Part of the reason why the Catholic Association became a national organisation which a wide range of support was down to their policy of ‘Catholic Rent’. This enabled many more, particularly poorer people and peasants to join the association for just one penny per month instead of a high subscription fee as well as raising funds for the association. Despite having funding from the USA, the Fenians like Young Ireland were badly financed. Also, unlike the Fenians and Young Ireland, O’Connell preached largely peaceful methods and only hinted at the use of violence in his “brinkmanship” methods of speech making. He also held passive, ‘monster meetings’ which was important in gaining large amounts of support. One of the reasons as to why the Fenians and Young Ireland lacked support from the Catholic Church was their violent methods such as supporting armed revolution and carrying out terrorist attacks in the UK which was the main reason why they had a lack of government support. In addition the Catholic Association held activities at a local and regional level and so was an important factor in winning over mass support at a local level. This was particularly helped by the involvement of the Catholic Church and parish priests. Therefore these local activities helped to create the association into a national organisation.
Further more, the organisation of O’Connell’s Catholic Association was much better, this can be seen in the organisation of the ‘monster meetings’ where as the Fenians and Young Ireland on the whole only carried out small acts as can be seen by ‘the battle of Widow McCormack’s cabbage patch.’ Where as Young Ireland and the Fenians had their own paper to gain more support and spread their message, the Catholic Association relied on public posters as well as the press. Therefore their campaigning was more effective and efficient than the Fenians or Young Ireland. The effective organisation of the Catholic Association was largely due to its leadership. In O’Connell the Catholic Association had a clear, designated and strong leader who was a highly effective public speaker and was able to identify with his audience. His reputation lead to him being known as ‘the Deliverer,’ and became the “incarnation,” of the peasantry’s hopes and ambitions. In contrast both the Fenians and Young Ireland had no specific, central and clear leader and so this was less effective in winning over support. Also many of the different leaders had different ideas and aims for the organisations and so not strong and united as the Catholic Association was.
To a certain extent one factor that significantly helped O’Connell achieve more for the nationalist cause in Ireland than either Young Ireland or the Fenians was the context of time. For instance as a result of the County Clare elections of 1828, O’Connell was elected as a President of the Board of Trade and as a result have to take a seat in the House of Commons. However due to him being a Roman Catholic he was unable to do this without a change in the law. As a result of this, after much deliberation the necessary Bill passed through the House of Commons which allowed O’Connell to take his seat within the House of Commons. Consequently, because of O’Connell now having a seat this enabled him to put pressure on the MPs to address the question of Catholic emancipation among other issues affecting the Irish Catholic population. As a result of this in 1829 the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act passed through the House of Commons and so allowed Catholics to have greater powers such as becoming MPs or occupying high positions in the state. Arguably, without this success O’Connell would not have achieved all that he did for the nationalist cause in Ireland. In addition O’Connell’s successes within the House of Commons later led to the formation of the Irish Parliamentary Party within the House of Commons which went a long way in achieving results for the nationalist cause in Ireland.
Although Young Ireland grew “out of the ashes,” of the Famine in general the population were more concerned with local issues and their own welfare rather than showing interest in nationalist politics. Therefore support was relatively limited. Also Young Ireland failed to overcome and improve the social problems of the time, which was part of the organisation’s downfall at the end of the 1850s. Therefore it can be seen that social problems in Ireland also had an impact on why O’Connell achieved what the Fenians and Young Ireland failed to.
The British government also contributed to the success of O’Connell compared to Young Ireland and the Fenians. For example the weakness of Wellington’s government due to a series of resignations and the weakness of the Whig government which made it difficult for them to ignore Irish support in the House of Commons. By 1834 the Whig government were especially reliant on Irish support in order for them to continue in office.
The same cannot be said for either Young Ireland or the Fenians. The strong government response to their actions was partly to blame for their failure to achieve much for the nationalist cause in Ireland. This can be seen by in 1865 the British government arrested many leading Fenians and suppressed their newspaper, The Irish People as a result of a plot by the Irish Republic Brotherhood (IRB) and the USA to overthrow British power and create a republic. Further more three Fenians were also executed for the murder of a policeman. Therefore the strong response to the Fenians and Young Ireland by the British government meant that there were few successes to the nationalist cause as a result of their organisations being more tightly suppressed than the Catholic Association was.
Therefore, in conclusion it can be seen that the reasons as to why O’Connell achieved more for the nationalist cause in Ireland were a combination of the association’s aims, methods particularly the non- violent ones and the important support that it gained as a result of it. The lack of success of the Fenians and Young Ireland compared to that of O’Connell’s catholic Association were also down to the context of time and the strength and response of the British government to the organisations.
