The
Declaratory Act 1719 (
6 Geo. 1. c. 5) declared that the king and parliament of Great Britain had "full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the Kingdom and people of Ireland", and that the
Irish House of Lords had no power to hear appeals from Irish courts. This was greatly resented by the
Irish parliament. In the early 1780s, the combination of political pressure from individuals such as
Henry Grattan and
Henry Flood and the conventions of the
Irish Volunteers, at a time when Britain was involved in the
American Revolutionary War, led to the passing of the
Repeal Act 1782 (
22 Geo. 3. c. 53), which granted legislative independence to the
Kingdom of Ireland. A small number of Irish politicians believed that repeal of the act did not imply that the British parliament could not
assume the right to legislate for Ireland. As
W. E. H. Lecky put it, "the Declaratory Act had not made the right, and therefore its repeal could not destroy it." Flood became convinced that it was necessary that the British parliament pass an act specifically renouncing any right to legislate for Ireland. Initially, the majority of the Irish parliament, including Grattan, opposed such a move. Later that year, however,
Lord Mansfield heard an appeal from an Irish court in the
English King's Bench. This had the effect of strengthening Flood's hand, and the result was the passage, on 17 April 1783, of the Renunciation Act. ==Content==