From Irish State to British Empire : Reflections on State-Building in Ireland, 1690-1830

摘要

This paper considers the nature of the Irish state in the eighteenth century, and tests its functions against some widely held definitions of « state ». The paper argues that there was an Irish state in the eighteenth century ; that this state had an impressive number of functions - so far as administrative, fiscal and civil and military- matters were concerned. The paper also argues that the eighteenth century Irish state showed some capacity for development : that in constitutional areas and in regard to concessions to Catholics it showed itself capable of adjusting. A prime focus of the paper is the question of legitimacy : and here I suggest that the state was gradually acquiring that legitimacy through the progressive entry of Catholics into defence forces and into politics. The Catholic church in Ireland was also an important instrument for legitimising the state. I conclude with an examination of the nature of the crisis which confronted the state in the 1790s and I suggest reasons why it overcame one crisis only to succumb to Union with Britain in 1801. I suggest finally that Irish Catholics were a key element in the movement for Union ; and that Catholics supported Union because they had been alienated from the state by post-rebellion repression ; they also supported Union because they saw in it an entry to the British empire and the career opportunities which this offered. By 1830 the Irish state had fused with the British Empire but the Catholic nation was ill at ease in the new British state.