The Repeal Movement and Young Ireland, 1832–1860

Abstract

This chapter deals with the years between the November Uprising of 1830–31 and the January Uprising of 1863–64. The mounting frustration of Irish nationalists with British governments, which failed to accede to O’Connell’s demand for the repeal of the Act of Union, strengthened identification with the Poles in these decades. Reports of poor government in Ireland, exemplified by the mass deaths of the Great Hunger, persuaded some British as well as Irish commentators that British rule in Ireland was as iniquitous as Russian rule in Poland. Strong critics of colonialism worldwide, members of the Young Ireland movement, most notably William Smith O’Brien, were particularly drawn to the notion of a shared experience of oppression.