Parliament of Ireland

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Parliament of Ireland Parlaimint na hÉireann
First past the post with limited suffrage
Meeting place
Parliament House, Dublin
Footnotes
---- See also: Parliament of Great Britain

The Parliament of Ireland (Irish: Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords were members of the Irish peerage ('lords temporal') and bishops ('lords spiritual'; after the Reformation, Church of Ireland bishops). The Commons was directly elected, albeit on a very restricted franchise. Parliaments met at various places in Leinster and Munster, but latterly always in Dublin: in Christ Church Cathedral (15th century),^[1] Dublin Castle (to 1649), Chichester House (1661–1727), the Blue Coat School (1729–31), and finally a purpose-built Parliament House on College Green.^[3]

The main purpose of parliament was to approve taxes that were then levied by and for the

The Acts of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Ireland and Kingdom of Great Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The parliament was merged with that of Great Britain; the united Parliament was in effect the British parliament at Westminster enlarged with a subset of the Irish Lords and Commons.

History

Middle Ages

After the 12th-century

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Following the death of Cromwell and the end of the

Nonetheless, the franchise was still available to wealthier Catholics. Until 1728, Catholics voted in House of Commons elections and held seats in the Lords. For no particular reason, beyond a general pressure for Catholics to conform, they were barred from voting in the election for the first parliament in the reign of George II. Privileges were also mostly limited to supporters of the Church of Ireland. Protestants who did not recognise the state-supported Church were also discriminated against in law, so non-conformists such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Quakers also had a subservient status in Parliament; after 1707 they could hold seats, but not public offices. Thus, the new system favoured a new Anglican establishment in Church and State.

By 1728, the remaining nobility was either firmly Protestant or loyally Catholic. The upper classes had dropped most of its Gaelic traditions and adopted the Anglo-French aristocratic values then dominant throughout most of Europe. Much of the old feudal domains of the earlier Hiberno-Norman and Gaelic-Irish magnates had been broken up and given to Irish loyalists soldiers, and English and Scottish Protestant colonial settlers. Long under the control of de jure power of magnates, the far larger peasant population had nonetheless under the relatively anarchic and sectarian conditions established a relative independence. Now, the nobility and newly established loyalist gentry could exercise their rights and privileges with more vigour. Much as in England, Wales, and Scotland, the franchise was always limited to the property owning classes, which favoured the landed gentry.

The Irish Parliament was thus at a time of English commercial expansion left incapable of protecting Irish economic and trade interests from being subordinated to English ones. This in turn severely weakened the economic potential of the whole of Ireland and placed the new and largely Protestant middle-class at a disadvantage. The result was a slow but continual exodus of Anglo-Irish, Scots-Irish, and Protestant Irish families and communities to the colonies, principally in North America. Ironically, it was the very efforts to establish Anglicans as the primacy in Ireland which slowly subverted the general cause of the Protestant Irish which had been the objective of successive Irish and British Parliaments.

The Irish Parliament did assert its independence from London several times however. In the early 18th century it successfully lobbied for itself to be summoned every two years, as opposed to at the start of each new reign only, and shortly thereafter it declared itself to be in session permanently, mirroring developments in the

Powers

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After 1707,

The effects of this subordination of Irish Parliamentary power soon became evident, as Ireland slowly stagnated economically and the Protestant population shrank in relative size. Additionally, the growing relative wealth of the American colonies, whose local authorities were relatively independent of the British Parliament, provided additional ammunition for those who wished to increase Irish Parliamentary power. When the British governments started centralising trade, taxation and judicial review throughout the Empire, the Irish Parliament saw an ally in the American colonies, who were growing increasingly resistant to the British government's objectives. When open rebellion broke out in the American colonies in 1775, the Irish Parliament passed several initiatives which showed support for the American grievances.

Fearing another split by Ireland, as rebellion spread through the American colonies and various European powers joined in a global assault on British interests, the British Parliament became more acquiescent to Irish demands. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, most notably Henry Grattan, supported by the Patriot movement, the Irish parliament's authority was greatly increased. Under what became known as the Constitution of 1782 the restrictions imposed by Poyning's Law were removed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. Grattan also wanted Catholic involvement in Irish politics; the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 passed by the Irish parliament copied the British Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791, and Catholics were given back the right to cast votes in elections to the parliament, although they were still debarred from membership and state offices.

Organisation

The House of Lords was presided over by the

Speech from the Throne by the Lord Lieutenant, who, it was written "used to sit surrounded by more splendour than His Majesty on the throne of England".^[10] The Lord Lieutenant, when he sat on the throne, sat beneath a canopy of crimson velvet. At the state opening, MPs were summoned to the House of Lords from the House of Commons chamber by Black Rod, a royal official who would "command the members on behalf of His Excellency to attend him in the chamber of peers".

Sessions of Parliament drew many of the wealthiest of Ireland's Anglo-Irish elite to Dublin, particularly as sessions often coincided with the

The Parliament's records were published from the 1750s and provide a huge wealth of commentary and statistics on the reality of running Ireland at the time.[11] In particular, minute details on Ireland's increasing overseas trade and reports from various specialist committees are recorded. By the 1780s they were published by two rival businesses, King & Bradley and Grierson.^[12]

The Act of Union and abolition

From 31 December 1800, the Parliament of Ireland was abolished entirely, when the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and merged the British and Irish legislatures into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom after 1 January 1801.

The idea of a political union between Ireland and Great Britain had been proposed several times throughout the 18th century, but was vehemently opposed in Ireland.^[13] The granting of legislative independence to Ireland in 1782 was thought to have ended hopes of a union.^[13] Relations between the two parliaments became strained in 1789 during the illness of King George III, when the Irish parliament invited the Prince of Wales to become the Regent of Ireland, before Westminster had been able to make its own decision on the matter.^[14] The Irish Rebellion of 1798 saw a French expedition landing in Killala, causing alarm that Ireland could be used as a base for attacks on Britain, resurrecting the idea of political union between Ireland and Great Britain.^[13] The British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger had the strong support of King George III for a union, with the king advising him on 13 July 1798 that the rebellion should be used "for frightening the supporters of the Castle into a Union".^[14] The Protestant Ascendancy was also seen as being unequal in the task of governing Ireland, and that such a "corrupt, dangerous and inefficient system" had to be done away with.^[14]

In June 1798, Lord Cornwallis was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with one of his main tasks to be securing support in Ireland for a union.^[13][14] Cornwallis would report that "The mass of the people of Ireland do not care one farthing about the Union".^[13]

For the idea to succeed, Pitt knew that he needed large scale public support in Ireland for the idea from both Protestants and Catholics, and as such

For Protestants, the Presbyterians, who were largely involved in the rebellion of 1798 would shed no tears over the end of the Irish parliament. The Orange Order tried to be neutral on the issue of union, however thirty-six lodges from counties Armagh and Louth alone petitioned against the Union.^[14] The fear for some Protestants, especially those part of the Protestant Ascendancy, was that Catholic emancipation would immediately follow any union.^[14] The artisans and merchants of Dublin also feared any union as it might have resulted in a loss of business.^[14]

When William Pitt's idea of union and emancipation was revealed to the cabinet of the Irish parliament, the Speaker and Chancellor of the Exchequer both vehemently opposed it.^[14] The rest of the cabinet supported the idea however were split on the issue of Catholic Emancipation, resulting in it being dropped from the proposals.^[14] Cornwallis observed: "I certainly wish that England could now make a union with the Irish nation, instead of making it with a party in Ireland".^[14]

Any union between Ireland and Great Britain would have to be in the form of a treaty in all but name, meaning that any act of union would need to be passed separately in both the Dublin and Westminster parliaments.^[14] There was strong support for it in Westminster, however Dublin was not as keen.^[14]

An amendment was moved on 22 January 1799, seeking the House to maintain "the undoubted birthright of the people of Ireland to have a free and independent legislature".^[14] The debate which followed consisted of eighty speeches, made over the course of twenty-one uninterrupted hours.^[14] The next day a vote was held which resulted in a defeat of the amendment by one vote (106 to 105), however the following day another motion against any union passed 111 to 106.^[14]

Following these votes, Lord Castlereagh and Lord Cornwallis set about trying to win over as many Irish MPs as possible through bribery consisting of jobs, pensions, peerages, promotions, along with other enticements.^[13][14] These methods were all legal and not unusual for the time.^[14] They also spent over £1,250,000 buying the support of those who held the seats of boroughs and counties.^[13][14]

When parliament reopened on 15 January 1800, high levels of passion ran throughout, and angry speeches were delivered by proponents on both sides.^[14] Henry Grattan, who had helped secure the Irish parliament's legislative independence in 1782, bought Wicklow borough at midnight for £1,200, and after dressing in his old Volunteer uniform, arrived at the House of Commons of the Irish parliament at 7 a.m., after which he gave a two-hour speech against the union.^[14] Regardless, a motion against the union failed by 138 votes to 96, and resolutions in favour of the union were passed with large majorities in both chambers of parliament.^[14]

The terms of the union were agreed on 28 March 1800 by both houses of the Irish Parliament.^[13] Two Acts with identical aims (but with different wording) were passed in both the British^[15] and Irish^[16] parliaments, with the British Act of Union becoming law on 2 July 1800, and royal assent given to the Irish Act of Union on 1 August 1800.^[13] The Irish Parliament met for the last time the following day. On 1 January 1801, the provisions of the Acts of Union came into force.^[13][14]

See also

• Historical Irish legislatures
• List of acts of the Parliament of Ireland
• List of parliaments of Ireland
• Members of the pre-1801 Parliament of Ireland
• Parliament of Great Britain
• Parliament of the Republic of Ireland
• Parliament of the United Kingdom

Notes

References

Citations

1. ^ ^{a b c} Richardson 1943 p.451
2. ^ ^{a b} Bray 2006 pp.18, 52; "[1537 (28 Hen. 8) c. 12] An Act against proctors to be any member of the Parliament. Rot. Parl. cap. 19.". The Statutes at Large Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland. Vol. 1: 1310–1612. B. Grierson. 1765. pp. 102–103.
3. ISBN 9780198217459
   .
4. ^ "Senators mark 750th anniversary of 'first Irish parliament'". RTÉ. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
5. ^ Richardson 1943
6. ^ Colm Lennon, Sixteenth Century Ireland - The Incomplete Conquest (1994), p113, 140
7. ^ Lennon pp. 183, 206
8. ^ "Election Day – 1613 – the Irish Story".
9. JSTOR 41331440
   .
10. ^ Unsourced 18th century quote used in the Bank of Ireland, College Green, an information leaflet produced by the Bank of Ireland about the Irish Houses of Parliament.
11. ^ Johnson-Liik, E.M. History of the Irish Parliament (6 vols.) Belfast 2002
12. ^ See Cullen, Louis; "An Economic History of Ireland since 1660" (1972)
13. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "The Union". University College Cork. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
14. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x} "Act of Union". Queen's University Belfast. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
15. ^ "Union with Ireland Act 1800". Act No. (39 & 40 Geo. 3 c. 67) of 2 July 1800. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
16. ^ "Act of Union (Ireland) 1800". Act No. (40 Geo. 3 c. 38) of 1 August 1800. Retrieved 6 September 2015.

Sources

• Bray, Gerald Lewis (2006). Ireland, 1101-1690. Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
  ISBN 9781843832324
  .
• Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2002). History of the Irish Parliament 1692–1800: Commons, Constituencies and Statutes. Vol. 6 vols. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
• Richardson, H. G. (October 1943). "The Irish Parliament Rolls of the Fifteenth Century". The English Historical Review. 58 (232). Oxford University Press: 448–461.
  JSTOR 553673
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parliament of Ireland (1297-1800).

• History of the Irish Parliament 1682–1800, Ancestry Ireland
• Irish Legislation Database 1692–1800 Queen's University Belfast