How far do you agree that Irish nationalist movements were led by effective leaders
between 1774 and 1891?
The period of 1774 to 1891 was one of great political turbulence for Ireland; from the
privileged Protestant Grattan’s nationalism of the late 1700s to Stephens’ more
violent Fenian nationalism of the 1800s, nationalist leaders were constantly seeking
ways to reform or remove British power over Ireland. It seems to me that we can
measure the effectiveness of these leaders by considering whether they can be said
to have; amassed popular support, organised their movement efficiently and
achieved, or made progress towards, the aims of their movement.
Effective leadership is characterised by the ability to persuade people to join your
cause, adapting to your way of tackling an issue or approach to achieving an aim. It
can certainly be argued that this was a skill possessed by many Irish nationalist
leaders from 1774 to 1891. The first Irish nationalist leader to gain significant
popular support in this period was Wolfe Tone who oversaw the formation and
development of the United Irishmen in the 1790s. The United Irishmen were the first
genuine Irish nationalist movement, with Tone and other leaders such as William
Drennan successful in uniting approximately 270,000 Irish Protestants and Catholics
alike in pushing for reform, angling to put an end to the British government’s rule
over Ireland. Notably, Tone was successful in gaining support for his rebellions from
overseas, bringing a large French Naval force to Bantry Bay in 1796 and another
1,000 Frenchmen invading County Mayo following the 1798 rebellion. The second
nationalist leader to gain noteworthy popular support in this period was landowner
and lawyer Daniel O’Connell who became leader of the movement for Catholic
Emancipation in the 1820s and repeal of the Union in the 1840s. When O’Connell
created the Catholic Association in 1823 it quickly became the first mass democratic
organisation in Ireland and some of the public meetings he held across the country
in his repeal campaign were dubbed ‘monster meetings’ due to the sheer number of
people they attracted which sometimes totalled over half a million. However, it must
be noted that Irish leaders were not always entirely successful in amassing support,
with even O’Connell failing to win the support of Protestants who were terrified by his
‘monster meetings’. Perhaps the most obvious example of a nationalist movement
which failed in attracting popular support during this period was Young Ireland,
established in 1842 by Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy. Rousing people to
their cause of repealing the Union through inclusive Irish nationalism proved difficult
at a time when successive failures of the potato crop had left the majority of the Irish
population dying of hunger and consequently Young Ireland’s uprising of 1848 was
poorly supported and easily suppressed.
Another trait of an effective leader is the ability to establish a system which allows
their movement to work towards its aims as efficiently as possible, maintaining
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