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The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922. It was also the name of the main Irish nationalist Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1978.
The Home Government Association was founded in 1870 by Isaac Butt, this was superseded in November 1873 by the Home Rule League and the Home Rule Confederation its British sister organisation.
It was founded under Isaac Butt in November 1873 as the Home Rule League. After the death of Butt the party soon divided into radicals led by Charles Stewart Parnell and Whiggish members under William Shaw. Shaw became leader for a year 1879–1880, but was defeated by Parnell the next year. The Whiggish members all lost their seats in 1885.
The Home Rule Party was set up by a group of English Home Rule MPs' at a meeting in Dublin on 3 March 1874 to pursue the restoration of an Irish legislature.
The party was reformed by Parnell as the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1882, the constituency organisation of which was the Irish National League. Both were commonly referred to as the Nationalist Party, as were the organisations which developed from the Parnellite Split, the majority anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation and the rump Parnellite Irish National League.
The Nationalist Party appellation was applied to the reunited Irish Parliamentary Party in 1900. It also covered smaller breakaway factions, such as those led by Tim Healy, D. D. Sheehan and William O'Brien. Some of its members were elected to Dáil Éireann in the early years of the Irish Free State as independents or for William Redmond's National League Party which was to merge into Cumann na nGaedheal. Bridget Redmond, William's wife, was elected in Waterford for Fine Gael until 1952.
After the general election of 1918, the term Nationalist Party was taken on by the remnants of old Irish Parliamentary Party under Joseph Devlin as the Nationalist Party in the new creation of Northern Ireland. It developed a reputation for being heavily disorganised and being little more than a collection of elected members with their own local machines. Many calls were made for the party to develop an overall organisation but it fell apart in the late 1960s. The party was eventually subsumed into the Irish Independence Party in October 1977.
In addition to the organisations in Ireland outlined above, the term Nationalist Party was also used to describe the party run in Liverpool during the 1920s by T.P. O'Connor, MP for the Liverpool Scotland division. After O'Connor's death in 1929, no candidate stood in the ensuing by-election to succeed him in the Irish Nationalist interest.
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Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1882 to 1891. His party held the balance of power in the House of Commons during the Home Rule debates of 1885–1886.
Isaac Butt was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament (M.P.) 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 in 1873 the Home Rule League. Colin W. Reid argues that Home Rule 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 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.
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) from 1900 until his death in 1918. He was also leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers (INV).
The Irish Parliamentary 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 was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills.
John Dillon was an Irish politician from Dublin, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for over 35 years and was the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. By political disposition Dillon was an advocate of Irish nationalism, originally a follower of Charles Stewart Parnell, supporting land reform and Irish Home Rule.
The Home Rule League (1873–1882), sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was an Irish political party which campaigned for home rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, until it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain was a sister organisation in Great Britain.
Cork City was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1880 to 1922 it returned two members of parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament, as it was no longer in the UK.
The Irish National League (INL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded on 17 October 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell as the successor to the Irish National Land League after this was suppressed. Whereas the Land League had agitated for land reform, the National League also campaigned for self-government or Irish Home Rule, further enfranchisement and economic reforms.
The Irish National Federation (INF) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in 1891 by former members of the Irish National League (INL), after a split in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) on the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell had refused to resign his leadership of the party after being named in divorce proceedings against Katharine O'Shea by the former MP William O'Shea. In the aftermath of the divorce, William Ewart Gladstone, leader of the Liberal Party, had declared that he would not work with Parnell, damaging the parliamentary alliance between the IPP and the Liberals.
The United Irish League (UIL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto "The Land for the People". Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazier farmers to surrender their lands for redistribution among the small tenant farmers. Founded and initiated at Westport, County Mayo by William O'Brien, it was supported by Michael Davitt MP, John Dillon MP, who worded its constitution, Timothy Harrington MP, John O'Connor Power MP and the Catholic clergy of the district. By 1900 it had expanded to be represented by 462 branches in twenty-five counties.
John Joseph Clancy, usually known as J. J. Clancy, was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons for North County Dublin from 1885 to 1918. He was one of the leaders of the later Irish Home Rule movement and promoter of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act 1908, known as the Clancy Act. Called to the Irish Bar in 1887 he became a KC in 1906.
Patrick O'Brien was Irish Nationalist MP in the House Of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party represented North Monaghan (1886–1892) and Kilkenny City (1895–1917). He was Chief Whip of the Irish Party from 1907 until his death in 1917.
Edmund Leamy was an Irish journalist, barrister, author of fairy tales, and nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party. A leading supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell, he represented various Irish seats for much of the period from 1880 until his death in 1904.
John O'Connor was an Irish Nationalist revolutionary-turned Irish Parliamentary Party parliamentarian MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party represented Tipperary in 1885, and South Tipperary from 1885 to 1892, and North Kildare from 1905 to 1918. He was also member of the English Bar.
Jeremiah JordanJ.P. was an Irish nationalist politician from County Fermanagh. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1885 to 1892, and from 1893 to 1910, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Sir Joseph Neale McKenna was an Irish banker and politician whose career extended from the elite home rule politics of the mid-nineteenth century to the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell, whom he supported in later years.
William Shaw was an Irish Protestant nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and one of the founders of the Irish home rule movement.
Thomas Sexton (1848–1932) was an Irish journalist, financial expert, nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1880 to 1896, representing four different constituencies. He was High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1887 and Lord Mayor of Dublin 1888–1889. Sexton was a high ranking member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, raised up by Charles Stewart Parnell himself. However, Sexton broke with Parnell and joined the Anti-Parnellites in 1891 following Parnell's marriage scandal. Sexton was disheartened by the subsequent infighting amongst the Anti-Parnellites and pulled back from politics. He thereafter became the chairman of the Freeman's Journal, one of the largest newspaper in Ireland.
Edward Sheil was Irish nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Athlone from 1874 to 1880, for Meath from 1882 to 1885, and for South Meath from 1885 to 1892, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of World War I.