Clare’s Second Verdict
Archived: 11 October 2026
In 1829, Catholic Emancipation transformed Irish constitutional politics after Daniel O’Connell’s 1828 Clare election and the Catholic Association’s mass mobilisation forced Wellington’s government to act. The Roman Catholic Relief Act, assented to on 13 April, enabled Catholics taking a new oath to enter Parliament and many public offices, though it preserved the Protestant state settlement and excluded them from certain positions. Simultaneously, the Irish election law raised the county freehold qualification from forty shillings to £10, disfranchising many poor Catholic voters. O’Connell’s pre-Act election required a Clare by-election, which he won unopposed. Protestant opposition persisted; Gerald Griffin’s novel reflected society.