Nationalist Party (Ireland)

This article is about the historical political parties in the 19th and 20th century. For similarly named parties, see National Party (Ireland) (disambiguation).

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

Main article: Home Government Association

The Home Government Association was founded in 1870 by Isaac Butt, ^[1] this was superseded in November 1873 by the Home Rule League and the Home Rule Confederation its British sister organisation. ^[2]

Home Rule League

Main article: Home Rule League

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. ^[3] The Whiggish members all lost their seats in 1885.

Home Rule Party

Main article: Home Rule League

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. ^[4]

Irish Parliamentary Party

Main article: Irish Parliamentary Party

The party was reformed by Parnell as the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1882, the constituency organisation of which was the Irish National League. ^[5] 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. ^{[6] [7]}

The Nationalist Party appellation was applied to the reunited Irish Parliamentary Party in 1900. ^[8] 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. ^[9] Bridget Redmond, William's wife, was elected in Waterford for Fine Gael until 1952. ^[10]

Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)

Main article: Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)

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. ^[11] Many calls were made for the party to develop an overall organisation but it fell apart in the late 1960s. ^[12] The party was eventually subsumed into the Irish Independence Party in October 1977. ^[13]

The party in Great Britain

In addition to the organisations in Ireland outlined above, the term Nationalist Party was also used to describe the party run in Liverpool by T. P. O'Connor, MP for the Liverpool Scotland division from 1885. ^{[14] [15]} It contested Liverpool City Council elections. After O'Connor's death in 1929, no candidate stood in the ensuing by-election to succeed him in the Irish Nationalist interest. ^{[15] [16]}

Leaders

Home Rule League

• Isaac Butt 1874–1879 ^[17]
• William Shaw 1879–1880 ^[18]
• Charles Stewart Parnell 1880–1882 ^[19]

Irish Parliamentary Party

• Charles Stewart Parnell 1882–1891 ^[19]
• John Redmond (Parnellite minority) 1891–1900 ^[20]
• Justin McCarthy (anti-Parnellite majority) 1891–1892 ^[21]
• John Dillon (anti-Parnellite majority) 1892–1900 ^[21]
• John Redmond (reunited party) 1900–1918 ^{[22] [20] [21]}
• Joe Devlin 1918–1921 ^[23]

Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)

• Joe Devlin 1921–1934 ^[23]
• Thomas Joseph Campbell 1934–1946
• James McSparran 1946–1953
• Eddie McAteer 1953–1959
• Cahir Healy 1959–1965
• Eddie McAteer 1965–1973 ^[24]
• Fergus McAteer 1973–1977

References

1. Mulvagh, Conor. "Explainer: What was Home Rule? | Century Ireland". RTÉ . Retrieved 12 February 2024. In 1870, Isaac Butt, a barrister and former Tory MP, founded the Irish Home Government Association.
2. Mulvagh, Conor. "Explainer: What was Home Rule? | Century Ireland". RTÉ . Retrieved 12 February 2024. By 1874, styled as the Home Rule League, Butt's nascent party succeeded in gaining the loose allegiance of 59 out of 103 Irish MPs.
3. Mulvagh, Conor. "Explainer: What was Home Rule? | Century Ireland". RTÉ . Retrieved 12 February 2024. The most significant event to occur in the emergence of a more powerful Home Rule movement was in 1880 when Charles Stewart Parnell was elected chairman of the party.
4. English, Richard (2007). Irish Freedom: A History of Nationalism in Ireland (illustrated, reprint ed.). Pan Books. p. 192. ISBN   9781405041898. And then on 3 March 1874 a gathering of Irish Home Rule MPs, meeting in Dublin, set up a Home Rule Party. The aim was to form and consolidate a genuine party for Home Rule in the London House of Commons, a party which would pursue restoration of an Irish legislature.
5. McCausland, Malcolm (2020). Lion for a Day. AuthorHouse UK (published 22 September 2020). ISBN   978-1728356723. Parnell was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol in 1882 but released when he renounced the violent extra-parliamentary action. The same year, he reformed the Home Rule League as the Irish Parliamentary Party, which he controlled minutely as Britain's first disciplined democratic party.
6. 'Parnell's Old Brigade': The Redmondite-Fenian Nexus in the 1890s.
7. Kelly, Matthew (2002). "'Parnell's Old Brigade': the Redmondite–Fenian nexus in the 1890s". Irish Historical Studies. Cambridge University Press. 33 (130): 209. doi:10.1017/S0021121400015698. JSTOR   30006941. At this time the home rule movement had split into two opposing factions, the Parntellites and the anti-Parnellites. They might be referred to respectives as the Redmondites (named after the leader of the Parnellites, John Redmon) and the Federationists (named after the main anti-Parnellite organisation, the Irish National Federation).
8. Bull, Philip (1988). "The United Irish League and the Reunion of the Irish Parliamentary Party, 1898-1900". Irish Historical Studies. Cambridge University Press. 26 (101): 51. doi:10.1017/S0021121400009445. JSTOR   30008504. The chronic factionalism and dissensions which had plagued Irish nationalist politics after the fall of Parnell in 1890 was finally brought to an end with the reunion of the Irish parliamentary party in January 1900.
9. McConnel, James (2018). "'Out in the cold'?: The children of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Irish Free State". Irish Historical Studies. Cambridge University Press. 42 (161): 107. doi:10.1017/ihs.2018.5. Following the winding up of the now moribund National League Party in 1931, W. A. Redmond joined Cumann na nGaedheal and shortly before his early death he was elected on its ticket at the 1932 general election.
10. Downing, John (7 February 2016). "The widow vote: when women candidates ran for family seats". Independent.ie. Retrieved 12 February 2024. Fine Gael's Bridget Mary Redmond, a TD from 1933 until 1952, was the widow of Captain William Redmond who had died in 1932. She continued over half a century of continuous parliamentary representation for Waterford, begun by Irish Parliamentary Party leader, John Redmond, in the British House of Commons in 1891.
11. Mallon, Seamus; Phoenix, Eamon (2003). "Nationalism in Northern Ireland from partition to the Belfast agreement : a political perspective ;an academic perspective" (PDF). IBIS Working Papers. The path to peace: negotiating and implementing the Belfast agreement Lecture Series. University College Dublin. Institute for British-Irish Studies: 7. This reduced the Nationalist Party to a role analogous of "local notables", lacking even in a formal party organisation; they were "like bishops, answerable to no one".
12. "CAIN: Politics: Lynn, B. (1997), Holding the Ground the Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland, 1945-1972". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
13. Murphy, Michael A. (1992). "Gerry Fitt: Ulster Politician" (PDF). core.ac.uk (Dissertation). p. 246. Retrieved 12 February 2024– via Loyola University Chicago. The Irish Independence Party (I.I.P.), was formed in October 1977. This new party was a direct challenge to the S.D.L.P., its leading figures being former Unity M.P. for Fermanagh/South Tyrone, Frank McManus, and Fergus McAteer, son of the Nationalist Party leader and a Londonderry Councillor.
14. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan London (published 18 July 1974). p. 143. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-02298-4. ISBN   978-1-349-02298-4.
15. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan London. p. 179. ISBN   978-0333230480.
16. "Conference member: T P O'Connor MP". parliament.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2024. Initially elected for Galway, he then became the only MP to be elected as an Irish Nationalist for an English constituency, Liverpool Scotland, between 1885 and 1929.
17. McCaffrey, Lawrence J. (1960). "Isaac Butt and the Home Rule Movement: A Study in Conservative Nationalism". The Review of Politics. Cambridge University Press. 22 (1): 72. doi:10.1017/S0034670500007580. JSTOR   1405267. This evaluation of the formative years of Home Rule and the first leader of the movement is inadequate on several counts: it fails to appreciate Butt's success in resurrecting an interest in nationalism among the Irish masses following the Tenant Right and Fenian failures of the 1850's and 1960's;
18. Neville, Conor (2011). "Imperial precedents in the Home Rule Debates, 1867-1914" (PDF). mural.maynoothuniversity.ie. Retrieved 12 February 2024. Butt was succeeded by William Shaw, non-conformist clergyman and the chairman of the prestigious Munster Bank who sat for the famously Tory stronghold of Bandon.
19. "Parnell – A Terrible Beauty is Born: The Easter Rising at 100". exhibitions.lib.udel.edu. Retrieved 12 February 2024. Protestant landlord Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) was the acknowledged leader of the Irish nationalist movement between 1880 and 1882. Known as the "uncrowned king of Ireland," Parnell formed the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1882, whose legislative agenda was Irish Home Rule and land reform.
20. "Temp Head". Independent.ie. 11 April 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2024. Following the split in the Irish Parliamentary Party over the Parnell scandal, John Redmond led the Parnellite wing of the party from 1891 and became leader of the reunited Party in 1900.
21. "Branch ledger of the Irish National Federation including names and addresses of the officers in each branch,". catalogue.nli.ie. 1891. Retrieved 12 February 2024. The Irish National Federation was a political party established in 1891 by former members of the INL [Irish National League] who left the Irish Parliamentary Party when Charles Stewart Parnell refused to resign the party leadership as a result of his involvement in the divorce proceedings of Katharine O'Shea. It was led by Justin McCarthy until January 1896 (when he resigned); in February 1896 John Dillon became chairman of the INF. The party was dissolved in 1900 when the membership rejoined the Irish Parliamentary Party under John Redmond with Dillon as Deputy IPP leader.
22. O’Donovan, John (8 February 2016). "Local politics in Cork to the fore at start of 1916". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 12 February 2024. The IPP, which was made up of all Irish nationalist MPs at Westminster, had reunited in 1900 after the damaging split of 1891. John Redmond was the IPP chairman, and in June 1900 he was elected chairperson of the popular political organisation, the United Irish League (UIL), thus in effect amalgamating the two organisations.
23. "The rise to fame of 'Wee Joe' Devlin". The Irish News. 18 January 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2024. THE rise to public life and fame of Joseph Devlin (1871-1934), former co-leader of the Home Rule Party and leader of the Nationalist Party in the North until his death, is worth recalling.
24. "Derry City Cemetery Series: Eddie McAteer, the Scots born stalwart of Derry's nationalist politics". www.derrynow.com. Retrieved 12 February 2024. In 1964, with the death of Joe Stewart, Eddie McAteer became the leader of the Nationalist Party and the voice of nationalism in the North.

See also

• List of Nationalist Party (Ireland) MPs