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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
There is now an extensive literature on agrarian protest and unrest in Ireland from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, ranging from studies of secret societies to large-scale organisations such as the Land League. There has not, however, been any detailed published account of the dynamics and character of a most extensive and significant Irish agitation, the United Irish League, which was launched in January 1898. A study of this body is important, not only in its own terms, but for the light it throws on the nature of Irish agrarian agitation generally, especially as there exist more extant records than for earlier examples. By early 1900 this organisation had spread across most of Ireland, and it was to have major implications for the future course of Irish nationalism. Its methods were partly a consequence of a cumulative experience from the past, focused particularly on its immediate predecessors, the Land League of 1879–82, the subsequent Irish National League, and the Plan of Campaign in the latter half of the 1880s. Its political and agrarian purposes were to an unusual degree clearly articulated, thereby enabling a more precise analysis of the way in which particular methods of protest were related to objectives.
1 This article is substantially derived from the extended analysis of the early years of the United Irish League contained in Philip Bull, ‘The reconstruction of the Irish parliamentary movement, 1895-1903: an analysis with special reference to O’Brien, William’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1972), ch. 3Google Scholar. Campbell, Fergus, ‘Land and politics in Connacht, 1898-1909’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol, 1996)Google Scholar in part covers the same ground as my own thesis, but does not appear to take account of its findings. While the early part of Dr Campbell’s thesis complements my research and conclusions, it suffers from an apparent ignorance of the existence of the William O’Brien papers at University College Cork, the most extensive archive for the functioning of the U.I.L. at a popular level in its first years. His thesis contains a valuable account of the system of land occupancy and the economic and social context, historical and contemporary, out of which the U.I.L. developed (see especially pp 102-11). For a more synoptic account of the early role and impact of the U.I.L. see Bull, Philip, Land, politics and nationalism: a study of the Irish land question (Dublin, 1996), pp 109-15.Google Scholar
2 In relation to the most important of these archives see Bull, Philip, ‘The William O’Brien manuscripts in the library of University College, Cork in Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxxv (1970), pp 129-41Google Scholar. Police records, although to be treated with caution, are also unusually rich on the early progress of the U.I.L. and are made more valuable by the very full on-the-ground reporting by one senior officer, Assistant Inspector-General Allan Cameron, which provides a more reliable basis for correlation with the reports of more junior officers. Collections of correspondence and newspaper coverage are also particularly informative on these developments.
3 For the former of these see Bull, Philip, ‘The United Irish League and the reunion of the Irish Parliamentary Party, 1898-1900’ in I.H.S., xxvi, no. 101 (May 1988), pp 51–78Google Scholar; for the latter see idem, ‘The significance of the nationalist response to the Irish land act of 1903’ in I.H.S., xxviii, no. III (May 1993), pp 283-305. Campbell, ‘Land & politics in Connacht’ does not take account of the major impact of these two developments in changing the character and direction of the United Irish League and overstates the extent of the shift in emphasis in 1901 from land redistribution to land purchase (pp 93-101).
4 Most notably in Lyons, F.S.L., Ireland since the Famine (London, 1971), p. 212Google Scholar,but this view was significantly modified in a subsequent edition. Although in a very different context, the ‘simple and somewhat idealistic’ agrarian beginnings of the U.I.L. are also overplayed at the expense of its national political purposes in the work of Higgins, Michael D. and Gibbons, John P., especially in ‘Shopkeeper-graziers and land agitation in Ireland, 1895-1900’ in Drudy, P. J. (ed.), Ireland: land, politics and people (Cambridge, 1982), pp 93–118.Google Scholar
5 O’Brien, William, An olive branch in Ireland and its history (London, 1910), p. 89.Google Scholar
6 Davitt, Michael, The fall of feudalism in Ireland: or The story of the Land League revolution (London, 1904), p. 694.Google Scholar
7 Confidential print no. 1 — ‘United Irish League: From start to October 1899 inclusive’ (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 5 ).
8 Freeman’s Journal, 8 Sept. 1897.
9 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 3-4).
10 O’Brien, Sophie, ‘Recollections of a long life’, vol. ii, pp 3–4Google Scholar (N.L.I., MS 4214).
11 O’Brien, Olive branch, p. 90.
12 Mayo News, 29 Jan. 1898.
13 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 6).
14 Ibid., p. 7.
15 Ibid., p. 8.
16 Ibid., pp 7-8; W. Doris to O’Brien, 13 Feb. 1898 (Boole Library, University College Cork, William O’Brien papers (henceforth U.C.C., O’Brien MSS), AIA.32).
17 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 8-9); Mayo News, 19 Feb. 1898.
18 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 9); P. J. Doris to O’Brien, 18 Feb. 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.34); Freeman’s Journal, 18 Feb. 1898; Mayo News, 19 Feb. 1898.
19 Inspector-General’s monthly confidential report, Feb. 1898 (P.R.O., CO 904/68); confidential print no. 1 (ibid., CO 903/8/1, pp 12-13).
20 Mayo News, 26 Feb. 1898; confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 10); Hansard 4, liii, 1535-63 (24 Feb. 1898).
21 W. Doris to O’Brien, 18 Feb. 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.35); Mayo News, 26 Feb. 1898; confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 10-11).
22 Mayo News, 26 Feb. 1898.
23 The Times, 1 Mar. 1898.
24 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 18).
25 O’Brien, Olive branch, p. 99.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid., p. 100.
28 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 12).
29 The United Irish League, its origins and history’, handwritten report of Assistant Inspector-General Allan Cameron, 10 Oct. 1898 (N.A.I., Crime Branch Special papers, 17425/8), pp 24-5).
30 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 13-16).
31 Minute by Cameron on special report of County Inspector for Mayo on the U.I.L., 11 Mar. 1898 (N.A.I., C.S.O., R.P. 1898/4733).
32 Mayo County Inspector’s monthly confidential report, Mar.-Apr. 1898 (P.R.O., CO 904/68).
33 Inspector-General’s monthly confidential report, Mar. 1898 (ibid.).
34 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 18).
35 Inspector-General’s monthly confidential report, Feb. 1898 (ibid., CO 904/68).
36 Confidential print no. 1 (ibid., CO 903/8/1, p. 1).
37 Ibid„ p. 10.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.,p. 17.
40 He had expressed these opinions very strongly in September 1897 before the agitation had built up strength (Mayo News, 25 Sept. 1897); he did so again in even stronger terms in July 1898 when the U.I.L. was well advanced (ibid., 9 July 1898).
41 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 32-3).
42 Ibid.
43 Cameron, ‘The United Irish League, its origins & history’, app. B.
44 See Larkin, Emmet, The Roman Catholic church and the Plan of Campaign in Ireland, 1886-1888 (Cork, 1978).Google Scholar
45 See Moran, Gerard, ‘James Daly and the rise and fall of the Land League in the west of Ireland, 1879-82’ in l.H.S., xxix, no. 114 (Nov. 1994), pp 189–207Google Scholar; Lee, J. J., The modernisation of Irish society, 1848-1918 (Dublin, 1973), pp 69–70.Google Scholar
46 Irish Daily Independent, 26 Jan. 1898; Freeman’s Journal, 18 Jan. 1898. A split had developed between City Hall (Dublin) and Chancery Lane (London) separatists over the commemorations, the former being identified with a narrower, more restrictive definition of those who could be accepted as representative of the ideals of the United Irishmen.
47 Daly to O’Brien, 4 Jan. 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.2); O’Brien to Daly, 5 Jan. 1898 (copy) (ibid., AIA.7): Daly to O’Brien, n.d. [after 17 Jan. 1898 — this letter is incorrectly placed in U.C.C. O’Brien MSS] (ibid, AH.124); Daly to O’Brien, 31 Jan. 1898 (ibid., AIA.17); Daly to O’Brien, 3 Feb. 1898 (ibid., AIA.22).
48 See Bull, Philip, ‘The centenary of 1798 and the “old nationalism”’ in Bull, Philip, Devlin-Glass, Frances and Doyle, Helen (eds), Ireland and Australia, 1798-1998: studies in culture, identity and migration (Sydney, 2000), pp 80–89.Google Scholar
49 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 12-13).
50 Mayo News, 2 Apr. 1898.
51 Ibid., 14 May l898.
52 Ibid., 5 Mar. l898.
53 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 23).
54 O’Brien to Sophie O’Brien, [3,4 June 1898] (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, BE. 80, 82); confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 22); Mayo News, 4 June 1898.
55 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 23).
56 Mayo News, 4 June 1898; confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 21).
57 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 23).
58 A branch had been established at Louisburgh earlier in the year, but it had not survived.
59 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, p. 23); Joyce to O’Brien, 14 June 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.85).
60 Mayo News, 25 June 1898; Michael Daly and other members of the Towneychrane U.I.L. to O’Brien, 28 June 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.96).
61 Irish Daily Independent, 3 Feb. 1898.
62 Freeman’s Journal, 4 Feb. 1898. See Harrington to O’Brien, 4 Feb. 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.23) for source of identity of ‘Drusus’.
63 O’Brien’s diary, 7 Aug. 1898 (Irish People, 19 Jan. 1907).
64 Irish Daily Independent, 6 Aug. 1898; O’Brien’s diary, 9 Aug. 1898 (Irish People, 26 Jan. 1907).
65 O’Brien’s diary, 10 Aug. 1898 (Irish People, 26 Jan. 1907).
66 Ibid., 1 Sept. 1898 (Irish People, 9 Feb. 1907).
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid., 4 Sept. 1898 (Irish People, 9 Feb. 1907).
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., 14 Sept. 1898 (Irish People, 16 Feb. 1907).
71 Ibid., 18 Sept. 1898 (Irish People, 16 Feb. 1907).
72 Fitzgibbon to O’Brien, 20 Sept. [1898] (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIA.210); Fitzgibbon to O’Brien, 22 Sept. [1898] (ibid., AIA.212); B. McHugh to O’Brien, 23 Sept. 1898 (ibid., AIA.217).
73 Davitt to O’Brien, [28 Sept. 1898] (ibid., AIA.227).
74 Resolution of Tipperary Union, 27 Sept. 1898 (ibid., AIA.225); O’Brien to clerk of Tipperary Union, 10 Oct. 1898 (draft) (ibid., AIB.21); resolution of Tipperary Union, 11 Oct. 1898 (ibid., AIB.25).
75 O’Brien, Sophie, ‘Recollections of a long life’, vol. ii, p. 33 (N.L.I., MS 4214).Google Scholar
76 Confidential print no. 1 (P.R.O., CO 903/8/1, pp 36-7); O’Brien’s diary, 16 Oct. 1898 (Irish People, 23 Mar. 1907).
77 Cameron, ‘The United Irish League, its origins & history’, pp 15-16.
78 C. S. Maguire to O’Brien, 25 Oct. 1898 (U.C.C., O’Brien MSS, AIB.58).
79 Lynam to O’Brien, 3 Nov. 1898 (ibid., AIB.82).
80 Ibid.
81 See Bull, ‘United Irish League & the reunion of the Irish Parliamentary Party’.
82 Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 30 Sept. 1843. 1 am indebted to Dr Paul Pickering for this reference. See also DrPickering’s, article ‘“Irish First”: Daniel O’Connell, the native manufacture campaign, and economic nationalism’ in Albion, xxxii (2000), pp 598-616Google Scholar, where he argues that the native manufacture campaign at that time was also motivated in part by the desire to establish parallel institutions to those of the British government.
83 Duffy, Charles Gavan, Four years of Irish history, 1845-9 (London, 1883), pp 487-9.Google Scholar
84 Jordan, Donald, ‘The Irish National League and the “unwritten law”: rural protest and nation-building in Ireland, 1882-1890’ in Past & Present, no. 158 (Feb. 1998), p. 171Google Scholar. For another exposition of the same concept see Bull, Land, politics & nationalism, pp 116-42.
85 The first significant exploration of how ‘league courts’ functioned is to be found in Campbell,’ Land & politics in Connacht’, ch. 4, although the examples cited come overwhelmingly from the post-1903 period, when the political context within which the U.I.L. functioned had greatly changed.
86 See, for example, Higgins & Gibbons, ‘Shopkeeper-graziers & land agitation in Ireland’.
87 Clark, Samuel, ‘The importance of agrarian classes: agrarian class structure and collective action in nineteenth-century Ireland’ in Drudy, (ed.), Ireland: land, politics & people, p. 31.Google Scholar
88 See Bull, ‘United Irish League & the reunion of the Irish Parliamentary Party’.
89 See Bull, Philip, ‘A fatal disjunction, 1898-1905: Sinn Féin and the United Irish League’ in Pelan, Rebecca (ed.), Irish-Australian Studies: papers of the Seventh Irish-Australian Conference (Sydney, 1994), pp 37–51.Google Scholar
