A Race Divided

Author: Dr. William Roulston

In 1800 the Act of Union was passed by both the Irish and British parliaments despite much opposition. It was signed by George III but Pitt intended to follow the Act of Union with other, more far reaching reforms, including Catholic Emancipation. He was thwarted by George III who refused to break his Coronation Oath to uphold the Anglican Church. The 1800 Act of Union said that

• Ireland was to be joined to Great Britain into a single kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• the Dublin parliament was abolished. Ireland was to be represented at Westminster by 100 MPs, 4 Lords Spiritual and 28 Lords Temporal (all were Anglicans).
• the Anglican Church was to be recognised as the official Church of Ireland.
• there was to be free trade between Ireland and Britain.
• Ireland was to keep a separate Exchequer and was to be responsible for two-seventeenths of the general expense of the United Kingdom.
• Ireland kept its own Courts of Justice and civil service.
• no Catholics were to be allowed to hold public office.
• there was to be no Catholic Emancipation.

Ruling Ireland direct from Westminster solved nothing as the union was a political expedient in wartime, solving none of the grievances in Ireland over land, religion or politics. It had no social dimension at all and Ireland’s economic problems were also ignored. Pitt knew that social and economic reforms were essential as was Catholic Emancipation.  As George III refused to allow full emancipation, Pitt resigned in protest. The Act became a liability rather than an asset. Peers holding Irish estates opposed concessions to Roman Catholics as did the King because of vested interests and religious bigotry.

This chapter looks at the effects upon the Irish psyche of such treatment from the monarch so soon after earlier Catholic Emancipation had for a decade enabled Irish subjects to fight in the American War of Independence. The chapter also takes a fresh look at the assertions at the time of the roguish but charismatic Sir Jonah Barrington, the anti-Union Irish M.P. who described his ’The Rise and fall of the Irish Nation’ as “a full account of the bribery and corruption by which the Union was carried;the family histories of the members who voted away the Irish Parliament with an extraordinary black list of the titles, places and pensions which they received for their corrupt votes.”

This was an extraordinary charge from someone who had to bribe his way out of the country after his own colossal misappropriation of Admiralty funds.

Author:  Dr. Don MacFarlane

This chapter aims to demonstrate that most if not all human rights as we now know them were systematically infringed in Ireland and the Western Isles during the period in question.

International Declaration of Human Rights

A man should not be compelled as a last resort to take recourse to rebellion.
Every person has a right to life.
The dignity and worth of each person should be reaffirmed.
No distinction should be made on the basis of politics or jurisdiction.
No person should be held in slavery or servitude.
No person should be subjected to cruel or degrading treatment.
No person should be subjected to arbitrary exile.
No person should be arbitrarily deprived of his home or family.
Every person should have a right to nationality.
Every person should have a right to marriage.
Every person has a right to freedom of expression of opinion.
Every person has the right to take part in the government of his country.
The will of the people should determine the government of the country.
Every person has the right to equal pay for equal work.
Every person has the right to a good-enough standard of subsistence.
Every person has the right to education.
A person’s rights should be subject only to the requirements of morality, public order and general welfare of the community.