Irish Patriot Party facts for kids

The Irish Patriot Party was the name for different groups of politicians in Ireland during the 1700s. They believed in ideas like personal freedom, similar to the Whig Party in Britain. These groups wanted Ireland to have more control over its own laws and government. However, they did not want Ireland to become fully independent from the British Empire. Instead, they wanted strong self-government while still being part of the Empire.

At that time, the Irish Parliament was only for Anglican Protestants. This was because of unfair laws called the Penal Laws, which discriminated against Catholics. The biggest success of the Irish Patriots was the Constitution of 1782. This important agreement gave Ireland the power to make its own laws.

Early Irish Patriots: Fighting for Rights

In 1689, there was a short-lived "Patriot Parliament" in Dublin. It briefly gained the power to make laws for Ireland, though it was still under the English king. Most members of this parliament were Roman Catholic Jacobites who owned land. They lost power after a war from 1689 to 1691.

Later, from the 1720s, the name "Patriots" was used for Irish people who supported the British Whig party. Writers like Jonathan Swift and others spoke out against too much control from Britain over Ireland's politics. Unlike the 1689 parliament, this new movement was made up of middle-class Protestants. At the time, many important political and church leaders in Ireland were born in England.

The Money Bill Dispute

A big disagreement happened between 1753 and 1756, known as the "Money Bill dispute." Henry Boyle, an Irish politician, refused to let extra money collected in Ireland be sent to London. He was supported by other Irish leaders. Because of this, the British ruler in Ireland, called the viceroy, removed Boyle from his job. Boyle then told the public that he was defending Ireland's interests. In 1755, a new viceroy found a way to solve the problem. Boyle got his job back and was given a new title.

The Patriots also allied with the Patriot Whigs in Britain during the 1750s and 1760s. Their main idea was that Irish people of English background should have the same legal and trading benefits, and personal freedoms, as people living in England. They felt these rights, which came from documents like the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689, were missing in Ireland. A law from 1719, called the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719, which said Britain could make laws for Ireland, was especially disliked.

Grattan's Patriots: A New Era

The Irish House of Commons where Grattan and the Irish Patriots sat in the late 1700s.

In the second half of the 1700s, a smaller but very important group of Irish politicians called themselves the Irish Patriot Party. Henry Flood led them at first, but then Henry Grattan took over. Grattan became the main leader and inspiration for the party for most of its existence.

Pushing for Independence

The Patriot Party became very active during the American War of Independence. They strongly pushed for Ireland to have the power to make its own laws. In 1778, with a possible threat of invasion from France, a large group of citizen soldiers called the Irish Volunteers was formed. Since the regular army was away, these Volunteers became a useful tool for the Irish Patriot politicians. They used the Volunteers' presence to bargain for more power from London, without needing to fight.

Like the American colonists, the Patriots organized "non-importation agreements" in 1779. This meant people agreed not to buy British goods as a form of protest. Their main goal was for Ireland to govern itself completely.

• They also wanted free trade with other countries. Since the 1650s, Ireland's trade had been heavily controlled and taxed by laws called the Navigation Acts. Irish merchants had to sell their goods through England and could not trade directly with other nations or even other parts of the British Empire. Many Irish goods, like wool, were even banned from being exported. The Patriots' most important success was reforming the Navigation Acts in December 1779. This led to a small economic boom in Ireland during the 1780s.
• Even though the Patriots and the British ruler in Ireland (the viceroy) often disagreed, they both believed Ireland should have more self-government. Old laws that limited Ireland's parliament, like Poynings' Law, were removed.
• From 1780, the Irish Parliament refused to approve taxes that would support the British government.

A young man named Jonah Barrington remembered how excited everyone in Ireland was. He said the whole country wanted to be free from English rule. People from all walks of life joined the fight for freedom. Barrington's father and brother even led their own groups of soldiers. Barrington himself, being a university student, helped write statements for the volunteer groups.

In April 1782, Grattan argued strongly for Ireland's rights and achieved self-rule. The Dublin parliament thanked him by offering him a large sum of money, of which he accepted half. The British government was worried about another secession (breaking away) like the one that had just lost them the Thirteen American colonies. So, they agreed to the Patriots' demands. George Washington even told the Irish, "Your cause is identical with mine."

Grattan was so influential that the next eighteen years of greater self-rule were known as Grattan's Parliament. The disliked Dependency Act of 1719 was removed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The British government agreed that the Irish parliament would make laws only for Ireland. To make sure everyone understood Ireland's new status, Grattan also got another law passed in Britain in 1783. This law clearly stated that the people of Ireland should only be bound by laws made by their own King and Parliament, forever.

The only remaining link between the Irish and British governments was the King, represented by the viceroy. Grattan believed Ireland should keep a good relationship with Britain. He famously said, "The Channel forbids union; the ocean forbids separation." This meant Ireland was too close to Britain for a full union, but too far for complete separation.

Challenges and Divisions

• From 1783 to 1784, the Patriots could not agree on how much to change the Penal Laws that restricted Roman Catholics in Ireland. Some, like Flood, thought enough had been done with the Relief Act of 1778. But others, like Grattan, wanted to reform the tithe (church tax) laws and allow Catholics into parliament. This disagreement often led to conservative politicians winning votes against reform until 1793.
• The viceroy often increased the number of conservative votes by giving jobs with large salaries to members of parliament. This was a form of patronage or bribery.
• Grattan chose to stay in opposition, meaning he did not join the government. This allowed the viceroy to appoint a conservative government, which was sometimes called the "Junta." Grattan failed to reform the tithe laws in 1788, which were very unpopular with poorer Catholics.
• Ireland's new right to free trade led to a disagreement with Portugal from 1780 to 1787. Portugal stopped buying Irish goods, but not English goods. Some Patriots even wanted to declare war on Portugal. This showed that Ireland still relied completely on the Royal Navy (British navy) to protect its trade overseas.

The Patriots who wanted reforms struggled to get enough votes in the Irish House of Commons for social changes. However, in 1793, another Catholic Relief Act was passed. This allowed Catholics to vote, work as lawyers, and attend Trinity College Dublin. In 1789, the reform-minded Patriots officially formed the "Irish Whig Party." But they soon lost support from London because of their views on a political crisis involving the King's health.

The French Revolution's Impact

The French Revolution made the Patriots' disagreements even worse. The major reform of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 was actually pushed by London, which might have embarrassed Grattan. Those who opposed this reform spoke about protecting a "Protestant Ascendancy" (Protestant power).

The rise of the radical United Irish movement from 1791 changed things. This group wanted Ireland to completely break away from Britain and become a new republic, with full rights for all religions. Because they supported France in a war, the United Irishmen were outlawed in 1795.

In 1795, the British government tried to prevent trouble by removing the Hearth tax (a tax on fireplaces) and funding a Catholic seminary (a college for priests) called St Patrick's College, Maynooth. However, earlier that year, they quickly removed the new viceroy, Lord Fitzwilliam. He had planned to give more rights to Catholics and appoint Grattan to the government. Fitzwilliam's removal and the start of martial law (military rule) in March 1797 caused Grattan and his supporters to leave parliament in May 1797. By then, the fighting between the army, citizen soldiers, the Orange Order, the Defenders, and the United Irishmen had made Ireland very difficult to govern.

The 1798 rebellion, started by the republican United Irishmen, failed and greatly harmed the Patriot cause. Even though most liberal Patriots were against the rebellion, they were seen as connected to it. Support for them in Britain dropped. Some Patriot members of parliament from the 1780s, like James Napper Tandy and Lord Edward FitzGerald, had become United Irish leaders in the 1790s. The rebellion, which was planned with a French invasion, made the British government push for the Act of Union in 1800. This law combined the parliaments of Ireland and Great Britain into a new "United Kingdom." The Patriots naturally opposed this in strong debates in 1799 and 1800.

The Act of Union and End of the Party

After the Act of Union 1800, the Irish Parliament was closed down. A few Irish Patriots became members of the new unified British House of Commons in London, with Grattan as their leader. Within a few years, they became part of the British Whig Party and disappeared as a separate political group.

Legacy: What They Left Behind

Grattan's idea of moderate Irish nationalist self-rule, while keeping ties with Britain, influenced Irish politics for the next century. This idea was taken up by Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association in the 1830s, which wanted to undo the Act of Union. It was also supported by the Young Ireland movement in the 1840s. Later, the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) campaigned for Home Rule (self-government) in Ireland. The IPP and similar groups were very important in Irish politics for decades. However, they were eventually defeated by the Sinn Féin movement, which wanted full independence, in the 1918 general election.

See also

• Patriot Whigs
• Protestant Nationalist

Sources