The Political Ideas of Parnell

Abstract

‘It is not easy to describe the mental life of a man who is neither expansive nor introspective’. Thus wrote T. P. O'Connor, one of Parnell's earliest biographers. Historians have never ceased to echo his lament, and however much they may have differed in their interpretation of Parnell, they have generally agreed that, while no Irish leader of the nineteenth century has been so intensively studied, none remains so enigmatic and inaccessible.

“No Man Has the Right to Fix the Boundary to the March of a Nation”1: Fixing the Boundaries of Irish Nationalism, 1882-85

“…In November 1885 prior to the general election, Parnell was to prove to be his own man and not a Liberal pawn when he urged Irish voters in the United Kingdom to vote Conservative. 76 That Parnell would appear to abandon his Liberal alliance was in keeping not just with political circumstances but also his own previous pronouncements. On St. Patrick's Day 1884 he stated in a speech at a banquet in London that he did not " […] depend upon any English political party.…”

“…He was reported as having said that if the constitutional will of the Irish people was ignored then constitutionalists would be redundant and other men would fill the breach and do the job for them. 75 Other men can only mean Advanced Nationalists or physical force men. This type of rhetoric had a dual purpose, to warn British politicians that there was a real…”

Political Economy of Secession: Lessons From the Early Years of the Irish Free State

“…Commodity market integration was evident in the free trade practices of the UK and both agriculture and industry operated in competitive international environments where prices were a reflection of international conditions. Detailed trade statistics are unavailable for the nineteenth century; however, when the (Irish) Department of sought fiscal independence and this was a major stumbling block in the earlier Home Rule bills in parliament, e.g., see Lyons (1973) account of a speech Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, gave in 1885 which assumed fiscal powers to development industry. 10 In addition to this nationalist/unionist dichotomy note must also be made of a rival socialist programme associated with Connolly (1897) that was in some respects more internationalist in outlook, although it did see benefits from national independence.…”

Introduction

“…Compared with this, from which it was assumed there could be no going back, the immediate fate of the bill was of secondary importance. 295 Gladstone had brought Parnell's aspirations for Ireland within the realm of practical politics. With hindsight, it seemed that the capacity of republicans and radical agrarians to disrupt the government of Ireland had been overestimated in the winter of 1885.…”