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Political and Economic Impact of
the American Revolution on Ireland
By Ronald Magner Knowles
copyright 2004 All rights reserved
The force of the American Revolution was felt
throughout western Europe, but in Ireland the political and economic
effects were more immediate than in other countries.
Both the American colonies and Ireland presented
grave problems for British statesmen in the last half of the eighteenth
century. By the end of the Seven Years War, British policy toward the
British dependencies became stricter. The result of the war left
Britain with a very large war debt that had to be reduced. George
Grenville, British Prime Minister 1763-1765, looked to America for
partial revenue to help pay the debt. America seemed a safer place to
raise further revenue than the tax burdened British. Ireland also
feared that the British would also expect them to help pay the war
debt.
Grenville, Lord North and other British ministers
as well as George III wanted a tighter control over the empire. They
felt some areas were becoming too independent acting especially the
American colonies. As political controls began to be tightened
throughout the empire, friction between the colonies and the mother
country became more frequent.
Ireland watched this new imperial policy very
closely in America because the Irish felt that they would be next.
America was Britain’s most valuable colony, and Ireland was the colony
with the most strategic value.
America had the most varied natural resources of
any of the British colonies and had been developed the longest. By the
middle of the eighteenth century a considerable interdependence of trade
had been developed between America and Britain.
Britain still held to the old mercantilistic views
concerning the position of colonies in relation to the mother country.
The colonies were supposed to furnish the mother country with the raw
materials and then serve as a market for the finished goods of the
mother country. None of the colonies should be permitted to rival
Britain in trade. It was with this view in mind that the British
ministers enacted various restrictive commercial laws that would keep
the colonies in a subordinate position to Britain.
Ireland experienced the same restrictive trade laws
as America, but these laws could be enforced much easier in Ireland
because of the close geographic proximity to the mother country.
Ireland’s proximity to Britain was one of the reasons that Britain had
first taken control of Ireland. Because of this strategic reason,
Ireland became subject to Britain for almost 800 years.
During the first seventy-five years of the
eighteenth century, the Irish bore the British oppressive policies with
a silent and mostly inactive opposition. The example of the Americans
fanned the flame of Irish opposition and invigorated the Irish patriots
to demand concessions from the British.
The influence of the American Revolution can be
seen by the following statement of Henry Flood, one of the leaders of
the Irish independence movement. In a speech before the Irish
parliament, Flood stated, “What was the fate of all our constitutional
claims, til the voice of people thundered for redress?
Majorities---rank---majorities---till a voice from America exhorted you
to claim your rights, and the desires of the people prevailed.”1
Other Irish leaders made similar statements in
reference to America. There was considerable activity on the part of
the Irish and the Americans to point out the similarity of the two
British dependencies. Leaders of both colonies indicated they were both
experiencing the oppressive policies of Britain, and both wanted more
independence. 2
The degree of autonomy in America and Ireland was
different. As a result of the policy of salutary neglect that was
maintained from around 1720 to the Seven Years War, the American
colonies had developed a system of government that was subject to little
influence from Britain.
It was not until the 1760’s that Britain once again
formulated an imperial policy that would tighten control of the mother
country over the empire. In Ireland, the degree of autonomy was much
less than in America. While Britain was engaged in trying to enforce
the Stamp Act and the Townshend Duties in America, she was establishing
a tighter control over Irish politics.
The Lord-Lieutenant was the chief British executive
officer in Ireland. From 1700 to 1767, the men who held the office did
not take this position very seriously. During the forty-six years of
the reigns of George I and George II, the total time spent in Ireland by
the nine Lord-Lieutenants was less than sixteen years. 3
The office holders usually stayed in Ireland during the time the Irish
Parliament was in session, which was about six to eight months every two
years.
Most of the routine government work was left to
Irish politicians who offered to undertake the “King’s business”. These
men became known as “undertakers” and used patronage to advance the
position of their own families.
There were three prominent Irish politicians called
the Lord Justices. These men were usually the Primate, the Chancellor,
and the Speaker of the House. These individuals were the real ruling
force in Ireland during the absence of the viceroy. They were part of
what is called the ”Protestant Ascendency” in Ireland. During this time
the Irish who maintained allegiance to the Anglican Church were the only
ones who could vote in parliamentary elections or hold any government
office. Thus the great bulk of the population of Ireland was excluded
from participation in government.
The Roman Catholics comprised almost three-fourths
of the population with a sizable minority of Presbyterians in the
northern county of Ulster. If the franchise were opened up to
“dissenters”, then the Catholic majority of Ireland would quickly take
over political power. One of the major policies of the British
government was to make sure that “Protestant Ascendency” was
maintained.
While Britain was exercising more control over
America in the 1760’s, George III, Charles Townshend and others desired
to strengthen British domestic control over Ireland. To accomplish
this, the power of the ‘undertakers” would have to be broken. The only
possible way to obtain this objective was to require the Lord-Lieutenant
reside in Ireland during his entire term of office, and this change was
made in early 1767.
On August 12, 1767, George Townshend was appointed
as the first resident Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He was appointed from
the Pitt-Grafton ministry mainly to secure the support of his brother
Charles, who was the Chancellor of Exchequer. Charles Townshend did not
want to see Ireland take the same course that the American colonies were
taking. He wanted to strengthen British control in Ireland. To
accomplish this objective, he had to form a party in the Irish
parliament that would be wholly dependent upon the crown of Britain, and
a resident Lord-Lieutenant would facilitate this policy.
The Irish Chief Secretary was also required to
reside in Ireland. This office was the viceroy’s principle aid in
political affairs and was required to carry the government’s policies
through the Irish parliament. By February, 1771Townshend had
accomplished his purpose and the Irish parliament was in control of the
British administration. This control was maintained by liberal
patronage. 4
As a result of the Townshend policies, an Irish
political party became established in the 1770’s that became known as
the friends of the English government. These individuals were generally
in some official position and were administrators rather than
politicians. They followed the lead of the chief secretary in
parliament. What little political power that was held by the Irish
consisted of a small group of Protestants. The Catholic population
could not vote or hold office and they could see little hope for any
voluntary change in the British policy.
What Ireland lacked throughout the country was a
responsible middle class that could give leadership to the various towns
and villages. Ireland did not possess a strong merchant and
professional class that were evident in the American colonies. 5
The Irish and Americans both wanted more
independence. The first difference was that the Americans wanted to
maintain the degree of autonomy that they had acquired over the years of
British neglect while the Irish wanted to gain similar autonomy. The
second difference between the Irish and American independence movements
was that the Irish did not want to separate from Britain but wanted more
autonomy within the empire.
The example and ideas of the American Revolution
had a profound effect on Ireland. The next two chapters will explore in
detail the political and economic impact on Ireland.
Chapter II Political Impact of the American Revolution
The single greatest impact of the American
Revolution on Ireland seemed to be the success that the Americans had in
throwing off British rule. The Americans, who had been under British
control for less that 180 years, seemed to be in the process of gaining
what the Irish had been attempting to gain for 600 years.
The Irish paid close attention to events occurring
in America with the idea in mind that the actions the Americans used to
pressure the British could also be used in Ireland to gain the same
objective. American practices such as arming of citizens, action of
city mobs, non-consumption, non-importation, and non-exportation of
goods seemed to the Irish as useful tools that they could use against
the common foe.
The American conflicts with the British were given
extensive newspaper coverage in Ireland. The conflict over the Stamp
Act and essays on constitutional liberties attacks on general warrants
and proposals for parliamentary reform received much attention from the
Irish press. Extracts from John Adam’s dissertation on the Feudal and
the Canon Law emphasized the timidity of British subjects is what led to
oppression from the mother country was widely acclaimed by the Irish. 6
When news of the Boston Massacre reached Ireland,
the Independent Whigs of Belfast claimed that the soldiers of the
Twenty-ninth Regiment who were involved with the Boston affair “ had a
profligate character which had been manifest when they were quartered in
Belfast.” 7
Benjamin Franklin was active in expressing the
common cause of the Irish and the Americans. 8
Franklin was in frequent contact with Charles Lucas, an Irish patriot.
After the Boston Massacre, Lucas wrote, “What redress do you expect for
grievances in America, which are grown in England, and almost the
established, the sole mode of government in Ireland. 9
America had the vocal leadership that Ireland
lacked. As a result, the opinions of John Adams, Franklin, Otis,
Dickensen and others inspired such Irish leaders as Lucas, Flood and
Henry Grattan to demand concessions from the British. This American
leadership gave direction to the Irish and helped to link together the
two independence movements.10
The British act of 1769 that raised the Irish army
from 12,000 to 15, 000 was looked upon as enabling Britain to keep more
troops in America “in order to crush the spirit of the colonies.”
Americans told the Irish the British oppressive measures taken in
America were part of a plan that would include Ireland. The Americans
also emphasized to the Irish that a common military action by both
countries would be more than Britain could handle.
Between 1769 and 1774, 7,000 Irish had immigrated
to America taking with them their anger over British oppression. When
the actual fighting broke out in America, the Irish proved to be avid
defenders of the independence of their new home. 11
Edmund Burke, an Irishman and a member of the
Rockingham party that was in opposition to the British North ministry,
was of the opinion that Ireland should act as a friendly mediator
between America and England. Ireland should also refuse to vote
supplies for the Irish troops that were serving in America. Burke
stated in a letter to an Irish friend, “our conduct to America thought
wicked and foolish, yet is natural wickedness and folly; yours is a
species of Turpitude not decent to name…you were in the situation, which
you might act as the Guardian Angels of the whole Empire. 12
Burke later wrote to the Earl of Charlemont, “That
Ireland had lost the most glorious opportunity ever indulged by heaven
to a subordinate state, that of being the safe and certain mediatriz in
the quarrels of a great empire and the thing that made it all the more
deplorable was that the war was one which was being fought against the
principle of her own liberties.” 13
Burke saw how the American Revolution could be
used to Ireland’s advantage. He worked to aid the Catholics in voiding
the penal laws against them, and to try to obtain for the Protestant
trading towns of Ireland a better treatment from Britain.14
The Irish saw very clearly their chance once open
warfare had broken out between the Americans and the British. They
realized that the British could not contend with two rebellions at the
same time, and they started a series of demands upon the mother country
that eventually culminated in legislative independence. The two
political grievances that the Irish had were against Poyning’s Law of
1495 and the Declaratory Act of 1719. Both of these acts of the British
parliament placed the Irish parliament in a subordinate position to the
British parliament. Judicial review was exercised by the British House
of Lords over Irish court decisions, the British privy council had the
power to reject or amend all bills passed by the Irish parliament, and
the Lord-Lieutenant had to present to the privy council an outline of
what was to be discussed in each parliament before the council would
give permission for the Irish parliament to meet.15
Slightly over one year had passed from the outbreak
of war in the American colonies when Henry Flood presented a proposal in
the Irish parliament to repeal the right of the British Privy Council to
review Irish bills should be repealed.16
The Irish realized that England’s distress was
Ireland’s opportunity, and they wasted no time in pressing their
advantage. The Irish had been given an momentum from the Americans to
pressure the British for more autonomy. They had a small group of
leaders and a growing number of the Irish population behind them. What
they lacked was a military force to back up their demands upon the
British crown and parliament. Curiously, the so-called father of the
American Navy, John Paul Jones, gave the momentum to form an Irish
military association. There was a widespread fear among the Irish
concerning a possible invasion of the island, which became intensified
once France entered the war on the side of the Americans. On April 24,
1778, John Paul Jones in command of the “Ranger”, captured HMS “Drake”
right outside the harbor of Belfast in plain sight of a large number of
the citizens of that city.17
This touched off an explosion of invasion fears and
frantic appeals to the Lord-Lieutenant for help. The Irish chief
secretary, Richard Heron, replied to Stewart Burke, the Sovereign of
Belfast, telling him that all that could be spared for the defense of
the city was a few troop of horse and a partial company of invalids. By
1778, almost 11,000 of the regular 15,000 Irish army had been sent to
America to help the British. This left the island in a rather
precarious position and was practically defenseless against any
well-organized invasion attempt. Belfast was outraged with the reply of
the chief secretary and began to form their own volunteer military
companies. Arms were purchased, uniforms were made, officers were
chosen, and drills were conducted. This activity quickly spread through
Ulster and eventually over the entire country. Lord Charlemont, later
commander of the volunteers, stated that many wise and strong
governments had fallen from such a force, and he claimed that the
present government was neither wise nor strong.18
John Beresford, an ally of the British government,
wrote to John Robinson in Britain, advising him that the country of
Ireland was arming, and that unless the British administration did
something about it, the consequences would be fatal.19
The Irish government was in a bad situation as the
treasury was empty, and they could not raise more troops themselves nor
could Britain afford to send military aid to Ireland. The policy of the
administration was not to legally recognize the volunteers, but the
ministers were powerless to halt the surprising growth of the
organization. The armed associations were capable of protecting the
country from foreign invasion, but the ministers haunting fear was how
to do away with them once the dance was over. The Lord-Lieutenant at
this time was John Hobart, the second Earl of Buckinghamshire. He wrote
to Britain that, “Discouragement has, however, been given (to the
volunteers) on my part as far as might be without offence, at a crisis
when the arm and goodwill of every individual might have been wanting.” 20
By May of 1779, the Volunteers had grown to a force
estimated by the Lord-Lieutenant at almost 8,000.21 This
force conservatively outnumbered the regular Irish army be over two to
one. Several commanders of the volunteer companies offered their
services to the Lord-Lieutenant. The usual governmental reply stated
that “associations of numbers of armed men formed under their own
regulations in different parts of the kingdom, could not be justified by
law, nor would it be proper for his Excellency to give any encouragement
or sanction to them.” 22
An attempt was made by the government to adjust to
the volunteers by trying to get their officers to accept commissions
from the king, under the pretence that if taken prisoner by the enemy,
the commission would protect them and ensure their exchange. This idea
was brought up by the Earl of Shannon, but failed. On September 16,
1779, Shannon wrote to the Lord-Lieutenant stating that the plan to make
the volunteers a legal and regular force was not successful. He said an
alarm had been spread and opposition was stirred up against the plan.
The plan was “received with every symptom of jealousy and distrust, and
seemed to be condemned by almost all, before it had been well explained
to any.” 23
In October, Buckinghamshire wrote to George Germain
concerning the Volunteers stating, “I have been assured that in
different parts of Ireland, several have taken the oaths and that more
are inclined to it, but also that there are some companies whose
principles are determinedly republican. One very serious regulation is
introducing in some of them, that of appointing their officers by
rotation.” 24
The government, however, was forced to rely on the
Volunteers for defense and had to disperse 16,000 arms from the arsenal
and divide them up among the counties. At this time, the threat of
invasion was greater than the fear of the aftermath of the situation and
the possible results of the armed force. The Volunteers did pledge, “no
measure of insurrectionary violence or agrarian tumult would be
supported by the Army of the People.” 25
The Volunteers quickly turned into an active
political force that could be used to pressure the North government into
granting concessions to Ireland. The Irish leaders saw the Volunteers
as a means to obtain concessions and more importantly, a force to
maintain the concessions, once granted. They foresaw that if America
was defeated, then Ireland would be next, or if America won, Ireland
would then be exposed to the full force of the mother country. The
Volunteers would be a good instrument to ward off any British attempts
to crush the Irish independence drive.
The volunteers were very active in placing their
military strength behind Irish demands for economic concessions from
Britain. This will be discussed in the next chapter. The Volunteers
placed their greatest emphasis on the movement for legislative
independence. The Carlisle-Eden mission that the North ministry sent to
America in 1778 gave rise to further Irish demands. The Irish felt that
the British should be more than willing to grant concessions to the
Irish, since they were so willing to grant concessions to the Americans
whom the king had called rebels.26 As
the war worsened for the British, the Irish demands increased.
Franklin was very active in sending American
propaganda to Ireland from France. He linked the positions of the Irish
and Americans together in their quest for independence from Britain.
Franklin continually pointed out all the oppressions that Britain had
placed upon Ireland in hopes of further stirring up the Irish, which
might result in a loosening of the strain on the Americans, as the
British might concentrate more on Ireland.27
Lord Stormont, North’s Secretary of State, wrote to
the king telling him that Franklin was involved in an attempt of the
Irish to gain French help to establish an independent kingdom of
Ireland. 28 This
plan was short-lived and amounted to nothing, but shows the activity of
Franklin with the Irish.
After the British defeat at Yorktown, the Irish
created intense pressure on the British government to grant political
concessions. Grattan stated, “the American war was the Irish harvest.”
By this time, numbers of Irish who had fought in America, returned to
Ireland and told their countrymen of the success that the Americans were
having. They told of the activity of the Americans in maintaining
military action against the more experienced British. The soldiers were
full of stories of American independence, and this further served to
ignite the demands for independence. 29
The Volunteers once again led the fight for the
repeal of the Declaratory Act and the modification of Poyning’s Law. On
February 15, 1782, 242 delegates representing 143 corps met at
Dungannon. Among the resolutions that were passed at the meeting, the
second resolution stated that only the king, Lords, and Commons of
Ireland had the authority to pass laws that would bind Ireland.30
Grattan stated that he would introduce a
declaration of rights when the Irish parliament resumed on April 16th.
By the time the Irish parliament met, the North ministry had fallen in
Britain and had been replaced by the Rockingham ministry. The new
ministry had supported concessions to both America and Ireland. Burke,
who was their main spokesman, stated that they were against the old
illiberal policy of strong political subordination of the dependencies
because this was what had led the American colonies to revolt and
Ireland to be in a state of turmoil. The new ministry was willing to
concede to the demands of the Irish, while maintaining imperial links
between Ireland and Britain. 31
Thus the Rockingham government in 1782 conceded the
demands of the Irish for legislative independence as the Declaratory Act
was repealed and Britain gave up her claim to legislate for Ireland.
The ministry could, no doubt, have been influenced by the resolution of
the Volunteers, who stated that they would support the Irish demands for
legislative independence with their “lives and fortunes.” 32
The Irish were suspicious and distrustful of the
British as the Americans were, and they did not feel that the simple
repeal of the Declaratory Act was sufficient. In 1783, they forced
England to pass a Renunciation Act that formerly renounced any claim
that Britain had to legislate either internally or externally for
Ireland. 33
Thus a spark from America ignited Irish resistance
to British rule and culminated in legislative independence for Ireland.
There is no doubt that the American Revolution had a profound effect on
the Irish. The mere fact that Britain was in armed conflict with
America gave the Irish a chance to demand concessions from Britain and
obtain them. If Britain had not been so engrossed in America, there is
a good possibility that the Irish demands would not have been met and
the Irish independence movement crushed. The Americans set an example
for the Irish to follow, and the independence movements that were
occurring simultaneously was advantageous to both Ireland and America.
Thus Grattan could indeed say, “the American war was the Irish harvest.”
Chapter III Economic Impact of the American Revolution
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