PARNELL’S PARTY, DAVITT’S LAND WAR

INTRODUCTION.  "Parnell came down the road, he said to a cheering man; / "Ireland shall get her freedom and you still break stone." (Yeats) 

I.  GROWTH OF THE IRISH PARTY.  Isaac Butt (1813-1879) of Co. Donegal.

A.  SOCIAL CHARACTER OF THE IRISH PARTY. 

B.  ALLIANCES.  Parliament (1885):  335 Liberals, 249 Conservatives, 86 Home Rulers.  The "Hawarden Kite" (Dec. 1885); Herbert Gladstone.

C.  OBSTRUCTION.  Joseph Gillis Biggar (1828-1890) merchant of Belfast.  Conor Cruise O'Brien (Irish politician and man of letters).  Frank Hugh O'Donnell (1848-1916) of Co. Donegal.  James J. O'Kelly (1845-1916) of Dublin.  John Dillon (1851-1927) of Dublin.  Coercion Bill of 1881 (Protection of Person and Property [Ireland] Act).  General election of Dec. 1918; First Dáil Eireann (Jan. 1919); Mansion House, Dublin.  Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (1808-1892), (R.C.) archbishop of Westminster.

III.  NATIONAL LEADERSHIP:  PARTY & CHURCH.  Edward McCabe (1816-1885) (R.C.) archship of Dublin.  Thomas William Croke (1824-1902), (R.C.) archbishop of Cashel.  Gaelic Athletic Association; Croke Park, Dublin.  Seán O'Faolain, An Irish Journey.  William O'Brien (1852-1928), of Mallow, Co. Cork.  Dr. O'Dwyer, (R.C.) Bishop of Limerick.

II.  THE LAND LEAGUE.  "The New Departure" = self-government + land reform.

A.  MICHAEL DAVITT (1846-1906).  Michael Davitt, born at Straide, Co. Mayo; organizing secretary of the IRB (1868); 7 years in Dartmoor.  Agricultural depression of 1879.  Parnell (8 June 1879): "Hold a firm grip of your homesteads and your land."  John Devoy and the "New Departure."  National Land League (est. August 1879).  "No just cause could succeed there [in Parliament] unless backed by physical force." (Davitt). 

B.  THE LAND LEAGUE.  The "three Fs":  fair rent, fixity of tenure (freedom from arbitrary eviction), and free sale (of improvements by the tenant).  Second Irish Land Bill:  Land Commission; Land Court.  "strong farmer."

C.  AGRARIAN VIOLENCE AND THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT.

III.  PARNELL.  Born @ Avondale, Co. Wicklow, 27 June 1846, son of a Protestant landowner of nationalist sympathies and the daughter of Admiral Stewart of the U. S. Navy; educated @ Power Magdalene College, Cambridge; MP for Co. Meath, 1875.  Joseph Biggar (1828-90) of Belfast, MP for Co. Cavan, 1874.  National Land League (1881); Second Irish Land Act (1992).  Kilmainham Treaty (March 1882).  Second Home Rule Bill (defeated 1886); Liberal Unionists.  Timothy Michael ("Tim") Healy (1855-1931); John Dillon (1851-1927).  Plan of Campaign.  Arthur J. Balfour (1848-1930), Lord Salisbury's nephew and Conservative Chief Secretary for Ireland (1887-91).

A.  THE LADIES' LAND LEAGUE.  Anna Catherine Parnell (1852-1911), younger sister to Charles Stewart Parnell ==> Central Land League of the Ladies of Ireland.  Phoenix Park Murders (May 1882).  "No Rent" policy.

B.  AN "UNCROWNED KING" AND HIS FALL.  Thomas Power O'Connor (1848-1929), Parnellite journalist.  "No man has a right to set a boundary to the march of a nation." (Parnell).  Katharine O'Shea (1845-1921); Capt. William Henry O'Shea (1840-1903).  John Redmond (1856-1918); Tim Healey (1855-1831).