The Catholic Committee or Catholic Convention was an organisation in 18th-century Ireland that campaigned for the rights of Catholics and for the repeal of the Penal Laws.
History
Early years
By the mid 18th century, agitation in the Catholic cause had begun to shift from the gentry to the rising merchant and professional classes. In 1757 the Catholic Committee was formed by Charles O'Conor; others involved included the historian, doctor, and activist John Curry and Thomas Wyse of Waterford. Prebendary of Cullen, John Carpenter, future archbishop of Dublin, also joined the Committee. In 1760, at a meeting at the Elephant Tavern on Essex Street, Dublin, Wyse submitted a plan for a more permanent Catholic Committee, made up of clergy, nobility, and representatives of the people. Before long, every county in Ireland had a committee usually headed by Catholic merchants and landed gentry. These were based locally on county lines. O'Conor's support for the first Catholic Committees from 1758 was copied nationwide, resulting in the successful, but slow, repeal of most of the Irish penal laws in 1774-1793. From the death of the Old Pretender in 1766, the Papacy started to recognize the Hanoverian kings, and Catholics were seen to be less of a threat to the state than before. From the beginning there was disagreement between the gentry and the merchants how best to achieve their shared goal of relief from the penal laws. The gentry, who had suffered much in fines and lands lost for adhereing to their religion, were apprehensive that an overbold approach would only give rise to greater persecution. The "Quarterage", levied by corporations and guilds to cover the costs of celebrations and regalia of different fraternities, was successfully challenged in court, and efforts to reinstate it legislatively were quashed by Lord Lieutenant Townsend.
Under Kenmare
By 1763, factional disputes all but dissolved the Committee. Despite long periods of inactivity, the Committee continued to exist and in 1773, Thomas Browne, 4th Viscount Kenmare convened a meeting in Dublin. The desire of prominent Catholics to show that they did not wish forcibly to overthrow the constitutional settlement contributed to the development of the Catholic Committee, formed to argue for Catholic relief in Ireland. During the 1770s, with Arthur James Plunkett, seventh earl of Fingall, and Anthony Preston, eleventh Viscount Gormanston, as well as a number of senior bishops, Kenmare formed a conservative party on the committee, arguing that Catholic relief was best obtained by producing declarations of loyalty and maintaining good relations with the Dublin and London administrations. This group became the dominant force on the committee. Kenmare supported the recruitment of soldiers in Ireland to fight for Britain in the American War of Independence during the 1770s. Assisted by parliamentarians like Edmund Burke, who in 1765 had published Tracts on the Popery Laws, his pro-government policy began to pay dividends with the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 which allowed Roman Catholics to own property and to inherit land, These concessions were made to obtain the support of the Catholic gentry for the war in the colonies so that they might encourage enlistments in the British army. The Papists Act of 1778 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain and was the first Act for Roman Catholic relief. Later in 1778 it was also enacted by the Parliament of Ireland. However the Irish Parliament of 1782 was willing to do no more than to repeal the law compelling bishops to quit the kingdom, and the law binding those who had assisted at Mass to give the celebrant's name. Further, Catholics were no longer prohibited from owning a horse worth £5, and Catholic schools might be opened with the consent of the Protestant bishop of the diocese. These small concessions were not supplemented by others for ten years.
Back Lane Parliament
Between the Catholic landed sentry and the Catholic merchants there was little in common except their religion. In 1792 Theobald Wolfe Tone was appointed assistant secretary of the Catholic Committee. The businessman John Keogh served as chairman. The French Revolution and the outlawing of the more militant United Irishmen in 1795 saw a number of the landed gentry and aristocrats leave the committee. Many had heard about the Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution. Members of the committee met on 2 December 1792 in Tailors Hall in Back Lane, Dublin, referred to as the 'Back Lane Parliament'. During this meeting, a petition to the king and the Irish Parliament was prepared, asking for certain rights for Catholics such as the franchise to vote for "Forty-shilling freeholders", and some other privileges like taking degrees and being allowed to study at Trinity College Dublin on taking an oath. In 1793 many of the measures requested were sanctioned with the relaxation of the Penal Laws, although Catholics still could not sit in Parliament or hold certain offices. The Act was pushed along by Prime Minister William Pitt, who had already enacted the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 in Great Britain. The main committee was therefore dissolved in April 1793, but did establish a committee for lobbying for Catholic Education. As a result Maynooth College was funded in 1795 by the government. Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association, organised by counties, was in some ways a follower of the Catholic Committee system.
