Episode 12: Power and Protest in Ireland – 1714 to 1785

In Episode 12, Professor Michael Brown of the University of Aberdeen discusses who held power in Ireland in 1714 and how the protestant ascendancy developed following the fall of James II and the rise of the Hanoverian dynasty. This is a period increasingly defined by the exclusion of Ireland’s Catholic and Presbyterian communities from power, and the rise of the Patriot movement which sought to renegotiate the relationship between Ireland and Britain’s parliaments.

Professor Brown reflects on the sharing of ideas across the Atlantic basin, how Patriot movements in America and Ireland influenced one another and how Ireland moved towards devolution rather than revolution. The increasing militarisation of Irish political life that arrived during the American War of Independence, and the failure to deliver positive reforms to Ireland’s Catholic and Presbyterian communities would eventually lead to the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the subsequent Acts of Union between Ireland and Great Britain in 1800.

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