A Nation of Politicians: Gender, Patriotism, and Political Culture in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland

8 “A Democratical Spirit”: Reform, Protectionism, and Popular Politics

8 “A Democratical Spirit” Reform, Protectionism, and Popular Politics In July 1784 Edward Cooke, a government official, reflected on politics in Dublin: “The party here consists of some Volunteer corps of shopkeepers and apprentices who fancy that red coats make them heroes and accordingly are open to the instigations of the wild, the desperate, the enthusiast, and the villain.” He noted that these plebian Volunteers were in league with “papists” and the poor manufacturers, who were an “instrument to try the temper of the city.”1 The social and confessional composition of popular politics was transformed between 1782 and 1784, largely due to the intervention of the Volunteers. This chapter examines that transformation by focusing on demands for parliamentary reform and the introduction of protective duties, as well as the way in which these interrelated campaigns transformed the social and confessional composition of the Volunteers. The campaign for reform was ultimately unsuccessful, and in raising of the Catholic question , exposed the confessional limits of patriotism; by 1785 the movement was in disarray, and the Volunteers were no longer a force in Irish political life. Paradoxically, the splintering of the Volunteers in some ways speaks to the success of radical efforts at politicization, for they fashioned a patriotism that appealed to those beyond the political nation . An initially limited ideology, concerned with a confessionally and socially exclusive polity, patriotism was embraced by those outside this narrow definition of the political nation as a more inclusive vision of an “Irish” patriotism. 202
A Patriotic Frenzy: The Politics of Renunciation With the granting of legislative independence, the Volunteers had achieved their greatest success. In the wake of this achievement, the movement immediately found itself divided over two major disputes. The first concerned the issue of “renunciation” and centered on the meaning and limits of legislative independence, though it was as much a personal clash between Henry Grattan and Henry Flood. The second contentious issue addressed the government’s scheme to raise the militia-like fencibles as a rival to the Volunteers. Underlying both disputes were different visions of the role of “the people” in the politics of the nation. After the achievement of free trade, many moderates hoped that the drama of the past year was over and that traditional elites could reassert their control over politics, with “the people” and the Volunteers exiting the stage of national affairs. Several disputes in subsequent years frustrated this hope. In April 1780 the issue of legislative independence was famously broached by Grattan in parliament as a means of securing trade concessions and to prevent future British interference in Irish affairs. Further reform was also on the agenda of the Volunteers. Even before Grattan’s speech, the Newry Volunteers had issued resolutions supporting legislative independence. In December 1781 the Southern Battalion of the Armagh Regiment of Volunteers met and published a number of strongly worded resolutions, including one that looked forward to the issue that would dominate the political agenda for the next three years: “that to avert the impending danger from the nation, and to restore the constitution to its original purity, the most vigorous and effectual methods must be pursued, to root Corruption and Court influence from the Legislature body.”2 On 15 February 1782 a meeting of Ulster delegates took place at Dungannon, attended by the representatives of 143 Volunteer corps.3 This marked a decisive moment in the politicization of the Volunteers. The resolutions drafted by the delegates reasserted the contested right of the Volunteers to participate in politics, resolving that “a citizen, by learning the use of arms, [did] not abandon any of his civil rights.” The resolutions renounced the British government’s right to exercise authority over Irish affairs and called for legislative independence, an amendment of Poyning’s Law, and a limited mutiny bill. They also issued their well-known resolution: “that as men and Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the Penal Laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the “A Democratical Spirit” 203 measure fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants and Ireland.”4 Although this proposal seems to have been resolved unanimously, the Catholic question was to prove the most divisive issue among Volunteers over the course of the campaign for reform.5 In the wake of Dungannon, support for the resolutions was widespread .6 Volunteer companies, freeholders...