civil and political rights. However, it only expanded when in 1824, in a master stroke of policy; O'Connell introduced the famous 'Catholic Rent' of one penny a month for supporters, instead of the high subscription originally proposed. This enabled the Association to become a truly national organization with strong roots among the peasantry, and turned the old ineffective pressure group into what has been called 'the crusade of an irresistible mass movement'.
The main aim of the Catholic Association, like the Old Catholic Board, was emancipation. But it also attempted to embrace a wider range of issues, such as electoral reform, reform of the Church of Ireland, tenants' rights, and economic development, in order to advance the interests of the whole Catholic community. Though membership of the Association was not confined to Catholics, O'Connell did aim at making the Irish Catholic Church an integral part of the whole movement, since, as he rightly realised, the role of the parish priests was of crucial importance in spreading the message of the Association and helping to collect me Catholic rent. The Catholic rent was to become the main stream of work and its collection was enormously successful, (£20,000 was raised in the first nine months alone in 1824-5)
An important and effective part of the Association's work was the organisation of great, open-air public meetings which were often addressed by O'Connell himself. He proved to be an outstanding public speaker. O'Connell's background and his work as a lawyer meant that he knew his audiences. His magnificent voice and his clear, simple conversational style of oratory enabled him to build up a marvellous rapport with the Catholic masses. For the peasantry particularly, O'Connell seemed the incarnation of their hopes and ambitions, not only in a material but in an almost religious sense. He became known as 'the Deliverer'. In turn, the peasant traditions of secret societies and local agitation helped to reinforce the work of the Association at grassroots level.
Apart from its innovative ways of raising money, its organisational work and its great public meetings, the Catholic Association also used the press and even public posters to build up support. In many ways, therefore, the Association was a sophisticated political organisation: 'a pioneer ... of mass constitutional politics and pacific popular democracy',
The rapid progress of the Association and O'Connell's often bellicose language at public meetings, alarmed the authorities; and he was arrested in 1824 on a charge of incitement to rebellion; though the prosecution failed. In 1825 the government did suppress the Association, but it was soon re-organised by O'Connell. In 1825 too another Emancipation Bill passed through the House of Commons, but was again rejected by the House of Lords. The deadlock therefore still remained.
In 1826 O’Connell and the association found a loop hole in the British elections and found that O’Connell could now play a pivotal role in British parliament due to Irish landowners coming together to use their vote.
- British Politicians Divided over Catholic Emancipation (crisis)
The retirement of Lord Liverpool in 1827 brought to a head the divisions within the Cabinet over Catholic emancipation which had been apparent since he had first assumed office in 1812. On the one hand there were the opponents of emancipation, notably Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington, who, as supporters of die rights and privileges of the Established Church of England, were opposed on grounds of principle. Other members of the Cabinet, led by George Canning, supported Catholic emancipation for practical reasons: it would help to bind Ireland to the Union, and enable the government to deal more effectively with the problems of that country.
On Liverpool’s retirement Canning became Prime Minister; but his 'liberal8 outlook on the Catholic question led to Peel and Wellington refusing to join his ministry. It was not until Wellington himself became Prime Minister in January 1828 (following the premature death of Canning and a brief interlude under Lord Goderich) that Peel agreed to resume office as Home Secretary and second-in-command in the government. Unfortunately, the elevation of the reactionary Duke to the premiership soon led to the resignation of Canning's former supporters from the new government. The Tory party was now in almost complete disarray, and in no fit state therefore to deal with a major crisis. It was, however, a by-election in an obscure parliamentary constituency in Ireland, that now produced the final climax in the long and bitter history of that problem.
- County Clare Election of 1828
O'Connell decided to stand as a candidate for the seat himself, believing that his own personal reputation and a repetition of me tactics that had worked in the election of 1826, would give him victory. O'Connell's candidature at County Clare faced the government with an intolerable dilemma. Since O'Connell was a Roman Catholic he would be unable to take his seat in the House of Commons if elected without a change in the law - in effect. Catholic emancipation. To oppose his right to enter the Commons, however, would run the risk of widespread public disorder and violence in Ireland with the unenviable prospect of further Catholic candidacies at elections in the future. In the event things worked out exactly as O'Connell had anticipated. With the backing of the Catholic Association and the local priests, the catholic, voters were prepared once again to defy their landlords; and O'Connell won an easy victory in July with 2,057 votes to Fitzgerald's 982.
The Duke of Wellington, as a soldier and an ex-Irish Secretary, took the threat of violence seriously, and concluded that on purely practical grounds emancipation must be conceded, even if this meant bullying the king, browbeating the House of Lords, and facing the prospect of a Tory revolt in the House of Commons. Peel, after some hesitation, accepted the logic of the duke's case, and agreed to shoulder the burden of getting the proposed bill through the House of Commons. 'I yield, therefore,' he told the Commons in February 1829, 'to a moral necessity which I cannot control, unwilling to push resistance to a point which might endanger the Establishments that I wish to defend’
- The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act 1829
The Emancipation Bill passed through the House of Commons early in 1829 as a result of the support of the Whigs and liberal Tories (142 Tory MPs voted against); and the demoralised Lords, not daring to defy the duke; subsequently passed it by a two-to-one majority. King George IV (formerly the Prince Regent) sulkily acquiesced, and the bill became law in April 1829. The influence of the Protestant supporters of emancipation in the House of Commons was essential to the passing of the Act, and they were helped by the disunity of the Tory party.
The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was a simple one, largely due to Peel's insistence. It granted virtually full civil and political rights to Roman Catholics, which meant that they could now become MPs and occupy the highest positions in the state, with a few minor exceptions, such as the office of Lord Chancellor. On the other hand, in a gesture of political spite, the franchise qualification in Ireland was raised from a forty-shilling freehold to a ten-pound household suffrage, , and this cut the Irish electorate to one-sixth of its former size.
Due to the bill there were many opportunities opened up by the Emancipation Act for Catholic advancement in politics, the professions and government service, and peel believed that this was bound to lead to the eventual destruction of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. the achievement of the 1829 Act marks another stage in the identification of Irish nationalism with Catholicism.
In Great Britain, however, the Emancipation Act was followed by swift and dramatic changes in politics. It helped to precipitate the break-up of the old Tory Party and the rise of a new Conservative Party;
the triumph of the Whigs and their allies at the general election of 1830;
and, subsequently, the passage of the Great Reform Act of 1832. These years also saw the emergence of an Irish party in the House of Commons, led by O'Connell, who was able to use his commanding position as leader of a small but significant third party to play off Whigs against Conservatives and thus extract reforms for Ireland.
