Peel’s Policies Toward Irealnd Essay

despoils policies towards Ireland seem to s break throughg backwards and forwards over the effect 1829-46 he birthed Catholic freedom in 1829, yet his insurance insurance of coercion seems distinctly repressive, and this was then followed by conciliation, which could be considered reforming. scramble had to travel a thin line between firmness and assertion of sanction without alienating any potential Catholic realise. How ever, on balance we shadow consider that his policies were more reforming than repressive.skins support of Catholic emancipation in 1829 shows the reforming side of his policy. He supported it against a huge sum of scepticism from his stimulate party and did it in the belief that it was for the good of the core he thought it was a greater risk to refuse to encounter their demands than to grant them. However, the restriction that Catholic emancipation placed on the enfranchisement meant that it carried with reform an element of repression. shinnys Tam worth Manifesto of 1834 showed moderate support for reform, nevertheless did non commit the Tory party to any involvement and certainly didnt index anything on the scale of Catholic emancipation. Peels early reformist attitude had all but disappeared by the 1841 election, where his party emphasised their conventional position as the defenders of the established Church.During his second minis prove, Peels policy of Coercion was clearly quite repressive. Faced with a problem in Ireland that he considered a greater threat to British Authority than Chartism had ever posed, he made an announcement in parliament that he would work over any attempt to break the union with armed force. This aggressive line was the start of Peels more repressive policy in Ireland. The Irish Arms act of 1843, which gave the Authorities in Ireland greater powers and criminalise Catholics from owning guns, was very stringent and back therefore be considered repressive, but it can be seen that it was a necessary move in order to counter more violence in Ireland.Peels decision t ban the meeting at Clontarf can in like manner be seen as repressive. OConnell had organised many large scale demonstrations ahead which had non been seen to pose a significant threat, but the British government construe it as an incitement to illegality. Over half a million sight were expected to turn up and the government knew about it well in advance however by banning it just the day before it was due 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 tell them all to turn back. On top of this, despite not having done anything illegal, OConnell was then arrested for sedition, tried and found guilty by an all protestant jury. This is perhaps the most openly repressive thing that Peel did in the goal. This incident proved to be the turning rouse in OConnell political career despite later existence releas ed from prison he never regained his full authority and subsequently his pilfer movement began to fall apart. This was a clear victory for Peels defence of the union, and gave him great support within the Conservative Party.However, Peel was win over 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 predominate objective, Equality of treatment for Protestant and Catholic Citizens was necessary so that the Irish middle classes could be persuaded of the benefits of it. Peels plan of conciliation want to improve relations and win this crucial support within Ireland. The firstborn step that showed Peel taking a more reforming line was to impinge on the staunch protestant defender de Gray as Lord surrogate of Ireland. He was replaced by Lord Heytesbury, who was happy to follow Peels policy of natural endowment Catholics equal opportunities in government. This showed not just wi llingness for change, but also would eventually lead to more Catholics in the civil gain and magistracy thereby lessening the chance that disaffected Irishmen would turn to the jingoistic cause instead.This willingness for change was shown again in the conniption up of the Devon Commission. scope it up in the first place was an act of great bravery the opinion 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 except 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 something incredibly important it had an essentially right nature and there was no ideological reason why its support should be blocked, as it wasnt linked to the nationalists or revolutionaries, and therefore Peel though t 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 money for its improvement and increasing its annual grants, he was not sole(prenominal) showing 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 eligible for the newly available jobs in the Civil service. However, this was in the cause of requests for Catholic colleges from the priests, something that Peel flatly refused to consider.With the coming of the white potato famine in 1845, Peel found even greater problems in Ireland, which lead to further reform. Peels worry about the dependency on the potato was jus tified, 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 marrow (which was to him the most important matter), the Irish would have to be treated plumb and be shown the benefits of it.