United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Part of the trade-off for Irish Catholics was to be the granting of Catholic Emancipation, which had been fiercely resisted by the all-Anglican Irish Parliament. However, this was blocked by King George III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath to act as protector of Protestantism.
The United Kingdom
The Act of Union was initially seen favourably in Ireland, given that the old Irish parliament was seen as hostile to the majority Catholic population, some of whose members had only been given the vote as late as 1794 and who were legally debarred from election to the body. The Roman Catholic hierarchy endorsed the Union. However, King George III's decision to block Catholic Emancipation fatally undermined the appeal of the Union. Leaders like Henry Grattan, who sat in the new parliament, having been leading members of the old one, were bitterly critical.
The eventual achievement of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, following a campaign by Daniel O'Connell, MP for County Clare, who had won election to Westminster and who could not for religious beliefs take the Oath of Supremacy, removed the main negative that had undermined the appeal of the old parliament, the exclusion of Catholics. From 1829 on a demand grew again for a native Irish parliament separate from Westminster. However, his campaign to repeal the Act of Union ultimately failed.
Aspects of the United Kingdom met with popularity in Ireland during the 122-year union. Hundreds of thousands flocked to Dublin for the visits of Queen Victoria in 1900, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1903 and 1907 and King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. About 210,000 Irishmen fought in Irish regiments of the United Kingdom and Allied armies in World War I, at a time when Ireland was the only home nation where conscription was not in force.
Irish home rule
Later leaders, such as Charles Stewart Parnell the first leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, campaigned for a version of all-Ireland self-government called home rule within the United Kingdom, which was nearly achieved in the 1880s under the (British) ministry of William Ewart Gladstone who introduced two Irish Home Rule Bills. However, the measures were defeated in Parliament, and following the ascension of the Conservatives to the majority, the issue was buried as long as that party was in power.
With the return to power of the Liberals in 1910 supported by the Irish Party under John Redmond who now held the balance of power in the Commons, the veto power of the Lords was removed under the Parliament Act and a Home Rule Bill introduced in 1912 passed Parliament as the Third Home Rule Act in 1914, but was temporarily suspended for the duration of World War I. However the constant delaying of Home Rule and the opposition of the Orange Order in Ulster created the frustration that eventually led to political violence and the 1916 Easter Rising. The European situation changed the political climate such that in the 1918 general election, the Irish Party lost most of its seats to the new Sinn Féin party.
Breakdown of the Union
In 1919, Sinn Féin MPs elected to Westminster formed a unilaterally independent Irish parliament in Dublin, the first Dáil Éireann with an executive under the President of Dáil Éireann, Éamon de Valera. A War of Independence was fought between 1919 and 1921. The island of Ireland was partitioned on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 into two distinct autonomous United Kingdom regions, the short-lived Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. [Order in Council of 3 May 1921 (SR&O 1921, No. 533). Their constitutional roots remained the Act of Union, two complimentary Acts, one passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, the other by the Parliament of Ireland.] On 6 December 1922, a year after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, the entire island of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and formed a new Dominion, the Irish Free State. However, as was widely expected, Northern Ireland almost immediately exercised its right under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, to "opt out" of the Irish Free State and back into the United Kingdom. [On 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State) the Parliament resolved to make the following address to the King so as to "opt out" of the Irish Free State: "”MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Senators and Commons of Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled, having learnt of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922, being the Act of Parliament for the ratification of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, do, by this humble Address, pray your Majesty that the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland". Source: [http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/stormontpapers/pageview.html?volumeno=2&pageno=1145#bak-2-1149 Northern Ireland Parliamentary Report, 7 December 1922] and [http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html Anglo-Irish Treaty, sections 11, 12] . If Northern Ireland had not done so it would have became an autonomous part of the Irish Free State.] With that, the Irish border became an international frontier.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland continued in name until 1927 when it was renamed as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927.
Legacy
were the notable exceptions to this, as there was initially no equivalent Irish coin value, and when subsequently, Irish coins of these values were introduced, their designs differed significantly, thereby not allowing for 'stealth' passing of the coins in change.
Irish Citizens in the UK have a status almost equivalent to British Citizens. They can vote in all elections and even stand for parliament. As well as this, some people born in the Republic of Ireland before 1949, but after 3rd March 1922, are British Subjects. British Citizens have similar rights to Irish Citizens in the Republic of Ireland and can vote in all elections apart from Presidential Elections and referendums. People from Northern Ireland can have dual nationality by applying for an Irish passport in addition to, or instead of a British one.
List of monarchs
Until 1927, part of the monarch's royal title included the words "King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". In 1927, the words "United Kingdom" were dropped from the royal title so that the monarch was instead styled as "King of Great Britain, Ireland... [and other places] ". The words "United Kingdom" were restored to the monarch's title in 1953 with the reference to "Ireland" replaced with a reference to "Northern Ireland".
*George III (1801–1820) (monarch from 1760)
*George IV (1820–1830)
*William IV (1830–1837)
*Victoria (1837–1901)
*Edward VII (1901–1910)
*George V (1910–1922) (title used until 1927)
ee also
*History of Ireland (1801-1922)
*History of the United Kingdom
Footnotes
External links
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk British History Online]
* [http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/peel/ireland/1801act.htm Act of Union 1800]
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