Clare Museum | Músaem an Chláir

In the 1828 Clare by-election, held on 5th July that year, Daniel O’Connell was elected as MP to the House of Commons. Although Catholics were not permitted to take their seats, nothing prevented them from running in an election. O’Connell won emancipation for Catholics in 1829 and becomes the first Catholic to take his seat since the reformation. He was the towering political leader of nationalist Ireland in the first half of the 20th century.

This letter is to Andrew Stacpoole, who had estates in Clare, shortly after Catholic Emancipation had been achieved in April 1829.