" it was said that such was his unpopularity with the ordinary (Catholic) people that dead cats were thrown at his Dublin funeral. Certainly Clare was always profoundly Anti-Catholic, despite or perhaps because of his Catholic ancestors; these had been doctors and extremely minor gentry (although his enemies scoffed inaccurately at his peasant descent). As FitzGibbon he had for example savagely opposed the Catholic Relief Bill of 1778, a few months after his election to the Irish Parliament as Member for Trinity College, Dublin. He rose to become Attorney-General of Ireland in 1783 and Lord Chancellor in 1789. "

― Antonia Fraser , The King and the Catholics: The Fight for Religious Liberty in Georgian England