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The Catholic Union was a political organisation in Ireland in the 1870s. It was the brainchild of Paul Cullen, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and future Irish cardinal. He created it in 1872 to link growing public interest in politics and Irish nationalism with a Catholic agenda. It was his second attempt to create a Church-orientated political party, following the collapse and failure of his first such organisation, the National Association. Paul Cullen (1803-1878) was a cardinal, and the Catholic primate of Ireland. ...
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
Primate of Ireland is a title possessed by the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishops of Dublin. ...
Irish nationalism refers to political movements that desire greater autonomy or the independence of Ireland from Great Britain. ...
The Catholic Union set itself three goals to achieve:
- disestablishment of the Church of Ireland;
- the creation of a Catholic university;
- moderate land reform in Ireland.
The Catholic Union failed as an organisation, however. It was overshadowed by a number of organisations; from the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Issac Butt's Home Government Association, a precursor of his later Home Rule League, to the Liberal and Conservative parties. The powerless of the Catholic Union was shown in the 1874 general election. Whereas the Conservatives won 32 seats, the Liberal Party 12 (down from 65) and the Home Rule League 59, the Union won nothing, with a supporter on Dublin Corporation unable even to get a seconder for his motion on home rule. Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (Irish: Eaglais na hÉireann) is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating seamlessly across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ...
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) played an important role in the history of Ireland. ...
Issac Butt (September 6, 1813 - May 5, 1879) was the founder and first leader of the Home Rule League, subsequently known as the Irish Parliamentary Party. ...
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a nineteenth and early twentieth century Irish political party which campaigned for home rule for the island of Ireland. ...
This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ...
The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative & Unionist Party) is currently the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), and the largest in terms of public membership. ...
Dublin Corporation is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between the twelfth century and 1 January 2002. ...
Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ...
Though all three aims of the Catholic Union were achieved, they were achieved through the actions of others. The Catholic Union's irrelevance was shown when the Catholic Bishops went behind its own back to negotiate with Liberal Prime Minister William E. Gladstone on the education issue. A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ...
William Ewart Gladstone (December 29, 1809 - May 19, 1898) was a British Liberal politician and Prime Minister (1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886 and 1892-1894). ...
The Catholic Union rapidly disintegrated, with members drifting away without a short time of its foundation.
The organisation disappeared completely in the late 1870s. Its failure, along with the failure of Catholic Church-created or supported parties and candidates, notably the disastrous failure of the Bishop of Kerry's candidate in a by-election in 1872 (who was defeated when Kerry Catholics voted for a Protestant Home Ruler despite condemnation from the bishop), and the collapse in the campaign of one of Cullen's supporters in Meath in the 1874 general election (where the candidate was forced to humiliatingly pull out through lack of support) indicated the limits on the political influence of the Roman Catholic Church in late 19th century Ireland.
Sources
- Joe Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society (Gill History of Ireland Series 10, Gill and Macmillan, 1973)
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