Ball, John T. Irish Church Question: Speech delivered in the House of Commons on March 19, 1869, by the Right Hon. John T. Ball, LL.D., Member for the University of Dublin; with an Appendix. London: Rivingtons, 1869. First Edition. [10993]
Removed, new acid-free wrapper, 8 x 5 inches, 62 pages, Good. Pamphlet.
A speech against the proposed Irish Church Act of 1869, one which separated the Church of Ireland from the Church of England, and disestablished the former. It stripped the Church of Ireland of their representative bishops in the House of Lords, and their ability to collect tithes of the people of Ireland. Conservatives opposed the Act as ill-founded and that it would cause hardships of the Irish laity. Nevertheless, the Acts was passed and enforced in 1871. It has been seen as the beginning of the end of Protestant Ascendancy - domination by a small Anglican ruling class - in Ireland.
John Thomas Ball (1815-1898), Irish barrister, educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He rose with distinction in Irish political positions, including that of Queens Counsel; Vicar-General of the province of Armagh; Queens Advocate in Ireland; Solicitor General for Ireland, Attorney General for Ireland, and as a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1868 to 1875.
"He opposed the Irish Church Act of 1869, (his speech was regarded as one of the finest ever mad in the Commons), but assisted in framing the future constitution of the disestablished Church of Ireland, of which he was a devout member all his life." - wikipedia.
