Would you have voted for the Act of Union?
Tim McGarry and David Hume look at the Act of Union of Britain and Ireland and ask: would you have voted for it?
Tim and David travel back to the year 1801. They take a look at the Act of Union of Britain and Ireland and ask: would you have voted for it?
The Act of Union between Britain and Ireland is sacred to Ulster loyalists. It formally bound Ireland to the United Kingdom and the British crown. Nowadays it is just Northern Ireland that remains in the UK, but it wasn’t always like that and the cross of Saint Patrick is still an integral part of the Union Jack. But it is, of course, anathema to Irish republicans.
Tim and David tell the story of how the Act of Union came about and the people who made it happen. People like Lord Castlereagh, the secretary for Ireland who now has a police station named after him. It is a story of coaxing, cajoling, enticing, duping and plain bribery and corruption.
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