England had a new monarch in 1702, Queen Anne. Two years into her reign, the English Parliament introduced the Penal Laws, which were intended to further disenfranchise Catholics, in England and in Ireland. Catholics could not vote, serve in parliament, serve in the military, or run a school. An act of 1704 prohibited Catholics from buying land; and, for those who already had it, that land handed down to inheritors had to be divided between all of a family's sons–the result being many small landholders. A further disenfranchisement came in 1707, when the Act of Union joined together England and Scotland, creating a free trade zone between the two countries; Irish trade, meanwhile, chafed under the rule of the English Parliament, which also forbade the export of Irish wool (except to England, which didn't need much of it anyway).

Two other Jacobite rebellions, attempts to return James II or his son to the throne, occurred in 1715 and 1745; neither involved Ireland all that much. In the early part of the 18th Century, England more than ever dictated that Irish food production be directed far more toward exports than for domestic consumption. Twin deathly cold winters in 1740–1741 resulted in a widespread famine that killed hundreds of thousands in Ireland; more than 100,000 chose to leave the island for good. Civil unrest stemming from abject poverty spilled over into violence several times throughout these years; but by and large, the 18th Century in Ireland was mostly peaceful.

It helped that the English Government repealed some of the laws that were harsh toward Catholics. Gone were the prohibition against owning land and Poynings' Law, a relic from the days of Henry VII. In 1792, Catholics won the right to be practicing lawyers; the following year, they won the right to vote (although they still could not sit in the English Parliament). English Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder championed the creation of a commercial union between the two countries, but opposition in parliament prevented its creation.

The industrialization that rose to great heights in Great Britain in the late 18th Century entered Irish cities and towns as well but mainly in the north. Southern Ireland remained largely agricultural, with large amounts of butter, meat, and wool still going almost exclusively to Britain. Irish producers enjoyed a bit of prosperity in the latter half of the 18th Century. The Bank of Ireland opened in 1783. As well the population increased, in just one century, from 2 million in 1700 to 5 million in 1800.

Irish people watched with care and great interest the revolutions in North America and France. In Ireland, a Protestant lawyer named Theobald Wolfe Tone was moved to found the Society of United Irishmen, which aimed to secure for Ireland a republic independent of the political and religious restrictions of Great Britain. When British and French forces went to war in 1794, Britain took the opportunity to target the United Irishmen. Wolf Tone went to France, in hopes of securing aid for his cause. A French relief force sailed for Ireland in 1796; but, like so many fleets before it, could not overcome the stormy forces of the English Channel. At the same time, a group of Protestants formed the Orange Order, named after King William of Orange.

A large-scale uprising in Ireland began in May 1798. Irishmen again took up arms against Englishmen, with uprisings taking place from May to October, up and down the island. Again, England prevailed. A French relief force arrived in August but was defeated. A third French fleet, with Wolf Tone himself aboard, ran into a contingent of the British Navy, and the rebel leader was captured. He later died in prison. The death toll is estimated in the tens of thousands.

In 1800, at the dawn of a new century, people in Great Britain and Ireland convinced one another that the time was right for consolidation. The Act of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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