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Abstract. The article is devoted to the problem of the development of new trends in Irish Nationalism after the collapse of the 1848 uprising. On the one hand, the defeat of “physical strength” inevitably led to the revival of “moral”. However, unlike the period of the struggle for the Repeal of the Union in 1800, the supporters of the parliamentary way of achieving the goal chose the implementation of agrarian reforms that were supposed to change the position of tenants as their direction. In addition, the creation of the League of the South and North meant a departure from the mass movement and carried certain contradictions. At the same time, the anti-Catholic movement was growing in the United Kingdom, encouraged by the Cabinet and Parliament. The long tradition of supporters of the reformist way of changing the status quo in Ireland to rely on the Liberal party of the Kingdom by virtue of the anti-Catholicism preached to it led to a reorientation of the Nationalists towards the Conservative. However, this party also took a similar position. The peak of the anti-Catholic campaign was the events in Stockport, which returned the hostility between confessions into armed clashes. As a result, the Irish commoners of Westminster were forced to create their own Independent Party. The article was written on the basis of an analysis of original sources, Parliamentary Debates, and the press. The emergence of the Irish Independent Party, for all its courage and originality, in fact recorded the anemic state of the nationalists of “moral strength”. The loss of support from the leading parties in England, the rejection of the mass movement, put the nationalists in difficult conditions.
Keywords: Ireland, Nationalism, League of the South and North, Irish Independent Party, anti-Catholicism, Stockport.