Daniel O’Connell had started a campaign for…

Daniel O’Connell had started a campaign for repeal of the Act of Union in 1823, and has taken Catholic Emancipation as his rallying call, establishing the Catholic Association, one of the first mass membership political movements in Europe.

As part of his campaign for Catholic Emancipation, the Irish lawyer stands in a by-election to the United Kingdom House of Commons in 1828 for County Clare for a seat vacated by William Vesey Fitzgerald, another supporter of the Catholic Association.

After O'Connell wins the seat, he is unable to take it because of his refusal to take a preliminary oath, directed at Catholic members, to the King as head of the Church of England.