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THE ‘REPEAL YEAR’ IN IRELAND: AN ECONOMIC REASSESSMENT*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

CHARLES READ
CHARLES READ*
Affiliation:
Christ's College, Cambridge
*
Christ's College, Cambridge, cb2 3bucpr34@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Most of the existing literature on the ‘Repeal Year’ agitation in Ireland explains the rise in popularity of the 1842–3 campaign for repeal of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in political and religious terms. This article argues that, in addition, the British government's economic policy of reducing tariffs in 1842 damaged Ireland's agricultural economy and increased popular support for the Repeal movement. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article shows that the tariff reductions and import relaxations of the 1842 budget had an immediate negative impact on Irish real incomes by reducing agricultural prices. A negative relationship between these prices and the Repeal rent, together with the economic rhetoric of Repeal in favour of protection, indicate a link between the economic downturn and the rise in the popularity of Repeal. This article concludes that Peel's trade policy changes of 1842 should therefore be added to the traditional religious and political explanations as a cause behind the sudden surge in popularity of the Repeal movement between 1842 and 1843.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 111 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Eugenio Biagini, Martin Daunton, and Peter Solar, as well as the Historical Journal's anonymous reviewers, for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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