At the beginning of the nineteenth century, predominantly Catholic Ireland was ruled by the Protestant British. The Protestants in Ireland’s ruling and merchant classes tended to the Anglican (belonging to the Church of Ireland). Catholicism in Ireland had been suppressed and Catholics were legally discriminated against in many areas. The Act of Union, which took effect in 1801, created the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland and many Irish Catholics had been led to believe that this would lead to Catholic Emancipation (the full restoration of rights to Catholics). This did not happen.
One of the major leaders in the struggle for Catholic Emancipation was Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), a successful Kerry-born lawyer who had been educated in France. The O’Connell family had once been a wealthy Catholic family but had been dispossessed of its lands under the anti-Catholic laws imposed on Ireland by Britain. Séamas Mac Annaidh, in his book Irish History, writes:
“In the context of European history, O’Connell is regarded as the most important politician among the subsequent adherence of what is classified as political Catholicism. At the same time he organised part of the Irish nation in a democratic mass campaign directed against the policy of the British government in the name of principles that every government claimed to uphold.”
In 1823, O’Connell and Richard Lalor Shiel formed the Catholic Association. The new organization had two primary aims: (1) to seek the repeal of the Penal Laws which maintained the social and civil inferiority of Catholics, and (2) to improve the conditions of tenant farmers. Tenant farmers worked at the mercy of landlords who charged them exorbitant rents and evicted them at will. The Catholic Association was financed by the “Catholic Rent”: a contribution of a penny a week from its members. While the new association was led primarily by lawyers, businessmen, and clergy, with the payment of “rent,” all members could feel like they were making a worthwhile contribution. It soon attracted support from both the wealthy and the poor and became a mass movement.
In 1825, the government suppressed the Catholic Association under the Unlawful Societies Act. Three months later the New Catholic Association was launched which confined its formal proceedings to issues of religion and public welfare. O’Connell, a shrewd attorney, made sure that the new association’s activities remained legal.
In the elections of 1826, the New Catholic Association backed a Protestant, Villiers Stuart, against George Bereford. Although Stuart was a Protestant, he supported the ideals of the Association. Bereford, on the other hand, came from a prominent land-owning family in County Waterford that had supplied the area with members of parliament for more than 70 years. With an open ballot system, Bereford expected the tenants on the Bereford estates to vote for him. To the surprise of many, Bereford lost.
In addition to their victory in County Waterford, the Association also claimed victories in counties Cavan, Louth, Monaghan, and Westmeath. With these victories they soon realized that they would be able to defeat more of the anti-Emancipation candidates in the next election.
By 1829, Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who had been born in Ireland, realized that if Catholic Emancipation did not happen there would be a danger of mass revolt in Ireland. Thus he pushed the Catholic Relief Bill through Parliament. This law removed nearly all of the institutionalized discrimination against Catholics in Ireland and Britain. Catholics were now denied only the highest offices of government.