Catholic Emancipation

The removal of legal restrictions that prevented Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland from fully participating in public and political life. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, commonly known as the Catholic Emancipation Act, allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament and hold most public offices, subject to certain exceptions. It marked a major constitutional change in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland, following decades of political campaigning, particularly by Daniel O’Connell and the Catholic Association.