Conclusion

In 1770 Ireland was on the cusp of a new era with regard to politics, religion and society. Internal and external pressures brought about the commencement of the repeal of the penal laws against Catholics in the 1770s and Patriot politics finally secured significant constitutional alterations in the relationship with Britain in 1782. The American and French Revolutions also encouraged existing and created new and varying degrees of radicalization within certain sectors of Irish society in political terms. One result of these various changes was the outbreak of rebellion in 1798, more than 100 years since countrywide violence had last engulfed Ireland. Another was the passage of the Act of Union in 1800, which put an end to the Irish parliament and the associated constitutional anomalies of the preceding centuries. ¹ These two events were synonymous with a seismic shift in Irish–British relations, as the subordination of Ireland as a dominion or province of the empire was finally clarified, confirmed and concluded. Thereafter, Ireland’s role in the empire began to change, as did the variety of ideas about Irish identity, separateness and, eventually, nationality, with dramatic and at times violent results at political, constitutional, religious, social and economic levels. ²