U3A Irish History Review, Fifth series, 2006

Talk Notes and References for Chapter 4

		IRELAND - HISTORY OVERVIEW Chapter 4. THE CLIMB BACK (I) The struggle for the land. Home Rule (self-government within the UK)
	1875-87	Butt, Parnell (1877) successive Irish leaders. Gladstone again attempts land reform, frustrated by House of Lords, 1880. Parnell imprisoned 1881 in Kilmainham Gaol. “My replacement will be Captain Moonlight”. Terrorism explodes. Gladstone and Parnell agree ‘Treaty of Kilmainham’. Gladstone’s great Land Act of 1881, gives Irish tenants chance to buy land, but imperfections delay its success.	Davitt’s Land League (1879) takes control of the struggle for the land from the ‘Whiteboys’. Harrington’s Plan of Campaign. Lord Erne’s agent Captain Boycott victimised, forced out, despite assistance of troops. Obstruction in the House of Commons - “If you won’t manage Ireland, we won’t allow you to run the Empire”. Phoenix Park murders almost kill Parnell-Gladstone deal.
	1850-1890	Protestant enthusiasm grows in northern Europe as Papacy opposes political developments. Sectarian divide becomes entrenched in Ulster. Protestants see themselves economically and politically, even racially superior within Ireland. They become British planters (colonists) upholding a superior civilisation against backward Celtic natives. Ulster MPs form Unionist voting bloc in Westminster, leader Saunderson.	Protestant Ulster industrialises, and prospers on the trade of the British Empire as Catholic Ireland struggles with poverty and seeks to change a pernicious social system and English domination. Preachers Cooke, Hanna and others inspire Protestants against Popery. Battle of the Brickfields, 1872, follows other sectarian-economic clashes in 1857, 64, as Protestant poor try to expel Catholic rivals.
	1885-	Gladstone adopts Home Rule (a ‘state’ government in Dublin within the UK). His Liberal Party splits, Liberal Unionists join Tories to found Conservative Party. First Home Rule Bill 1886 defeated in Commons. UK General Election fought specifically on Home Rule. Gladstone loses, Conserv-atives win. Triumphant Unionists riot, expel Catholics from Belfast shipyards.	Parnell and disciplined Irish Party in Commons campaign for Home Rule. New Salisbury Govt. appoints Balfour Chief Secretary for Ireland. ‘twenty years of resolute (stern) government’. Balfour, Wyndham, reform Land Act. Profound, silent revolution in Ireland as tenants begin to buy back land from landlords. Cromwellian Settlement reversed. Agrarian terrorism fades away.
	1887-1891	The Times newspaper 1887 accuses Parnell of approving terrorist murders, detestation by English public opinion hampers Home Rule, now uncertain.	1889. Times’ documents proved forged by Piggott. Parnell returns to Commons in triumph, now popular with English public. Home Rule now likely.
		Captain O’Shea sues wife for divorce, 1889, names Parnell co-respondent. Public morality forces Gladstone to reject ‘adulterer, fornicator’ Parnell.	Parnell urged to resign, refuses. Irish Party splits. Vicious politics (parades with ‘Kitty O’Shea’s knickers’ on a pole) leads to Parnell’s death, 1891.
	1892-5	Gladstone’s last administration. Second Home Rule Bill, 1893, passed in Commons, rejected by Lords. Gladstone retires,1895. Home Rule ‘dead’.	Republican feeling grows in Ireland among Catholics, some southern Protestants, seeking not Home Rule within UK, but total separation.
Irish History - Chapter 4 De Profundis: OUT OF THE PIT The struggle for the Land – controlling terrorism John Mitchell (soon to be an unwilling inhabitant of Australia), described the atmosphere of Ireland in 1847, the third year of the Great Famine, which itself was the worst of a series of famines, in the following terms (slightly abridged). A calm, still horror was over the land. … in the heart of the town or in the suburb, on mountain or in plain, was the stillness and heavy, pall-like feel of … death. You stood in the presence of a dread, silent, vast dissolution. An unseen ruin was creeping around you. You saw no war of classes, no open war of … foreigners… . Human passion there was none, but inhuman and unearthly quiet. At some deep, instinctive level, the survivors who did not flee their native land in horror decided to rid themselves of the individuals, the classes and the rulers who had pushed them into the pit of this cold Hell. They began with those they saw as the most guilty party, also the most accessible, the Established State Church and the titled gentlemen who were stealing the food out of their mouths. Their rejection of the first was visceral, their vengeance on the second was brutal, and the response of the Law owned and controlled by those same gentlemen was equally determined and brutal. It was a war of the State against its poorest subjects, and was called by the Irish the Land War. Their fighters were called Ribbonmen or Whiteboys, from the  fluttering white ribbons or shirts which they wore to be seen and identified by their comrades by the light of the moon. With their local leader ‘Captain Moonlight’, a latter-day Irish version of ‘Robin Hood’ who had led the Saxons of a distant century against oppression, they padded out after nightfall to do their cruel work. By day the police and soldiers came to do theirs, on a much larger scale. In the courts the magistrates and approvers filled the gallows and the prison ships, and on the roads and in the ditches the cold winds and famine finished off their sordid work.  So it continued in blood and squalor until the United Kingdom acquired as leader an intellectual giant, Prime Minister Gladstone, and the Whiteboy movement was brought under the partial influence of Charles Stuart Parnell. Gladstone was a convinced Christian with an active conscience, whose imagination rose above the current doctrines of religious and racial superiority to analyse and resolve to end the injustice of centuries. With unparalleled courage he disestablished the State Church in Ireland. He conceived an imaginative plan to buy out the now demoralised landlords who were facing ruin in an agricultural depression. He strove mightily to give Ireland a measure of local autonomy – Home Rule -  but was frustrated by his own people, in this the heyday of imperialism and triumphalism. Parnell was a Protestant of the Anglo-Irish landlord class himself, one of many through history who have embraced the cause of the country of their birth. He was as infuriatingly arrogant as his titled enemies but, unlike them, politically  intelligent and creative. Together in forced and angry collusion these two hammered out a just solution, and each fought to the end of his own life and energy for it, in the teeth of the resistance of his own obtuse class and vengeful followers. It is an inspiring story of political courage, intelligence – and crippling human weakness, ending, like Arthur’s Camelot, in bitterness and disgrace, but also in a victory for the noblest political values that will endure in the memory of all who value justice. U3A Irish History Review, Fifth series, 2006 Talk Notes and References for Chapter 4 De Profundis – The Climb Back (1). (lecture #7, 7th Aug, 2006).   If ever the image of the feckless, careless, happy-go-lucky Irishman was true, it was no longer so after the Great Famine. That event changed the psychology and the behaviour of the nation, as the survivors resolved never again to go through the experience of 1845-50. A number of struggles began in response to the Famine, or were re-defined by it. These were the struggles against Despair (alcoholism, fighting and the death of the native culture its major symptoms, self-denial, education, and the preservation of the remains of the culture its cure); against Hunger (by consolidation of holdings and control of reproductive behaviour); against Tithes (by recovery of the grain and livestock from seizure by the Established State Church); and against Landlordism (by recovery of ownership of the land, sometimes by harassment, even assassination of the landlord or his agent). The grassroots leaders of the people, the priests of the Roman Catholic church, now emerging from Maynooth and themselves mainly of humble origin, professed a stern, puritanical Jansenism that matched the grim, self sacrificing mood of their flock and encouraged them in these mighty efforts. The first and the hardest struggle the people had to win was to conquer themselves. Father Theobald Mathew (not to be confused with Mathew Talbot)  and Quaker William Martin campaigned against alcoholism A (Sullivan,A, New Ireland) 47 et seq. Edmund Rice founded the Order of the Christian Brothers, with a commando attitude to the essential task of educating the sons of the Irish Catholic poor to elevate themselves through whatever society they found themselves in. The change in marriage age and sexual behaviour was revolutionary, M (Lee, Gill History v10) 3-5 (see attachment). The only solution to producing too many mouths to feed was late marriage – there was no other method of birth control in 1850. Land-holdings too small to feed a family had to be enlarged. Younger sons (and most daughters) emigrated amid scenes of grief (the American Wake); older ones waited for parents to pass on the farm, concentrated on consolidating their holdings into viable farms, and on ensuring that improvements they made for enhanced productivity were not neutralised by rent rises. The large, often aristocratic and absentee landlords and their domestic rent collectors stood in the way of improvement, but the more immediate life-threatening problem was the seizure of food, utensils and stock by the Tithe Proctors for the State Church. Resistance began even before the Famine. The Tithe War was the nursery of the later and more important Land War. The State clergy are not going to be portrayed as unredeemed villains here – despite the sarcastic description of Swift. They and their followers are soon to make their great contribution to the revival of Irish society, but not until they have been separated, painfully, from the unjust State system. Practicalities of Tithe collection N(Townsend/Cobbett)23 – the family cow seized and auctioned (illustration). Effective alliance of State clergy and gombeen man (money lender). Conflict sparked in Carlow, 1831, spreads, D(Jackson)218-220. Tithe Composition Act transfers title to the Crown. The Viceroy’s Chief Secretary Thomas Drummond p224,  ‘property has its duties as well as its rights’ 1838. His harassment, early death 1839, his statue in Dublin City Hall – only English administrator so honoured. The issue drags on, but less dramatically, under more ‘sound’ administrators, and is finally ended by Disestablishment of the Church in 1869 by Parliament under Gladstone. L145.   Nationalist Ferment:  No progress in Westminster. ‘The Pope’s Brass Band’ D271. Sadleir and Keogh. The Young Irelanders (like  Heine in Germany, Mazzini in Italy). T. Davis D231, Dillon, C.Gavan Duffy, newspaper The Nation raising patriotic consciousness with poems, songs, A nation once again; Who fears to speak of ’98.   Abortive ‘risings’ (attempted putsches) 1848, 1865 and ‘67. Leaders like Mitchel and W. Smith O’Brien deported to Van Diemen’s Land, but treated as ‘gentlemen’ (lower orders not so lucky).  James Stephens’ ‘funeral’ 1848 C107-8. ‘School of revolution’. M. Davitt C 109. The New Departure. The Phoenix Society, O’Donovan Rossa, 1856. Meagher ‘of the Sword’ presented with new Irish national tricolor sewn by female Irish descendants of the Wild Geese in the French Republic which gives moral support. The Fenian Order  formed in America I(Johnson, Troubles)110. Recruiting Irish veterans of American Civil War. Irish cells, IRB, begin long-term project for national insurrection, I112. Precursors of later underground revolutionary crusading networks. ‘The New Departure’ of ‘Davitt and Devoy, C108-110 see below. Lateral thinking of the Fenians. Holland and the Fenian Ram. Project for invasion of Canada in order to trade it for Ireland. Rescue of Fenian prisoners from the Imperial gulag in Australia organised on three continents. The Catalpa voyage. World girdling effort. Fenian atrocities in Manchester, Clerkenwell, arouse attention. Failure of imagination (Mill, see ‘Parnell and the Land League’ in  distributed notes). Lord Salisbury’s remarks at Royal Academy speak volumes H (Morris) 395footnote, eviction scene painting ‘so breezy and busy, almost makes me wish I too could participate in an Irish eviction’. Comparable to M.Antoinette’s remark about cake – innocent(?) ignorance, but not appropriate in a Prime Minister.  Different with Gladstone L141-3 Lecture #8, 21 August 2006 The Land War, Gladstone, Parnell and Home Rule The Ascendancy, Tortured choice between two spiritual entities, Ireland and Empire.   H (Morris, Heaven’s Command)  Chap 24 The Rebel Prince, p394+, a succinct, very readable summary. Ascendancy and Landlordism not identical. The swashbuckling, eccentric, dangerous, talented Ascendancy – a warrior  caste of Empire, shaped by Ireland, after 200 years, more than they knew, or would ever admit, but obvious to outsiders.   Landlordism, its unrestrained power. Parliament has trapped itself by continually extending it, stopping all loopholes. Even local authorities cannot deflect or restrain it. – a real Frankenstein monster.  Glenveigh, April 1861, A (Sullivan) Chap 19, p218+, Relevance to Australia, survivors brought out. Donegal Relief Fund (DRF).  Shipping documents ie passenger list of The ‘Abyssinian’ May 1862, marked DRF relevant for Australian descendants. Gladstone extends ‘Ulster Custom’ by law countrywide 1870 D326-7. The Kerry Election 1872 A358+.  Landlord intimidation outmanoeuvred. Twin Irish Struggles, one peaceful, constitutional, Parliamentary, one violent, clandestine, rural. Parnell rode both, like a circus horseman. The Land War economic causes of, D318-19, American wheat shipments, Australian wool, Argentine beef?, crop failures 1879 – real starvation – another Famine looms? The Viceroy’s vision for Ireland’s future – ‘fruitful mother of flocks and herds’ (where is the ‘P’ word??).  Is this to be a repeat of the Highland or the Famine Clearances? An eviction A120-4. Revenge A104+ (‘Cut’ Quinlan). The Land War used the tactics of the Tithe War. Whiteboyism, Ribbonmen, unco-ordinated local grassroots movements. Comments on, D268-9. The Gregorys and the Land War (new sinister meaning of ‘When it’s Moonlight in Mayo’), U 27-8, Wilfred Blunt. Captain Boycott (1880). Michael Davitt tries to bring the chaos under political control C108-110, D320. The Land League 1879 (with Parnell as President), achieves partial control, but only Westminster can stop the growing conflict between State and people. Does it want to? Isaac Butt leads Irish Party in Commons I116. Nice, anglophile gentleman, thinks reason and good manners will persuade Parl’t, which brushes his efforts aside year after year with amused contempt, and imposes Coercion laws without debate. Parnell’s takeover in alliance with Biggar 1879 p116 et seq. Confrontation and obstruction forces Parl’t’s, public’s indignant attention H400+.  Parnell most hated man in England (but loved in Ireland) imprisoned 403-4. Kilmainham Treaty I120. Second Land Act 1881 (100,000 in-arrears tenants not covered ). The Times Letters affair, (1887) I 122. Piggott unmasked. Parnell returns in triumph to Westminster. Home Rule, sponsored by Gladstone and Parnell,  now irresistible (1890) I123. New bombshell - the O’Shea divorce. Parnell ruined, dies 1891, Gladstone retires. Conservatives (Cecil family, Lord Salisbury) will now rule for 20 years, sends  Arthur Balfour to Ireland as Secretary, ‘resolute gov’t, like Cromwell’s’, the solution for Ireland I124. Plan of Campaign 124. Lord Clanrickarde, brass bands 124. Balfour and Carson 125. Balfour’s Land Acts I 125-6. Refs:                          A  New Ireland, Alexander M Sullivan,MP, 1877             C A Concise History of Ireland, M & C.Cruise O’Brien, 1972, Thames & Hudson             D Ireland Her Own, TA Jackson, Seven Seas Books, Berlin, 1976             H Heaven’s Command, J.Morris (Trefan Morys) 1992. Folio edition             I Ireland, Land of Troubles, Johnson, Paul, Book Club Associates, London, 1982.             L Ireland Since the Famine, FSL Lyons, Fontana 1978             M The Modernisation of Irish Society, J.Lee, The Gill History v10.             N  Not By Bullets and Bayonets, Townsend, M, 1973, Sheed & Ward, London             O  Ireland: The Union and its Aftermath, McDonagh, O. U Celtic Dawn Ulick O’Connor, 1984, Hamish Hamilton, London

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