Daniel O'Connell - Justice for Ireland (1836)

Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) was a great Irish statesman, called the Liberator¹ of Ireland. He led a movement that successfully forced the British to pass the Catholic Emancipation² Act of 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to become members of the British House of Commons.,Until 1800, Ireland had its own separate Parliament which included many Catholic members. However, the British Act of Union abolished local political control by establishing the United Kingdom of England and Ireland. King George III permitted only Church of England Irish to participate in the British Parliament, which had a centuries-old history of discrimination against Catholics.,This left the majority of Irish Catholics without proper representation. O'Connell worked to pressure the British to end this discrimination.,In 1828 he even ran for Parliament and received a huge margin³ of Irish votes. Although he could not be seated, his victory favorably impressed the British prime minister and reform finally occurred in 1829 with the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act. O'Connell then became a full fledged member of the House of Commons and an eloquent⁴ spokesman for the Irish cause. He succeeded in getting more reforms enacted⁵ improving the treatment of the Irish.,On February 4, 1836, he gave this speech in the House of Commons calling for equal justice.,