By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
To understand the extraordinary events in Ireland of the first half of the 19th century, one must first understand those in England. The English had had their own Revolution 160 years previously, and had instituted something which was fast becoming a Constitutional Monarchy. However the King still retained certain powers, notably the right to chose and remove the Prime Minister. And it was not until the Great Reform Act in 1832 that Parliament became elected by the people in England, rather than by the great landowners who owned the 'rotten boroughs' as they were starting to be called at the end of the last, 18th , century.
So in 1800 England was ruled in part by the King, and in part by what in Ireland would have been called the Ascendancy. And in 1800 the King was George III, an anachronism even by the standards of the time, whose ....
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at Prime Minister William Pitt, Catholic Emancipation Bill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Act of Union, Robert Stewart Viscount Castlereagh, Dublin, Robert Emmett, Trinity College, French Revolution, United Irishman, Thomas Street, Dublin, Michel MacLiammir, Barony Magunihy in Kerry, Morgan O'Connell, Catherine O'Mullane, Carhen, Cahirciveen, Donal 'Mr' O'Connell, Gaelicisation, fostered, Uncle Maurice, 'Hunting Cap', Beaver Hats, 'Maurice an cipin', smuggling, Derrynane Harbour, Derrynane House, Kenmare, Abbey Island, Kerry mountains, Catholic School Long Island, near Cork, Belgium, Jesuit 'College of St. Omer', Lige, Stonyhurst College, 'English College' at Douai, Lincoln's Inn, London, Colonel O'Connell, Coventry Street near Piccadilly in London, Chiswick, Carhen, Killorglin, Tralee, Limerick, Dublin, Holyhead, Chester, London, Henry Dundas, United Irishmen, Dublin Castle, Lawyers' Corps of Artillery, Act of Union, Mary O'Connell, Catholic Commission, Lord Fingal, Lord Shrewsbury, Lord Southwell, Lord Trimleston, Lord Kenmare, Sir Edward Bellew, 'Repeal', the Repeal of the Act of Union, Penal laws, Bardic laments, Caoine Cill Chais (The Lament for Kilcash), Robert Peel, the O'Connor Don, Duke of Leinster, Lord Charlemont, Lord Cloncurry, Lord Finga, Waterford, Clare, Anthony Raftery, 'Bua U Chonaill' ['O'Connell's Victory'], Mayo man, the Duke of Wellington, Emancipation Act, 1829, Whigs, Lichfield House Compact, The Tithe Act, Land tax, The Poor Law, Work Houses, Railways, Dublin Dun Laoghaire, then called Kingstown, Thomas Davis, John Dillon from Mayo, Charles Duffy from Monaghan, 'The Nation', Young Irelanders, 'Monster Meetings', Hill of Tara, 'Repeal Police', Thomas Moore, 'The Harp that once through Tara's Halls', 'Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms', 'Moore's Melodies', bagpipes, the Piob Mr, Uilleann Pipes, fiddle, violin, 'Irish Question', The Great Famine.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
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