Catholic Emancipation Analysis

820 Words4 Pages
After the rebellion of 1798, the British government transformed Ireland from a colony to an integral part in 1801 by passing the Act of Union which fusioned the Irish parliament with the English Parliament in Westminster. The Catholic Hierarchy in Ireland was a strong supporter of the Union especially when promises, though not official ,were given by Pitt’s government to grant Catholic Emancipation namely the right of Irish to hold public offices and their right to sit as MPs in parliament. After passing the Act, King George III and many members of Pitt’s party strongly opposed the Catholic Emancipation. As a result, Catholic Emancipation was delayed till 1829 when the Catholic Relief Act was passed. When the promised emancipation was not…show more content…
The abhorrence of physical force was the principal element of his political ideology. He believes that ‘liberty is too dearly to be purchased at the price of a single drop of blood.’ In 1823, he formed the Catholic Association, a strong mass organization, to mobilize the national movement in the pursuit of an agreed objective :Catholic Emancipation. The key of the success of this association was O’Connell’s skillful linkage of the Catholic emancipation with the temporal needs and grievances of ordinary Irish Catholics. He linked issues such as social distress, tithes and sectarian harassment to the debate of Catholic Church and Irish people oppression in order to enable the Irish common men to be involved in the struggle for independence. In order to broaden the membership basis of the association, he introduced the Catholic rent, a penny paid a month by Catholics in the island to support the organization financially. O’Connell’s constitutional methods and his outright rejection of physical force enabled the Catholic clergy, also strongly rejecter of violence, to unite with and add substantially to O’Connell’s already large popular mainstream political nationalism clerical…show more content…
The Association’s fee was collected on Sundays with the help of priests who also aided in publicizing and marshalling the organization; Parish Priests served as agents in the association and O’Connell was careful in allocating a portion of the rent to religious education and to the construction of Chapels and houses for priests. He also used this money in paying the legal expenses of Catholics and putting into service the press. Very aware of the power of MPs in the struggle of independence, he make use of an important share of money in lobbying the parliament so Acts in favor of Catholics in Ireland could be easily passed. John jebb, Bishop of Limerick commented on the actual state of matter in Ireland stating that

More about Catholic Emancipation Analysis

Open Document