The Protestant
Ascendancy was a period of great prosperity for the landed gentry, who built
grand country houses and furnished them luxuriously. Catholics, meanwhile, were
denied even the right to buy land. Towards the end of 18yh century, radicals, influenced
by events in America and France, started to demand independence from English
Crown. Prime Minister Henry Grattan tried a parliamentary route; Wolfe Tone and
the United Irishmen opted for armed insurrection. Both approaches ultimately
failed.
1710
1713 Jonathan Swift appointed Dean of St Patrick’s
Cathedral
1720
1724 Swift attacks Ireland’s penal code in A Modest Proposal
1730
1731 Royal Dublin Society founded to encourage agriculture,
art and crafts
1738 Death of Ireland’s most famous harper, Turlogh
O’Carolan
1740
1742 First performance of Handel’s Messiah given in Dublin
1750
1751 Dublin’s Rotunda Lying-In Hospital is first maternity
hospital in the British Isles
1759 Arthur Guinness buys the St James’s Gate Brewery in
Dublin
1760
1770
1780
1782 Parliament gains greater degree of independence from
Westminster
1790
1791 James Gandon’s Custom House built in Dublin
1793 Limited emancipation for Irish Catholics
1795 Orange Order formed by Ulster Protestants
1798 Rebellion of Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen quashed
