Consistancy in Britain's Policy in Ireland in the Period 1798-1921

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Consistancy in Britain's Policy in Ireland in the Period 1798-1921

Social policy – in the 1830’s, Ireland had the best health

Land and Economic policy – land issues were ignored until 1870:

- first land Act – irrelevant

- second land Act – political rather than economic

- Wyndham Act – the government was becoming less and less convinced

that property was the ‘bedrock of civilisation’ – it was the product

of a shift in mentality.

- 1890’s – HUGE economic reforms

Political policy – consistently ignored or opposed any nationalist

movement

Concession/coercion – always a combination. However, there were more

concessions as the century wore on.

Religious policy – after 1829, the government was always prepared to

grant religious reforms – e.g. the abolition of tithes in the 30’s,

the Maynooth Grant and Charitable Bequests Act in the 1840’s, the

Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869.

* Pearce and Adelman B believed that Ireland benefited from the

Union, especially after 1829, and ‘maintenance of the Union

therefore became the bedrock of British policy for almost the next

100 years’.

* Policies were often based on ignorance of the situation – the

British tended to try to get away with as little as possible. For

example, the Maynooth Grant 1845, Land Acts 1870 and 1881, the

attempt to push Home Rule on the Irish in 1920

* ‘Irish practical problems were turned into English political ones’

(e.g. land) – something that they weren’t. Legislation was

considered and judged in an English context, not in an Irish one.

* Falsely believed that all of Ireland’s problems were either

religious or socio-economic, and that all that was needed was

reforms or concessions in these areas, and Ireland would be quiet.

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