Maynooth, Tithes and Parsonstown
In 1869, Ireland stood at the centre of the first great reforming programme of William Ewart Gladstone’s Liberal government. The year’s defining event was neither an uprising nor an election in Ireland itself, but a Westminster statute with consequences in every parish: the Irish Church Act. Its date of enactment was 26 July 1869. The Act set in motion the separation of the Church of Ireland from the state and from its legal union with the Church of England. Yet it is important to distinguish the Act from its full effect: the Church of Ireland would cease to be established by law on 1 January 1871. Thus 1869 was a year of legislation, preparation and argument rather than an instant remaking of religious life.