The popular outrage over Wood's ha'penny and the necessity to withdraw his license, as well as the need to recall the lord lieutenant, suggested that governance of Ireland, or more specifically, the ability to guarantee that the Irish parliament would provide the requested supplies, that is, revenues, required another method to guarantee complicity with government wishes greater than simply the lord lieutenant's biennial presence in Ireland. The device employed was to select two or three formidable Irish parliamentary figures with great following among their colleagues. These men, nicknamed the "Undertakers," would guarantee majorities for government business in return for their command in awarding patronage in Ireland. Given the infrequency of election, the minimal amount of opposition, and the oligarchic character of the electorate, the probability of their success was inevitable. It continued after the election in 1727 necessitated by the succession of George II as king. Foremost among these Undertakers were William Connolly and Henry Boyle, successively Speakers of the Irish House of Commons between 1715 and 1752. Connelly was a man of relatively humble origins who was transformed by land speculation into one of the richest men in Ireland. Besides the Speakers, the lord lieutenant could always engage as an Undertaker the archbishop of Armagh, de jure a member of the Irish House of Lords, inevitably an Englishman and appointed more for political than for religious reasons.
World History
