How Significant Was The Role Of Daniel O
How significant was the role of Daniel O’Connell in the success of the Catholic Association in the years 1823 to 1829?
During the Catholic Association’s campaign for religious equality in the form of catholic emancipation it can be seen that the largely prominent and most significant figure ‘who transformed Catholic resentment over the emancipation issue into a nationwide campaign’1 was that of Daniel O’Connell. However, it can also be seen that other key factors were a major contributor to the Catholic Association’s success in the years 1823 to 1829 not just the contributions and achievements of O’Connell, such as the Catholic Clergy and Catholic Priests, the involvement of Richard Lalor Sheil and also the divisions internally within the British Parliament. All of these factors call to question the extent of O’Connell’s significance to the Catholic Association during 1823-1829.
Daniel O’Connell’s success within the Catholic Association came from his individual skills and talents which he used at an early stage in the association. These came to prove key and essential to the cause as he used his ‘magnificent voice and clear conversation style of oratory that enabled him to build up a marvelous rapport with the catholic masses’2 to his advantage. Although it wasn’t just his oratory since it was also his 'superb instinct for distilling the essentials of a political situation, together with his knowledge of the legal constraints and the potential for constitutional agitation, that created the new movement' 3and pushed it to the front of Irish needs. Additionally, between the years 1823 and 1824, the Association had initially struggled to gain the momentum it needed for the campaign as it had been 'a tiny body which barely survived' and arguably one of the greatest successes of Daniel O’Connell was his innovative idea of the introduction of Catholic Rent in 1824, where a subscription fee was to be paid each month by the Irish peasantry to the Catholic Association.
During the Catholic Association’s campaign for religious equality in the form of catholic emancipation it can be seen that the largely prominent and most significant figure ‘who transformed Catholic resentment over the emancipation issue into a nationwide campaign’1 was that of Daniel O’Connell. However, it can also be seen that other key factors were a major contributor to the Catholic Association’s success in the years 1823 to 1829 not just the contributions and achievements of O’Connell, such as the Catholic Clergy and Catholic Priests, the involvement of Richard Lalor Sheil and also the divisions internally within the British Parliament. All of these factors call to question the extent of O’Connell’s significance to the Catholic Association during 1823-1829.
Daniel O’Connell’s success within the Catholic Association came from his individual skills and talents which he used at an early stage in the association. These came to prove key and essential to the cause as he used his ‘magnificent voice and clear conversation style of oratory that enabled him to build up a marvelous rapport with the catholic masses’2 to his advantage. Although it wasn’t just his oratory since it was also his 'superb instinct for distilling the essentials of a political situation, together with his knowledge of the legal constraints and the potential for constitutional agitation, that created the new movement' 3and pushed it to the front of Irish needs. Additionally, between the years 1823 and 1824, the Association had initially struggled to gain the momentum it needed for the campaign as it had been 'a tiny body which barely survived' and arguably one of the greatest successes of Daniel O’Connell was his innovative idea of the introduction of Catholic Rent in 1824, where a subscription fee was to be paid each month by the Irish peasantry to the Catholic Association.