Galway's Loyalty to George III

By Samuel J. MacGuire

Loyalty to the King

A new era in Irish political and economic history was signalised by the accession of George III. He was full of good intentions, if his first speech delivered to his ministers, be taken as such:

"Born and educated in the Country I glory in the name of Britain, and the peculiar happiness of my life, will ever consist, in promoting the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affection to me, I consider as the greatest and most permanent security of my throne".

The gentlemen, clergy and freeholders of County Galway certainly showed their loyalty and affection as recorded in Burke's Connaught Journal in 1792:

"The Gentlemen, Clergy and Freeholders, of the County of Galway are requested to attend at the Mitre Inn, in Tuam, at one o' clock, on Thursday, the 8th December next, in order to consider of a proper Address of Congratulation to our beloved Sovereign, on the happy Event of the Marriage of His Royal Highness the Duke of York. Hyacinth Bodkin Sheriff".

A large attendance of these loyal people of the county drew up the following address, which was duly conveyed, to the King through the Lord Lieutenant:

"To the Kings' Most Excellent Majesty.
The humble address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders, of the County of Galway.
May it please your Majesty?
We your Majesty's loyal subjects of the County of Galway, beg leave to approach your Majesty's Throne, with the sincere Attachment to you Majesty's sacred person, Family and Government. Deeply interested in whatever can afford satisfaction to your Royal mind, we beg leave to congratulate your Majesty on the Nuptials of his Royal Highness the Duke of York with the Princess Royal of Prussia: as this auspicious Event affords every prospect of an increase to your Majesty's domestic happiness, and promises additional stability to our happy Constitution, by an increase of the Illustrious House of Brunswick, it consequently interests most sensibly, the feelings of your Majesty's loyal Subjects of the County of Galway".

Catholic Discontent

Unfortunately George III was an unsatisfactory ruler. He aspired to govern entirely as he thought his dominions ought to be governed. In 1761 he tried the experiment of ruling as well as reigning. A mild form of Catholic emancipation was proposed but rejected by the king, who demanded a promise that the question should not again be raised during the reign. The promise was not given. In 1780 a Bill to repeal the most oppressive of the penal laws, was passed but did not allow the franchise to Irish Catholics.

A protect is voiced by the Catholics of Galway: "At a numerous and most respectable meeting of the Roman Catholic Inhabitants of the County of Galway, held at Glantane, October 20, 1792, the following Resolutions were unanimously agreed to:-
Sir Thomas French, Bart. In the Chair.

In the present situation of affairs in this country, which interested and designing men affect to call - alarming - we would rather incur the imputation of apathy in the cause of Freedom, than leave it in the power of such men to bias the minds of the ignorant, to awaken the fears of the timid, or even to disturb the prejudices of some whom we respect. But the variety of publications which have appeared, charging our body at large with an intention to subvent the quiet of that State, in the prosperity and good order of which, we have at least as great an interest as any other description of citizens, makes it an indispensable duty on us thus publicly to declare our deliberate and decided opinions.

1. Resolved, That we have been taught by theory and experience, the preference, so justly due to this Free Government.
2. Resolved, That in the Constitution of this country the Exercise of the Elective Franchise, we conceive to be the essential characteristic of Freedom.
3. Resolved, The Roman Catholic Body forming so considerable a part of the people, the with holding from them the Elective Franchise, is a grievance.
4. Resolved, That the Roman Catholic Body having publicly and solemnly renounced all opinions and systems inimical to the Constitution (some of which the tenets of their Religion were erroneously supposed to inculcate) have an irresistable claim on the liberality, wisdom, and justice of the Legislature, for a complete redress of grievance.
5. Resolved, That we cannot conceive any danger should arise to the State from our admission to a share in the Elective Franchise, because, at the period of the Revolution, and long subsequent thereto, the Roman Catholic Body were permitted the full past, is the best security for the future, it expresses our gratitude, and gives us the justest claims to further Benefits.
6. Resolved, That we will preserve in our supplications to the Legislature for Redress; because, we should deem ourselves unworthy of Freedom, if by our silence we seemed indifferent to the attainment of it.
7. Resolved, That to deny our right to edition the Legislature, for the obtainment of a rational and constitutional Freedom were to proscribe us from the rights of citizens, and therefore an intolerable grievance, Resolved, that the sincere thanks of this meeting, be given to the twenty-seven members, of the House of Commons, who, in the last Session of Parliament, opposed the rejection of the Roman Catholic Petition; because, in so doing, as we conceive they supported the best privileges of the people.
8. Resolved, that abhorring confusion in every shape, we do not hesitate to express our regret for the calamities of the foreign land, and to declare, That, in the pursuit of a necessary and rational liberty, we can neither be seduced by their example, nor deterred by their misfortunes. Considering Freedom as an intrinsic good, we will calmly and firmly seek the acquisition of it.
9. Resolved, That determined to resist the dreadful horrors of anarchy on one hand, and the silent cruelty of despotism on the other, we reserve the proffers of our lives and fortunes for such trying occasions; convinced they can never arise from Our temperature pursuit of a just and honourable object.
10. Resolved, That it would be extraordinary indeed, if the Roman Catholics of the County of Galway should close this subject without expressing their obligations to their Protestant Brethren, for the liberal intercourse, which always subsisted between them, yet, when we reflect on their rank, education, fortune, and ancestry, we are led to believe they could not act otherwise. Thomas French. Sir Thomas French having left the Chair.
11. Resolved, That the unanimous thanks of this meeting are hereby voted to Sir Thomas French, Bart. For his very polite conduct in the Chair. Resolved, That the unanimous thanks of this meeting are hereby voted to Mathew Lynch, Esq.,: Counsellor at Law, for having so fully met the sense of this meeting, in the foregoing Resolutions. James Egan, Jun".