Robert Emmet's rebellion was to be the last armed uprising in Ireland for 45 years, a period of history dominated politically by Daniel O Connell. O Connell's first political success was the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 which removed the last vestiges of the Penal Laws. The benefits of the measure were of great advantage to the rising catholic middle class which had long circumvented the restrictions on Catholic landholding by engaging in trade and commercial activities. …showed first 75 words of 1607 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1607 total…vein of secularism and anti clericalism running through the United Irish movement that found no expression in the later nationalist tradition of Sinn Fein and the Irish Parliamentary Party. The constitutional nationalist tradition drew its inspiration from the long political career of Daniel O'Connell and the later Home Rule campaign directed by Charles Stuart Parnell. O'Connell, Parnell and John Redmond dominate the stage of Irish history and are portrayed as the champions of nationalist Ireland.