18th-c Ireland Activity Guidelines

Historians debate how Ireland's various communities experienced the eighteenth century. Was eighteenth-century Ireland a golden age or a penal era? Did it enjoy the privileges of a kingdom or did it suffer as a colony? To what extent did the penal laws affect the lives of Catholics? The goal of this activity is to explore what living in the eighteenth century was like for different communities and groups in Ireland. It will do so through the medium of a royal address or peitition, a very common form of political expression in the eighteenth century (the English Bill of Rights [1689] guaranteed "That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king.")

Groups: the Ascendancy/Church of Ireland; Ulster Presbyterians; Peep 'o Day Boys; Catholic gentry; Catholic "middling sort"; Catholic peasants; Whiteboys; Catholic Church; Society of United Irishmen; Dublin Castle

Each group will compose a 1-2-page address or petition to the king. It will introduce the authors, state their position, and list grievances (if any). Be sure to provide a date. One member of each group will read the petition aloud in class.

Sample petitions:

Army officers to King George III, April 1769

Petition of divers of the French inhabitants of the province of Quebec, December 1773

Continental Congress to King George III, July 1775

Please submit: the final petition, a list of sources consulted, and--from each person--a one-page statement of your contribution to, and what you learned from, the assignment.

Suggested sources:
Thomas Bartlett, Ireland: A History [most of the 18th-c chapter is on ARES]

S. J. Connolly, The Oxford Companion to Irish History Library West REFERENCE DA912 .O94 2002

T. W. Moody and W. E. Vaughan, eds., A New History of Ireland. Vol. IV Eighteenth-century Ireland, 1690-1801 (Oxford, 1985)

Kevin Whelan, The Tree of Liberty [especially good for Catholic gentry and middle classes.]

I have checked out many of the library's Irish history books; let me know if you need one!