- Irish Conservative Party
The Irish Conservative Party, often called the Irish Tories, was one of the dominant Irish political parties in
Ireland in the 19th century. Throughout much of the century it and theIrish Liberal Party battled for electoral dominance among Ireland's small electorate, with various parties such as the movements ofDaniel O'Connell and later theIndependent Irish Party relegated into third place.As late as 1859, the Irish Conservative Party still won the greatest number of Irish seats in
Westminster , in that year's general election winning a majority of the seats on offer. In the 1840s, the party supportedDaniel O'Connell 's call for repeal of the Act of Union, believing that a resurrected Irish parliament would offer the best chance to defend Protestant interests. Many saw themselves as the successors ofWilliam Molyneux and his 1698 pamphlet, "The Case of Ireland's being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated " in which he made an argument disputing the right of the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland as the kingdom had its own distinct representative assemblies.Though aligned with the Conservative Party in
Great Britain , the Irish Conservatives took independent stances on many issues, a fact made easier by the lack of rigid party voting in theBritish House of Commons .Its main rival, the Liberals, lost out to
Isaac Butt 'sHome Government Association in the early 1870s, ironically, considering that the HGA was, to a significant extent, made up of Irish Tories such as Butt himself.Franchise reform, notably the "Irish Reform Act" of 1868 and the "Secret Ballot Act" of 1872 which increased the number of Catholic Nationalist electors, the electoral triumph of the
Irish Parliamentary Party underCharles Stewart Parnell , and the appearance of theIrish Unionist Party , all ate into the Irish Conservative Party support and by the late 19th century it was no longer a major electoral force.Organisations associated with the Irish Conservative Party included the
Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society inDublin and theKildare Street Club , a gentleman's club in Kildare Street, Dublin.Prominent members included Isaac Butt and the Reverend
Charles Boyton . It was strongly associated with the "Dublin University Magazine " founded by Butt in 1833 and had a strongTrinity College Dublin academic input.ources
*Alvin Jackson, "Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000" (Phoenix, 2004)Andrew Shields, Irish Conservative Party, 1852-1868: Land, Politics and Religion (Dublin, 2007)
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