Peel’s Policies Toward Irealnd Essay

plunders policies towards Ireland seem to swing backwards and forwards oer the period 1829-46 he supported Catholic emancipation in 1829, yet his insurance policy of obsession seems distinctly repressive, and this was then followed by conciliation, which could be envisioned domesticateing. sputter had to tread a thin line between firmness and assertion of authority without alter completely potential Catholic support. However, on balance we can consider that his policies were much domesticizeing than repressive. denudates support of Catholic emancipation in 1829 shows the reforming side of his policy. He supported it against a huge amount of scepticism from his own companionship and did it in the belief that it was for the good of the union he position it was a greater risk to refuse to satisfy their demands than to allot them. However, the restriction that Catholic emancipation placed on the franchise meant that it carried with reform an element of repression. disrob es Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 showed moderate support for reform, that did not commit the Tory party to anything and certainly didnt advocate anything on the scale of Catholic emancipation. Peels early reformist side had all but disappeared by the 1841 election, where his party emphasised their traditional congeal as the defenders of the established Church.During his second ministry, Peels policy of obsession was clearly quite repressive. Faced with a problem in Ireland that he considered a greater threat to British Authority than Chartism had ever sit downd, he made an announcement in parliament that he would crush any attempt to break the union with armed force. This aggressive statement was the stir up of Peels more repressive policy in Ireland. The Irish Arms act of 1843, which gave the Authorities in Ireland greater powers and ejectned Catholics from owning guns, was really stringent and can therefore be considered repressive, but it can be seen that it was a necessary move in order to prevent more violence in Ireland.Peels decision t ban the meeting at Clontarf can too be seen as repressive. OConnell had organised more large scale demonstrations before which had not been seen to pose a significant threat, but the British government interpreted it as an incitement to illegality. Over half a million people were expect to turn up and the government k red-hot about it well in show up however by banning it just the day before it was collect to take place, Peel dealt a heavy blow to OConnell.Thousands of Irish people were already on their way to the demonstration and OConnell had to recite them all to turn back. On top of this, despite not having do anything illegal, OConnell was then arrested for sedition, tried and found guilty by an all protestant jury. This is perhaps the well-nigh openly repressive thing that Peel did in the period. This incident proved to be the turning point in OConnell political career despite later being released from prison he never regained his full authority and subsequently his bowl over faecal matter began to fall apart. This was a clear victory for Peels defence mechanism of the union, and gave him great support within the Conservative Party.However, Peel was convinced that a population that was more than 80% Catholic could not be coerced indefinitely and in early 1844 asserted that whilst the union itself was still the overriding objective, equality of treatment for Protestant and Catholic Citizens was necessary so that the Irish shopping mall classes could be persuaded of the benefits of it. Peels plan of conciliation sought to reform relations and win this crucial support within Ireland. The first look that showed Peel taking a more reforming line was to remove the halt protestant defender de Gray as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was replaced by Lord Heytesbury, who was happy to follow Peels policy of giving Catholics equal opportunities in government. This showed not just willi ngness for change, but also would eventually lead to more Catholics in the civil service and magistracy thereby lessening the chance that disaffected Irishmen would turn to the Nationalist coiffe instead.This willingness for change was shown again in the setting up of the Devon Commission. Setting it up in the first place was an act of great courage the judging of the time was that it was a landlords right to do as he wished without interference and therefore shows a real attempt at reform by Peel, although it never came to fruition. Peel further tried to win over the Irish Catholics with the charitable bequests bill of 1844. It plainly displayed the goodwill of Peels administration to the Catholic Church. Peel saw the support of the Irish Catholic Church as both(prenominal)thing incredibly important it had an essentially conservative reputation and there was no ideological reason why its support should be blocked, as it wasnt linked to the nationalists or revolutionaries, an d therefore Peel thought it important for them to be on-side.This religious aspect was further tackled in the Maynooth Bill. He was convinced that in its current state, Maynooth was attracting the wrong sort, and by giving silver for its improvement and increasing its annual grants, he was not only cover a positive attitude to the Catholic Church, but also ensuring that the new priests were not likely to support the revolutionaries or nationalists. Peels Irish Colleges Bill continued this programme of reform by setting up un-sectarian colleges, with the aim of ensuring that there would be more educated Catholics who would be pensionable for the newly available jobs in the Civil service. However, this was in the face of requests for Catholic colleges from the priests, something that Peel flatly refused to consider.With the coming of the potato famine in 1845, Peel found even greater problems in Ireland, which lead to further reform. Peels worry about the dependency on the potato w as justified, and many people in Ireland were starving. Peel made the decision to try and repeal the Corn Laws. He faced huge opposition from his own party at the suggestion, yet the Bill was passed with Whig support. This is the most reforming one of Peels policies towards Ireland however, there is the suggestion that his hand was forced politically.Overall, the evidence suggests that although there were some repressive elements to Peels Irish policy, namely the period of Coercion, the majority of his policy can be considered as more reforming, as he acted to try and change and improve the conditions in Ireland and the relationships between Britain and Ireland. This is shown by Peels reasoning that in order to preserve the Union (which was to him the most important matter), the Irish would have to be treated fairly and be shown the benefits of it.