During the first half of the nineteenth century, much was accomplished by the Irish Catholics under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell. However, it was also a time of disillusion because it seems as though every time one goal was accomplished, another problem would surface. In the very early years, Irish Catholics lacked any real direction or focus in achieving their main goal at the time, which was emancipation. Then finally, O'Connell emerged as the saviour of the Irish Catholics, and achieved emancipation merely six years after he founded the powerful Catholic Association. The real setback occurred sometime after this victory when O'Connell attempted to repeal the Act of Union through the Repeal Association, founded in 1840. Because attitudes towards the Irish had changed considerably in Parliament by that time, O'Connell was not able to render the same results he had achieved the decade before because he lacked the sympathy and support of the English government.
Daniel O'Connell, mid nineteenth century portrait
United Kingdom general election, 1832
Daniel O'Connell.Although this period of Irish history is a triumphant one for Catholics, it also marks time of frustration and disillusion.
In 1800, the Act of Union was passed thus uniting Ireland and Britain and making Ireland subject to the Westminster Parliament. During this time, the most pressing problems in Ireland concerned land and church tithes. Looking back, we can see that the most serious issue was that of land since at the time there just was not enough of it to feed the entire growing Irish population. Because it was scarce, the rents were driven up, and since improving upon your land meant higher rents, tenant farmers were unwilling to develop their land.
From a 21st century perspective, we can see that this problem was the most serious. However, at the time, most people were more concerned with the irritation of paying tithes...