ABSTRACT
events in ireland between 1823 and 1829, when Daniel O’Connell and his associates led the final drive for catholic emancipation, are among the most dramatic in the history of modern Britain. For years, the Castle had been examining reports of banditti activities, fearful of finding evidence of leadership of ‘a higher order’ that might convert the disorganized, faction-ridden Irish peasantry into a revolutionary army. With O’Connell and the Catholic Association, the peasantry found such leadership, and with it a common purpose. For catholic emancipation was the one goal on which all catholic Ireland could agree, the one cause which could unite the small landowner, the townsman, the peasant, and – of great importance – the priest in a common effort. Although the removal of the catholic disabilities was a goal but imperfectly understood by the Irish peasant, emancipation was accepted as a kind of embodiment of victory over an ascendancy responsible in some way for all the grievances of the Irish countryside. Thus the catholic peasantry, organized and disciplined as never before, were willing to place themselves at the disposal of the eloquent O’Connell. Undoubtedly had O’Connell called upon this group to take arms at any time between 1826 and 1829 the majority would have done so, but armed revolt was not his intention. Instead, he considered the massive organization that 161he and his associates had created to be a political pressure group with which to conduct a propaganda campaign, calling the attention of Great Britain to the plight of the Irish catholics, challenging and harassing the politicians and making the task of governing Ireland as difficult as possible, and exploiting to the utmost the threat of revolution. But in the need for an effective threat O’Connell had created a problem for the Association as well as for the government, for the emotions of the Irish peasantry had to be kept at fever pitch, without allowing them to erupt into serious violence. The major question for the government and for the Association became one of O’Connell’s continuing ability to control a peasantry poised on the edge of revolt.
