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320 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
journalist of the day mused wrily that when the result was made known ‘the Irish people went wild with joy.’ The shock defeat of Fitzgerald, and by such an overwhelming major- ity, caused great agiation both at home and abroad and brought the Catholic question, as Lord Eldon stated “to a crisis and a conclusion.” The Duke of Wellington, who was the then Prime Minister of England, and who only a few months previous to this had publicly vowed that the Catholics would never be emancipated, now took alarm at this unexpected and shocking assertion of Catholic opinion in Ireland. So much so, that he publicly declared the country should choose between Emancipation and a Civil war. The Emancipation Act was passed.
Catholic Emancipation was granted on 13 April, 1829. Comprised of forty sections, the Relief Act, as Sir Robert Peel’s measure was called, made Catholics eligible for all civil and military offices, save those of Regent, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and Lord Chancel- lor of England. But the resolving of such weighty matters is never as straightforward as it appears and this long-looked-for measure was accompanied by an Act for the suppression of the New Catholic Association, accompanied by one for the disfranchisement of the 40s freeholders (in Ireland). This last Act substituted a £10 freehold for a 40s freehold as quali- fication for a vote.
Daniel O’Connell did not present himself to take his seat until after the passing of the Act. The old oath was tendered to him; he refused to take it, ‘knowing it to be false.’ As a result, a new election was ordered and O’Connell was returned-unopposed. He took his seat at the opening of the new parliament, 4 February, 1830 ‘to which forty friends of Emancipa- tion among them several Catholics were returned’ it was said. “Thus,” wrote Lecky, “was this great victory won by the unaided genius of a single man without any advantage of rank or wealth, without the effusion of a single drop of blood.”
The success of the Catholic Emancipation campaign, or to give it its correct title, the Catholic Relief Act, propelled Daniel O’ Connell into a different league of politician and celebrity. Not only had he become the worshipped hero of the Irish people, now he was also viewed in a similar light by peoples on the Continent of Europe.
For example, it is told that about this time a German student answered the question ‘Who was Daniel O’ Connell ?” by the statement, ‘He is the man who discovered Ireland,’ and when a king was being chosen for Belgium by a vote of its people, records show that
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