PEC Daniel O´Connell PDF

Preview

Summary

PEC Daniel O´Connell...

Description

Daniel O´Connell. Justice for Ireland (1836) On February 4th 1836, Daniel O´Connell, also known as “The Liberator”, delivered this speech in the House of Commons in London. The text is a political speech with which he claims a fair justice for Irish people. As we detail below, different political but above all religious happenings and matters between Ireland and England are the reasons why O´Connell asks for “Justice for Ireland”. In this sense, O´Connell had already given a public speech when the “Act of Union” took place in 1800, opposing Ireland´s union with England. Unlike the speech we are dealing with, this one was at a meeting of Catholics held in the Royal Exchange, Dublin. The cited “Act of Union” supposed not only the abolition of the Irish Parliament but also it enables only Irish people who belong to the Church of England to become members of the British Parliament. Religion matters have always played a really crucial role in the historical relationships between both countries. In order to achieve a better understanding of the situation, it is very worth remembering that one of the most remarkable happenings in this sense was when the connection of the English Crown and the Roman Catholic Church was definitely interrupted under the reign of Henry VIII, which entailed a hostile attitude toward Catholicism, forcing people to convert to Protestantism. Taking into consideration the historical fact mentioned, the “Act of Union” entailed a really poor representation of Irish governments in the cited Parliament because of the fact that most of them were Irish Catholics. The introduction of this Act was almost contrary to the objectives that Ireland requested in a very famous but unsuccessful Irishmen rebellion in 1798. After that, Daniel O´Connell, who was promulgating the necessity for Catholic Emancipation of Ireland, won the elections in 1828 being the first Roman Catholic elected. It was the trigger of the reformation of the restricted Parliamentary rules abovementioned by The British Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. As a result, the “Catholic Emancipation Act” was approved in 1829 and empowered O´Connell to become the first Catholic member of the House of Commons in February 1830 due to the fact that the cited Act included the right for Catholics to sit in the House of Commons. Although this election and O´Connell´s presence in the House of Commons were striking steps towards equality and justice for Ireland, Irish protests did not stop and continued along the 19th century. Therefore, and focusing on “Justice for Ireland” speech, O´Connell highlighted the injustice that Ireland was suffering making continuous references to William IV´s speech, that preceded O´Connell´s speech. The coincidence of both speeches, thus, revealed that the king was in favour of developing

different measures in order to resolve the discrepancies as well as the religious problems. At the beginning of the 1830s, Daniel O´Connell signed an agreement with the political parties of Whig and the Radicals to develop different reforms for Ireland and therefore to join against the English Conservative Party. However, the Whig party did not perform the agreement as it was expected. This is clearly emphasised in the very first part of the speech in which O´Connell brought to the forefront the religious problems and the unsuccessful agreement because of an unofficial covenant between the Whig Party (Lord Stanley) and Tory Party (Robert Peel) against the will of Irish people. Thus, in spite of the fact that O´Connell continuously refers to the king in his speech as a way in order to convince the Commons (e.g. “…if you refuse justice to that country, it is a melancholy consideration to me to think that you are adding substantially to that power and influence…”), they, mostly compound of Protestant members, opposed to O ´Connell´s objections because of different economic and political interests, for example the so called “Tithe”. It was not until 1838 (de iure) and 1869 (de facto), when the “Tithe Commutation Act” was applied in Ireland and therefore the amount of taxes that farmers needed to pay were reduced. Daniel O´Connell fought peacefully for the rights of Ireland, being his main political objective the restoration of the Irish Parliament and thereby the independence of Ireland. However, he focused first on fair laws and reforms for Ireland, as we can see in this speech. As we highlighted from the very beginning of this analysis, the political and religious problems have always been attached to Ireland and England. In consequence of this, poverty as well as macabre moments have been unfortunately the underlying theme during the 19 th century in Ireland. With regard to this, it is very well-known another disastrous episode in the history of Ireland, “The Great Irish Famine” which was terribly bad managed by the English Government and highly criticised by Nicholas Cummins with his letter to the Duke of Wellington. As far as we are concerned, the imperialistic attitude from England to Ireland, resulting in injustice, religious clashes and famine, was the trigger of the protests of O´Connell and other Irish activists. The excesses of both crown and religious power have always been a sad consequence of violent or peaceful protests not only in Ireland, but also in different countries around the world....