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Ireland 1778–1803

Grattan's Parliament and the Castle executive

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 2

Overview

What legislative independence did and did not change, the powers of the Lord Lieutenant, and the roles of Grattan and Flood.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What is meant by the term 'Grattan's Parliament'?

Key term

Why did legislative independence not give Ireland self-government?

Key term

Who headed the Irish executive, and where did it sit?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is meant by the term 'Grattan's Parliament'?

    Model answer

    Grattan's Parliament is the name given to the Irish Parliament between the settlement of 1782 and the Act of Union, when it alone had the right to legislate for Ireland.

  2. 2

    Why did legislative independence not give Ireland self-government?

    Model answer

    The Irish executive was appointed by and answerable to the British ministry rather than to the Irish Parliament, so ministers in London still chose the men who governed Ireland.

  3. 3

    Who headed the Irish executive, and where did it sit?

    Model answer

    The Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the Chief Secretary and the under-secretaries, headed the executive from Dublin Castle.

  4. 4

    What was the Chief Secretary's role by the 1790s?

    Model answer

    The Chief Secretary managed the government's business in the Irish House of Commons and increasingly ran the administration in practice, as Castlereagh did from 1798.

  5. 5

    What was the 'undertaker' system, and why did it end?

    Model answer

    Before the 1770s the Castle governed by bargaining with great borough-owning magnates called undertakers, who delivered parliamentary majorities in return for patronage, and Lord Townshend broke the system by residing permanently in Ireland and managing the Commons directly.

  6. 6

    How large was the Irish House of Commons, and how were its members returned?

    Model answer

    The Irish Commons had 300 members, 64 of them returned by the counties and the great majority by boroughs, many of which lay in the gift of a single patron.

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