Second of three parts

For two decades, Daniel O'Connell had waged a campaign for repeal of the last anti-Catholic Penal Laws in Ireland. He and his supporters found enough sympathetic Irish MPs to get Catholic Emancipation bills introduced into Parliament in 1805, '08, '19 and '21, but all were rejected. Following this last defeat, O'Connell decided to adopt a new approach. Rather than focus his attention on winning votes in Parliament, he would build a grassroots political movement in Ireland to demand Catholic Emancipation. He knew the British establishment feared Catholic Emancipation, but also that they feared the outbreak of rebellion in Ireland even more.

O'Connell's new strategy was centered on an organization he founded in May 1823. The Catholic Association began as a small reform organization of Catholic landowners, merchants and professionals in Dublin. But O'Connell soon transformed it into an organization with chapters in every county in Ireland. Significantly, he opened the membership to the Irish peasantry and 250,000 joined. Dues cost only a penny per month -- a fee known as the "Catholic rent." Local parishes all across Ireland became centers of Catholic Association agitation, and by 1825 O'Connell had a mass movement behind him, spurred by mass rallies, newspapers and speaking tours. Contributions topped £1,000 a week.

The growing strength of O'Connell's populist movement terrified British authorities. The Duke of Wellington declared: "If we cannot get rid of the Catholic Association, we must look to civil war in Ireland sooner or later." The Catholic Association was outlawed. But the government was no match for the wily O'Connell, who promptly restructured the organization into a "public and private charity" dedicated to "public peace and tranquility as well as private harmony between all classes." It continued to raise money and drum up support for emancipation in the countryside.

The growing political power of the Catholic Association was dramatically displayed in 1826 when O'Connell used it to unseat Lord George Beresford, a powerful MP from Waterford in favor of a liberal, pro-emancipation Protestant named Villiers Stuart. Catholics who owned or leased land valued at 40 shillings, a figure so low in included the great majority of Irish men, possessed the legal right to vote, but most, threatened with eviction if they disobeyed, voted according to the wishes of their landlords. To overcome this obstacle, the Catholic Association launched a vigorous get-out-the-vote campaign in Waterford and gave impassioned speeches urging voters to ignore the intimidation and threats from their landlords and vote for Stuart. To everyone's astonishment, it worked and Stuart won the election handily.

But the real turning point in the Catholic Emancipation crusade came in 1828 when O'Connell stood for election to Parliament in County Clare. Technically, there was no ban on their sitting in Parliament, though no Catholic had done so for over 150 years. Taking their cue from the victory in Waterford, Catholic Association leaders staged mass rallies and urged the peasantry to defy their landlords and vote for O'Connell. Money raised by the Catholic rent was pledged to help families evicted for supporting O'Connell. On election day, O'Connell won by a wide margin.

Now came the crisis. O'Connell let it be known that he would not swear the required oath of office because it referred to Catholicism as "superstitious." Fearing another uprising in Ireland, with memories of 1798 and 1803 still fresh, if O'Connell and subsequent Catholic candidates were prevented from taking their seats over the oath issue, Parliament relented. In April 1829, the last of the Penal Laws against Catholics were abolished. O'Connell's victory came with a high price. The British upped the minimum wealth requirement for voting from a mere 40 shillings to £10, thereby disenfranchising thousands of Irish voters. Still, Daniel O'Connell was hailed as a hero and thereafter was known as the Liberator both in Ireland and in America.

Although he had just pulled off a revolutionary reform, O'Connell was not done. In his mind, Catholic Emancipation was merely the first step in a larger movement for greater Irish independence. He quit his law practice completely and devoted the rest of his life to politics -- at tremendous financial sacrifice -- and in 1832 became the leader of a group of Irish MPs dedicated to repealing the Act of Union.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK

May 15, 1838: Abby Kelley Foster delivers an address at the second annual anti-slavery convention in Philadelphia. Her abolitionist message, and the fact that she was a woman, prompts a proslavery mob to burn the hall to the ground.

May 16, 1926: Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) founded by Eamon de Valera and his supporters.

May 17, 1968: Daniel and Philip Berrigan and other anti-war activists enter a draft office in Catonsville, Md., seize hundreds of files and burn them.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES

May 15, 1902: Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is born in Chicago.

May 16, 1882: Journalist Anne Elizabeth McCormick is born in Yorkshire, England.

May 17, 1911: Actress Maureen O'Sullivan is born Boyle, Co. Roscommon.