How Significant Was the Contribution of O'Connell to the Cause of Irish Nationalism in the Period 1823-1847?

Irish Nationalism suggests that the Irish people are a nation. Irish leaders and Irish nationalists, like O'Connell, after 1800 can be distinguished by what they want such as their ideas and objectives and the methods they used to persue this. O'Connell was an Irish nationalist and wanted to bring about positive change for the country. He successfully contributed to the cause of Irish Nationalism in the period of 1823-1847 with many of his ideas such as Catholic Emancipation and Catholic Rent bringing Ireland together as a nation therefore contributing significantly to the cause of Irish Nationalism in the period 1823-1847.
During the period 1823-1847, O'Connell became largely popular throughout the country of Ireland as a well known demogogue. O'Connell used 'moral force' techniques to positively change the nation through methods of laws and fairer treatment. During the early years of the 19th century, there was an "obstinate oppositon" from the King to Catholic Emancipation as the prejudice was widely popular towards the Roman Catholics. O'Connells idea of Catholic Emancipation was not well acknowledged and disliked by many "supporters of Emancipation were rejected by large majorities". The realisation by O'Connell that his idea of Catholic Emancipation was disliked motivated him to significantly change their ways and methods to pass the Bill "O'Connell realised that a Catholic Emancipation Bill would be continuously blocked by the House of Lords as happened in 1821". This bought about signicaant change to the Irelands Emancipation movement causing them to use different tactics to get their views across and show the prejudice and discrimination towards the Catholics. O'Connell stepped in and rejected the veto, believing that it was vital that the Bill was passed and led to the creation of the Catholic Association in 1823. The Catholic Assocation was a "constitutional organisation for the achievement of Catholic civil and political rights" and began to expand in...