April 15th, 1840
The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O’Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland.
The Association’s aim was to revert Ireland to the constitutional position briefly achieved by Henry Grattan and his patriots in the 1780s—that is, legislative independence under the British Crown—but this time with a full Catholic involvement that was now possible following the Act of Emancipation in 1829, supported by the electorate approved under the Irish Reform Act 1832. On its failure by the late 1840s the Young Ireland movement developed.
Repealer candidates contested the 1832 United Kingdom general election in Ireland. Between 1835 and 1841, they formed a pact with the Whigs. Repealer candidates, unaffiliated with the Whig Party, contested the 1841 and 1847 general elections.
