The ‘Repeal Year’ in Ireland: An Economic Reassessment

Abstract

Most of the existing literature on the ‘Repeal Year’ agitation in Ireland explains the rise in popularity of the 1842–3 campaign for repeal of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in political and religious terms. This article argues that, in addition, the British government's economic policy of reducing tariffs in 1842 damaged Ireland's agricultural economy and increased popular support for the Repeal movement. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article shows that the tariff reductions and import relaxations of the 1842 budget had an immediate negative impact on Irish real incomes by reducing agricultural prices. A negative relationship between these prices and the Repeal rent, together with the economic rhetoric of Repeal in favour of protection, indicate a link between the economic downturn and the rise in the popularity of Repeal. This article concludes that Peel's trade policy changes of 1842 should therefore be added to the traditional religious and political explanations as a cause behind the sudden surge in popularity of the Repeal movement between 1842 and 1843.

Le Home Rule, la démocratie et la déconstruction du Royaume-Uni, 1885-1921

“…O'Connell linked the Union with free trade and a restoration of a parliament in Dublin with protection and the farmers' interest. 13 His campaign was abruptly stopped by the greatest economic social and humanitarian catastrophe in the history of the Victorian United Kingdom: the Great Famine (1845-50), which caused the death of about one million people, the immediate exodus of another million and continued emigration over the long term. Survivors, especially those who joined the Irish diaspora in Anglo-phobic, republican America, concluded -not unreasonably -that the United Kingdom did not work for Ireland and that Britain was the main cause of Ireland's woes.…”

Laissez‐faire, theIrish famine, andBritish financial crisis

“…For more about the consequences of Peel's insistence that his government should run a balanced budget see Read, ‘Peel, De Grey and Irish policy’, pp. 13–14; idem, ‘ “Repeal year”’.…”