121-895: The Irish Parliamentary Party ( IPP ; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party ) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt , the leader of the Nationalist Party , replacing the Home Rule League , as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland up until 1918. Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement
242-603: A Tory politician on Dublin Corporation . He was Member of Parliament for Youghal from 1852 to 1865, and for Limerick from 1871 to 1879 (at the 1852 general election he had also been elected for the English constituency of Harwich , but chose to sit for Youghal). The failed Fenian Rising in 1867 strengthened Butt's belief that a federal system was the only way to break the dreary cycle of inefficient administration punctuated by incompetent uprisings. Having defended
363-549: A federal political system for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that would give Ireland a greater degree of self-rule. This led to his involvement in Irish nationalist politics and the foundation of the Home Rule League . Butt was instrumental in fostering links between constitutional and revolutionary nationalism through his representation of members of the Fenians Society in court. He began his career as
484-424: A Catholic University. But his educational programme of 1873 did not provide for a denominational university. The Home Government Association adopted educational issues and land reform into its programme, the hierarchy then favouring a Dublin-based parliament. The increasing Catholic numbers within the association frightened off its Protestant, landlord element. The association was dissolved and Butt replaced it with
605-471: A bomb on 26 April 1897 at Aldersgate Street station which fatally injured two people. In 1868, an Irishman, Henry James O'Farrell , attempted to assassinate the Duke of Edinburgh , second son of Queen Victoria , who was visiting Sydney. O'Farrell claimed to be a Fenian but was probably a lone actor. He was hanged on 21 April 1868. The Duke recovered but the attack was used by politician Henry Parkes to wage
726-742: A breakaway IRB faction calling itself the Irish National Invincibles assassinated the British Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and his Permanent Under-secretary (chief civil servant), in an incident known as the Phoenix Park Murders . The Fenian Brotherhood , the Irish Republican Brotherhood's US branch, was founded by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny , both of whom had been "out" (participating in
847-565: A corner of the Church of Ireland cemetery beneath a tree by which he used to sit and dream as a boy. Despite his chaotic lifestyle and political limitations, Butt was capable of inspiring deep personal loyalty. Some of his friends, such as John Butler Yeats (father of the poet W. B. Yeats ) and the future Catholic Bishop of Limerick , Edward Thomas O'Dwyer , retained a lasting hostility towards Parnell for his role in Butt's downfall. In May 2010
968-577: A minority in Ireland and would have largely voted Conservative . He also introduced his first land bill which led to the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 , implementing limited tenant rights , thereby impinging on the powers of the Irish landlords to indiscriminately evict tenant farmers. At first the Catholic hierarchy supported Gladstone supervising Irish affairs, hoping to gain financial aid for
1089-635: A nationalist parliament in Dublin under their control would impose tariffs on industry. While most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six of the counties in Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff barriers imposed. It resulted in the revival of the Orange Order to resist Home Rule and the forming of an Irish Unionist Party . With the Conservatives playing
1210-577: A new united Irish Parliamentary Party. Redmond, leader of the smaller INL group, was chosen as its leader mainly due to the personal rivalries between the INF's Anti-Parnellite leaders. After the party returned 77 MPs in the 1900 general election a period of considerable political development followed. The UIL, explicitly designed to reconcile the fragmented party, was accepted as the parliamentary nationalists' main support organisation, with which O'Brien intensified his campaign of agrarian agitation. Encouraged by
1331-564: A perceived threat to turn what they saw as "decent civilised" society on its head by movements such as trade unionism seeking to change the existing social order in the United Kingdom . James Stephens , one of the "Men of 1848" (a participant in the 1848 revolt ), had established himself in Paris, and was in correspondence with John O'Mahony in the United States and other advanced nationalists at home and abroad. This would include
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#17327651291391452-632: A role in Irish politics. With the Land League suppressed and internally fracturing, Parnell resurrected it in October as the Irish National League (INL). It combined moderate agrarianism, a Home Rule programme with electoral functions. It was hierarchical and autocratic in structure with Parnell wielding immense authority and direct parliamentary control. Parliamentary constitutionalism was the future path. The informal alliance between
1573-585: A sectarian campaign against Catholics and people of Irish origin. Later in 1868, the Hougoumont , the last convict ship to Australia, arrived in Western Australia carrying 62 Fenian prisoners convicted in England. Over the next decade, most were released and many chose to go to America. By 1876 only six remained in custody, and in that year they were freed in a daring rescue mission organised by
1694-591: A truce not dissimilar to truces to follow, marked a critical turning point in Parnell's leadership, though it resulted in losing the support of Devoy's American-Irish. However, his political diplomacy preserved the national Home Rule movement after the Phoenix Park Murders in May of the Chief Secretary for Ireland and his Under Secretary. For the next twenty years Fenians and physical-force militancy ceased to play
1815-550: A wealthy New York City dry-goods merchant, more closely allied with the Democratic-Party machine. It was Roberts' faction that sponsored the plan to invade Canada and hold it hostage for the liberation of Ireland. In 1867 there was a further challenge to O'Mahony from the new IRB exile David Bell , and his weekly the Irish Republic . In contrast to Roberts, Bell, committed to black suffrage and to Reconstruction,
1936-580: A wreath. Fenian The word Fenian ( / ˈ f iː n i ə n / ) served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood . They were secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic . In 1867, they sought to coordinate raids into Canada from
2057-419: The 1880 general election , sixty-four Home Rulers were elected, twenty-seven Parnell supporters, facilitating in May his nomination as leader of a divided Home Rule Party and of a country on the brink of a land war. He immediately understood that supporting land agitation was a means to achieving his objective of self-government. The Conservatives under Disraeli had been defeated in the election and Gladstone
2178-464: The 1895 general election , now in coalition and remaining in office until 1905. During those years Home Rule was not on their agenda. Instead, with Arthur Balfour 's Constructive Unionism approach to settling the Irish Question they enacted many important reforms introduced by the Irish members, who, on the other hand, made no effort to settle their party differences. This bred apathy amongst
2299-586: The All-for-Ireland League (AFIL). During the previous years many notable Acts of social legislation were pressed for and passed in Ireland's interest: In the January 1910 United Kingdom general election ( January 1910 general election in Ireland ), the Liberals lost their majority, and became dependent on the Irish (IPP and AFIL) Party's 84 seats. Redmond , holding the balance of power in
2420-789: The December general election , the Irish electorate of nearly two million had a threefold increase under the Representation of the People Act 1918 . Women were granted franchise for the first time (confined to those over thirty) and a vote to every male over twenty-one years of age. This increased the number of voters from 30% to 75% of all adults. The Irish Parliamentary Party was for the first time confronted with double opponents from both Unionists and Sinn Féin (the Irish Labour Party founded in 1912 did not participate). In
2541-649: The Fianna of Irish mythology —groups of legendary warrior-bands associated with Fionn mac Cumhail . Mythological tales of the Fianna became known as the Fenian Cycle . In the 1860s, opponents of Irish nationalism within the British political establishment sometimes used the term "Fenianism" to refer to any form of mobilisation among the Irish or to those who expressed any Irish nationalist sentiments, or questioned
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#17327651291392662-803: The Gaelic League in cultural affairs. He never tried to understand the forces emerging in Ulster. Redmond was further weakened in 1914 by the formation by Sinn Féin members of the militaristic Irish Volunteers . His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienated many Catholics. His party had been increasingly hollowed out, and the major crises—notably the Easter Rising in 1916 and the Conscription crisis of 1918—were enough to destroy it. Redmond died in March 1918 and John Dillon took over
2783-730: The Home Rule League , formed after a conference in Dublin in November 1873. Gladstone unexpectedly called a general election in 1874 , which helped bring the League to the foreground. Under the Ballot Act 1872 , votes in general election were to be cast in private for the first time. The League put denominational education, land reform and release of political prisoners at the centre of the movement. It had difficulty finding reliable candidates to support its Home Rule issue, though succeeded in winning sixty Irish seats, many with ex-Liberals. After
2904-636: The Manchester Martyrs , were executed in Salford for their attack on a police van to release Fenians held captive earlier that year. On 13 December 1867, the Fenians exploded a bomb in attempt to free one of their members being held on remand at Clerkenwell Prison in London . The explosion damaged nearby houses, killed 12 people and caused 120 injuries. None of the prisoners escaped. The bombing
3025-616: The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 , before its repeal in January 2018. The use of Fenian as a term of abuse has also been documented when Celtic play outside Scotland. In 2013, AFC Ajax was fined €25,000 by UEFA when its supporters displayed a banner reading "Fenian Bastards" at a match between the sides at the Amsterdam Arena on 6 November that year. The term
3146-605: The Phoenix National and Literary Society , with Jeremiah O'Donovan (afterwards known as O'Donovan Rossa ) among its more prominent members, which had been formed recently at Skibbereen . Along with Thomas Clarke Luby , John O'Leary and Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17 March 1858 in Lombard Street, Dublin . The Fenian Rising in 1867 proved to be a "doomed rebellion", poorly organised and with minimal public support. Most of
3267-633: The Protestant Ascendancy (such as by advocating for the rights of tenant farmers ). The political establishment often applied the term in this sense—inaccurately—to the unrelated Tenant Right League , the Irish National Land League and the Irish Parliamentary Party , who did not advocate explicitly for an independent Irish Republic or for the use of force. The establishment warned people about
3388-692: The Triple Entente and the Allied cause ). The Volunteers split on the issue of support for the British and Allied war effort. The majority (over 142,000) formed the National Volunteers , compared to roughly 10,000 who stayed with the original organisation. Though initially there was a surge in voluntary enlistment for the Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of Kitchener's New Service Army formed for
3509-467: The West-Cork by-election of October 1916. The tide then changed after it lost three by-elections in 1917 to the more physical-force republican Sinn Féin movement, which in the meantime had built up 1,500 organised clubs around Ireland and exceeded the strength of the old UIL , most of the latter members now joining the new movement. At the end of the war in November 1918 when elections were announced for
3630-820: The Western Front . The party was taken by surprise by the Easter Rising in April 1916, launched by the section of the Irish Volunteers who had remained in the original organisation. The Volunteers, infiltrated to a large degree by the separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood , declared an Irish Republic and took over much of the centre of Dublin. The rebellion in Dublin was put down in a week of fighting with about 500 deaths. The manner in which British General Maxwell dealt with its leaders won sympathy for their cause. A total of 16 were shot within weeks of
3751-648: The Young Ireland rebellion ) in 1848. In the face of nativist suspicion, it quickly established an independent existence, although it still worked to gain Irish American support for armed rebellion in Ireland. Initially, O'Mahony ran operations in the US, sending funds to Stephens and the IRB in Ireland. In 1865, O'Mahony's leadership was challenged and the movement was split by a faction led by William B. Roberts,
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3872-496: The "Ulster card", and sections of the Liberal faction voting against the bill, Gladstone hinted that eventually a separate solution for Ulster might need to be sought. His observation echoed far into the next century. The Liberal Party split on the issue of Irish Home Rule. With the defeat of his Home Rule bill, Gladstone was granted a general election for July 1886 , the result swinging in the other direction. The Conservatives were
3993-495: The "party pledge" in 1884 decisively reinforced that each member was required to sit, act and vote with the party, one of the first instances of a whip ( Richard Power ) in western politics. The members were also paid stipends, or expense allowances from party funds, which helped both to increase parliamentary turnout and enabled middle-class members such as William O'Brien or later D. D. Sheehan attend parliament, long before other MPs first received state pay in 1911. The profiles of
4114-469: The (IRB) Fenians who rallied to him. He was married in June 1891 to Mrs O'Shea. After an election tour in the west of Ireland, his health deteriorated seriously, and he died in October in their Brighton home. His funeral in Dublin was attended by 200,000 people. In his speeches he was convinced of an Ireland completely separated from Britain, but was ambiguous, never committing himself nor distancing himself, from
4235-525: The 105 Irish MPs had changed considerably since 1868 when 69% were landlords or the sons of landlords, reduced to 47% by 1874. Those with professional backgrounds increased from 10% to 23% in the same period, by the early 1890s professionals exceeding 50%. Now at his height Parnell pressed Gladstone to resolve the Irish Question with Home Rule, but the Liberals were divided. Parnell then sided with
4356-514: The 1874 general election, forty-six members assembled in Dublin and organised themselves into a separate Irish parliamentary party in the Commons. The political outlook appeared encouraging at first, but the party was unable to achieve anything, the Liberals and Gladstone having lost the election. Isaac Butt made some well-received speeches but failed to persuade any of the major parties to support bills beneficial to Ireland, nothing worthwhile reaching
4477-539: The AOH, though the party's attempts to crush out Healyite and O'Brienite 'factionism' were carried out through its national organisation, the UIL. The 1906 general election saw the Liberals back in power with 379 seats, an overwhelming majority of 88 over all other parties, after they had promised Home Rule. Redmond's IPP now with 82 seats, at first delighted until the Liberals backed down on Home Rule, knowing it had no chance in
4598-657: The Act, may almost be said to have been too great a success as it resulted in a rush of landlords to sell and of tenants to buy. Dillon, the deputy party leader, disfavoured the Act because he opposed any negotiations with landlords, Michael Davitt objected to peasant proprietorship, demanding land nationalisation. Together with Thomas Sexton editor of the party's Freeman's Journal , they campaigned against O'Brien, ferociously attacking him for putting Land Purchase and Conciliation before Home Rule. O'Brien's appeal to Redmond to suppress their opposition went unheeded. After stating that he
4719-825: The British North America colonies to consider a more centralised defence for mutual protection, ultimately realised through Canadian Confederation . The Fenians in England and the British Empire were a major threat to political stability. In the late 1860s, the IRB control centre was in Lancashire. In 1868, the Supreme Council of the IRB, the provisional government of the Irish Republic, was restructured. The four Irish provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Ulster and Munster), along with Scotland,
4840-566: The Chief Secretary George Wyndham and initiated by moderate landlords led by Lord Dunraven the December 1902 Land Reform Conference followed, which successfully aimed at a settlement by conciliatory agreement between landlord and tenant. O'Brien, Redmond, T. W. Russell (who spoke for Ulster tenant-farmers) and Timothy Harrington represented the tenant side. Its outcome became the basis for O'Brien orchestrating
4961-417: The Church of Ireland (Anglican) parishes of Stranorlar, Meenglass and Kilteevogue instigated an annual memorial Service and Lecture in Butt's honour, inviting members of the professions of law, politics and journalism to reflect aspects of his life. Speakers have included Dr. Joe Mulholland, Senator David Norris, Dr. Chris McGimpsey and Prof. Brian Walker. His grave has been restored and the memorial now includes
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5082-410: The Commons, renewed the old "Liberal Alliance" this time with H. H. Asquith as Prime Minister (the Labour Party also supported the government). Asquith needed the support of Irish MPs to pass the People's Budget and, after a second general election in December 1910 had produced almost exactly the same result, he had no choice but to agree to a new Home Rule Bill. The Parliament Act 1911 abolished
5203-424: The Conservatives. Gladstone's second government fell, and Lord Salisbury's Conservatives formed an administration. Both parties now courted Parnell. The result of Parnell's reforms and reorganisation were fully reflected in the general election of November–December 1885 . This election was the first to be fought under the extended suffrage of the 1884 Reform Act . The Reform Act had increased from 220,000 to 500,000
5324-413: The Dáil's unilateral existence, which led to the War of Independence . The government remained committed to introducing Home Rule in Ireland, and in 1921 implemented the Fourth Home Rule Act , which partitioned Ireland into Northern Ireland and a non-functioning Southern Ireland before the Anglo-Irish Treaty . Isaac Butt Isaac Butt QC MP (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879)
5445-429: The Fenian movement in Montreal (and who was later suspected of being a government spy), was a case in point. In public, he proclaimed his loyalty to the queen and called for an Irish militia company to defend Canada against the Fenians. In private, he wrote that the real purpose of an Irish militia company would be to assist the Fenian invasion, adding for good measure that if the government denied his request he would raise
5566-832: The Fenian prisoners in 1867 still stood in his favour. However, soon a Belfast Home Ruler, Joseph Gillis Biggar (then a senior member of the IRB ), began making extensive use of the ungentlemanly tactic of "obstructionism" to prevent bills being passed by the house. When Parnell entered Parliament he took his cue from John O'Connor Power and Joseph Biggar and allied himself with those Irish members who would support him in his obstructionist campaign. MPs at that time could stand up and talk for as long as they wished on any subject. This caused havoc in Parliament. In one case they talked for 45 hours non-stop, stopping any important bills from being passed. Butt, ageing, and in failing health, could not keep up with this tactic and considered it counter-productive. In July 1877 Butt threatened to resign from
5687-482: The IPP leadership. In March the German spring offensive overran part of the British front. Lloyd George's cabinet took a dual policy decision by, clumsily linking implementing Home Rule with alleviating the severe manpower shortage by extending conscription to Ireland. The Irish party withdrew in protest from Westminster and returned to Ireland to join forces with other national organisations in massed anti-conscription demonstrations in Dublin. Although conscription
5808-421: The IRB in the United States. The ship Catalpa was sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Fremantle, Western Australia, a distance of some 12,000 miles, and took the men back to the United States. The rescue caused a worldwide sensation and sparked several ballads. In Northern Ireland, Fenian is used by some as a derogatory word for Irish Catholics; in 2012, British National Party leader Nick Griffin
5929-401: The Irish economy such as sparse employment, low productivity, and misallocation of land. He dissented from the established Ricardian theories and favoured some welfare state concepts. As editor he made the Dublin University Magazine a leading Irish journal of politics and literature. Butt was born in 1813 in Glenfin, a district bordering the Finn Valley in County Donegal in Ulster ,
6050-553: The Irish party. Butt considered obstructionism a threat to democracy; in practice, its greatest achievement was to help bring Parnell to the fore of the political scene. An internal struggle began between Butt's majority and Parnell's minority leading to a rift in the party; Parnell determined to obtain control of the Home Rule League. Parnell first worked successfully to have Fenians freed who missed out on Gladstone's earlier amnesty, including Michael Davitt . After his release in 1877, Davitt travelled to America to meet John Devoy ,
6171-474: The Irish public towards politics, much needed financial contributions from America ebbing away. In this period of political disarray and disunity of purpose young Irish nationalists turned instead to the country's new cultural and militant movements, enabling the Church to fill the political vacuum. The unresolved land reform situation was again the mainspring for renewed political activity. William O'Brien had withdrawn from parliament to Mayo and in 1898, driven by
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#17327651291396292-435: The Irish-American officers who landed at Cork , in the expectation of commanding an army against the British, were imprisoned; sporadic disturbances around the country were easily suppressed by the police, army and local militias. In the aftermath, Fenian assassination circles were active in Cork and in Dublin and were responsible for shooting two officers of the Dublin Metropolitan Police on duty in October 1867. In 1882,
6413-460: The Land Act", from where the No Rent Manifesto was issued calling for a national tenant farmer rent strike which was partially followed. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely. In April 1882 Parnell moved to make a deal with the government. The settlement involved withdrawing the manifesto and undertaking to move against agrarian crime, seeing militancy would never win Home Rule. The so-called Kilmainham Treaty ,
6534-409: The League in the hands of his lieutenants Timothy Harrington as Secretary, William O'Brien editor of its newspaper United Ireland and Tim Healy . Parnell's new Irish Parliamentary Party emerged swiftly as a tightly disciplined—one author described it as "a regiment led by C. S. Parnell and by Michael Davitt" and on the whole, energetic body of parliamentarians with strict rules. The inauguration of
6655-576: The League, with more radical ideas than most of the incumbent Home Rulers, and was elected to Parliament in a by-election in County Meath in 1875. Butt had failed to win substantial concessions at Westminster on the things that mattered to most Irish people: an amnesty for the Fenians of 1867, fixity of tenure for tenant-farmers and Home Rule. Although they worked to get Home Rulers elected, many Fenians along with tenant farmers were dissatisfied with Butt's gentlemanly approach to have bills enacted, although they did not openly attack him, as his defence of
6776-410: The Lords. The IPP rift with O'Brien deepened after he helped guide the Bryce 1906 Labourers (Ireland) Act through parliament, which provided large-scale government funding for a programme of extensive rural social housing. In the following five years over 40,000 labourer owned cottages standing on an acre of land and purchases at low annual annuities, were erected by Local County Councils. The Act, and
6897-418: The National League was out of contact with him and primarily concerned with its own vested interests, keeping up local agitation during the Plan of Campaign to further the not-fully-resolved land question, and leading Liberal voters to slowly increase their support for Home Rule. Parnell successfully exposed an attempt to use the forged Pigott Papers to associate him and his party with crime and violence; he
7018-413: The Orange Order in mass demonstrations determined to ensure that Home Rule would not apply for them. Nationalists in turn formed their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers to enforce Home Rule. The initiative for a series of meetings leading up to the public inauguration of the Volunteers came from the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The Volunteers had 180,000 members by May 1914. Redmond, worried by
7139-435: The Rising and another hanged several weeks later. The Rising began the decline of constitutional nationalism as represented by the IPP and the ascent of a more radical separatist form of Irish nationalism. John Redmond, protesting at the severity of the state's response to the Rising, wrote to Asquith, "if any more executions take place, Ireland will become impossible for any Constitutional Party or leader". Further problems for
7260-408: The Second Home Rule Bill, warned to no avail, that if adequate provisions were not made for Ulster, All-Ireland self-government would never be achieved. The Bill was the centre of intense parliamentary debate and controversy throughout 1913–1914 before it passed its final reading in May, denounced by the O'Brienite Party as a "partition deal" after Carson forced through an Amending Bill providing for
7381-487: The Union with the United Kingdom was economically best for Ireland, and for Protestants, now that Devlin's paramilitary AOH organisation had saturated the entire island, fearing a Church dominated nationalist government, it was a disaster. After the Bill passed its first readings in 1913, Ulster Unionists ' opposition became a repeat scenario of events in 1886 and 1893, their leader Sir Edward Carson approving of an Ulster Volunteer militia to oppose Home Rule. Unionists and
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#17327651291397502-406: The United States with a rising in Ireland . In the 1916 Easter Rising and the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence , the IRB led the republican struggle. Fenianism ( Irish : Fíníneachas ), according to O'Mahony, embodied two principles: firstly, that Ireland had a natural right to independence, and secondly, that this right could be won only by an armed revolution. The name originated with
7623-468: The age of fifteen, where he was elected a Scholar , and president of the (extern) College Historical Society . Whilst there he co-founded the Dublin University Magazine and edited it for four years. For much of his life he was a member of the Irish Conservative Party , and he founded the conservative Ulster Times newspaper. He became Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity in 1836 and held that position until 1841. After being called to
7744-411: The bar in 1838, Butt quickly established a name for himself as a brilliant barrister . He was known for his opposition to the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell 's campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union. He also lectured at Trinity College, Dublin, in political economy. His experiences during the Great Famine led him to move from being an Irish unionist and an Orangeman to supporting
7865-456: The club has thus been associated with Irish nationalism, symbolised by the almost universal flying of the Irish Tricolour during matches. Other Scottish clubs that have Irish roots, such as Hibernian and Dundee United , do not tend to have the term applied to them, however. The term is now firmly rooted within the Old Firm rivalry between Celtic and Rangers . Use of the term as a religious slur carried criminal penalties in some contexts under
7986-445: The country." When the war situation worsened, a new Conservative-Liberal coalition government was formed in May 1915. Redmond was offered a seat in its cabinet, which he declined. This was welcomed in Ireland but greatly weakened his position after his rival, unionist leader Carson accepted a cabinet post. As the war prolonged, the IPP's image suffered from the horrific casualties at the Cape Helles landings at Gallipoli as well as on
8107-412: The cry of anti-Irish Catholic discrimination and bring more of his aggrieved countrymen into the Fenian Brotherhood. A suspected Fenian, Patrick J. Whelan , was hanged in Ottawa for the assassination of Irish Canadian politician, Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868, who had been a member of the Irish Confederation in the 1840s. The danger posed by the Fenian raids was an important element in motivating
8228-496: The demise of the actual party (O'Connor being returned unopposed in the elections of 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1929). The IPP emerged from the 1885 general election holding the balance of power. The Liberals had won 335 seats, but the IPP's 86 seats were enough to keep the 249 Conservatives in power for the time being. Early in 1886, Gladstone declared himself in favour of Home Rule. Parnell's party changed sides, allowing Gladstone to form his third government. Gladstone introduced
8349-521: The divided Home Rulers holding the balance of power. He brought in his promised second Home Rule Bill in 1893. It was master-handled through three readings of the Commons by William O'Brien and passed in September by 301 votes to 267, during which Unionist conventions called in Dublin and Belfast to oppose the bill, denounced the possibility of partition. A week later 419 peers in the Lords rejected it, only 41 supporting. Gladstone retired in 1894. The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists returned to power in
8470-447: The east. In November 1873 Butt replaced the Association with a new body, the Home Rule League , which he regarded as a pressure-group, rather than a political party. In the general election the following year, 60 of its members were elected, forming then in 1874 the Irish Parliamentary Party . However, most of those elected were men of property who were closer to the Liberal cause. In the meantime Charles Stewart Parnell had joined
8591-403: The exclusion of Ulster, permanent or provisional to be negotiated, which ultimately led to the partition of Ireland. This was deeply resented among northern nationalists and southern unionists who felt themselves abandoned. The Government of Ireland Act 1914 received Royal Assent in September 1914, celebrated with bonfires across southern Ireland. The outbreak of World War I in August led to
8712-560: The fact that the division did not have its own specific uniforms, was an unpopular decision. The War Office also reacted with suspicion to Redmond's remark that the Volunteers would soon return as an armed army to oppose Ulster's resistance to Home Rule. Around 24,000 of the National Volunteers did enlist but the remainder, or about 80% did not. Moreover, the organisation declined due to lack of training and organisation as
8833-662: The fight should be made early in 1867. Some thousands of rifles were afterwards sent to Ireland, but arrived too late to be of any use in the Rising. In Canada, Fenian is used to designate a group of Irish radicals, a.k.a. the American branch of the Fenian Brotherhood in the 1860s. They made several attempts to invade some parts of the British colonies of New Brunswick (i.e., Campobello Island ) and Canada (present-day Southern Ontario and Missisquoi County ), with
8954-530: The first Home Rule Bill 1886 and, after a long and fierce debate, made a remarkable Home Rule Speech , beseeching parliament to pass the bill which was, however, defeated by 341 to 311 votes. The Bill caused serious riots in Belfast during the summer and autumn of 1886, in which many were killed. Since 1882, Parnell's successful drive for Home Rule created great anxiety amongst Protestants and Unionists north and south alike, fearing Catholic intolerance from
9075-471: The follow-on Birrell Labourers Act of 1911, housed over a quarter of a million rural labourers and their families and thereby transformed the Irish countryside. In 1907 Richard Hazleton became the new party secretary. Outside the party at this time were the MPs William O'Brien, Sir Thomas Esmonde , T. M. Healy, Charles Dolan , John O'Donnell , Augustine Roche and D. D. Sheehan. Proposals to reunite
9196-522: The former Parnellite Irish National League (INL) under John Redmond and John Dillon's anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation (INF). By-elections in 1891 were fought with bitter venom by the INF anti-Parnellites, Dillon and Healy making extremely personal attacks on Parnell. The INF was also supported by the Catholic clergy who went to aggressive extremes to ensure that INF candidates were returned. Parnell worked untiringly between Ireland and Britain making speeches for support which he actually got from
9317-535: The growth of nationalist mass movement outside the Party, quickly tried to take control of the Volunteers. He demanded and was given a position on its leadership council and rapidly filled its ranks with IPP supporters. Redmond and his IPP nationalists, as later those who succeeded them in 1919, had little or no knowledge of Belfast, underestimating Unionist resistance as a bluff, insisting "Ulster will have to follow". William O'Brien who in 1893 worked closely on passing
9438-564: The interest of the Protestant landlord class. It was inspired by the success in the 1868 general election of William Ewart Gladstone and his Liberal Party under the slogan Justice for Ireland , in which the Liberals won 65 of the 105 Irish seats at Westminster. Gladstone said his mission was to pacify Ireland. The Irish Church Act 1869 provided for the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland , whose members were
9559-485: The largest party and were able to form a minority government with the loose support of the Liberal faction opposed to Home Rule, the Liberal Unionist Party . The Irish Party retained 85 seats and, in the years up to 1889, centred itself around the formidable figure of Parnell, who continued to pursue Home Rule, striving to reassure English voters that it would be of no threat to them. During that period,
9680-780: The leaders of the Fenian revolt, Butt then from June 1869 became president of the Amnesty Association formed to secure the release of imprisoned Fenians, supported actively amongst others by P. F. Johnson . In 1870 Butt then founded the Irish Home Government Association . This was in no sense a revolutionary organisation. It was designed to mobilise public opinion behind the demand for an Irish parliament, with, as he put it, "full control over our domestic affairs". He believed that Home Rule would promote friendship between Ireland and her neighbour to
9801-496: The leading Irish-American Fenian and raise funds. During 1878 Parnell also met with leading members of the Irish American Fenians. In October Devoy agreed to a New Departure of separating militancy from the constitutional movement in order to further its path to Home Rule. Throughout 1879 Parnell continued to campaign for land reform and when Davitt founded the Irish National Land League in October 1879 Parnell
9922-472: The new, tightly disciplined National League and the Catholic Church was one of the main factors for the revitalisation of the national Home Rule cause after 1882. Parnell saw that the explicit endorsement of Catholicism was of vital importance to the success of this venture. At the end of 1882 the organisation already had 232 branches, in 1885 increased to 592 branches. He left the day-to-day running of
10043-581: The nominees to Parliament. Now they were selected by the local party organisations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he had little control. Redmond was an excellent representative of the old Ireland, but grew increasingly out-dated as he paid little attention to the new forces attracting younger Irishman, such as Sinn Féin , and the Ancient Order of Hibernians in politics, the Gaelic Athletic Association in sports, and
10164-572: The north and south of England and London, had representatives on the council. Later four honorary members were co-opted. The Council elected three members to the executive. The President was chairman, the Treasurer managed recruitment and finance, and the Secretary was director of operations. There were IRB Circles in every major city in England. On 23 November 1867, three Fenians, William Philip Allen, Michael O'Brian, and Michael Larkin, known as
10285-836: The northern province in Ireland . Glenfin is a short distance west of Ballybofey , a town in East Donegal. He was born into an Ulster Protestant family, being the son of a Church of Ireland rector , and was descended from the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell , through the Ramsays. Butt received his secondary school education at The Royal School in Raphoe in the Laggan district of East Donegal , and at Midleton College in County Cork , before going to Trinity College Dublin (TCD), at
10406-623: The number of Irishmen who had a right to vote, many of whom were small farmers. The election increased the total Irish Party representation from 63 to 85 seats, which included seventeen in Ulster. In January 1886 the INL had developed to 1,262 branches and could claim to contain the vast body of Irish Catholic public sentiment. It acted not merely as an electoral committee for the Irish Party, but as local law-giver, unofficial parliament, government, police and supreme court. Parnell's personal authority in
10527-540: The organisation was enormous. The INL was a formidable political machine built in the traditional political culture of rural Ireland. It was an alliance of tenant farmers, shopkeepers and publicans. No one could stand against it. The party secured a seat in the English city of Liverpool , which contains a large Irish Catholic community. T. P. O'Connor won the Liverpool Scotland seat in 1885 and retained it in every election until his death in 1929 – even after
10648-779: The party followed Asquith's abortive attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916 which failed on the threat of partition. Again Lloyd George 's initiative to disentangle the Home Rule deadlock after Redmond called the Irish Convention in June 1917, when Southern Unionists sided with Nationalists on the issue of Home Rule, ended unresolved due to Ulster resistance. In sharp contrast to Parnell, John Redmond lacked charisma. He worked well in small committees, but had little success in arousing large audiences. Parnell always chose
10769-631: The party if obstruction continued, and a gulf developed between himself and Parnell, who was growing steadily in the estimation of both the Fenians and the Home Rulers. The climax came in December 1878, when Parliament was recalled to discuss the war in Afghanistan . Butt considered this discussion too important to the British Empire to be interrupted by obstructionism and publicly warned the Irish members to refrain from this tactic. He
10890-599: The party was dissolved. The remnants of the IPP later re-established itself with six members to form the Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland under Joe Devlin . Twenty-seven of the newly elected Sinn Féin MPs assembled in Dublin on 21 January 1919 and formed an Irish parliament, or Dáil Éireann of a self-declared Irish Republic . Their remaining MPs were either still imprisoned or impaired. The UK state did not recognise
11011-645: The party were made by Redmond and a meeting summoned for the Mansion House, Dublin in April 1908. O'Brien and others rejoined the party temporarily for the sake of unity. But on his demand for further treasury funding for land purchase, O'Brien was ultimately driven out for good at a Dublin Convention in February 1909 by the party's vigorous militant support organisation, Devlin's "Hibernians". After which O'Brien founded his own political party in March 1909,
11132-400: The past the IPP only faced opposition from candidates at conventions within the Home Rule movement. It never had to compete a nationwide election, so that the party branches and organisation had slowly declined. In most constituencies the new young local Sinn Féin organisation controlled the electoral scene well in advance of the election. As a result, in 25 constituencies the IPP did not contest
11253-541: The plight of the farming community's need for more land, formed together with Davitt a new land movement, the United Irish League (UIL). It quickly spread first in the west, the following year nationwide like the old Land League and attracted members from all factions of the two split parties, O'Brien threatening to displace them and take them both over. The outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899
11374-571: The raids continuing after these colonies had been confederated . The ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage and therefore be in a position to blackmail the United Kingdom to give Ireland its independence. Because of the invasion attempts, support or collaboration for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even among the Irish . Francis Bernard McNamee, the man who started
11495-521: The round-up of the IRB leadership in Dublin the previous year, but still promised that "The Irish flag—the flag of the Irish Republic—will float in an Irish breeze before New Year's Day, 1867." At the close of 1866, a conference of the refugees of the IRB and many of the American officers who had been in Ireland was held in New York and presided over by Stephens, at which the decision was taken that
11616-556: The seats, and Sinn Féin candidates were returned unopposed. The Party lost 78 of its 84 seats. This was due to the "first past the post" British electoral system. Votes cast for the IPP were 220,837 (21.7%) for merely 6 seats (down from 84 out of 105 seats in 1910). Sinn Féin votes were 476,087 (or 46.9%) for 48 seats, plus 25 uncontested totalling an 73 seats. Unionist (including Unionist Labour) votes were 305,206 (30.2%) – by which Unionists increased their representation from 19 to 26 seats. The Irish Party leader Dillon lost his seat and
11737-634: The statute books. A minor group of impatient young Irish members, the genuine "Home-Rulers" distanced themselves from Butt's lack of assertiveness and, led by Charles Stewart Parnell , Joseph Biggar , John O'Connor Power , Edmund Dwyer Gray , Frank Hugh O'Donnell and John Dillon , some of whom had close connections with the Fenian movement, adopted the method of parliamentary " obstructionism " during 1876–1877, to bring Westminster out of its complacency towards Ireland by proposing amendments to almost every bill and making lengthy overnight speeches. This did not bring Home Rule closer, but helped to revitalise
11858-529: The suspension of the Home Rule Act for the duration of the war, expected to only last a year. Ireland's involvement in the war defused the threat of civil war in Ireland and was to prove crucial to subsequent Irish history . After neutral Belgium had been overrun by Germany , Redmond and his party leaders, in order to ensure Home Rule would be implemented after the war, called on the Irish Volunteers to support Britain's war effort (her commitment under
11979-433: The unprecedented Wyndham Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 through parliament, which enabled tenant farmers to buy out their landlord's land at favourable annuities, while giving the landlords a premium price. The last landlords sold out in the 1920s, thus ending the age-old Irish land question . The masterful strategy adopted by William O'Brien of bringing about agreement on land purchase between tenants and landlords under
12100-534: The use of physical-force. In the 1892 general election that followed, Redmond's Parnellites won a third of the Home Rule/nationalist votes (18.2% Parnellites v. 58.9% for anti-Parnellites) but only nine seats, the anti-Parnellites returned 72 MPs divided between Dillonites and a fragmented minority of six Healyites – the People's Rights Association. Gladstone and the Liberals were again in power,
12221-449: The veto of the House of Lords over most matters and limited them to a two-year delaying power, ensuring that Redmond's reward of a Government of Ireland Bill for the whole of Ireland introduced in 1912 would subsequently achieve national self-government in Dublin by 1914. This prospect after 40 years of struggle was greeted optimistically, even when self-government was initially limited to running Irish affairs. But for Unionists, convinced
12342-561: The war went on. "The resulting collapse of the National Volunteers presaged that of the Irish Party itself, though this was less obvious. Its support for the War was gradually revealed to be a major political encumbrance." The Under Secretary for Ireland , Mathew Nathan, writing in November 1915, thought that Redmond's stance on the War ultimately cost him and his party their pre-eminent position in Irish life, "Redmond has been honestly imperial, but by going as far as he has, he has lost his position in
12463-537: The war, the enthusiasm did not last. Unlike their 36th (Ulster) Division counterparts and the Ulster Volunteers who manned it with their own trained military reserve officers, the southern Volunteers possessed no officers with previous military experience with the result that the War Office had the 16th Division led by English officers, which with the exception of Irish General William Hickie , and
12584-537: Was a political scandal for English Victorian society . Gladstone reacted by informing Parnell that if he were re-elected leader of the Irish Party, Home Rule would be withdrawn. Parnell did not disclose this to his party and was selected leader on 25 November. A special meeting of the party a week later lasted six days at the end of which 45 "anti-Parnellites" walked out, leaving him with 27 faithful followers, J. J. Clancy one of his key defenders. Both sides returned to Ireland to organise their supporters into two parties,
12705-605: Was again Prime Minister. He attempted to defuse the land question with the dual ownership Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 which failed to eliminate tenant evictions. Parnell and his party lieutenants, William O'Brien , John Dillon, Michael Davitt, Willie Redmond , went into a bitter verbal offensive and were imprisoned in October 1881 under the Irish Coercion Act in Kilmainham Jail for "sabotaging
12826-557: Was allied to the Republicans and was calling a "cleansing" of the spirits of the Irish in America: "Let our people fling off the scales of bigotry and declare that all men are entitled to 'life, liberty, and happiness.'" John Devoy records that, in the course of 1866, various conferences to reunite the various factions were held. Their efforts were to elect James Stephens as president of a united organisation. Stephens had escaped
12947-686: Was also used in an anti-Irish banner unfurled by Lazio supporters at a Champions League match against Celtic on 28 November 2023. In Australia, Fenian is used as a pejorative term for those members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) who have Australian Republican views similar to those who support Irish unification . In a speech given at the ALP Convention in Adelaide on 15 October 2006, Michael Atkinson , Attorney-General of South Australia, spoke of those members of
13068-589: Was an Irish barrister , editor, politician, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom , economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations. He was a leader in the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870, and the Home Rule League in 1873. Colin W. Reid argues that Home Rule
13189-469: Was condemned by both Irish factions; their combined opposition helped to bring about a measure of understanding between them. By 1900 the threat of O'Brien swamping and outmanoeuvring them at the upcoming elections forced the two divided parties, the INL and the INF, to re-unite. He was the prime mover and may be truly regarded as an architect of the settlement of 1900 in merging them under a new programme of agrarian agitation, political reform and Home Rule into
13310-610: Was criticised by Unionists and Republicans for tweeting the term while attending an Ulster Covenant event at Stormont , Belfast ; Griffin referred to Lambeg drums , saying "the bodran [ sic ] can't match the lambeg, you Fenian bastards". The term Fenian is used similarly in Scotland. During Scottish football matches, it is often aimed in a sectarian manner at supporters of Celtic F.C. Celtic has its roots in Glasgow 's immigrant Catholic Irish population and
13431-403: Was elected president, but did not take control of it, favouring to continue to hold mass meetings. Isaac Butt died later that year and Parnell held back in grabbing control of the party. Instead he travelled to America with John Dillon on a fund raising mission for political purposes and to relieve distress in Ireland after a world economic depression slumped the sale of agricultural produce. At
13552-474: Was fiercely denounced by the young Nationalist John Dillon , who continued his attacks with considerable support from other Home Rulers at a meeting of the Home Rule League in February 1879. Although he defended himself with dignity, Butt, and all and sundry, knew that his role in the party was at an end. Barry O'Brien , in his biography of Parnell, interviews 'X' who relates: 'It was very painful. I
13673-486: Was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills . The IPP evolved out of the Home Rule League which Isaac Butt founded after he defected from the Irish Conservative Party in 1873. The League sought to gain a limited form of freedom for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in order to manage Irish domestic affairs in
13794-617: Was later described as the most infamous action carried out by the Fenians in Great Britain in the 19th century. It enraged the public, causing a backlash of hostility in Britain which undermined efforts to establish home rule or independence for Ireland. The IRB Supreme Council condemned the bombing. The Fenians also exploded three bombs on the London Underground in 1883–1885 and were also believed to be responsible for
13915-600: Was making no headway with his policy, he resigned his parliamentary seat in November 1903. It was a serious setback for the party, at the same time turning once intimate friends into mortal enemies. O'Brien subsequently engaged during 1904–1905 with the Irish Reform Association and in 1907 with the Irish Council Bill which he viewed as a step in the right direction, or "Home Rule by instalments", equally condemned by his opponents. O'Brien's UIL
14036-459: Was never enforced in Ireland, as fresh American troops began to be deployed to France in large numbers, the threat of conscription radicalised Irish politics. Sinn Féin , the political arm of the Volunteer insurgents, had public opinion believe that they alone had prevented conscription. The Irish party held its own and returned its candidates in by-elections up to the end of 1916, the last in
14157-462: Was occasionally heckled by women with whom he had fathered children. He was also involved in a financial scandal when it was revealed that he had taken money from several Indian princes to represent their interests in parliament. He died on 5 May 1879 in Clonskeagh in Dublin. His remains were brought by train, via Strabane , to Stranorlar in the east of County Donegal , where he is buried in
14278-399: Was taken over by Dillon's protégé and ally, Joseph Devlin , a young Belfast MP, as its new secretary. Devlin had founded a decade earlier the Catholic sectarian neo-Ribbon Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), organising its rise first in Ulster and after he had control of the UIL, eventually across the south, largely displacing the UIL. The Irish Party came to have an increasing dependence on
14399-531: Was the mechanism Butt proposed to bind Ireland to Great Britain . It would end the ambiguities of the Act of Union of 1800 . He portrayed a federalised United Kingdom , which would have weakened Irish exceptionalism within a broader British context. Butt was representative of a constructive national unionism. As an economist, he made significant contributions regarding the potential resource mobilisation and distribution aspects of protection, and analysed deficiencies in
14520-408: Was very fond of Butt. He was himself the kindest-hearted man in the world, and here was I going to do the unkindest thing to him.' Butt, who had been suffering from bronchitis, had a stroke the following May and died within a week. He was replaced by William Shaw , who in turn was replaced by Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880. Butt amassed debts and pursued romances. It was said that at meetings he
14641-476: Was vindicated in February 1890. Gladstone invited Parnell to his country house ( Hawarden in Flintshire ) to discuss a renewed Home Rule bill. This was the high point of Parnell's career. However, since 1880 he had had a family relationship with a married woman Katharine O'Shea who bore him three children. Her divorce proceedings first came to court late in 1890, in which Parnell was named co-respondent. This
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