22 How the Church Has Changed the World 1836. Said O’Connell, “You may raise the vulgar cry of ‘Irishman and Papist’ against me, you may send out men called ministers of God to slander and calumniate me; they may assume whatever garb they please, but the question comes into this narrow compass. I demand, I respectfully insist: on equal justice for Ireland, on the same principle by which it has been administered to Scotland and England. I will not take less. Refuse me that if you can.” “Orange peel” Much can be accomplished by men who enter into a dynamic enmity with someone they consider a worthy opponent. Daniel O’Connell had one such in Sir Robert Peel, the governor of Ireland and later the leader of the Tory party in the English parliament. O’Connell, jesting on the color boasted by the Protestants in Ireland, called him “Orange Peel,” but it was Peel, the enemy, who gave O’Connell critical concessions in the years between 1828 and 1830. O’Connell had been elected a member of Parliament in 1828, but could not take the oath of office, being a Roman Catholic. Everyone knew this. Peel also knew that O’Connell had the backing of six million Irishmen. Something had to be done. Hence Peel turned about and supported repeal of the long standing British laws that had
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