The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People (58 page)

The Irish House of Commons in the eighteenth century, neither democratic nor representative of the Irish population, but nevertheless a crucible of energetic debate.

Theobald Wolfe Tone eagerly embraced the principles of the French Revolution, and envisaged an Ireland in which religious division was set aside in the interests of a secular republic.

Thomas Moore, creator of
Moore’s Melodies
, was born over a grocer’s shop in Dublin and died in rural Wiltshire, having established himself as a favourite of London society.

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington – Irish-born soldier, statesman and prime minister. His insights into the Irish political scene eased the passing of legislation enabling Catholic Emancipation.

Young, idealistic and a famous orator, Robert Emmet led a rebellion that in hindsight symbolized the end of French Revolutionary fervour in Ireland.

Lord Castlereagh’s political career took him from Dublin in the aftermath of the 1798 Rising to the Congress of Vienna as British foreign secretary. He committed suicide by slitting his throat with a letter opener.

Colourful, vigorous and politically daring, Daniel O’Connell was the ‘Liberator’ to his followers, whom he led in the cause of repeal of the Act of Union.

This
Punch
cartoon captures the loathing felt for O’Connell in many quarters of British society. Here he is portrayed grown obscenely fat on the activity of his loyal supporters.

Ford Madox Brown’s
Work
(1852–65) shows the increasing visibility of Irish emigrants – here ‘a stoic from the Emerald Island, with hay stuffed in his hat to keep the draft out’ – in British society.

Many Irish migrants went further afield than England. In this engraving of the emigration office on the wharf at Queenstown (Cobh), passengers are preparing to set sail for America.

‘Ireland’s Latest Martyrs’ were executed at Manchester in 1867 for the murder of a policeman. The executions came amid a wave of anti-Irish feeling in Britain; in Ireland the events at Manchester bolstered the Fenian cause.

This pamphlet explicitly linked the agitation for Home Rule with the rebellions of 1641 and 1798.

William Ewart Gladstone’s political mission ‘was to pacify Ireland’. He became a passionate supporter of Irish Home Rule, and in the course of a long career, he brought two Home Rule bills to parliament.