was also personally and politically opposed to the Irish politician Henry Grattan who urged a moderate course in the Irish Parliament, and was responsible for defeating Grattan's efforts to reform the Irish land tithe system (1787–1789) under which Irish Catholic farmers (and all non-Anglican farmers) were forced to financially support the minority Anglican Church of Ireland. These were not fully repealed until 1869, (when the Church of Ireland was finally disestablished), although Irish tithes were commuted after the Tithe War (1831–1836). FitzGibbon opposed the Irish Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 personally, but apparently recommended its acceptance in the House of Lords, being forced out of necessity when that Act had been recommended to the Irish Executive by the British Cabinet led by William Pitt the Younger. Pitt expected Ireland to follow the British Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 and allow Catholics to vote again and hold public offices. At the same time, FitzGibbon apparently denounced the policy this Act embodied, so it is probably safe to say that FitzGibbon's own beliefs and principles conflicted with his obligations as a member of the Irish executive of the time. FitzGibbon's role in the recall, soon after his arrival, of the popular pro-Emancipation Lord Lieutenant, Lord Fitzwilliam is debatable. Although FitzGibbon was probably politically opposed to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Fitzwilliam was apparently recalled, because of his own independent actions. Fitzwilliam was known to be friendly to the Ponsonby family (he was married to one of their daughters), and was generally a Foxite liberal Whig. His close association with and patronage of Irish Whigs led by Grattan and Ponsonby during his short tenure, along with his alleged support of an immediate effort to secure Catholic emancipation in a manner not authorized by the British cabinet is probably what led to his recall. Thus, if any is to blame in the short-lived 'Fitzwilliam episode' it is the great Irish politician Henry Grattan and the Ponsonby brothers - presumably William Ponsonby, later Lord Imokilly and his brother John Ponsonby—not to mention Lord Fitzwilliam himself. Irish Catholics at the time and later naturally saw things very differently and blamed hardline Protestants such as FitzGibbon. Irish Catholics and FitzGibbon agreed on one point apparently - Irish political and economic union with Great Britain (which eventually took place in 1801). Pitt had wanted Union with Ireland concomitantly with Catholic emancipation, commutation of tithes, and the endowment of