Arthur James Plunkett, 8th Earl of Fingall KP (9 September 1759 – 30 July 1835), [1] styled Lord Killeen until 1793, was an Irish peer.
[2] Fingall was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 20 October 1821, on the occasion of the Royal Visit to Ireland of King George IV.
[3] His creation as Baron Fingall, of Woolhampton Lodge in the County of Berkshire on 20 June 1831 made him a member of the United Kingdom House of Lords.
In 1807 he obtained an interview with the 1st Duke of Wellington, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, who explained that Catholic Emancipation was not at that time practical politics, but that the remaining Penal Laws would be enforced with all possible mildness and good humour.
[9] However Fingall and his fellow Irish Catholic peers were not, and did not pretend to be, republicans: they sought equal rights under the Crown, not separation from it.