On April 15, 1840, Daniel O’Connell forms the Loyal National Repeal Association (commonly referred to as the Repeal Association), an Irish political party formed to campaign for the repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland.

The Association seeks to restore the Parliament of Ireland and achieve the level of legislative independence briefly attained in the 1780s under Henry Grattan and his Irish Patriot Party, with the addition of Catholic emancipation, made possible by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, and the expanded franchise of the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1832, in addition to responsible government, making Ireland a separate kingdom in a personal union with Great Britain on equal footing. It advocates a peaceful and constitutional path to repeal while maintaining loyalty to the British Crown.

Although O’Connell begins calling for repeal in the early 1830s, the formal Association is only established in 1840. Prior to this, candidates supporting repeal contest the 1832 United Kingdom general election and between 1835 and 1841, form an electoral pact with the Whigs. Repealer candidates, unaffiliated with the Whigs also contest the 1841 and 1847 general elections. 

Following the movement’s decline in the late 1840s, nationalists, including members of the Young Ireland movement, emerge from its ranks.