Account for the changing fortunes of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland in the period 1798-1921

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Hannah Smelt

Account for the changing fortunes of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland in the period 1798-1921.

The majority of the population in Ireland were Catholic, but from the time of the settlers in the 16th century, its ruling class was Protestant.  Indeed, it was Protestants who dominated positions of power in Ireland and Protestants who held most of Ireland’s wealth.  However, between 1798-1921 the fortunes of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland were to change dramatically as a result of religious, social and political reforms.  Ireland underwent something of a social revolution in that period, and by 1921 the Protestant Ascendancy was almost an extinct class.  Although there still was a class of wealthy Protestants, they had none of the powers or privileges that they did 100 years before.  One of the reasons for this downfall was that this class could only rule with the support of the London government, which the rebellion of 1798 and of the Great Famine 1845 removed.  When considering the changing fortunes of this class in Ireland, it is important to remember that Protestants were in the minority in Ireland, especially in the South and also that the majority of Irishmen, who were Catholic, regarded them with contempt.  Therefore the introduction of the democratic franchise and the democratisation of local government would inevitably, and did, have a huge effect on their position in society, as they were in no way popularly supported.          

The Act of Union was the first nail in the coffin for the Protestant Ascendancy, taking away their legislative power over Ireland and putting it in the hands of Westminster.  However, it was the emergence and growth of nationalism from 1879 onwards that really sealed the fate of the Protestant Ascendancy.  The New Departure 1879 was really the point at which nationalism became a formidable political force, when all the themes of Irish discontent, the Union, the land question and the question of freedom for the Catholic religion ‘came to group together around one powerful movement for Home Rule, backed by a popular peasant agitation’.  Each one of the aims of these nationalists would eventually be achieved, gradually undermining the position of the ascendant class, eventually removing their power entirely.  The massive influence of nationalism in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th motivated the Conservatives in their mission to ‘kill Home Rule with kindness’, and the twenty years of ‘resolute government’ that followed marked the period of time that, perhaps, had the greatest effect in undermining the position of the Protestant Ascendancy than any other period in the history of Ireland.  F.S.L. Lyons asserts that the legislation passed during this period changed the face of Irish society to such an extent that it had ‘had almost revolutionary consequences’.  The Irish Local Government Act 1898 was ‘one of the most important measures of conciliation passed during the whole period of the Union’.  Its social effects were enormous, as it facilitated a decisive shift of power away from the landlord ascendancy class towards the democracy of farmers, shopkeepers and publicans.  In effect this meant that power had shifted away from the Protestant class and into the hands of the Catholic majority, who could use their vote to ensure that they were represented by men and women who would protect their interests.  The Wyndham Land Act 1903 had similarly revolutionary consequences, T.W.Moody has called it ‘the greatest revolution in the history of modern Ireland’ and it certainly did have profound consequences.  It effectively ended the dominance of the gentry in the Irish countryside, changing the status quo completely and irrevocably.

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However, despite the various political reforms which this period saw passed, they would have had but minimal effect on the Protestant ascendancy were it not for the religious reforms that removed religious privilege and gave freedom to the Catholic religion.  The Catholic Emancipation Act 1829 was the first of such legislation, and had a profound effect on the course of fortunes of the Protestant ascendancy from that point onwards.  Before emancipation, Protestants had had a monopoly over positions of power in Ireland. What Catholic Emancipation did was to remove many of the privileges of the Protestant class that enabled ...

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