Chronology: Key Events in Britain and Ireland, 1798-1921

1782: Grattan's Parliament (1).

1798: Wolfe Tone's Rising.

1800: The Act of Union.

1823: O'Connell forms the Catholic Association.

1829: Catholic Emancipation Act (2).

1830: Anti-Tithe Campaign begins, leading to a Tithe War.

1841: O'Connell establishes National Repeal Association.

1845-50: Great Irish Famine (3).

1869: Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church.

1870: First Irish Land Act (4).

1873: Butt founds Home Rule League.

1879: Land League formed by Davitt to campaign for the Three Fs.

1881: Gladstone's Second Irish Land Act enacts the Three Fs.

1882: National League founded (5).

1885: Ashbourne Act (6).

1893: Second Home Rule Bill defeated in the Lords.

1903: Wyndham's Land Act.

1905: Griffith founds Sinn Féin.

1912: Third Home Rule Bill; Ulster Volunteers formed (7).

1919: Anglo-Irish war begins.

1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty establishes Irish Free State.

1. Poynings' Laws of 1494 and the Declaratory Act of 1719 were repealed to grant the Irish parliament a high degree of independence of Westminster.
2. Political and civil rights were granted to Roman Catholics but by raising the franchise qualification from £2 freehold to £10 household suffrage, the Irish electorate was cut by 80%.
3. One million died as a result of starvation and disease between 1845 and 1850; the population continued to decline with a significant impact on landholding.
4. Gladstone achieved several rights for tenants - they could not be evicted if they paid their rents; they could claim compensation when they sold their 'interest' in the land or if they were evicted by the landlord; they could get a state grant to enable them to buy their land.
5. Founded by Parnell, the aim of this League was to get the support of all classes of Irish society and push for Home Rule.
6. This was the first effective land purchase scheme by which tenants got 100% state loans at low interest rates.
7. Ulster Unionists and English Conservatives strongly opposed this bill but it was easily passed by Liberals and Irish Nationalists in the Commons. Defeat in the Lords and the outbreak of World War, however, delayed its implementation and gave rise to acts of Protestant violence by Ulster Volunteers.