The Irish House of Commons, 1776–1801

Introduction

This Gold Seam brings together the debates of the Irish House of Commons in an entirely new way. For the first time, the major sources for parliamentary debate from the build-up to Legislative Independence to the Act of Union (1776–1801) are available in one place. This resource opens these materials—and a range of curated features—to historians, researchers, and students alike. Published digitally in partnership with the Library of Congress (Washington DC) and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

About The Irish House of Commons

The fire that destroyed the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922 turned the collected records of the Irish Parliament to ashes. But now the digitisation of the ‘Cavendish Transcripts’ (Library of Congress, Washington DC), and other critical sources, allows for the fullest reconstruction of the debates of the Irish House of Commons in the period of Legislative Independence. This resource has the potential to reanimate the political history of late eighteenth-century Ireland. At the same time, it sheds new light on the voices and arguments of the colonial elite, allowing this lost archive to be read against the grain and to tell different stories than we have heard before.

Later named Grattan’s Parliament, after Henry Grattan (d. 1821) — the Irish House of Commons’ preeminent orator — this was a period of deep political, cultural, religious, social, and economic upheaval. Picked out by historians as the start of an Age of Revolution, the speeches of Irish MPs (Members of Parliament) in the years 1776–1801 not only shaped the laws enacted in Ireland, but also public conversations about the changes sweeping across the island, the British Empire, and the wider Atlantic world.

The digital publication here of the ‘Cavendish Transcripts’ (Library of Congress, Washington DC) together with the published Parliamentary Register of Ireland bring a major corpus of historical data into the public domain. Researchers now have the opportunity to increase our knowledge and understanding of this critical period in the shaping of Modern Ireland. Over fifty volumes, close to 20,000 pages, and around 3 million words of searchable content, the debates of the Irish parliament can now be exploited in a new way.

Curated Debates: four key debates (VRTI PARL/Debate) have been selected along thematic lines to draw out the most important political developments in late eighteenth-century Ireland:

These debates reveal the internal and sectarian workings of Irish politics, but also how Ireland was tied into the fabric of the Atlantic world, entangled in sprawling networks of trade and commerce, and wrapped up in sinews of imperial war and power.

Alongside these ‘curated debates’, the user will find further features including a guide for other parliamentary materials in the VRTI. A ‘Delving Deeper’ essay by Dr Joel Herman is also available to support researchers interested in deeper historical context and further reading.

TEAM

Dr Joel Herman, Research Fellow, VRTI

Dr Éamonn Kenny, Senior Software Architect, VRTI

Sadhbh Dunne, Editorial Assistant, VRTI

The Irish House of Commons, 1780, by Francis Wheatley. Wikimedia Commons.

‘Henry Grattan’ in Evert A. Duyckinck, Portrait gallery of eminent men and women of Europe and America (New York, 1873), p. 323.

Irish Volunteers Flag celebrating the achievement of Irish free trade and legislative independence, c.1782. National Museum of Ireland.

What can I find here?

The gold seam consists of two major collections of source material, and curated features that help to contextualize and explain this material and the workings of the Irish House of Commons.

Collections:

The Cavendish Transcripts

Transcriptions of a parliamentary diary taken from within the House of Commons, the ‘Cavendish Transcripts’ represent the only confirmed first-hand record we have for parliamentary debates in this period. Running from the beginning of the American War of Independence to the cusp of the French Revolution, 1776-1789, the transcripts are particularly strong from 1777-1785. The 37 volumes the reader will find in this collection are held in the Library of Congress along with the original diaries, which were written in shorthand and do not feature here.

The Parliamentary Register

Printed volumes of the debates of the House of Commons, The Parliamentary Register must have been compiled with help from someone within Parliament. The coverage of the Register begins the year before the arrival of Legislative Independence and tails off just before the 1798 Rebellion of the United Irishmen. A complementary source to the ‘Cavendish Transcripts’ in early years, the Register is crucial from 1786-1797 when the transcripts become quite spotty in their coverage and then wrap up in 1789.

Curated Features:

The Curated Debates

The content to be found in the collections of this gold seam might be difficult to understand if the user is unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure or the time period in question. The curated debates are the solution to this problem. They have been created to present selected debates in a user-friendly format and draw attention to the most important developments in late eighteenth-century Ireland without sacrificing interpretive rigour. Each debate includes an editorial introduction setting the context, the most important speeches in easily readable text, and a host of relevant links to the VRTI Knowledge Graph and the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Integrated into the Virtual Treasury data model and encoded in TEI, the debates also allow navigation to the primary source – letting users jump directly from the curated debate to the page being quoted in the Cavendish Transcripts or The Parliamentary Register. At the end of each debate a list of related debates is provided along with suggested reading.

Enriched Titles and Glossary of Parliamentary Terms

A further feature that will be useful to users approaching eighteenth-century parliamentary debates for the first time, is the enriched titles that have been created for the ‘Cavendish Transcripts’. These titles are adapted from the original table of contents found in each volume, which organize the proceedings and debates of the House of Commons into a number of discrete sections or items. A single procedural keyword has been placed at the start of these titles to alert the reader to the nature of the material being covered in each section. Debate is of course the most common word used, but there are a number of others including motion, notice, and petition to name just a few. See the editorial conventions section in the Delving Deeper page for further explanation, examples, and a ‘Glossary of Terms’ for the meaning of each of these words. In this way, the titles serve as a useful tool for understanding the basics of parliamentary procedure.

Guide to Parliamentary Materials in the VRTI

The final curated feature that can be found in the Irish House of Commons gold seam is a guide to other records of the Irish Parliament in the VRTI. This guide will outline, and provide links, to printed reports, the debates of the House of Lords (which were compiled by Prof. James Kelly), other published sources, and additional parliamentary materials held in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.