This is a survey of the origins and development of the Catholic Question in 18th and early 19th century Ireland: One of the Beresford family remarked in 1820: "When I was a boy the "Irish People" meant the Protestants, now it means the Roman Catholics". In essence this book traces how that change came about and explains its causes. It begins with the 17th century background and then proceeds to look at the first half of the 18th century. The Catholic Question had clearly emerged and was already high on the Anglo-Irish political agenda. In particular the author examines the penal laws and shows that by 1730 whatever missionary endeavour may have lain behind them had faded. He demonstrates the rise of a Protestant nationalism and its manifestations in various political crises which led to a loss of sympathy between the Irish and English governing elites. He also argues that the internal divisions in Irish Protestantism offered an opportunity for Catholics to step forward and seek the repeal of some of the penal laws. This led to the movement for Catholic relief in the period 1760-1790.
The author examines the principal Catholic Relief Acts and links the British sponsorship of Catholic relief with the needs of Empire and the necessity to curb the extravagances of Irish Protestants. The book gives particular attention to the key decade of the 1790s and then traces the further development of the Catholic question through to its triumphant resolution in the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
- ISBN10 0717115771
- ISBN13 9780717115778
- Publish Date 31 May 1992 (first published 7 May 1992)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 November 2009
- Publish Country IE
- Publisher Gill
- Imprint Gill & Macmillan Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 452
- Language English