| Many Irish Protestants regarded the granting of Emancipation as practically treason on the part of Wellington and the cartoon humorously exaggerates the situation. The ’Brunswickers' were extreme Orangemen who, in reaction to O'Connell's victory in Co. Clare, organised a counter campaign throughout the country by means of clubs named Brunswick Clubs - after the Duke of Brunswick, a brother of George IV and a bitter opponent of Catholic claims. |
The pope, seated, tells Wellington: ‘Take my benediction and from henceforth I consider you
within the Pale of our Holy Church & in a fair way of Salvation!!’ |
Wellington, kneeling before the pope is saying: ‘I for ever renounce the Errors of the Church
of England and embrace and conform to the Doctrine and Tenets of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. I have give my dearly beloved DAN a perfect assurance of my determination to effect and procure an unqualified Emancipation in spite of the Brunswick Faction!’ |
| O’Connell, holding cross and candle declares: ‘Look on and tremble ye Brunswickers. Behold the blessed Reform; see him prostrate before the Holy Father of the Church. Rejoice my countrymen. The day is our own.’ |
On the left Richard Lalor Shiel assures: ‘Friend Dan, I’ll Shiel’d him from heretical Brunswickers with the help of my Holy Water. I won’t make a Ballbay job of it.’ This refers to an incident at Ballybay when Orangemen forced the withdrawal of a large gathering of Catholics who had assembled to establish branches of the Catholic Association. |