Repeal, Relief and Rebellion

Abstract

On the eve of the Famine the Irish population was one of the most politicized in Europe, largely due to the activities of Daniel O’Connell, a Catholic barrister and MP who had dominated Irish politics since the 1820s.¹ Involvement in the parliamentary process, however, was recent and small scale. Catholics had only gained the right to vote in 1793, but continued to be barred from sitting in parliament. O’Connell’s role in securing Catholic Emancipation in 1829, which gave Catholics throughout the United Kingdom the right to sit in Westminster, marked a significant victory against the British government. But the achievement of Emancipation was counterbalanced by a simultaneous reduction in the Irish franchise. As a consequence of the Emancipation Act, the county franchise in Ireland was raised from 40 shillings to ten pounds for freeholders, thereby disenfranchising many of O’Connell’s supporters. The size of the electorate continued to decrease after the Reform Act of 1832, despite the rapid growth in population. This was partly due to the reluctance of landlords to grant long leases, hoping to maximize their income through shorter-term lettings. By the 1840s, less than one in every 116 county dwellers had the vote, compared with one in 24 in England.²