Robert Emmet

Ireland was ruled from England from 1800. This did not matter much to the poor people because they had no votes and they found it hard to get enough food to live. Some of the better-off people did not like that Ireland was being ruled from England. One of these people was Robert Emmet. He thought that Irish people should fight for their freedom. He led a crowd down the streets of Dublin, but he was captured and hanged.

Charles Stewart Parnell

He was brought up in Wicklow, but went to school later in England. He became a member of parliament in Westminster when he was 29. He stopped the parliament from doing much work by making very long speeches. He was popular with the Irish people because he defended the Manchester Martyrs and he supported the Land League.

The Land War

There was lots of violence in Ireland because the tenant farmers were upset. The government started to put people in jail without giving them a trial. Parnell was locked up. This only made the violence worse. Parnell was released in the hope that he would be able to stop the violence. At last, the British Government passed a Land Act which gave the tenant farmers rights to a fair rent. This stopped most of the violence.

The Act of Union

Parnell now tried to get rid of the Act of Union. He had lots of enemies and when his name was mentioned in a divorce case, he lost a lot of support. The Catholic bishops gave out about him. The people in his own party let him down. He went around the country making speeches, but people would not listen to him. He became ill and died at the age of 45. Then people felt sorry, and there was a huge crowd at his funeral.

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