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... ics of Ireland and induced Pitt to exert irresistible pressure on the Irish executive to grant Catholic Emancipation and reassess the governmental system. In 1793 the franchise was extended to the Catholic community, but the significance of the Convention did not stop there, as a Convention Act was also passed to prevent the meeting of Back Lane Parliaments. The French Revolution helped break the sectarian deadlock in Ireland as it had, according to Curtin, a major impact on Protestant perceptions of Catholics.
The participation of Roman Catholics in overthrowing a corrupt monarchy in France and establishing a constitution arguably more representative than that in Protestant Britain seemed to show how far Catholics had matured politically. Presbyterians in Ireland felt that the Catholics of Ireland might too adopt the Republican principles of their French counterparts, and help establish a representative government based on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. The writing by Tone, inspired by events in France, of An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland helped inspire many Protestants, especially Presbyterians, to believe that the Catholic religion was now dying out, shown by the treatment of the Catholic Church in France after the establishment of the French Republic, and that their inclusion in the parliamentary reform movement was necessary if they were to achieve their goal of a representative government. The most visible example of this new Catholic-Protestant alliance was the co-operation between the United Irishmen and the Catholic Committee throughout the Catholic Agitation as the Catholic community helped allay Protestant fears, appointing Tone as the Secretary of the Catholic Committee.
The revolutionary enthusiasm and subsequent moderate Whig response caused by the events in France led many Irish radicals, who wished to establish a representative system of government, to establish a body to represent such views. The United Irishmen, formed in the mainly Presbyterian town of Belfast in October 1791, was the idea of William Drennan, and included all shades of Irish society. Their wide, inclusive representation, based on the French tenets explained their belief that, no reform can ever be obtained which shall not comprehensively embrace Irishmen of all denominations. The United Irish Society, which soon spread to the capital of Dublin, gave Protestant radicals and Presbyterians a stark choice, to either embrace the Catholic cause or abandon their aims of parliamentary representation.
A window of opportunity was opened in Ireland by the impact of the French Revolution; that moment was brilliantly seized by the United Irishmen, who imaginatively created a vision of non-sectarian, democratic and inclusive politics Whelan The United Irishmen themselves allied theirs with the cause of the Catholic community, establishing an alliance with the radicalized Catholic Committee and accepting Catholics such as Keogh, McCormick and McN even into their ranks. The society, especially Tone, embraced ideas of separatism from England, stating that, We have no national government; we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen. The United Irishmen, a society whose establishment had much to do with the emergence of the French Republic, set about politicizing the people of Ireland circulating pro-revolutionary propaganda and the works of writers such as Paine and John Locke. The Northern Star, founded in January 1792, acted as the organizations main medium of communication and reported intensely on events from France, with much success as each edition reached at least ten people.
The establishment of this effective body was proof of the effects of the French Revolution: The French Revolution had a most invigorating effect on Irish radicalism events in France inspired the advocates of change in all parts of the British Isles with verve McDowell The Irish establishment and the Anglican Ascendancy were naturally quick to draw comparisons between their situation and that of the ousted French elite, their views championed through the work of the conservative Edmund Burke. The French Revolution gave rise to fears that the Catholic and Presbyterian communities would come together to overthrow their rule, due to their ambitions for parliamentary reform which were given a major boost by the events in France, thus explaining the attitudes of the Ascendancy towards any possible alliance. The Ascendancy feared that they would lose their political and economic control in Ireland, and possibly their connections with England and privileges guaranteed by membership of the established church. The emergence of an Irish Republic based on the Rights of Man would almost undoubtedly obliterate their religious supremacy, and they viewed the revolution with scorn: To Irish conservatives the revolution seemed a challenge to civilization, an awful and alarming example of what could happen to a country when it began to remodel its institutions recklessly and ruthlessly on erroneous first principles McDowell The revolution, rather than soften the stance of the Ascendancy against parliamentary reform, served to increase their determination not to share their political power with the Irish masses.
The elite became stubborn as their natural conservatism became preponderating, and attempts at relaxing the Penal Code were opposed without prior thought. The London administration, finding Catholic Relief less contentious, begrudgingly pressurized the Irish administration to grant concessions to the Catholic community. The Irish government though, due to their intransigent approach to Catholic Relief, ruled this out of the question, rejecting the Catholic Committee petition for the extension of the franchise in February 1792. Even when Catholic Relief did make it through the Irish Commons, it met with fierce opposition from conservative elements who accused the Catholic Committee of being men of very low parentage, further acting to radicalize the Committee. The French Revolution further affected the actions of the Ascendancy as the war with France, which broke out in 1793, led to a clamp down on Irish radicals. Leading radicals were imprisoned, as the administration grew more intransigent towards their ideological beliefs, which were undoubtedly linked to those of the French.
This served to drive Irish radicals underground and further increased ill feeling towards the Ascendancy. The Ascendancy were also forced by the war to reconsider the attitudes of Catholics, since: Revolution was now a present danger, not just a vague possibility, and this fact gave new and critical importance to the attitudes of the Roman Catholics Beckett Due to the similar scenarios in France and Ireland, the French Revolution had real relevance, as it provided an example of how to overthrow an unrepresentative system of government and helped bring about a Catholic-Dissenter alliance, thus removing the reason for the previous failure to gain representative government in Ireland, as Presbyterians were encouraged by the actions of the French Catholics to ally with the Catholics of Ireland. It was the situation created by the French Revolution which eventually brought about an alliance between the extreme Protestant reformers and the Catholics, giving the latter the leadership which alone could have turned their passive discontent to revolutionary ends M. Elliot Irish Catholics saw the French revolutionary principles as a means to removing the Penal Code, as did the Presbyterian community who also saw it as an ideological crusade.
The politicization and radicalization of the Irish Catholics, under the middle class led Catholic Committee, caused the Irish administration to adopt further suppressive methods to deal with this revolutionary force. The French Revolution helped initiate the rebirth of the Irish reformist movement, and the inauguration of the United Irishmen who helped develop a Catholic-Presbyterian alliance and the beginnings of an Irish separatist movement, again serving to increase the intransigence of the Ascendancy, as war with revolutionary France broke out in 1793. The French Revolution had a profound affect on Ireland. According to JC Beckett it: Altered the current of political life throughout western Europe, and not least in Ireland Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on System Of Government French Revolution
