Catholic and Irish?

Congratulations! By the late 18th century, you had some more freedoms.
You could:
-maintain schools
-"join the professions"
-vote at parliamentary elections
Bask in your newfound freedoms for a moment. Done? Let's move on.

You still could not:
-sit in parliament (I believe this means be a member of, not actually sit, though I could be wrong)
-be a judge
-be a colonel in the army
-be a captain in the navy
-be a minister in the government
-hold anything higher than a junior office in the civil government.

But wait! What is this? British PM William Pitt said that this upcoming union between Britain and Ireland will be "followed by complete emancipation for the catholic body" (249)? No way! Yes way.

Source: Moody, T.W. and F.X. Martin, ed. The Course of Irish History. Roberts Rinehart Publishers. Niwot, Colorado. 1995.

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