O'Connell's great work in freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods can hardly be said to have fostered political thought.

The efforts in this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a people whose political education had been so long delayed.

The prospect of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking--so necessary in the modern democratic state--never replaced the old leader-following habit which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell.
The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise.

In theory this concession should have developed political thought in the people and should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility.

In England no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in Ireland it was otherwise.