1782 Constitution of 1782

The Constitution of 1782 is a collective term given to a series of legal changes which freed the Parliament of Ireland, a Medieval parliament consisting of the Irish House of Commons and the Irish House of Lords, of legal restrictions that had been imposed by successive Norman, English, and later, British governments on the scope of its jurisdiction. This period came to be known as Grattan's Parliament after Henry Grattan, a major campaigner for reform in the House of Commons and leader of the Patriot Party. The new constitutional arrangements proved short-lived in consequence of the 1798 uprising by the United Irishmen. By the Acts of Union the Parliament of Ireland was abolished, and the Kingdom of Ireland absorbed into the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with effect from 1 January 1801.