On This Day
26 July 1869
The Irish Church Act, disestablishing the Irish Church, receives the Royal Assent
When Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801, the Anglican Church of Ireland was amalgamated with the Church of England. As the state Church, the Church of Ireland was part funded by tithes, a practice loathed by most of the population who were not of the Protestant religion. The resentment boiled over into civil disobedience and fuelled nationalist feeling. Gladstone’s disestablishment of the Irish Church did not take effect until 1871 and the calls for Home Rule continued to grow.