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| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland |
|---|---|
| Citation | 39 & 40 Geo. 3. c. 67 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 2 July 1800 |
| Commencement | 31 December 1800 – 1 January 1801 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | Statute Law Revision 1871 |
| Relates to | |
| Status | |
| England and Wales | Still in force with amendments |
| Scotland | Still in force with amendments |
| Republic of Ireland | Repealed by theStatute Law Revision Act 1983 |
| Northern Ireland | Still in force with amendments |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland |
|---|---|
| Citation | 40 Geo. 3. c. 38 (I) |
| Introduced by | John Toler[1] |
| Territorial extent | Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 August 1800 |
| Commencement | 31 December 1800 – 1 January 1801 |
| Repealed | 24 November 1962 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1879 |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act, 1962 |
| Relates to | |
| Status | |
| Republic of Ireland | Repealed by theStatute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962 |
| Northern Ireland | Still in force with amendments |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
TheActs of Union 1800 were parallel acts of theParliament of Great Britain and theParliament of Ireland which united theKingdom of Great Britain and theKingdom of Ireland (previously inpersonal union) to create theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The actscame into force between 31 December 1800 and 1 January 1801, and the mergedParliament of the United Kingdom had itsfirst meeting on 22 January 1801.
Provisions of the acts remain in force, with amendments and some Articles repealed, in theUnited Kingdom,[2] but they have been repealed in their entirety in theRepublic of Ireland.[3]
Two acts were passed in 1800 with the samelong title:An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Theshort title of the act of the British Parliament isUnion with Ireland Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. 3. c. 67), assigned by theShort Titles Act 1896. The short title of the act of the Irish Parliament isAct of Union (Ireland) 1800 (40 Geo. 3. c. 38 (I)), assigned by a 1951 act of theParliament of Northern Ireland, and hence not effective in the Republic of Ireland, where it was referred to by its long title when repealed in 1962.
Before these acts, Ireland had been inpersonal union with England since 1542, when theIrish Parliament had passed theCrown of Ireland Act 1542, proclaiming KingHenry VIII of England to beKing of Ireland. Since the 12th century, the King of England had been technical overlord of theLordship of Ireland, a papal possession. Both the Kingdoms of Ireland and England later came into personal union with that ofScotland upon theUnion of the Crowns in 1603.
In 1707, theKingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into a single kingdom: theKingdom of Great Britain. Upon that union, each House of theParliament of Ireland passed a congratulatory address toQueen Anne, praying her: "May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union".[4] The Irish Parliament was both before then subject tocertain restrictions that made it subordinate to theParliament of England and after then, to theParliament of Great Britain; however, Ireland gained effective legislative independence from Great Britain through theConstitution of 1782.
By this time access to institutional power in Ireland was restricted to a small minority: theAnglo-Irish of theProtestant Ascendancy. Frustration at the lack of reform among the Catholic majority eventually led, along with other reasons, to arebellion in 1798, involving aFrench invasion of Ireland and the seeking of complete independence from Great Britain. This rebellion was crushed with much bloodshed, and the motion for union was motivated at least in part by the belief that the union would alleviate the political rancour that led to the rebellion. The rebellion was felt to have been exacerbated as much by brutally reactionary loyalists as byUnited Irishmen (anti-unionists).[citation needed]
Furthermore,Catholic emancipation was being discussed in Great Britain, and fears that a newly enfranchised Catholic majority would drastically change the character of the Irish government and parliament also contributed to a desire from London to merge the Parliaments.[citation needed]
According to historian James Stafford, an Enlightenment critique of Empire in Ireland laid the intellectual foundations for the Acts of Union. He writes that Enlightenment thinkers connected "the exclusion of the Irish Kingdom from free participation in imperial and European trade with the exclusion of its Catholic subjects, under the terms of the 'Penal Laws', from the benefits of property and political representation." These critiques were used to justify a parliamentary union between Britain and Ireland.[5]
| Name | Flag | Population | Population (%) | Area (km2) | Area (%) | Pop. density (per km2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Great Britain | .svg) | 10,500,000 | 65% | 230,977 | 73% | 45.46 |
| Kingdom of Ireland | .svg) | 5,500,000 | 35% | 84,421 | 27% | 65.15 |
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |  | 16,000,000 | 100% | 315,093 | 100% | 50.78 |
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Complementary acts were enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland.
The Parliament of Ireland had recently gained a large measure of legislative independence under theConstitution of 1782. Many members of the Irish Parliament jealously guarded that autonomy (notablyHenry Grattan), and a motion for union was legally rejected in 1799. OnlyAnglicans were permitted to become members of the Parliament of Ireland though the great majority of the Irish population wereRoman Catholic, with manyPresbyterians inUlster. Under theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1793, Roman Catholics regained the right to vote if they owned or rented property worth £2 annually. Wealthy Catholics were strongly in favour of union in the hope for rapidreligious emancipation and the right to sit as MPs, which would only come to pass under theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
From the perspective of Great Britain's elites, the union was desirable because of the uncertainty that followed theFrench Revolution of 1789 and theIrish Rebellion of 1798. If Ireland adopted Catholic emancipation willingly or not, a Roman Catholic Parliament could break away from Britain and ally with the French, but the same measure within the United Kingdom would exclude that possibility. Also, in creating a regency during KingGeorge III's "madness", the Irish and British Parliaments gave the Prince Regent different powers. These considerations led Great Britain to decide to attempt the merger of both kingdoms and Parliaments.
The final passage of the Act in theIrish House of Commons turned on an about 16% relative majority, garnering 58% of the votes, and similar in theIrish House of Lords, in part per contemporary accounts through bribery with the awarding ofpeerages andhonours to critics to get votes.[6] The first attempt had been defeated in the Irish House of Commons by 109 votes to 104, but the second vote in 1800 passed by 158 to 115.[6]
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The Acts of Union were two complementary Acts, namely:
They were passed on 2 July 1800 and 1 August 1800 respectively, and came into force on 1 January 1801. They ratified eight articles which had been previously agreed by the British and Irish parliaments:
Part of the appeal of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise ofCatholic emancipation, allowingRoman Catholic MPs, who had not been permitted to sit in the Irish Parliament, to sit in the United Kingdom Parliament. This was however blocked by KingGeorge III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach hisCoronation Oath, and was not realised until theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
The traditionally separateIrish Army, which had been funded by the Irish Parliament, was merged into the largerBritish Army.
In the first Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the members of the House of Commons were not elected afresh. By royal proclamation authorised by the Act, all the members of the last House of Commons from Great Britain took seats in the new House, and from Ireland100 members were chosen from the last Irish House of Commons: two members from each of the 32 counties and the two largest boroughs, and one from each of the next 31 largest boroughs and fromDublin University, chosen by lot. The other 84 Irish parliamentary boroughs were disfranchised; all werepocket boroughs, whose patrons received £15,000 compensation for the loss of what was considered their property.
The Union Flag, created as a consequence of the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800, still remains theflag of the United Kingdom. Called the Union Jack, it combined the flags ofSt George's Cross (which was deemed to includeWales) and theSt Andrew's Saltire of Scotland with theSt Patrick's Saltire to represent Ireland.
At the same time, a new Royal Title was adopted ('GEORGE the THIRD by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith'), and a new shield of arms.[12] In adopting these, the moribundEnglish claims to the French throne were not continued: the title 'King of France' was abandoned and thefleur-de-lis were removed from theRoyal Standard of the United Kingdom for the first time since the Middle Ages.
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