Character Biographies

Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1887 to 1891. In this role he suppressed agrarian unrest and took measures against absentee landlords. He was later prime minister from 1902 to 1905. His brother, Gerald William Balfour (1853-1945), also served as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1895 to 1900 (DIB 2009, ‘Balfour, Arthur James’).

Gerald William Balfour (1853-1945), Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1895 to 1900. He was the brother of the previous Chief Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, who held office from 1887 to 1891 (DIB 2009, ‘Balfour, Gerald William’).

Joseph Gillis Biggar (1828-90) was an Irish nationalist politician from Belfast. Born into a Presbyterian family, he later converted to Catholicism. He served as an MP as a member of the Home Rule League and later the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1874 to 1890. He was a popular figure in Ireland and well-known for turning obstruction of Parliament into an art form by reading official documents for hours to delay business. Although a close friend of Healy, he was not an intimate of Parnell (DIB 2009, ‘Biggar, Joseph Gillis’).

Andrew Birmingham (1830-91) was the landlord of a large estate in Kilfoylan (Kilfylan) in Co. Offaly, with lands also in Roscommon. Originally a Protestant, he had converted to Catholicism in order to marry. He was a popular man locally, having reduced the rents on his estate and was a supporter of Parnell and tenant rights (King 1937-39; Ancestry.com n.d., ‘Andrew William Birmingham’).

Augustine Birrell (1850-1933) was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916 (DIB 2009, ‘Birrell, Augustine’).

Michael P. Boyton (1846-1906) was one of the official Land League organizers. Born in Kildare, he emigrated to the United States with his family as a child. Boyton returned to Ireland in 1879 and joined the Land League. He was arrested with the other organizers and sent to Kilmainham Jail in 1881, but was then released after claiming American citizenship. He subsequently spent time in England before moving to South Africa (Ancestry.com n.d., ‘Michael Peter Boyton, 1846-1906’; Kee 1993, pp. 268, 395).

Charles Bradlaugh (1833-91) was a prominent English freethinking political activist and atheist. His youthful experiences while serving in the British army in Ireland had influenced his political development and he was a supporter of Irish Home Rule. Admired as an orator and incorruptible public figure, he led many unpopular causes including advocating for birth control (Berresford 2004).

Joe Brady (c. 1857-83) was a Dublin-born Fenian and one of five men hanged for the Phoenix Park murders. He was a member of the Irish National Invincibles, a small secret society committed to political assassination. He was tried for the murder of Under-Secretary Thomas Henry Burke in April 1883 and was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging on 14 May in Kilmainham Jail (DIB 2009, ‘Brady, Joe’).

Thomas Brennan (1853-1912) was born in Co. Meath. He was a nationalist and an IRB activist who was a leading member of the executive of the Irish National Land League after its establishment in 1879 (along with Egan and Davitt). Noted as an eloquent speaker, his speeches frequently linked the demand for peasant proprietorship and equality with the Fenian demand for complete Irish independence (DIB 2009, ‘Brennan, Thomas’).

John Bright (1811-89) was a Quaker and an influential British Radical and Liberal statesman. After the Great Famine, he had expressed sympathy and support for land reform in Ireland, although he later opposed Gladstone’s 1886 Home Rule proposal, and he regarded Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary Party as ‘the rebel party’ (Wikipedia 2022, ‘John Bright’).

Isaac Butt (1813-79) was the son of a Co. Donegal Church of Ireland parson. Educated at the Royal School in Raphoe, Co. Donegal, and Trinity College, he became a journalist, an editor, a distinguished barrister, and a professor of political economy at Trinity College. Butt entered Parliament initially as a Conservative MP, serving for Youghal from 1852 to 1865, and then for Limerick as leader of the Home Rule MPs, from 1871 until his death in 1879. The Great Famine and its aftermath caused Butt to recognise that land reform was essential to create a more equitable relationship between Protestant landlords and the Catholic tenant farmers who comprised the majority of the population. As a highly regarded barrister, Butt gained popular support for his efforts on behalf of Fenian prisoners in the late 1860s. In 1870 Butt formed the Home Government Association, followed by the Home Rule League in 1873 (DIB 2009, ‘Butt, Isaac’).

Edward ‘Doc’ Byrne (1847-99) was a journalist and newspaper editor who was an advisor and friend of Parnell. He was editor of the Freeman’s Journal in the 1880s when it played a major role in maintaining Parnell’s political ascendancy. He supported Parnell throughout his lifetime (DIB 2009, ‘Byrne, Edward Joseph’).

Philip Callan (1837-1902) was a Liberal Home Rule politician and lawyer. He was an MP (for Dundalk and then Louth) from 1868 to 1885. He was a follower of and adviser to Isaac Butt and was prominent in Butt’s Home Government Association. He was not a supporter of the Land League and chafed under the leadership of Parnell, whose opposition led to Callan losing his seat in Parliament in 1885 (DIB 2009, ‘Callan, Philip’).

Philip Carberry (1833-1902) was the parish priest of Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, and a supporter of Parnell, whose home, Avondale, was in his parish (Ancestry.com n.d., ‘Fr. Philip Carberry’).

Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) was a businessman, a social reformer, and a radical politician who entered Parliament in 1876. He was a leader of the left wing of the Liberal Party. Chamberlain favoured Irish reform and rejected the use of excessive force in suppressing Irish agitation, but he later opposed Gladstone’s attempts to introduce Home Rule for Ireland (Poole 2022).

Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-95) was a leading Conservative MP and fierce opponent of Home Rule (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Lord Randolph Churchill’).

John Clancy (1844-1915) was a local government official who began work as a printer with the Irish Times and joined the IRB. He was arrested in 1866 for making seditious speeches and was imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail for several months. By the mid-1870s he had become a well-known figure in Dublin republican circles and a strong supporter of the Land League. He was also imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail in early 1882 for supporting the No Rent Manifesto. A strong supporter of Parnell, he had played a critical role in organising support for him after the party split. He established the ‘Parnell Leadership Committee’ at the National Club to form an alliance of all Parnellite town and city councillors in the country. He had a lengthy career in Dublin city hall, playing a significant role in Dublin municipal politics (DIB 2009, ‘Clancy, John’).

Henry Campbell (1856-1924) was the private secretary to Parnell from 1880 to 1891. He was a nationalist MP for South Fermanagh from 1885 to 1892 and was appointed town clerk of Dublin from 1893 to 1920 (DIB 2009, ‘Campbell, Sir Henry’).

Dr. William Carte (1829-99) became the staff surgeon of the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham in 1858 and worked there until his death (WikiTree n.d., ‘William Carte (1829-1899)’).

David la Touche Colthurst (1828-1907) was a Home Rule League politician who was elected MP for Co. Cork between 1879 and 1885 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘David la Touche Colthurst’).

Eva Mary Comerford (1860-1949) was the wife of James Charles Comerford (1842-1907) of Ardavon House, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, the owner of Rathdrum Mill and a friend of Charles Stewart Parnell (Comerford 2016).

William Joseph Corbet (1824-1909) was a civil servant and Home Rule MP for constituencies in County Wicklow from 1880 to 1892 and 1895 to 1900. He was a close political colleague of Parnell and he organized the care of Parnell’s farm at Avondale during his detention for Land League activities (DIB 2009, ‘Corbet, William Joseph’).

Joseph Cowan (1829-1900) was an MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne between 1874 and 1886. He was an activist, politician, journalist, and printer with a reputation for being radical, liberal, and independent-minded (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Joseph Cowen’).

Thomas William Croke (1823-1902) was the Catholic archbishop of Cashel. He actively pursued an interest in politics and nationalist interests and encouraged his clergy to do likewise. On making a £50 donation to Parnell’s testimonial fund, he declared that the amount anyone gave was a measure of their patriotism. In 1884 he moved the crucial resolution entrusting Parnell’s Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons with the promotion of the Catholic Church’s claims ‘in all branches of the education question,’ thus forging a formal alliance between episcopate and party which lasted until the Parnell split in December 1890 (DIB 2009, ‘Croke, Thomas William’).

Paul Cullen (1803-78), Catholic archbishop and cardinal, was born into a family of prosperous tenant farmers with roots in Kildare, Carlow, and Meath. He served as archbishop of Armagh (1849-52) and archbishop of Dublin (1852-70s). Although proudly Irish, Cullen was opposed to the Fenians, the Independent Irish Party, and the Home Rule movement because he believed they could not succeed, and, if they did, the outcome would damage the authority of the Church in Ireland (DIB 2009, ‘Cullen, Paul’).

John Daly (1834-88) was a moderate Home Ruler (Wikipedia 2021, ‘John Daly (Irish Member of Parliament)’).

The Very Rev. James Canon Daniel (c. 1830-95) was born in Dublin, educated at Maynooth College, and ordained in 1857. He was appointed to be the parish priest of St. Nicholas’s Church on Francis Street, Dublin, in 1879. A friend of Sir John Gray, he was a frequent contributor to the Freeman’s Journal (Weekly Freeman, 13 April 1895, ‘Death of Canon Daniel’).

William Joseph O’Neill Daunt (1807-94) was a politician and writer and had been a partisan of Daniel O’Connell. He played a prominent part in the Home Rule movement although he had little sympathy for the agrarian reform agitation. One issue of importance to him was that of financial relations between Ireland and Great Britain, in which he considered Ireland had been unfairly treated (DIB 2009, ‘Daunt (Moriarty), William Joseph O’Neill (“Denis Ignatius”)’). His publications included a public letter concerning the taxation of Ireland published as a pamphlet: England’s Greediness Ireland’s True Grievance (1875).

Michael Davitt (1846-1906) was a radical nationalist and land reform activist. Born in Mayo, Davitt and his family migrated to England after being evicted from their cottage. He lost his right arm in a factory accident at age nine. He joined the IRB in 1865 and was arrested in 1870 and convicted of ‘treason felony’ for arms trafficking. He was released from prison in 1877 due to Home Rule League pressure on the government to grant amnesty to Irish political prisoners. He went to the United States and was intrumental in developing the ‘New Departure’, a strategy to combine the IRB and parliamentary wings of Irish nationalism with a focus on achieving land reform in Ireland. This culminated in the establishment of the Irish National Land League in 1879 under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, Davitt, and Andrew J. Kettle. The leaders of the Land League, including Davitt, were imprisioned in 1881-82. Davitt served as a Member of Parliament during the 1890s, but when the Irish Parliamentary Party split over the O’Shea divorce scandal in 1891, Davitt opposed Parnell. In his final years Davitt travelled around the world, delivering lectures and supporting himself through journalism (DIB 2009, ‘Davitt, Michael’; King 2009).

Charles Dawson (1842-1917) was a Home Rule MP for Carlow from 1880 to 1884, and he often spoke at Land League and National League meetings around the country. He also became lord mayor of Dublin (1882-83), which reinforced his prominence within the Irish Parliamentary Party and allowed him to use that office as a platform for his nationalist politics (DIB 2009, ‘Dawson, Charles’).

Anne Deane (c. 1834-1905) was a businesswoman, philanthropist, and nationalist from Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon. She was the niece of the Young Irelander John Blake Dillon. As a widow, she owned and managed the general store in Ballaghaderreen, which became one of the largest and most successful businesses in the west of Ireland. Although she had no children herself, she played a key role in bringing up the young family of her uncle and aunt after their deaths. John Dillon, who divided his time between Ballaghaderreen and Dublin, came to regard her as a second mother. She was a keen supporter of Home Rule and her house was a regular meeting place for nationalists. In 1881 she became one of the founding members of the Ladies’ Land League and was chosen as honorary president (DIB 2009, ‘Deane, Anne (Duff)’; O’Brien 1937).

Emily Monroe (Parnell) Dickinson (1841-1918) was an older sister of Parnell. In 1905 she published A Patriot’s Mistake: Being Personal Recollections of the Parnell Family.

Charles Wentworth Dilke (1843-1911) was an English Liberal and Radical politician. A republican in the early 1870s, he later became a leader in the radical challenge to Whig control of the Liberal Party (Jenkins 2008).

Charles Dillon (1810-65), 14th Viscount Dillon, and his family had been landowners in the counties of Mayo, Roscommon, and Westmeath since the seventeenth century (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Charles Dillon, 14th Viscount Dillon’).

John Dillon (1851-1927) was born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, the son of Young Irelander John Blake Dillon (1814-66). He was educated at the Catholic University and obtained a degree from the College of Surgeons. Dillon was prominent in the Land League and served as MP for County Tipperary from 1880 to 1883 and for East Mayo from 1885 to 1918. Initially a strong supporter of Parnell, in the context of the Parnell split he allied with William O’Brien and Tim Healy against Parnell (DIB 2009, ‘Dillon, John’).

Valentine Blake Dillon (1847-1904) was a lawyer and politician who was the nephew of John Blake Dillon (one of the founding members of the Young Ireland movement) and the cousin of John Dillon. He had qualified as a solicitor in 1870 and took part in many trials related to the Land War (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Valentine Blake Dillon’).

Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903) was from a Catholic background in Monaghan, where his father was a shopkeeper and former United Irishman. He established The Nation in 1842, the successful Young Ireland newspaper, and the Tenant League in 1850, a political association that endeavoured to improve the conditions of tenant farmers through legislative reform. After a brief stint as MP in the early 1850s, he emigrated to Australia, where he became a prominent politician (DIB 2009, ‘Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan’; Lyons 1973, 116).

Patrick Egan (1841-1919) was born in Longford, the son of a tenant farmer. Educated locally, Egan began work as a clerk at Murtagh Brothers milling company. In the 1860s he joined the IRB. Through his involvement with amnesty campaigns for Fenian prisoners in the late 1860s, he came to support cooperation between radical republican and Home Rule efforts, becoming assistant treasurer of the Home Rule League. In 1876, he was expelled from the IRB after its supreme council decided it would no longer support parliamentary engagement. As treasurer of the Land League in early 1881, fearing the organisation was about to be suppressed, he moved to Paris from where he managed the Land League’s funds. Egan subsequently relocated to the United States where he continued to support the Land League and other Irish nationalist efforts and became heavily involved in American politics (DIB 2009, ‘Egan, Patrick’).

John Ferguson (1836-1906) was a publisher, Home Ruler, and land reformer originally from Ulster. He developed an interest in agrarian reform as a young man and, following a move to Glasgow, became an Irish nationalist and established the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain in the early 1870s. A radical intellectual, he was also active in the Land League activities in Ireland and frequently returned to Ireland, where he gave moral and practical support to Butt and later to Parnell (DIB 2009, ‘Ferguson, John’).

James Lysaght Finegan (1844-1900) was an Irish barrister, soldier, merchant, and politician who supported the nationalist cause. He served as an MP from 1879 to 1882. He was regarded as anti-clericalist due to his open acknowledgment of close contact with the French anti-clerical Henri Rochefort – a fact that would have contributed to clashes with bishops and clergy in Ireland (Lyons 1977).

William Forster (1818-86) was born in Dorset, England, the only child of a Quaker minister. Educated in Quaker schools, he entered the woollen industry and became a successful businessman with interests in social welfare and educational and parliamentary reform. He visited Ireland during the Great Famine to distribute relief with his father. Forster was elected Liberal MP for Bradford in 1861, holding the seat for the rest of his life. In his first ministerial post, he was Colonial Under-Secretary (1865-66) during the controversial suppression of revolt in Jamaica. He was responsible for the introduction of the Ballot Act of 1872. Forster was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1880, taking office at the height of Land League agitation and a period of moral panic regarding ‘crime and disorder.’ Initially not in favour of repression measures, he changed tack and introduced the Protection of Person and Property Act of 1881, known as the Coercion Act, which gave the authorities extraordinary powers of arrest, detention, and proscription of targeted activities (DIB 2009, ‘Forster, William Edward’).

Joseph Allen Galbraith (1818-90) was a professor of experimental philosophy and a proponent of Home Rule. A friend of Butt, he was a founding member of the Home Government Association in 1870 and was supposed to have come up with the phrase ‘Home Rule’ for the emerging movement, which was strongly Protestant at that time (DIB 2009, ‘Galbraith, Joseph Allen’).

Henry George (1839-97) was an American political economist and journalist whose ideas were very popular in nineteenth-century America. His economic philosophy, known as the ‘single tax’ movement (later termed ‘Georgism’), was the belief that the economic value of land, natural resources, and opportunities should be shared equally by all members of society. This principle was sometimes associated with movements for land nationalisation, especially in Ireland. His most famous work was Progress and Poverty (1879) (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Henry George’).

William Goulding (1817-84) was a successful businessman and conservative Tory politician, winning a seat in 1876 as the first conservative elected in Cork city for 30 years until he lost to Parnell in the 1880 election (DIB 2009, ‘Goulding, William’).

Edmund Dwyer Gray (1845-88) was born in Dublin. He was the son of the proprietor of the Freeman’s Journal, Sir John Gray, whom he succeeded in this role in 1875. A convert to Catholicism, Gray became a Dublin city councillor (1875-83), and a Home Rule MP for Tipperary (1877-80), Carlow (1880-85), and St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin (1885-88). A moderate, he was one of eighteen MPs who voted against Parnell’s leadership of the party but subsequently supported him. Under his management, the circulation of the Freeman’s Journal increased and it became highly profitable (DIB 2009, ‘Gray, Edmund William Dwyer’).

Sir John Gray (1816-75) was the owner of the Dublin Catholic newspaper the Freeman’s Journal. Despite being brought up a Protestant, he made a parliamentary career out of his association with the Catholic hierarchy and advocated for tenant rights. He was an active member of the National Association of Ireland, which had been formed in 1864 under the initiative of the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cullen. Its role was to promote Catholic interests and, in particular, the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and his arguments for Church disestablishment were seen as one of the main influences in persuading Gladstone to address this issue (DIB 2009, ‘Gray, Sir John’).

James F. Grehan (1836-96) of Lehaunstown, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin, was a friend of Davitt, a member of the Land League committee, and a prominent farmer in Cabinteely (King 2009; WikiTree n.d.; Clancy 1889, 148).

Lord Richard Grosvenor (1837-1912), 1st Baron Stalbridge, was a Liberal Party MP. He served under Gladstone as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (chief whip) from 1880 to 1885, but he disagreed with Gladstone over Home Rule and resigned his seat in protest in 1886 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge’).

Ion Trant Hamilton (1839-98) was a Member of Parliament. He succeeded his father and grandfather as Member of Parliament for County Dublin in 1863, a seat he held until 1885 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Ion Hamilton, 1st Baron HolmPatrick’).

Sir William Harcourt (1827-1904) was a British lawyer, journalist, Liberal politician, and cabinet member who served under Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1886 and again between 1892 and 1894. On Gladstone’s retirement in 1894 he was a leading but unsuccessful candidate to succeed him as prime minister (Stansky 2004).

Timothy Charles Harrington (1851-1910, not to be confused with his contemporary, the unrelated journalist Timothy Richard Harrington) was a barrister, journalist, and nationalist politician. He served as the MP for Westmeath and subsequently Dublin Harbour from 1883 to 1910. He had been a provincial organiser for the Land League in Munster and was imprisioned in late 1881 before being released under the Kilmainham Treaty. He was appointed joint secretary of the Land League and after its replacement by the National League in 1882, he became the principal secretary of the new organisation. He helped ensure loyalty to Parnell by controlling the network of National League branches (1,513 by 1887) that were connected to the central apparatus. He had devised the strategy for the anti-landlord Plan of Campaign and served as defence counsel in some of the prominent Plan trials, including those of William O’Brien and John Dillon. Despite his importance to the Parnell machine, he has been frequently overshadowed by more prominent figures and remains one of the least well known of Parnell’s lieutenants (DIB 2009, ‘Harrington, Timothy Charles’).

Matthew Harris (1825-90) was a self-educated agrarian activist. He had strongly supported the Repeal and Young Ireland movements and was known as an enthusiastic democrat and nationalist. He was a leading figure in the IRB as the representative for Connaught. He helped to establish the Mayo Land League in 1879 and played a leading role in establishing branches of the League across the west of Ireland. He was elected MP for Galway East from 1885 to 1890 (DIB 2009, ‘Harris, Matthew’).

Timothy Michael Healy (1855-1931) was an agrarian nationalist politician, journalist, author, and barrister who was returned as MP for Wexford in 1881 and attained parliamentary prominence with a reputation as an extraordinary speaker. Although an accomplished publicist of Parnellism, there was some mistrust between Healy and Parnell and he sided against Parnell during the later split. He influenced the political direction of Irish nationalism to an agrarianism of the right and his political career continued into the 1920s, when he became the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State (DIB 2009, ‘Healy, Timothy Michael’).

Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert (1831-90), 4th Earl of Carnarvon, was a British politician and a leading member of the Conservative Party. He held the position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1885 and 1886, during which time he was involved in negotiations with Parnell regarding Home Rule. Carnarvon was known to be sympathetic to the notion of Home Rule (DIB 2009, Herbert, Henry Howard Molyneux’; Bew 1980, 72; Bew 2007, 343).

Rev. Canon John Hoey was the parish priest of the parish of Muckno in Co. Monaghan from 1882 to 1895 (Carville 2011).

Jeremiah Jordan (1829-1911) was a Protestant businessman, land campaigner, and MP from Co. Fermanagh. From late 1879 he had become one of the leading activists in Ulster of the Irish National Land League. As a member of the first Ulster branch of the League, he had secured considerable Protestant support for it, presenting it as a law-abiding, single-issue reform body (DIB 2009, ‘Jordan, Jeremiah’).

James Blake Kavanagh (1822-86) was a priest, a nationalist, and a philosophical and scientific writer who, as a member of the Land League, acted as an intermediary between landlords and tenants. He died while saying mass in October 1886 in his parish church when a marble figure of an angel fell from the canopy above the altar (which he himself had designed) and struck him, causing him to fall and strike his head fatally on the alter steps (DIB 2009, ‘Kavanagh, James Blake’).

Tristram Edward Kennedy (1805-85) was a lawyer, land agent, and politician. His early career was concentrated on the reform of law and legal education, but it was his reforming work as a land agent in Co. Monaghan during the Great Famine that won him the admiration of Catholics and the Tenant League. In his work as an independent politician, he came to represent the interests of poor Catholics in Parliament and his contributions were concerned largely with landlord and tenant matters and national and industrial education (DIB 2009, ‘Kennedy, Tristram Edward’).

Joseph Edward Kenny (1845-1900) was a physician and served as a nationalist MP for South Cork from 1885 to 1892. He was elected to the executive committee of the Land League in 1880 and subsequently served as treasurer of the National League, the Mansion House Evicted Tenants Committee, and the Tenants’ Defence Association. He was a close friend and medical advisor to both Parnell and Davitt and acted as the doctor for his political colleagues while imprisoned with them in Kilmainham Jail in 1881 (DIB 2009, ‘Kenny, Joseph Edward’; Lyons 1991).

John Kinsella (c. 1823-87) of Co. Wexford was a 64-year-old widower and evicted tenant who was shot and killed by George Freeman, an enforcer of the landlords’ Property Defence Association, on 26 September 1887. The Property Defence Association had been formed in 1880 and defended landlord rights by serving writs, combating boycotts, and provided caretakers for evicted farms. The association also hired civilian emergency men, formidable characters who used crowbars and battering rams to secure evictions. When the case of John Kinsella came to trial, Freeman was acquitted of the murder (O’Brien 1976, 72).

Richard Lalor (1823-93), a younger brother of James Fintan Lalor, was a nationalist MP for Queen’s County (later Co. Laois) from 1880 to 1892 (DIB 2009, ‘Lalor, Patrick (“Patt”)’).

James Leahy (1822-96) was a tenant farmer and nationalist politician who was a MP for constituencies in Co. Kildare from 1880 to 1892 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘James Leahy’).

Edmund Leamy (1848-1904) was an Irish journalist, barrister, author, and nationalist politician. A leading supporter of Parnell, he held a number of different Irish seats in Parliament from 1880 until his death. Parnell made him the editor of the United Ireland newspaper in 1891. He was also a talented folklorist and poet (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Edmund Leamy’).

Robert Spencer Dyer Lyons (1826-86) was a physician and Liberal politician, born in Cork to parents William Lyons, a merchant and later mayor and high sheriff of Cork, and Harriet Spencer Dyer of Kinsale. Educated in Hamblin and Porter’s Grammar School in Cork and Trinity College, he qualified as a surgeon in 1849 and served as a British army pathologist in the Crimean War (1853-56). He was professor of medicine and pathology at the medical school of the Catholic University of Ireland (later University College Dublin) in Cecilia Street, Dublin, and in 1870 served on a commission of inquiry into the treatment of Irish political prisoners, which enhanced his standing among nationalists in Ireland (DIB 2009, ‘Lyons, Robert Spencer Dyer’).

Donald Horne Macfarlane (1830-1904) was a Scottish merchant who served as a Home Rule Member of Parliament for Carlow from 1880 to 1885. He subsequently served several times as a Crofters Party MP for a constituency in Scotland between 1886 and 1895 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Donald Horne Macfarlane’).

John Gordon Swift MacNeill (1849-1926) was an Irish Protestant nationalist politician and MP (1887-1918), law professor at the King’s Inns, Dublin, and the National University of Ireland, and a well-known author on law and nationalist issues (Wikipedia 2022, ‘J. G. Swift MacNeill’).

Edward Maginn (1802-49) was a coadjutor Catholic bishop of Derry. In response to the starvation of the Great Famine, Maginn was an outspoken critic of the relief policy of the government and his statements on related issues received widespread press attention. He brought about the dismissal of the board of guardians at Omagh after hundreds died of disease in the union workhouse (DIB 2009, ‘Maginn, Edward’).

David Mahony was the (unsuccessful) Liberal candidate in the 1880 general election for the Wicklow seat (Wikipedia 2023, ‘Wicklow (UK Parliament constituency)’).

John Mallon (1839-1915) was a policeman, originally from Armagh, who had moved up the ranks of the Dublin Metropolitan Police to became superintendent of the force by 1874. His knowledge of the Irish situation meant that he was frequently asked to handle political matters, including the delicate task of the arrest of Parnell in October 1881 (DIB 2009, ‘Mallon, John’).

John Martin (1812-75), from a Presbyterian and farming background in Co. Down, had been a supporter of the Young Irelanders in the 1840s and national organiser of Gavan Duffy’s Tenant League in the 1850s. He became the first Home Rule MP for Meath at the end of his of career (1871-75) (DIB 2009, ‘Martin, John’).

Patrick Leopold Martin (1830-95) was an MP for Co. Kilkenny from 1874 to 1885 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Patrick Martin (Irish politician)’).

Daniel McAleese (1833-1900) was a journalist, poet, newspaper proprietor, and politician. He had worked with different newspapers but had moved to Monaghan and in February 1876 launched the People’s Advocate, a cheap, nationalist weekly sympathetic to Catholic interests. He became an influential figure in local politics and played a significant role in the Tenant Right, Land League and Home Rule movements (DIB 2009, ‘McAleese, Daniel’).

Michael McCartan (1851-1902) was an Irish nationalist politician. He was born in County Down, was educated in Belfast, and became a solicitor in 1882. He served as an MP from County Down from 1886 to 1902. McCartan was a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party until the split in 1890, when he joined the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation. When the two sides reunited in 1900, he rejoined the Irish Parliamentary Party (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Michael McCartan’).

Justin McCarthy (1830-1912) was a journalist, historian, novelist, and politician who was an MP from 1879 to 1900. He joined the Westminster Home Rule Association in 1877, was elected MP for Co. Longford in the 1879 by-election, and served as vice-chairman of the Home Rule Party from 1880 to 1890. He acted as a conduit between British leaders and Parnell. After the party divided in 1890, McCarthy became chairman of the anti-Parnellite group (DIB 2009, ‘McCarthy, Justin’).

James Carlile McCoan (1829-1904) was barrister, journalist, and author who was elected as a Home Rule MP for Wicklow in 1880. He had a falling out with his colleagues in Parliament and served out the term as a Liberal independent (DIB 2009, ‘McCoan, James Carlile’).

Peter McDonald (1836-91) was a teacher, businessman, and politician. He was elected as commissioner for Kingstown and afterwards represented the Mountjoy Ward in the municipal council and was elected senior councillor to the position of alderman. In 1885 he won the North Sligo constituency as a nationalist candidate for the Irish Parliamentary Party (Cantwell n.d.).

Andrew Joseph McKenna (1833-72) was appointed editor of the liberal Catholic newspaper the Ulster Observer in 1862. His acclaimed essays and powerful speaking ability brought him public attention, but his liberal outlook annoyed the newspaper’s owners. When he was fired in 1868 he launched a new paper, the Northern Star. He died prematurely at the age of 38 (DIB 2009, ‘McKenna, Andrew Joseph’).

Sir Joseph Neale McKenna (1819-1906) was a banker and politician who was MP for Youghal and South Monaghan. He was an able financier and chairman of the National Bank of Ireland and played a leading role in forming nationalist thinking on the overtaxation of Ireland. He wrote Imperial Taxation: The Case of Ireland Plainly Stated (1883) (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Joseph Neale McKenna’).

Joseph Meade (1839-1900) was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1891. He was also the wealthy head of a large building firm and owned many Dublin properties, including a large number of tenement buildings. He was a strong nationalist who contributed financially to the Home Rule Party and after the Parnellite split he remained fiercely loyal to Parnell (DIB 2009, ‘Meade, Joseph Michael’).

Charles Stanley Monck (1819-94), 4th Viscount Monck of Ballytrammon, was born in Tipperary and owned estates in Wicklow and Wexford. He was elected to Parliament in 1852 and, after losing his seat, he was appointed governor of British North America in 1861. When Canada became independent in 1867, he became its first governor-general. He returned to Ireland in 1868 and served as Lord Lieutenant of County Dublin from 1874 to 1892 (Harris 2020).

John Morley (1838-1923) was an English politician, writer, and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1886 and again from 1892 to 1895. A previous opponent of coercion in Ireland, he was a firm believer of the necessity for Home Rule, and as a Liberal MP he was adamant that Ireland should be a priority for the Liberal Party (DIB 2009, ‘Morley, John’).

Nicholas Daniel Murphy (1811-89) entered politics as a Liberal candidate for Cork city in 1865. Although his family had a tradition of nationalism, Murphy was an old-style Whig who favoured the union and insisted that Home Rule did not mean separation but federation within the empire (DIB 2009, ‘Murphy, Nicholas Daniel’).

Isaac Nelson (1809-88) was a Presbyterian minister and politician from Belfast. He had been a champion of liberal causes and his criticism of his Presbyterian colleagues had resulted in him falling out of sympathy with many of them. His support for Home Rule and the Land League in the 1870s put him even more out of step with his colleagues and congregation, but it attracted the attention of Biggar and Parnell. He drew widespread support, although the Freeman’s Journal termed him a ‘clergyman of rather crazy political proclivities’ (Bew 1978, 98; DIB 2009, ‘Nelson, Isaac’).

Henry F. Neville (1822-89) was a Catholic parish priest and dean of the Cork diocese. He opposed Parnell when he stood (successfully) in the city constituency in the parliamentary elections in March-April 1880 (DIB 2009, ‘Neville, Henry F.’).

Thomas Nulty (1818-98) was a Catholic bishop of Meath and an agrarian reformer. He was active in both local and national politics and was the first bishop to support Parnell during his election in Meath in 1875, while also being the only Catholic bishop to give his approval to the No Rent Manifesto. Nulty lost some of his popularity after the split when he strongly supported the anti-Parnellites and used intimidation tactics to effect voting in the 1892 election (DIB 2009, ‘Nulty, Thomas’).

William O’Brien (1852-1928) was born in Mallow, Co. Cork, the son of a solicitor’s clerk. Although Catholic, O’Brien was educated at the local Church of Ireland school. He was active for a time in the Fenian movement, resigning from it in the mid-1870s. He studied law at Queen’s College Cork and then became a journalist with the Freeman’s Journal. In 1881 Parnell appointed him editor of the Land League newspaper, United Ireland (DIB 2009, ‘O’Brien, William’). O’Brien was one of the main organisers of the 1886-91 Plan of Campaign, prompted by a depression in the mid-1880s, to reduce rents. It was not supported by Parnell. O’Brien joined the anti-Parnellite side in the split following the O’Shea divorce crisis (Hickey & Doherty 2003, 396).

Patrick Keyes O’Clery (1849-1913) was a barrister and Home Rule MP for Co. Wexford from 1874 to 1880. In the 1880 election, although backed by the Catholic clergy, he was defeated by the Parnellite candidate. The outbreak of violence at this meeting in Enniscorthy on Easter Sunday (28 March 1880) resulted in Parnell being attacked and injured. In 1903, he was created a count by Pope Leo XIII (Wikipedia 2023, ‘Keyes O’Clery’).

Arthur O’Connor (1844-1923) was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament from 1880 to 1900. He was a member of the anti-Parnellite group from 1892 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Arthur O’Connor (politician, born 1844)’).

John O’Connor (1850-1928) was a Fenian and a prominent member of the Irish Party. He served as MP for Tipperary South (1885-92) and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Plan of Campaign (1886-89). He was devoted to Parnell and sided with him in the split, defending Parnell strongly and attempting to persuade the party to issue a statement criticising Gladstone’s interference in party matters (DIB 2009, ‘O’Connor, John’).

T. P. (Timothy Power) O’Connor (1848-1929) was born in Athlone and educated at Queen’s College Galway. He moved to England in 1870 and became an accomplished and popular journalist, writing for the Daily Telegraph and as London correspondent for the New York Herald. He was the only Home Rule MP to sit for an English constituency, representing Liverpool from 1880 to 1929. A strong supporter of the Land League and Parnell, he later opposed Parnell during the leadership crisis following the O’Shea divorce scandal (Hickey & Doherty 2003, 360).

Frank Hugh O’Donnell (1846-1916) was born in England, the son of an army officer, and was educated at St. Ignatius College and Queens College Galway. He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) for a brief time, and was an accomplished foreign affairs journalist and writer. A supporter of Butt’s Home Rule League, after two unsuccessful attempts in Galway, O’Donnell was elected MP for Dungarvan in 1877 until 1885, during which time he participated in obstructionist tactics with Parnell, Biggar and others. His complex and often contradictory views led to his eventual political isolation and earned him the sobriquet ‘Crank Hugh’ (DIB 2009, ‘O’Donnell, Frank Hugh’).

James Joseph O’Kelly (1845-1916) was an Irish nationalist journalist, politician, and MP representing Roscommon as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1880 to 1916. When the party split in 1890 over Parnell’s leadership, O’Kelly supported Parnell (DIB 2009, ‘O’Kelly, James Joseph’).

Patrick O’Neill was the vice-president of the Athy branch of the Land League.

Anna Parnell (1852-1911) was a nationalist and land activist and younger sister of Charles Stewart Parnell. After her brother was elected MP for Meath in 1875, she became increasingly political. She and her sister, Fanny, had worked in New York for the Famine Relief Fund. There she collaborated with Michael Davitt, who recognised her administrative and intellectual capabilities. Fanny had also set up a Ladies’ Land League Committee in New York in order to raise funds for the Irish National Land League. By late 1880 Davitt believed that the leadership of the Land League would soon be imprisoned and suggested that a Ladies’ Land League be set up to carry on the work after their imprisonment. He proposed that Anna take charge of the new Ladies’ Land League, which was established in Dublin in January 1881. Anna travelled throughout Ireland promoting the message of the Land League and encouraging women to take an active role in Land League activities. Following the suppression of the Land League, as planned, the Ladies’ Land League took over responsibility for the continuation of the campaign. Over 500 branches of the Ladies’ Land League were formed and funds were raised for the League and for the support of prisoners and their families. Attempts to close down the Ladies’ Land League following the release of the male Land League leaders under the Kilmainham Treaty led to bitter negotiations between the women of the Ladies’ Land League and the male leadership and, against Anna’s wishes, the Ladies’ Land League was disbanded in 1882 (DIB 2009, ‘Parnell, Anna Mercer (Catherine Maria)’; Ward 2021).

Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91) was a politician who succeeded Isaac Butt to become leader of the Home Rule League (1880-82) and the Irish Parliamentary Party (1882-91). Born on 27 June 1846 in Avondale House, Co. Wicklow, he was the seventh of eleven children of John Henry Parnell and Delia (Stewart) Parnell. During his childhood, Parnell’s family lived in residences in Dalkey, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), and at 14 Upper Temple Steet, Dublin. He was educated mainly at home and later attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, but he did not complete his degree. He returned to Ireland to be landlord at Avondale, the heavily indebted family estate. Parnell first became an MP representing Meath in 1875 and grew in popularity in nationalist circles for his participation in Joseph Biggar’s strategy of obstructionism and his sympathetic stance toward Irish republican prisoners. He joined forces with Michael Davitt, supported by A. J. Kettle’s tenant right networks, to establish the Irish National Land League in October 1879. Parnell successfully toured America and addressed the House of Representatives in early 1880, mobilising financial and political support for radical agrarian reform in Ireland. He was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail for his role in these efforts in October 1881 and moderated his position thereafter to focus on pursuing the achievement of Home Rule in Parliament. In 1880, Parnell began a relationship with Katharine O’Shea who was then separated from her husband, Captain William O’Shea, an Irish nationalist MP for County Clare. Charles and Katharine had three children (Claude Sophie, 1882; Claire, 1883; and Katharine, 1884). In 1889, Captain O’Shea initiated divorce proceedings, citing his wife’s relationship with Parnell. Parnell was soon rejected by the majority of his party, the British political establishment, and the Catholic hierarchy. As a result, he rapidly lost popular support in Ireland. He died in Brighton on 6 October 1891 (DIB 2009, ‘Parnell, Charles Stewart’).

Delia Tudor Stewart Parnell (1816-98) was born in Boston, Massachussetts, the daughter of Commodore Charles Stewart, a US naval officer who had played an important role in the War of 1812 fought between the United States and Great Britain. She married John Henry Parnell, an Irish landlord and the grandson of Sir John Parnell, an Irish parliamentary leader in the 18th century. Her home became the Parnell estate at Avondale, but she spent most of her time with relatives in France and America. She had eleven children. Although primarily known as the mother of Parnell, she was a pioneering feminist and political activist who served as the president of the Ladies’ Land League and actively spoke on behalf of Home Rule (Schneller 2010).

Katharine Parnell (Katharine O’Shea) (1846-1921) was born Katherine Page Wood on 30 January 1846, the 13th child of Sir John Page Wood. In her biography of Charles Stewart Parnell, Katharine recounts that as a child she was musically gifted and educated by her father, being particularly inspired by his work as a long-serving chairman of the Board of Guardians. In 1867 Katharine married William O’Shea (1840-1905), a member of the Home Rule Party and MP for County Clare. The couple had three children, but after some years they began to live separately. Katharine moved into a residence on the estate of her wealthy aunt, Mrs. Benjamin Wood, at Eltham, Kent. She commenced a relationship with Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880 and they had three children (Claude Sophie, 1882; Claire, 1883; and Katharine, 1884). Throughout the 1880s, facilitated by the status and connections of her family, Katharine acted as the intermediary for correspondence between Parnell and Gladstone on the Irish question. The O’Shea family had remained financially dependent on Mrs. Wood, who left her niece a substantial inheritance after her death in 1889. In the same year, Captain O’Shea initiated divorce proceedings, citing his wife’s relationship with Parnell. During the ensuing scandal Parnell was rejected by the majority of his party, the British political establishment, and the Catholic hierarchy, and he lost popular support in Ireland. On 25 June 1891, now divorced, Katharine married Parnell in Brighton, four months before he died. She published a two-volume biography of Parnell in 1914. Katharine Parnell died on 5 February 1921 (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010; O’Shea 1914, vol. 1, pp. 15-18; Wikipedia 2023, ‘Katharine O’Shea’).

Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice (1845-1927), 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, was a British statesman who served in senior positions in Liberal and Conservative Party governments during his career, which included being Governor-General of Canada (1883-88) and Viceroy and Governor-General of India (1888-94) (DIB 2009, ‘Fitzmaurice, Henry Charles Keith Petty-’).

Richard Pigott (1828-89) was a journalist and newspaper owner who was revealed to be the forger of letters that ostensibly proved Parnell had been a supporter of the Phoenix Park murders. Originally an important figure in nationalist politics, Pigott began to vilify his former associates from 1884 and produced articles which presented the Irish nationalist project as a criminal conspiracy. The Special Commission revealed the fact that he had forged the letters. After admitting the forgeries, Pigott fled to Spain, where he committed suicide (DIB 2009, ‘Pigott, Richard’).

George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948) was a nationalist politician, scholar, and museum director. In 1884, he was created a Papal Count by the Pope. Despite his close assocation with the Church, he supported Parnell against the Catholic hierarchy in 1890. He was a Member of Parliment from 1917 to 1922 and a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1927. He was the minister for fine arts and the minister for foreign affairs in the Irish government between 1919 and 1922 (DIB 2009, ‘Plunkett, Count George Noble’).

Horace Plunkett (1854-1932) is best known for his pioneering work in developing the cooperative movement in Ireland. Born in England of Norman-Gaelic ancestry, his family settled in Co. Meath in the twelfth century. By the late nineteenth century the family possessed a large estate and castle at Dunsany. Plunkett was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he read history and learned about the British movement for consumer cooperation. Partly to fend off tuberculosis, for a decade from 1879, Plunkett spent several months each year ranching in the state of Wyoming in the western United States. Informed by this experience, and keen to contribute to the development of agriculture in Ireland, he established his first cooperative creamery in Co. Limerick in 1891. Gradually, Plunkett won the trust of Irish farmers and in 1894 established the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, which became the coordinating body of a thriving cooperative movement with hundreds of affiliated societies (DIB 2009, ‘Plunkett, Sir Horace Curzon’).

James Plunkett (c. 1817-99) was a Dublin solicitor who acted as ‘sub-agent’ for Parnell in his first County Dublin election in 1874 (Evening Herald, 29 May 1899, ‘Death of Mr. James Plunkett’).

John O’Connor Power (1846-1919) was a politician who represented Mayo from 1874 to 1885. Power, together with Biggar, was credited with pioneered the new policy of obstructionism. Joined by Parnell after his election in 1875, they obstructed House of Commons business by making long speeches in Parliament and manipulating its procedures (DIB 2009, ‘Power, John O’Connor’).

Joseph Patrick Quinn (1854-1916) was a nationalist and former secretary of the Land League. Following his incarceration during 1881 and 1882, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Irish National League. Two months later he was put on trial alongside Davitt and Healy, charged with making seditious speeches. In February 1883 all three men were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, which they served in Kilmainham and Richmond jails. On his release, Quinn resumed his work as assistant secretary of the National League (DIB 2009, ‘Quinn, Joseph Patrick’).

John Redmond (1856-1918) was a nationalist politician, barrister, and MP. As a Parnellite MP from 1881 to 1891 he was recognised as a skilful orator and had raised large sums of money for the party during fundraising trips to Australia, New Zealand, and America. He supported the Plan of Campaign led by John Dillon and William O’Brien and had spent some weeks in jail in 1888 after being accused of using intimidating language. Although not part of Parnell’s inner circle, he was prominent among the second rank of Home Rule MPs. He became a leading figure among the minority who remained loyal to Parnell after the split in 1890-91 and after Parnell’s death he was elected as leader of the minority faction. He is best known as the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918. He was also the leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers (DIB 2009, ‘Redmond, John Edward’).

Thomas Robertson was a grazier from near Athy, Co. Kildare (Casey 2011, 152).

James Rourke (1844-1921) was the uncle of Thomas Brennan and a prominent Land League official (DIB 2009, ‘Brennan, Thomas’).

Thomas Sexton (1847-1932) was a journalist and politician. Encouraged to run for Parliament by Parnell, he was first elected as MP for Co. Sligo in the 1880 general election. He was considered to be one of Parnell’s principal lieutenants although he later opposed him in the split. He was regarded as one of the finest orators of the Irish Parliamentary Party, hence his sobriquet ‘silver-tongued Sexton’ (DIB 2009, ‘Sexton, Thomas’).

William Shaw (1823-95) was an Irish Protestant nationalist politician and one of the founders of the Home Rule movement. He held his seat at the 1880 election but lost an election for the party chairmanship to Parnell (Falkiner & O’Day 2004).

Captain John Shawe-Taylor (1866-1911) was a reforming landlord who was sympathetic to his tenants during the land agitation of 1902. He energetically organised a land conference executive which was eventually attended by the majority of landlords. Endorsed by Chief Secretary for Ireland George Wyndham (1863-1913), it implied the provision of unlimited British credit for a scheme of buying out landlords and resulted in the basis for the Wyndham Land Act of 1903 (DIB 2009, ‘Taylor, John Shawe-’).

Eugene Sheehy (1841-1917) was a priest and nationalist from Co. Limerick. He was president of the local branch of the National Land League at Kilmallock. In May 1881, despite Dublin Castle’s prohibition of the event, he spoke at a League rally in Limerick city and so was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail. The notoriety he achieved from this earned him the sobriquet ‘the Land League priest’ (DIB 2009, ‘Sheehy, Eugene’). He was the uncle of the feminists Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877-1946) and Mary Sheehy (1884-1967), who married Tom Kettle (1882-1916).

George Sigerson (1836-1925) was born in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, to a well-off family. The youngest of 11 children of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, he was educated locally and in France at Saint Joseph’s College, Montrouge, where he excelled in European classical and modern languages. Later, Sigerson qualified as a physician but was known mostly as a literary figure and supporter of the Irish language and Gaelic games. J. B. Lyons writes that Sigerson described himself as ‘an Ulsterman and of Viking race,’ framing the ‘Norse’ heritage of Ireland as a counter identity to ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Britain (DIB 2009, ‘Sigerson, George’).

Clotworthy John Eyre Skeffington (1842-1905), 11th Viscount Massereene, was an Anglo-Irish peer who served as Lord Lieutenant of Louth from 1879 to 1898 (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Clotworthy Skeffington, 11th Viscount Massereene’).

Arthur Hugh Smith Barry (1843-1925), 1st Baron Barrymore, was a landlord and politician who served as a Liberal MP and whose family lands encompassed 22,000 acres in Co. Cork and Co. Tipperary. He was a determined defender of Irish landlordism who assisted in mounting organised resistance to boycotts, the most significant of which concerned the estate of C. W. T. Ponsonby in Co. Cork during the Plan of Campaign. In 1891 during a rent strike on Smith Barry’s Tipperary estates, William O’Brien consequently encouraged tenants to set up a town – ‘New Tipperary’ – to try and outflank him economically. It failed, at a cost of £40,000 (DIB 2009, ‘Barry, Arthur Hugh Smith’; Liberal Union of Ireland 1890).

Alexander Martin Sullivan (1830-84) was a nationalist, journalist, and politician. He was born and educated in Co. Cork, the son of a teacher and a house painter. A supporter of the Young Ireland movement, Sullivan became a successful journalist. In 1855 he joined (and after 1858 was the editor and sole proprietor of) the influential Nation newspaper, which, under his leadership, moved to equate nationalism with Catholicism. He was elected Home Rule MP for Louth in 1874 and for Meath in 1880, establishing a reputation as a parliamentary orator. He later trained as a barrister and defended Land League committee member Patrick Egan against conspiracy charges (DIB 2009, ‘Sullivan, Alexander Martin’).

John Francis Taylor (1853-1902) was a lawyer, orator, and writer. Although a member of the Land League he believed that Irish nationalism had been restricted by a reliance on agrarian populism (DIB 2009, ‘Taylor, John Francis’).

Thomas Edward Taylor (1811-83) was a British Conservative Party politician. In 1841 he was elected Member of Parliament for Dublin County, a seat he held for the rest of his life. In the 1874 Dublin County by-election he decisively defeated Parnell (Wikipedia 2022, ‘Thomas Edward Taylor’).

Michael Tormey (1820-93), a Catholic priest from Meath, was a long-time supporter of the Land League and, later, of Parnell (Clare 2003).

Sir George Otto Trevelyan (1838-1928), 2nd Baronet, was a British statesman and author. As a Liberal member of Parliament, he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1882 after the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish in the Phoenix Park murders. He broke with Gladstone over the 1886 Irish Home Rule Bill but later re-joined the Liberal Party following modifications to the bill (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2022).

William Copeland Trimble (1851-1941) was a newspaper editor and eldest son of the newspaper proprietor William Trimble. He joined the Land League in 1880 and was in charge of the liberal newspaper the Impartial Reporter, which was critical in support for the Parnellite demand for self-government, while continuing to advocate for tenant protection and relief (DIB 2009, ‘Trimble, William Copeland’).

Katharine Tynan (1859-1931) was a novelist, poet, and journalist who was also an ardent nationalist and Parnellite. Her father, Andrew Cullen Tynan (1829-1905), was a prosperous farmer and cattle trader who was elected to Dublin Corporation as a Parnellite in 1891. He was a major influence in her life and as a young woman she spent much of her time with him attending plays and political meetings, while she also worked briefly for the Ladies’ Land League. She became a successful poet and was a well-known figure among Dublin’s literati (DIB 2009, ‘Hickson (née Tynan), Katharine’).

William Joseph Walsh (1841-1921) was the Catholic archbishop of Dublin from 1885 until 1921. He had been president of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth and had achieved a high profile in the areas of land law and education. His desire to keep the Church in touch with the people led to his later identification with the Land League and radical nationalism (DIB 2009, ‘Walsh, William Joseph’).

Alfred John Webb (1834-1908) was a radical reformer and nationalist who never joined the Land League but supported it strongly in his words and actions (DIB 2009, ‘Webb, Alfred John’).