Strength of British Government

Question 1

Robert Emmet’s 1803 Rebellion

Answer 1

-Government spies infiltrated Emmett’s planning circle, and so knew that the rebellion was going to occur

Question 2

Daniel O’Connell 1823-1829

Answer 2

• Plunkett’s bills in 1821 and 1825 both passed in the House of Commons but failed in the Lords.
• Government was in a weak position; the lower house was not in favour of current government policy.
• support in Ireland threatened to fall outside the bounds of constitutionalism.
• “we have a rebellion impending over in Ireland” (Wellington); therefore a “quick settlement” (Nowlan) was the best way to resolve the issue.
• However other historians contend that Wellington was not afraid to be anti-democratic; he did remove the franchise from the freeholders (reducing it from 230,000 to 14,000), so it was likely Emancipation was going to be offered as a conciliatory method anyway.

Question 3

Daniel O’Connell 1829-1847

Answer 3

• Rees states that Peel was in a much stronger place than Wellington had been during their premierships.
• By the 1830s the Liberal Protestants had come to “appreciate” (McElroy) the Union and the benefits it brought.
• The Government had a majority support over the issue of Repeal; the 1834 motion was defeated by over 500 votes, and the Whigs who were in government until 1841 were not in favor of Repeal either.
• This meant in 1843 Peel could succeed with his “counter-attack”; first, he banned the Clontarf Monster Meeting which was the final and supposed to be the biggest Monster Meeting.
• This meant O’Connell had to call it off if he wished to avoid bloodshed, and this undermined his position to the radical wings.
• O’Connell was arrested for six months in 1844, but this allowed “radicals to move into the void” (Cronin) and discredit the movement.
• The 3 conciliatory reforms that were tasked with “killing repeal with kindness” (Kerr) (Board of Charitable Bequests, Maynooth Seminary Grant increase, and the Queens University Act in 1845) divided the support base of Repeal.

Question 4

Grattan and Plunket’s bills

Answer 4

During the early stages of the 18th Century the British government was in a strong position over its stance on Emancipation.

• The Orange Order had campaigned against it in Ulster, while both Houses of Parliament did not support Emancipation.
• It was only during Plunket’s time the government’s position was weakened; he had 2 bills pass in 1821 and 1825

Question 5

Charles Gavan Duffy, The TRL and the IIP?

Answer 5

The Government’s strength was irrelevant; the IIP and TRL were so disorganized and fractured they were unable to actually do anything that may threaten the government.

Question 6

Irish Confederation’s Rebellion of 1848

Answer 6

-British government was represented in this event by only the local RIC forces
-This factor could be considered the least important. It was not any tactics of the RIC that brought an end to the rebellion; it petered out before it began.
The RIC sent in reinforcements from other police stations and the weak, aimless uprising was ended.

Question 7

The Fenian Uprising of 1867

Answer 7

• British government had successfully infiltrated the IRB since its inception.
• John Joseph Corydon had been one of Stephens’ closest aids but was a government informer; he gave information that foiled the Chester Castle raid in February 1867 that would have provided IRB units with many armaments.
• The forces were well prepared; Tallaght skirmish for example.
• “In 1867 the government had the conspiracy well in hand” (Moody)

Question 8

Charles Stewart Parnell 1879 to 1882

Answer 8

-British government was not in a strong position:
>the New Departure was the most representative Nationalist movement in Ireland’s history
>the Home Rule League had majority support and represented constitutional nationalists.
>Davitt and the Land League any tenant asking for the 3Fs
>Clan na Gael the minority of Republicans that existed.
>Catholic Church supported the movement too, in 1879 Parish Priests began joining the movement and Archbishop Croke who had been so critical of the Fenians in the 1860s gave his support.
-The situation the British Government was in was not dissimilar to the one it was in during Emancipation; the movement was widely supported and largely constitutional (except for the Captain Moonlight outrages).
Attempt to crush the Land League in the form of the 1881 Coercion Act backfired, and jailed Parnell who was the only widely supported moderate leader. Now those who were asking for agrarian radicalism or a Republic had been left in charge, and radicalised the Land League further.
-This forced the government to concede further in the Kilmainham Treaty of 1882.

Question 9

Charles Stewart Parnell 1884-1891

Answer 9

• The British Government was in favour of Home Rule under Gladstone’s Premiership after 1886, as Gladstone’s son had proclaimed his father’s support for Home Rule in 1885 with the Haywarden Kite.
• In 1886 the First Home Rule bill was introduced; however it quickly became apparent that “for Gladstone to journey to Damascus was one thing, for his party to follow him was quite another”. (Lyons).
• Over 90 Liberal MPs split under the leadership of Joe Chamberlain and voted against Home Rule which meant that ultimately the first HR Bill was defeated by 30 votes (it ultimately would have been defeated by the House of Lords).
• Now the British Government was not in such a strong position, and when the O’Shea intrigue began to dominate politics in 1890 Gladstone was forced by his core voters to denounce Parnell.
• Gladstone warned the IPP that either Parnell had to go, or Home Rule did. The government was therefore not very strong in its position, but ultimately the downfall of Parnell meant a serious attempt at Home Rule would be postponed until 1912.