United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland - Ireland Under The Union

Ireland Under The Union

Ireland was never fully integrated into the British state or political culture. Despite losing its own parliament, much of the system of government in Ireland remained in place after the union: the offices of Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary remained (although the latter came to eclipse the former), as well as the Privy Council of Ireland and the various government departments. Ireland retained also its own legal system, and its own courts; the Irish courts became subordinate to the House of Lords once again, though, after briefly achieving judicial independence in the 1780s. While the retention of laws and courts was paralleled with the position of Scotland under the union, the continuation of a separate system of government was unique to Ireland. The other main difference from Scotland was in religious policy and demography: The majority of the Irish were not members of the established church, the Anglican Church of Ireland.

The question over how the British state should respond to Irish demands, called "the Irish question" was a major influence on British politics throughout the long nineteenth century. In 1844, future British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli described the situation in Ireland:

A dense population, in extreme distress, inhabit an island where there is an Established Church, which is not their Church, and a territorial aristocracy the richest of whom live in foreign capitals. Thus you have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church; and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Question.' —Hansard