[4] On 15 June 1846 Thomas Francis Meagher denounced English Liberalism in Ireland saying that there was a suspicion that the national cause of Repeal would be sacrificed to the Whig government and that the people who were striving for freedom would be "purchased back into factious vassalage.
The "Tail" as the "corrupt gang of politicians who fawned on O'Connell" were named, and who hoped to gain from the government places decided that the Young Irelanders must be driven from the Repeal Association.
[5] For this purpose resolutions were introduced to the repeal Association on 13 July which declared that under no circumstances was a nation justified in asserting its liberties by force of arms.
William Smith O'Brien then protested against John O'Connell's attempt to suppress a legitimate expression of opinion, and left with other prominent Young Irelanders, and never returned.
They wished to return to the honest policy of the earlier years of the Repeal Association,[11] and would be supported by the young men, who had shown their repugnance for the corruption and insincerity of Conciliation Hall by their active sympathy with the seceders.
[12] There were extensive indications that many of the previously Unionist class, in both the cities and among land owners, were resentful of the neglect of Irish needs by the British Parliament since the famine began.
What they demanded was vital legislative action to provide both employment and food, and to prevent all further export of the corn, cattle, pigs and butter which were still leaving the country.