One of the Association’s most effective methods of generating awareness was by holding massive open-air meetings that O’Connell addressed himself. O’Connell, using his skill as a lawyer, was an excellent orator and was known to the peasantry as the ‘Deliverer’ as he demanded justice for Ireland and full Catholic Emancipation.
O’Connell was very successful with the Catholic Association as he was able to successfully mobilise the masses and use the open-air meetings to veil his threats to the British government. He threatened the British with mass disobedience, possible violence and eventual separation if their demands were not met. This was a policy of brinkmanship which O’Connell used successfully to exploit his mass following.
In 1828 brinkmanship was used in the County Clare Elections where O’Connell decided to stand as candidate, with the backing of the Association and local priests, the Catholic voters defied their Protestant landlords and O’Connell won the seat with ease. This posed a huge problem for the government as O’Connell would not have been able to take a seat in the commons without a change of law, so effectively he forced Catholic Emancipation on Peel. Peel backed down after realising the threat of civil disorder and pushed emancipation through the House of Lords, the Lords passed the Catholic Emancipation bill by a two to one majority and it became an act in 1829. The Act allowed full civil and political rights to Roman Catholics and was O’Connell’s greatest achievement as this was what the Association had set out to achieve. He claimed to a friend ‘one of the greatest triumphs recorded in history- a bloodless revolution’.
In 1840 O’Connell began the Repeal Campaign which was very similar to the Catholic Association and employed similar methods such as the ‘Repeal Rent’. But unlike the Association it collapsed as O’Connell himself was not too committed with the Campaign and also the Catholic middle classes were more concerned about economic gains from the Union. O’Connell again used his policy of brinkmanship but this time it was not successful, in 1843 the monster meeting in Clontarf was banned by Peel and Peel threaten military action by sending a small army and a naval ship. In this confrontation we see the limitations of mass mobilisation and brinkmanship as O’Connell is forced to back down, as he is not prepared to back up his rhetoric with violence. So the Repeal Campaign was a failure for O’Connell.
The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 had an important impact on Westminster as it led to the split of the Tory Party with the emergence of the new Whig Party, and also allowed 33 O’Connellites to take seats in the House of Commons. The Irish Party looked set to continue increasing its size with the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832 which increased the franchise, but in fact only an extra 9 O’Connellites were elected. The main reason for this was because the franchise was increased from 40 shillings freehold to a £10 householder suffrage which dramatically reduced the Irish electorate to a sixth of its former size. Nevertheless the Irish Party still had an impact on the House of Commons where they put the Irish Question on the agenda and raised awareness in Britain, but they were also an important third party as it was their support which allowed the Whigs to get the Great Reform Bill through Westminster. This was the beginning of the Whig-Irish alliance.
In 1813 O’Connell said: ‘ I have an ultimate object, it is the Repeal of the Union’ and this was clearly what O’Connell wanted to achieve through Parliament but this was not popular outside of Ireland. Therefore O’Connell turned his attention to reforms for Ireland and the Whigs did address some of the Irish grievances by introducing a grant for education in 1831 and by passing the Irish Church Bill they reformed the unrepresentative Church of Ireland. O’Connell saw, with the massive defeat of the Repeal Bill in 1834, that Irish reforms was all he could achieve even though his party’s support was crucial, after 1834, for the Whigs to stay in power. In February of 1834 O’Connell was invited to sign The Litchfield House Compact which was an agreement between the anti-conservative forces (Whigs, radicals and Irish) in British politics to form a coalition and oust Peel’s minority administration. This gave O’Connell some political leverage which he used to get reforms. This allowed him to make a significant impact on Parliament and permitted him to achieve something for Ireland, though it was not much and none of the reforms dealt with the fundamental problems of the Irish economy and society.
Though the year 1840 shows the decline of the Whig-Irish alliance as in 1841 Peel returned to office with a majority and the Irish Party lost its significance and thus also lost its impact on Westminster. There were major political differences between Peel and O’Connell and Peel personally hated O’Connell so the Irish Party were unable to cooperate with the new government. This shows that O’Connell only made an impact during hung parliament where his party’s support was the deciding factor.
Though O’Connell did achieve some reforms, these included the Irish Poor Law Act which set up workhouses in 1838 and he used his political leverage to persuade Thomas Drummond to reform the police and the judiciary in Ireland.
Even though Daniel O’Connell failed to achieve the Repeal of the Union he was still a great leader, he had built a rapport with the masses and began the first effective pressure group by forming the Catholic Association. But instead of becoming a great Irish national leader, he became a great Irish national Catholic leader as he rather divided the two religious communities with methods such as the Catholic Association. O’Connell achieved a lot for Ireland, making an impact on the parliamentary scene and helped to bring about some legislative reforms, though his greatest accomplishment was the Catholic Emancipation Act. But after 1840 he failed to achieve anything more as the Repeal Campaign was a dismal success and he was politically impotent during the Great Famine.
