Irish historian W. H. Grattan Flood claimed that he was born in Dalkey, near Dublin, but no corroborating evidence has ever been found either for that statement or for Thomas Fuller's claim that he was born in Westminster.

Grattan Township was established in 1846, and named in honor of the great Irish orator and politician Henry Grattan.

Henry Grattan ( 3 July 1746 – 6 June 1820 ) was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century.

Grattan was born at Fishamble Street, Dublin, and baptized in the nearby church of St. John the Evangelist.

A member of the Anglo-Irish elite of Protestant background, Grattan was the son of James Grattan MP, of Belcamp Park, County Dublin ( d. 1766 ), and Mary ( 1724 – 1768 ), youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Marlay ( 1691 – 1756 ), Attorney-General of Ireland, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and finally Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench ( Ireland ).

Grattan was a distinguished student at Trinity College, Dublin where he began a lifelong study of classical literature, and was especially interested in the great orators of antiquity.

This was the constitution which William Molyneux and Swift had denounced, which Flood had attacked, and which Grattan was to destroy, becoming leaders of the Patriot movement.

It was through ranks of Volunteers drawn up outside the parliament house in Dublin that Grattan passed on 16 April 1782, amidst unparalleled popular enthusiasm, to move a declaration of the independence of the Irish parliament.

The gratitude of his countrymen to Grattan was shown by a parliamentary grant of £ 100, 000, which had to be reduced by half before he would accept it.

Grattan then asked for the British House of Commons to reconfirm the London government's decision, and on 22 January 1783 the final Act was passed by parliament in London, including the text:

Grattan was loyal to the crown and the English connection.

It was to give stability and true independence to the new constitution that Grattan pressed for reform.

Grattan was cruelly lampooned by James Gillray as a rebel leader for his liberal views and his stance against a political union with the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Grattan was still in retirement.

On 15 January 1800 the Irish parliament met for its last session ; on the same day Grattan secured by purchase a seat for Wicklow Borough ; and at a late hour, while the debate was proceeding, he appeared to take his seat, and was cheered from the galleries.

For the next five years, Grattan took no active part in public affairs ; it was not till 1805 that he became a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Malton.

When Fox and William Grenville came into power in 1806 Grattan, who sat at this time for Dublin City, was offered, but refused to accept, an office in the government.

Grattan supported the veto, but a more radical Catholic party was now arising in Ireland under the leadership of Daniel O ' Connell, and Grattan's influence gradually declined.

Grattan's father was James Grattan ( d. 1766 ), a Recorder and then MP for Dublin City, who married a daughter of Thomas Marlay.

By 1782 the Irish patriot Henry Grattan deplored that some £ 800, 000 was transferred annually to such landlords.

It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with radical 18th century Protestant patriot politicians Henry Grattan and Henry Flood.

* Henry Grattan ( 1746-1821 ) renowned 18th Irish patriot politician, lived with his uncle Colonel Thomas Marlay at Celbridge Abbey between 1777 and 1780.

Grattan supported the government for a time after 1782, and spoke and voted for the repressive legislation that followed the Whiteboy violence in 1785 ; but as the years passed without Pitt's personal favour towards parliamentary reform resulting in legislation, he gravitated towards the opposition, agitated for commutation of tithes in Ireland, and supported the Whigs on the regency question in 1788.

" A Northern Whig " emphasized the growing breach between Whig patriots like Henry Flood and Henry Grattan, who aimed at Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform without severing the tie to England, and those who desired a separate Irish republic.

Modern Irish nationalism with democratic aspirations began in the 1790s when Theobald Wolfe Tone founded the Society of the United Irishmen, and wanted to end discrimination against Catholics, in line with Grattan, and then to found an independent Irish Republic.

While the United Irish had declared themselves to be non-sectarian from 1791, there were other liberal Protestants in the Irish Parliament who were also anti-sectarian and sought a more democratic franchise, such as Henry Grattan and John Curran.

These schools include: Holy Name School which serves Holy Name of Jesus parish ( now operating at the site of the former Assumption parish's Church ): Saint Joan of Arc School which serves Saint Rose de Lima Church on Grattan Street ; and Saint Stanislaus School which serves the St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr's Parish Bishop and Martyr on Front Street.

* 1859-Protestant missionaries arrive in Japan ; Revivals in North America and the British Isles generate interest in overseas missions ; Albert Benjamin Simpson ( founder of Christian and Missionary Alliance ) is converted by the revival ministry of Henry Grattan Guinness

" I found Ireland on her knees ," Grattan exclaimed, " I watched over her with a paternal solicitude ; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty.

Like Flood before him, Grattan had no leaning towards democracy ; and he anticipated that by the removal of the centre of political interest from Ireland the evil of absenteeism would be intensified.

The sons were-James Grattan of Tinnehinch, MP for County Wicklow ; and Henry Grattan ( junior ) of Moyrath, MP for Dublin City and then for County Meath.

See also F Hardy, Memoirs of Lord Charlemont ( London, 1812 ); Warden Flood, Memoirs of Henry Flood ( London, 1838 ); Francis Plowden, Historical Review of the State of Ireland ( London, 1803 ); Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography ( Dublin, 1878 ); Sir Jonah Barrington, Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation ( London, 1833 ); WJ O ' Neill Daunt, Ireland and her Agitators ; Lord Mountmorres, History of the Irish Parliament ( 2 vole., London, 1792 ); Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III ( 4 vols., London, 1845 and 1894 ); Lord Stanhope, Life of William Pitt ( 4 vols., London, 1861 ); Thomas Davis, Life of JP Curran ( Dublin, 1846 ) this contains a memoir of Grattan by DO Madden, and Grattan's reply to Lord Clare on the question of the Union ; Charles Phillips, Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries ( London, 1822 ); JA Froude, The English in Ireland ( London, 1881 ); JG McCarthy, Henry Grattan: an Historical Study ( London, 1886 ); Lord Mahon's History of England, vol.

Tone expressed contempt for the constitution Grattan so triumphantly extorted from the British government in 1782 ; himself an Anglican, Tone urged co-operation between the different religions in Ireland as the only means of obtaining redress of Irish grievances.

Burke and Grattan were anxious that provision should be made for the education of Irish Roman Catholic priests in Ireland, to preserve them from the contagion of Jacobinism in France ; Wolfe Tone, " with an incomparably juster forecast ", as Lecky observes, " advocated the same measure for exactly opposite reasons.

He was denounced by Grattan for extravagance ; was censured by the Irish Houses of Parliament for refusing to transmit to England an address calling upon the Prince of Wales to assume the regency ; and he could only maintain his position by resorting to bribery on a large scale.

He became a member of the Whig club founded by Henry Grattan ; and he actively co-operated with Theobald Wolfe Tone in founding the Society of the United Irishmen in 1791, of which he became the first secretary.

Lord Charlemont is historically interesting for his political connection with Henry Flood and Henry Grattan ; he was a cultivated man with literary and artistic tastes, and both in Dublin and in London he had considerable social influence.

Grattan also wanted Catholic involvement in Irish politics ; in 1793 the parliament copied the British Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791, and Catholics were given back the right to cast votes in elections to the parliament, although they were still debarred from membership and state offices.

When Henry Grattan in 1782 moved an address to the king containing a declaration of Irish legislative independence, Hely-Hutchinson supported the attorney-general's motion postponing the question ; but on 16 April, after the Easter recess, he read a message from the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Portland, giving the king's permission for the House to take the matter into consideration, and he expressed his personal sympathy with the popular cause which Grattan on the same day brought to a triumphant issue.

Reformist politicians such as Henry Grattan ( 1746 – 1820 ), Wolfe Tone ( 1763 – 1798 ), Robert Emmet ( 1778 – 1803 ), Sir John Gray ( 1815-1875 ), and Charles Stewart Parnell ( 1846 – 1891 ), were also Protestant nationalists, and in large measure led and defined Irish nationalism.

While Nationalism has historically had a number of Protestant leaders ( for instance, Henry Grattan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Charles Stewart Parnell, and Douglas Hyde ), Unionism was invariably led by Protestant leaders and politicians.