Did the Act of Union in 1801 make the relationship between the Irish the English better or worse?
The Union came into force on 1 January 1801. It was to last 120 years but during much of that time it failed to win the adherence of a majority of the Irish people. The Union was in being only for a few weeks when it received a body blow: George III flatly refused to consider Catholic emancipation and declared: ‘I shall reckon any man my personal enemy who proposes any such measure’. Pitt, who was convinced that emancipation was essential to ensure the success of the Union, resigned on 3 February 1801. Over the next couple of decades resolutions and bills in favour of emancipation were debated at Westminster (where Grattan eloquently supported them) but failed to gain sufficient support. In the end emancipation was not granted – it was wrested from Britain in 1829 after a mass agitation brilliantly co-ordinated by Daniel O’Connell. The opportunity to incorporate educated and propertied Irish Catholics into the élite was lost. They formed their own alternative élite and called for repea
