Ireland

12 Pages 3110 Words

btained, complete Roman Catholic emancipation in Ireland. In 1828 Roman Catholics were permitted to hold local office, and in 1829 they were allowed to sit in Parliament. The struggle then turned upon the tithes, which all Irish, Roman Catholics included, were compelled to pay for the maintenance of the Anglican Church in Ireland. Great cruelties were perpetrated on both sides during the so-called Tithe War, which was coupled with a renewed emphatic demand for the repeal of the Act of Union. Various socie!
ties were formed to carry on the agitation, and considerable lawlessness occurred, fostered by the so-called Ribbon Society.
The reform of the British Parliament in 1832 increased the number of Irish members from 100 to 105. More important, it gave the middle class more power, weakening the pro-English aristocracy. In 1838 a bill was passed converting the tithes into rent charges, to be paid by the landlords; as a result, agitation in connection with the Anglican Church ceased to be acute for a time. From 1845 to 1849 rent-racked Ireland suffered a disastrous famine resulting from the failure of the potato crop. Again large numbers of people emigrated, especially to America; it has been estimated that by the end of 1848, through emigration and deaths resulting from famine, the population of Ireland decreased by more than 2 million people.
The movement for independence in Ireland reached a turning point in May 1914 when the House of Commons passed a Home Rule Bill for Ireland. It was decided, with Nationalist and Unionist agreement, to suspend the operation of the Home Rule Act until after the war. In December 1920, the British coalition government under the premiership of David Lloyd George passed the Government of Ireland Act which established two Home Rule parliaments: one for the six mainly Protestant Ulster counties—which became a separate political division of the United Kingdom—and the other for the remainder of the isla...