Irish Conservative Party

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Irish Conservative Party
Founded1834; 190 years ago (1834)
Dissolved1891; 133 years ago (1891)
Succeeded by
Political parties
  • Elections

    • The Irish Conservative Party, often called the Irish Tories, was one of the dominant Irish political parties in

    Irish Liberal Party were rivals for electoral dominance among Ireland's small electorate within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with parties such as the movements of Daniel O'Connell and later the Independent Irish Party relegated into third place. The Irish Conservatives became the principal element of the Irish Unionist Alliance following the alliance's foundation in 1891.[1]

    History

    As late as 1859, the Irish Conservative Party still won the greatest number of Irish seats in

    repeal of the Act of Union, believing that a resurrected Irish parliament would offer the best chance to defend Protestant and/or unionist interests. Many saw themselves as the successors of Henry Grattan, and even of William Molyneux and his 1698 pamphlet, The Case of Ireland's being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England, in which he made an argument disputing the right of the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland, as the kingdom had had its own parliament
    from 1297 to 1800.

    Though aligned mostly with the

    British House of Commons
    .

    The loose support for Daniel O'Connell shifted during the Great Famine of 1845–48. The English Tory Sir Robert Peel's second ministry sent food shipments to Ireland from late 1845.[2] However Peel lost power in 1846 to the Liberal Whig Lord John Russell, when his party split over reforming the Corn Laws. Russell was an old ally of O'Connell, and his new government preferred a laissez-faire policy of not sending food to the starving poor.[3] Despite this, O'Connell's popularity held up remarkably well in the better-fed parts of Ireland.

    Its main rival, the Liberals, lost out to Isaac Butt's Home Government Association (HGA) in the early 1870s, ironically, considering that the HGA was, to a significant extent, made up of former Irish Tories such as Butt himself.

    Franchise reform, notably the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1868, the Ballot Act 1872 and the Representation of the People Act 1884 which increased the number of Catholic Nationalist electors, and the electoral triumph of the Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell, reduced its role as a major electoral force. By the 1880s, the electoral base of the Irish Conservatives had become restricted to Ulster and Dublin. In 1891, the leadership of the Irish Conservatives joined in the formation of the Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA),[4] a new political party which aimed to represent unionists across Ireland.[1] Numerous prominent Irish Conservative politicians subsequently sat for the IUA, including Edward James Saunderson and Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long. The IUA effectively continued the Irish wing of the Conservative Party, as its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster. The IUA dissolved in 1922.[5]

    Organisations associated with the Irish Conservative Party included the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in Dublin, later the Irish Reform Association, the Loyal Irish Union, the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union and the Kildare Street Club, a gentleman's club in Kildare Street, Dublin. Prominent members included Isaac Butt and the Reverend Charles Boyton. It was strongly associated with the Dublin University Magazine founded by Butt and associates in 1833, and had a strong Trinity College Dublin academic input.

    Legacy

    In the Irish Free State, the Irish Conservative Party did not re-establish itself and much of the IUA's Conservative electorate became supporters of Cumann na nGaedheal, forerunners of Fine Gael. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party became the leading conservative unionist party for much of the twentieth century. The UUP's historical roots were in the Irish Conservative Party, and its MPs often took the Conservative whip at Westminster. Since 1989, the Conservative Party has also had its own official section in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Conservatives.

    General election results

    Election House of Commons Seats Government Votes
    1835
    		 12th Parliament
    37 / 105
    		 Whigs largest party (Peelite Govt) 42.4%
    1837
    		 13th Parliament
    32 / 105
    		 Whigs largest party (Peelite Govt) 41.5%
    1841
    		 14th Parliament
    43 / 105
    		 Conservative victory 40.1%
    1847
    		 15th Parliament
    42 / 105
    		 Conservative victory 31.0%
    1852
    		 16th Parliament
    42 / 105
    		 Conservative victory
    1857
    		 17th Parliament
    44 / 105
    		 Liberal victory
    1859
    		 18th Parliament
    55 / 105
    		 Liberal victory 38.9%
    1865
    		 19th Parliament
    47 / 105
    		 Liberal victory 44.4%
    1868
    		 20th Parliament
    39 / 105
    		 Liberal victory 41.9%
    1874
    		 21st Parliament
    33 / 103
    		 Conservative victory 40.8%
    1880
    		 22nd Parliament
    23 / 103
    		 Liberal victory 39.8%
    1885
    		 23rd Parliament
    16 / 103
    		 Liberal victory 24.8%
    1886
    		 24th Parliament
    17 / 103
    		 Conservative and Liberal Unionist victory 50.4%

    Note: Results from Ireland for the UK general elections contested by the Irish Conservative Party.

    See also

    Sources

    • Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History 1800–2000 (Phoenix, 2004)
    • Andrew Shields, Irish Conservative Party, 1852–1868: Land, Politics and Religion (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 2007)[6]

    Notes

    1. ^ a b Graham Walker, A History of the Ulster Unionist Party: Protest, Pragmatism and Pessimism (Manchester University Press, 4 Sep 2004)
    2. ^ "The Irish Famine: Peel's Relief Programme to July 1846". www.wesleyjohnston.com.
    3. ^ "The Irish Famine: The Winter of 1846 to 1847". www.wesleyjohnston.com.
    4. ^ Alvin Jackson, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History (Oxford University Press, 19 Mar 2014), 52.
    5. ^ Pádraig Yeates, Dublin: A City in Turmoil: Dublin 1919 - 1921 (Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 28 Sep 2012)
    6. ^ "The Irish Conservative Party 1852-1868: Land, Politics and Religion | Irish Academic Press".
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