Editing Daniel O'Connell (section)

==The Famine and the break with Young Ireland==
===The Queen's Colleges controversy===
In 1845, [[Dublin Castle administration|Dublin Castle]] proposed to educate Catholics and Protestants together in a non-denominational system of higher education. In advance of some of the Catholic bishops (Archbishop [[Daniel Murray (bishop)|Daniel Murray]] of Dublin favoured the proposal),<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25550110 |first1=M. Angela |last1=Bolster |first2=Geo. J. |last2=Browne |first3=D. |last3=Murray |title=Correspondence Concerning the System of National Education between Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin and Bishop George J. Browne of Galway |journal=Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society |volume=37 |year=1979 |pages=54–61 |jstor=25550110 |access-date=16 September 2020 |archive-date=17 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917055625/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25550110 |url-status=live }}</ref> O'Connell condemned the "godless colleges". (Led by [[John MacHale|Archbishop McHale]], the bishops issued a formal condemnation of the proposed colleges as dangerous to faith and morals in 1850).<ref name="Foster" />{{rp|331–332}}<ref name=":9">Gwynn, Denis (1948), ''O'Connell, Davis and the Colleges Bill'', Dennis Gwynn, Cork University Press.</ref> The principle at stake, of what in Ireland was understood as "mixed education", may already have been lost. When in 1830 the government proposed to educate Catholics and Protestants together at the primary level, it had been the Presbyterians (led by O'Connell's northern nemesis, the evangelist [[Henry Cooke (minister)|Henry Cooke]]) who had scented danger. They refused to cooperate in National Schools unless they had the majority to ensure there would be no "mutilating of scripture."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Modern Ireland |last=Shearman |first=Hugh |publisher=George G. Harrap & Co |year=1952 |location=London |pages=84–85}}</ref><ref>Andrew R. Holmes (2007), ''The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief & Practice 1770–1840'' Oxford</ref> But the vehemence of O'Connell's opposition to the colleges, was a cause of dismay among those O'Connell had begun to call [[Young Ireland]]ers{{snd}}a reference to [[Giuseppe Mazzini]]'s anti-clerical and insurrectionist [[Young Italy (historical)|Young Italy]].<ref name=":13" />

When the ''Nation'''s assistant editor (and promoter of Irish in print), [[Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)|Thomas Davis]], a Protestant, objected that "reasons for separate education are reasons for [a] separate life".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Story of Daniel O'Connell |last=Macken |first=Ultan |publisher=Mercier Press |year=2008 |location=Cork|isbn=9781856355964|pages=120}}</ref> O'Connell declared himself content to take a stand "for Old Ireland", and accused Davis of suggesting it was a "crime to be a Catholic".<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|title=Thomas Davis and Ireland: A Biographical Study|last=Mulvey|first=Helen|publisher=The Catholic University of America Press|year=2003|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0813213037|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikdUr7-_bLkC&pg=PA180|pages=180|access-date=22 August 2020|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204357/https://books.google.com/books?id=ikdUr7-_bLkC&pg=PA180|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Whigs and the Famine===
Grouped around [[The Nation (Irish newspaper)|''The Nation'']], which had proposed as its "first great object" a "nationality" that would embrace as easily "the stranger who is within our gates" as "the Irishman of a hundred generations,"<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |year=2008 |location=Dublin |page=367}}</ref> the dissidents suspected that in opposing the [https://vlex.co.uk/vid/queen-s-colleges-ireland-861222932 Queen's Colleges Bill] O'Connell was also playing [[Palace of Westminster|Westminster]] politics. O'Connell, who by September 1843 was again hinting at the possibility of a renewed alliance with the Whigs,<ref name=":4" /> welcomed the opportunity to inflict a defeat on the [[Second Peel ministry|Peel ministry]] and to hasten the return of his English "friends" to office.

The Young Irelanders' dismay only increased when at the end of June 1846 O'Connell appeared to succeed in this design. The [[First Russell ministry|new ministry]] of [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]] deployed the Whigs' new [[laissez-faire]] ("[[political economy]]") doctrines to dismantle the previous government's limited efforts to address the distress of the emerging, and catastrophic, [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Irish Famine]].<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Woodham-Smith |first=Cecil |title=The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 |publisher=Penguin |year=1962 |isbn=978-0-14-014515-1 |location=London |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|410-411}} [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet|Charles Edward Trevelyan]], who as Assistant Secretary to the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] became "virtually dictator of relief for Ireland" put a stop to the government's import and distribution of food with exception only for far western districts (O'Connell's home county Kerry included), where dependence on the failed potato crop was such that there was scarcely trade in any other description of food.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|105-107}}

In February 1847 O'Connell stood for the last time before the House of Commons in London and pleaded for his country: "She is in your hands{{snd}}in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. One-fourth of her population will perish unless Parliament comes to their relief".<ref name=":15">{{cite book |last1=Geoghegan |first1=Patrick |url= |title=Liberator Daniel O'Connell: The Life and Death of Daniel O'Connell, 1830–1847 |date= |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |year=2010 |isbn=9780717151578 |location=Dublin |pages= |access-date= |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=live}}</ref> As "temporary relief for destitute persons", the government opened soup kitchens. They were closed a few months later in August of the same year. The starving were directed to abandon the land and apply to the workhouses.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|410-411}}

===Peace Resolutions===
After Thomas Davis's death in 1845, Gavan Duffy offered the post of assistant editor on [[The Nation (Irish newspaper)|''The Nation'']] to John Mitchel. Mitchel brought a more militant tone. When the conservative ''[[Evening Standard|Standard]]'' observed that the new Irish railways could be used to transport troops to quickly curb agrarian unrest, Mitchel replied combatively that railway tracks could be turned into [[Pike (weapon)|pikes]] and that trains could be easily ambushed. O'Connell publicly distanced himself from ''The Nation'' setting Duffy up as editor for the prosecution that followed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCullagh |first1=John |title=Irish Confederation formed |work=Newry Journal |date=8 November 2010 |url=https://www.newryjournal.co.uk/history/1800-1900/irish-confederation-formed/ |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925090507/https://www.newryjournal.co.uk/history/1800-1900/irish-confederation-formed/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When the courts absolved him, O'Connell pressed the issue.

In 1847 the Repeal Association tabled resolutions declaring that under no circumstances was a nation justified in asserting its liberties by force of arms. The Young Irelanders had not advocated physical force,<ref>Doheny, Michael (1951). ''The Felon's Track''. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. p. 105</ref> but in response to the "Peace Resolutions"  Meagher argued that if Repeal could not be carried by moral persuasion and peaceful means, a resort to arms would be a no less honourable course.<ref>O'Sullivan, T. F. (1945). ''Young Ireland''. The Kerryman Ltd. pp. 195–196</ref> [[John O'Connell (MP)|O'Connell's son John]] forced the decision: the resolution was carried on the threat of the O'Connells themselves quitting the Association.<ref>Clarke, Randall. (1942). "The relations between O'Connell and the Young Irelanders", ''Irish Historical Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 9, p. 30</ref>

Meagher, Davis and other prominent dissidents, among them [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Gavan Duffy]]; [[Jane Wilde]]; [[Margaret Callan (writer)|Margaret Callan]]; [[William Smith O'Brien]]; and [[John Blake Dillon]], withdrew and formed themselves as the [[Irish Confederation]].

In the desperate circumstances of the Famine and in the face of martial-law measures that a number of Repeal Association MPs had approved in Westminster, Meagher and some Confederates did take what he had described as the "honourable" course. Their rural rising broke up after a single skirmish, the [[Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848|Battle of Ballingarry]].

Some of the "Men of 1848" carried the commitment to physical force forward into the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (IRB){{snd}}[[Fenian]]ism. Others followed Gavan Duffy in focussing on what they believed was a basis for a non-sectarian national movement, the struggle for [[Tenant-right|tenant right]].

In what Duffy hailed as a "[[Tenant Right League|League of North and South]]" in 1852 tenant protection societies helped return 50 MPs.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The League of North and South |last=Duffy |first=Charles Gavan |publisher=Chapman & Hall |year=1886 |location=London}}</ref> The seeming triumph over "O'Connellism", however, was short-lived. In the South Archbishop Cullen approved the Catholic MPs breaking their pledge of independent opposition and accepting government positions.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America |last=McCaffrey |first=Lawrence |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=1976 |location=Washington, DC |pages=145 |isbn=9780813208961 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dPNCR4-4LIC&pg=PA145 |access-date=22 August 2020 |archive-date=2 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402163050/https://books.google.com/books?id=_dPNCR4-4LIC&pg=PA145 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>See also {{cite book |last=Whyte |first=John Henry |title=The Independent Irish Party 1850-9|url=https://archive.org/details/independentirish0000whyt |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1958 |page=[https://archive.org/details/independentirish0000whyt/page/139 139]}}</ref> In the North [[William Sharman Crawford]] and other League candidates had their meetings broken up by [[Orange Order|Orange]] "bludgeon men".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789–2006|last=Bew|first=Paul|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|location=Oxford|pages=238–239|isbn=9780198205555|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MSQSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA238|access-date=22 August 2020|archive-date=2 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402172307/https://books.google.com/books?id=MSQSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA238|url-status=live}}</ref>