The Irish National Land League and Michael Davitt . . .
by Mairéid Sullivan 2016, updated 2020
Work in progress
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Introduction
- Why do we hear so little about Michael Davitt’s influential place in Irish history?
- 19th Century Turning Points in Irish History
Part 1 - The Problem
- The Ulster Custom: Consequences of 'The Flight of the Earls'
- Remembering the Great Irish Famine - 1845-1852
- The 'Forgotten Famine' of 1879
Part 2 - The Analysis
- The Irish National Land League
Part 3 - Biographies
- Charles Stewart Parnell
- Anna Parnell
- Rev. Dr. Thomas Nulty, Bishop of Meath
- Michael Davitt
Part 4 - The Solution
-
The Irish Home Rule Bill, 1893:
Michael Davitt's speech before the House of Commons
Part 5
- Diaspora Perspectives
- "Christianity's Missed Opportunity"
- Irish Perspectives: Reviewing Michael Davitt's achievements.
Introduction Michael Davitt Museum, Straide, Co. Mayo (Sourced via Google Earth scan)
"The Father of the Irish National Land League" Why do we hear so little about Michael Davitt’s influential place in Irish history? Presented by Maireid Sullivan, Irish History Circle, Melbourne Celtic Club, 15th May, 2017
Michael Davitt (1846-1906) was an advocate for Land Tax.
Co. Mayo-born Michael Davitt
was a force to be reckoned with as one of the most influential leaders of Ireland’s independence movement. It has been said that Michael Davitt represented a much greater idea than Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) who wanted Home Rule under the British Crown.
While Davitt wanted the land to be acknowledged as a public asset for all Irish citizens, Parnell chose to 'believe' that Home Rule, under the British Crown, would be a more prosperous solution for Ireland’s future. Michael Davitt's focus on a Legal Tack in changing land laws became a key influence during the height of the Land League struggle: "That serfdom be transformed to citizenship" became a beacon of hope following the failure of 'military force' under Wolfe Tone (1763-1798).
Michael Davitt, (1902), Some Suggestions for the Final Settlement of the Land Question: “Our people have bowed to might, but they never have acknowledged the right of making land private property. In the old tongue they have cherished the old truth, and now in the providence of God the time has come for that faith to be asserted. ... I would abolish land monopoly by simply taxing all land, exclusive of improvements, up to its full value... In other words, I would recognize private property in the results of labour, and not in land."
Whilst imprisoned, Michael Davitt came to his oft quoted resolution:
“the land question can be definitely settled only by making the cultivators of the soil proprietors.” With that as the ultimate aim, the "Three F’s" became the foundation of The Land League: "Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, Free Sale"
Michael Davitt's sixth book, his last, is a revealing report on the history of the Land Campaign, from 1879-1903:
"The fall of feudalism in Ireland –or– The story of the Land League revolution" (1904)
Download PDF HERE)
Opening quote:
“Is there one in a thousand who foresees the great struggle against feudalism which impends over us or our children? Nay, is there one in ten thousand of us that dreams of the fact that we are the only nation where feudalism, with its twin monopolies, landed and ecclesiastical, is still in power? . . . It is in Ireland that the operation of the landed and ecclesiastical monopolies is felt with the bitterest severity . . .it is in Ireland that the crash of feudalism will be first heard.” – Richard Cobden, March 10, 1865; quoted in the Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by T. Wemyss Reid, vol. i., pp. 367, 368, first ed. Chapman & Hall
Ireland has long identified as a sanctuary against 'waves' of European raiders. Ireland’s cultural sovereignty has survived in oral traditions maintained by Druids, Bards and Filid, male and female, equally incorporating all professions– they were the scholarly class. Nora Chadwick’s The Druids, (1966) is an essential starting point for students of ancient druidism:
"The druids were the most enlightened and civilizing spiritual influence in Celtic Europe and were held in high regard as priests, philosophers, teachers and judges." – Nora Chadwick, 1966
Practitioners across the liberal, performing, and visual arts; tradition-bearers, scholars, lorekeepers, political advisors, lawmakers, poets, musicians, healers - all shared their knowledge directly, from generation to generation, until the late 1700s, when official documentation began. The Dublin-based Irish Traditional Music Archive holds the largest collection of traditional Irish music in the world.
Come all you loyal heroes where ever that you be
Don’t work for any master ’til you know what your work will be
For you must rise up early from the clear daylight ’til dawn
And I know that you’ll never be able to plow the Rocks of Bawn.
(Listen to The Rocks of Bawn)
"The hardship of Irish peasant life was sufficiently widespread that the song was assured sympathetic audiences almost wherever it went."
– Frank McNally discusses the origin of The Rocks of Bawn.
19th Century Turning Point in Irish History.
"We have pledged ourselves to the dead generations who have preserved intact for us this glorious heritage that we, too, will strive to be faithful to the end, and pass on this tradition unblemished."
– Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), speaking to more than a million people converged on The Hill of Tara on 22 May 1845. Daniel O'Connell is remembered as "The Emancipator" - the founder of a non-violent form of Irish nationalism.
In summary, The Nine Years War (1594–1603) was launched from Ulster, in the north of Ireland, when, at the age of 43, Hugh O’Neill (1550-1616) replaced Turlough Luineach O’Neill as chieftain of the O’Neills of Tyrone, with claims of direct lineage to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Following defeat by the English at The Battle of Kinsale (1601-2), rather than succumb to vassal status, Hugh O'Neill, along with over 14,000 soldiers, accompanied by their wives and children, left Ireland, to join the French, Spanish or Austrian armies in what became known as the Flight of the Earls (1607). From the mid-to-late-1700, those vacated lands were 'settled' by Scottish migrants following the forced eviction from the Highlands and western islands of Scotland: "The Highland Clearances."
The "Tenant-right Custom of Ulster" implemented from the beginning of King James' rule (1685-1688) is the origin of the "Rack Rent" system
Excerpt - Short History of Economics, Part 4:
Scottish social philosopher and political economist,
Professor Adam Smith (1723-1790), the reputed founder of Classical Political Economics, visited the Physiocrats in France while touring across Europe (1764-1766) as tutor to the young Scottish nobleman Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, who endowed him with a life-time 'pension'. Adam Smith was inspired by the Physiocrats' economic theorem, "the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of land agriculture or land development."
Ten years later, Classical Political Economics theorem was formally launched with the publication of Adam Smith's
The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Around 1809, English Economist David Ricardo (1772-1823) defined the income derived from the ownership of land and other free gifts of nature as "The Law of Rent theorem" (aka Economic Rent, Ricardo's Law, Resource Rent).
... without a knowledge [of The Law of Rent], it is impossible to understand the effect of the progress of wealth on profits and wages, or to trace satisfactorily the influence of taxation on different classes of the community. – David Ricardo
The Act of Union of 1800
From the beginning of the 1800s, the British Parliament responded to an estimated 2.3 million Irish people facing starvation by enacting a law consolidating legal control of all decisions related to Ireland's governance with the Act of Union of 1800, (signed by George III in August 1800), which launched the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1 January 1801.
Remembering the Great Irish Famine – 1845-1852
The Irish Famine "Clearances" The Poor Law Administration Bill, passed by the English Parliament in June 1847, transferred responsibility for poor relief to land owners: Consequently, the need to avoid tax liability became a driving force for landlords attempting to consolidate their estate holdings by quickly 'clearing' dependents - paying them a small 'allowance' for demolishing their houses, before scattering them - to "The Rocks of Bawn".
"What had the Poor Law Amendment Act been intended to accomplish? To raise wages—to make the poor independent—to diminish crime—and to lessen in the future the number of illegitimate children in this country. Had it accomplished any one of these objects? Not one. There was not the slightest pretence for saying that any one of the anticipations with which the Bill had been attended had been fulfilled."– Hansard: HC Deb 24 June 1847 Vol. 93, cc845
By the end of the 1840s, the Irish Famine was in full force:
While the English exported abundant crops from Ireland, millions of native Irish men, women and children died, and millions more were enslaved as refugees. Professor Christine Kinealy is the leading authority on consequences of Ireland's Great Hunger:
"Almost 4000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women and children died of starvation and related diseases. The food was shipped under military guard from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland. . ." – Christine Kinealy, (1997) ‘A Death-Dealing Famine’:
The Great Hunger in Ireland, pp. 32-36
and, “. . . As the Famine progressed, it became apparent that the government was using its information not merely to help it formulate its relief policies, but also as an opportunity to facilitate various long-desired changes within Ireland. These included population control and the consolidation of property through various means, including emigration” – Christine Kinealy, (1995), The Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52, p. 352
See Google Books preview
Gladstone's efforts: UK Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898), was born in Liverpool to Scottish merchants, whose fortune was made in the Baltic and American corn trade. Gladstone served four terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. During his tenure, he publicly proclaimed his mission "to pacify Ireland" with The Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act of 1870; The Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1881; and, finally, The Irish Home Rule Bill of 1893, which controversially "broke with tradition in Britain and the empire, as it included provisions from the bill of rights of the United States."(Allen, 2018).
See also, British Library scans of Gladstone's notes on Irish Home Rule, 1893:"The Commons narrowly passed the bill, but it was crushed in the traditionalist and Conservative-dominated House of Lords. Gladstone resigned as prime minister six months later."
The 'Forgotten Famine' of 1879 The Irish Famine of 1879 led the British parliament to intervene with The Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1881: Granting tenants the right to pay 'fair rents' with the possibility to purchase the land they farmed led to a measure of public confidence; A sense of hope and national pride increased for people in Ireland and gave rise to a vast outpouring of generous support from relatives who had been 'transported' to America and Australia.
Sale of tenancies. 33 & 34 Vict. c. 46.
1. The tenant for the time being of every holding, not hereinafter specially excepted from the provisions of this Act, may sell his tenancy for the best price that can be got for the same, subject to the following regulations and subject also to the provisions in this Act contained with respect to the sale of a tenancy subject to statutory conditions: >>>more
Part 2 The Analysis
The Irish National Land League Back to top
By the 1870s, all of Ireland (estimated at 97%) was rented to tenant farmers.
The 1878 Co. Mayo tenant farmer "monster meetings" of between 15,000 to 20,000 people gave urgent voice to the possibility of land law reform and led to formation of The Irish National Land League in 1879.
In October 1879, The Irish National Land League was launched in Co. Mayo, with Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) as President and Michael Davitt (1846-1906) as secretary, supported by Father Eugene Sheehy, "the Land League priest", and Lawyer/MP Mayo, John O'Connor Power. Their efforts were consolidated when the Irish National League (INL) was launched as a political party, in Dublin, on 17 October, 1882, focusing on a non-violent 'grass-roots' approach to restoration of the sovereignty of "The Land" with a clearly defined aim -
Three F’s: FAIR Rent, FIXITY of Tenure and FREE Sale of improvements
"The rise of Parnell was to be one of the major developments during 1880, but there was one other element which was to add further complexity to the picture. While Parnell was establishing his authority over the Parliamentary Party, a second front was being opened up in Ireland itself. The founding of the Irish Land League in 1879 triggered off a long campaign of agrarian agitation designed to produce direct and immediate solutions to the chronic problems confronting the Irish tenantry, high rents, uncertain returns, and the ever present threat of eviction.
The driving force behind the League was the ex-Fenian, Michael Davitt, who had revived the old theory that a nationalist movement grounded in the desperate need of the peasantry would be far more likely to win freedom for Ireland than a purely constitutional agitation." – Gregory M. Tobin, 1969, The sea-divided Gael: a study of the Irish Home Rule, ANU, p. 66
Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) was born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow, of Anglo-Irish Protestant gentry. His American mother has been described as "a passionate Anglophobe". As a member of the 'ruling class', Parnell sought a 'mutual comfort zone’ in the midst of the struggle of the time - something his colleague Michael Davitt tried to achieve with logic and law.
In August 1876, Charles Stuart Parnell was elected President of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, (1873-1882), aka The Home Rule Party or Home Rule League.
Parliament UK: Home Rule -
The debates over the church question and land reform had a wider impact on Irish sentiment. Both convinced Isaac Butt, the MP for Harwich and then Youghal from 1852-65, that Irish affairs were not properly handled by Parliament at Westminster.
In 1869 Butt published a proposal for the formation of a united nationalist party to fight for the restoration of an Irish Parliament, or home rule, a term that passed into common use for the first time in the 1870s.
…
William Gladstone, meanwhile, turned again to the land question, this time resolving to restrain landlord power more effectively than in 1870.
In April 1881 he [Gladstone] introduced a Bill that essentially conceded the Land League's demands, known as the three Fs: fair rent, fixity of tenure and freedom for the tenant to sell his right of occupancy at the best market rate.
Parliament accepted the measure with few changes. The League, meanwhile, went from strength to strength.
A Franchise Act in 1884, together with a Redistribution Act in 1885, meant that after the general election of November 1885 Parnell commanded 85 MPs, including 17 out of 33 in Ulster, and held the balance of power in the House of Commons. >>>more
Anna Parnell (1852-1911), London-based younger sister of Charles Stewart Parnell became an Irish Nationalist following Parnell's election as MP, when she attended his Parliamentary debates and became increasingly interested in the efforts of The Irish Land League. Her reports from “The Ladies’ Gallery” were published under a column titled “Notes From the Ladies' Cage”. (Coté, J. 1991, Ireland's Patriot Sisters: pdf) 1880 Foundation of the Ladies’ Land League in New York.
In 1879, Anna Parnell traveled to New York to join her sister, the poet Fanny Parnell (1848–1882). Together they campaigned to raise money for the Irish National Land League. While there, on 15 October 1880, they founded The Lady’s Land League in New York. 1881 Foundation of the Irish Ladies’ Land League
On her return to Ireland, Anna launched The Irish Ladies’ Land League, on 31 January 1881. When Charles Parnell and other leaders were imprisoned in 1881, the Ladies' Land League took over their work. Less than a year later, they were proclaimed an unlawful organisation, and dissolved on 10 August 1882.
"Our people have bowed to might, but they never have acknowledged the right of making land private property. ... The system of land tenure in Ireland ... has created a state of human existence which in strict truth and justice can be characterized as the twin sister of slavery." - Bishop Nulty, 1881
Michael Davitt (1846-1906) contributed to an international effort to legally 'undo' the impacts of oppressive feudalistic "Rack Rent" land laws.
"The Land League represented the triump of what was forgiving over what was revengeful in my Celtic temperament." - Michael Davitt.
Inspired by the combined efforts of Ireland's Michael Davitt and America's Henry George, Australia managed to enact reformative land laws following Federation (1901), with the launch of the Australian Taxation Office in 1910). The American efforts were blocked following the 1891 Vatican encyclical, best described by Professor Mason Gaffney as "Christianity's missed opportunity".
Michael Davitt by Justin Huntly McCarthy, 31st May 1906 (xi)
Farewell, great rebel, all the glorious ghosts
Of all who loved and died for Ireland stand
About your sepulchre, an angel band;
llie great, whose names are blown about the coasts
Of the world’s glory, and the noble hosts
Of nameless martyrs for their Motherland,
Who gave green Erin heart and brain and hand,
The captains and the soldiers at their posts.
Rest, brother, in content, whose mortal eyes
Saw, ere they slept, the triumph half achieved,
And freedom nearer on a flowing tide;
For the long warfare wear the victor’s prize -
No lovelier life for Ireland ever lived.
No happier death for Ireland ever died.
Michael Davitt was born in Straide, Co. Mayo, on 25 March 1846, the second of five children to bilingual Catholics, Martin and Catherine Davitt. At the age of four, his family were among those "dispossessed" - evicted from their farmlands during the "Clearings'. Rather than allow their children to be placed in the Poor House, the family traveled to Dublin and sailed to Liverpool, then traveled by foot to Haslingden, in Lancashire.
At the age of eleven, while working in a cotton mill, Michael's arm was crushed in a milling accident: It had to be amputated. Following his recovery, a local benefactor, John Dean sponsored him at the Methodist Wesleyan school, Rawtenstall, Lancashire.
In 1861, at the age of 15, Davitt went to work at the Haslingden post office, which included a printing press, in Rossendale, Lancashire. The Printing press, managed by Henry Cockcroft, printed pamphlets for the Chartist movement. In spite of his injury, Davitt learned typesetting and bookkeeping, and worked there for five years, while taking night classes at the local Mechanics Institute, in north-east Lancashire. With access to its library, he became interested in Irish history and the contemporary political situation after meeting Ernest Charles Jones, the veteran Chartist leader, whose radical views on land nationalisation and Irish independence led him to join the Fenian movement in England.
“This memorial has been erected to perpetuate the memory of Michael Davitt with the town of Haslingden. It marks the site of the home of Michael Davitt, Irish patriot, who resided in Haslingden from 1853 to 1867. / He became a great world figure in the cause of freedom and raised his voice and pen on behalf of the oppressed, irrespective of race or creed, that serfdom be transformed to citizenship and that man be given the opportunity to display his God given talents for the betterment of mankind. / Born 1846, died 1906." – Erected by the Irish Democratic League Club, Haslingden (Davitt Branch).
“probably the most important mass movement in British history": ". . . Chartism took its name from The People’s Charter (1838), a manifesto for reform to complete the work of widening political participation that (it was thought) the 1215 Magna Carta had begun. . . Despite social media and new technology, the twenty-first century has yet to surpass Chartism in the organisation, passion and sheer numbers brought to petitioning." Professor Malcolm Chase(1957-2020: Obituary)
– Chase, 2007), In Chartism: A new history
Reviews:
- Oxford Journal review
- Institute of Historical Research review (This review is followed by the author’s comprehensive response.)
See also:
– UK Parliament exhibition, Chartism: 1838-1858
– UK House of Commons' Early Day Motions: Chartism and Parliament
Fenian Rising
After joining the Fenian movement in 1865, Davitt rose through the ranks to become organising secretary for England and Scotland.
From 1870, age 24, Davitt was arrested for aiding in arms smuggling on behalf of the Fenians and sentenced to fifteen years solitary penal servitude in England's Dartmoor prison.
– Marley, Laurence, (2007), Michael Davitt: Freelance Radical and Frondeur, Four Courts Press
Michael Davitt’s place in Irish history Within three years, following Davitt's arrest and imprisonment, in order to avoid retributions, in 1873, his family immigrated to the US, and settled in Philadelphia.
Davitt was released from England's Dartmoor prison, on a "ticket of leave" aka probation, on 19 December, 1877, at the age of 31. In his first book, "Leaves from a Prison Diary" (1885), Davitt remarked, during his first public lecture, in March of 1878, that every word spoken during that 7.5 years imprisonment could have been said in 20 minutes.
"He was kept in solitary confinement and received very harsh treatment … In prison he concluded that ownership of the land by the people was the only solution to Ireland’s problems. He managed to get a covert contact to an Irish MP member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John O’Connor Power, who began to campaign against cruelty inflicted on political prisoners. He often read Davitt’s letters in the House of Commons, with his Party pressing for an amnesty for Irish nationalist prisoners. Partially due to public furore over his treatment, Davitt was released (along with other political prisoners) on 19 December 1877, when he had served seven and half years, on a “ticket of leave”. He and the other prisoners were given a hero’s welcome on landing in Ireland...." >>>more
In 1878, Davitt, whose father had died while he was imprisoned, traveled to the US to see his mother and three sisters for the first time since age 15. While there, John Devoy and the Fenians organised a lecture tour in support of Davitt's campaign “The Land for the People”. He returned in 1879 to his native Mayo where he at once involved himself in land agitation when The Land League of Mayo was formally founded in Castlebar.
On 16 August 1879, at the Imperial Hotel, Dublin, with the active support of Charles stewart Parnell, the National Land League of Mayo was launched, with Davitt elected secretary, thus uniting the many movements working for tenant rights under a single organisation.
Shortly afterwards, on 19 November 1879, Michael Davitt, James Daly and James Bryce Killen were arrested on charge of sedition in Sligo jail, and released on bail a few days later, on 25 November 1879.
From 1879 to 1893, Davitt's international travels include Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, South Africa, South America, Russia, and most of continental Europe, lecturing on behalf of The Land League: “the land question can be definitely settled only by making the cultivators of the soil proprietors.”
During 1880, on separate occasions, Charles Stewart Parnell, John Dillon, and Michael Davitt's lecture tours of the US resulted in highly successful Land League fundraising.
On Davitt's arrival in New York, in May of 1880, he spoke before the national convention of the Irish Land League of the US (1879-1882) and was elected secretary for the duration of his lecture tour.
Family and Marriage
While lecturing in San Francisco in September, 1880, Michael Davitt met his future wife, Mary Yore, of Oakland. While there, his mother passed away, in July, 1880. He returned alone to Ireland in November, 1880.
Michael Davitt read "Progress and Poverty" (1879) four times before personally seeking George out in the US. He is reported to have said, in 1882,"If a copy of that book can be put in every workman's club and Land League and library in the three kingdoms the revolution will be made..."
Davitt invited Henry George to return to Ireland with him - on a year-long tour of Ireland, 1881/82, as a reporter funded by Patrick Ford (1837-1913), editor of the popular New York paper, The Irish World, who published Henry George's reports during his tour of Ireland.
Excerpt:
Dublin, Aug. 9. - "Henry George, the American economist, accompanied by an English gentleman, Mr. Joynes, Master of Eton College, visited Mr. Matthew Harris at Ballinasloe and afterward went to Athenry. There both gentlemen were arrested under the curfew section of the Crimes Act. ... The record of the arrest was made to read:— “Arrested, Henry George; accused by the police of association with suspects.” No protest against the arrest or Imprisonment was made to the Government through the American Consulate. One report states that when Gladstone heard of the arrest of George he was quite indignant at what he said must have been a blunder, and ordered his instant release, and that he caused the officers to be severely questioned as to their reasons for taking the author Into custody...The pretext for the arrest of George, alleged ‘‘association with suspects,” had no other foundation than the fact that he entered a small shop kept by an active member of the Land League to purchase a shirt button. The astute officer who made the, arrest deemed George’s possession of a copy of his wellknown work, “ Progress and Poverty,” conclusive proof of guilt... "Sub-Inspector Byrne being asked the reasons for arresting Mr. George, stated that he had acted on a telegraphic order from headquarters in Dublin to arrest them on arrival."... - Ireland's Struggle. Arrest of Henry George and Stephen J. Meany, Pilot, Volume 45, Number 33, 19 August 1882, Boston College Libraries.
The consequent international press coverage of the incident, which included favorable review of his book Progress and Poverty (1879), catapulted George onto the international stage, and led to translations in many languages worldwide. Barry Sheppard (2014) provides details for Irish History Online.
Michael Davitt was not alone!
In collaboration with Henry George, Michael Davitt helped to establish an international grass-roots movement during the lead up to the American Progressive Era, framed by David Ricardo's "Law of Rent Theorem" as a just alternative to feudalism: A return of The Commons as a public asset - the fruits to be shared equally - instead of taxing productivity. Note: For the clearest overview and analysis of application of the "Law of Rent Theorem" see Canadian educator Frank deJong's Economic Policy Resolution, 2010
In 1886, Davitt returned to the US, and married Mary Yore.
In 1887, Michael and Mary Davitt returned to Ireland and lived in the Land League Cottage in Ballybrack, Dalkey, County Dublin, which was gifted to them by The Land League. They had five children...
"All my ties except that of birth and my political work …
are American. My mother and father were buried in America. My mother’s uncle died high in the service of the United States navy, and my wife is American. My children are now in America, and my only regret is that my two boys are not old enough to fight for Old Glory." - Michael Davitt, Letter to New York Herald, 1898; in McLachlan, op. cit., supra, p.14.)
Michael Davitt's focus on a legal tack in changing land laws became a key influence during the height of the Land League struggle (which also inspired Mahatma Gandhi).
The front page of the Scottish newspaper, “The Single Tax”
- The Organ of the Scottish Land Restoration Union, Vol. I. No. I, Glasgow, June, 1894, Scanned here (pdf), featured an article by Michael Davitt, quoting Henry George:
“...To raise and maintain wages is the great object that all who live by wages ought to seek, and workingmen are right in supporting any measure that will attain that object. Nor in this are they acting selfishly, for, while the question of wages is the most important of questions to laborers, it is also the most important of questions to society at large. Whatever improves the condition of the lowest and broadest social stratum must promote the true interests of all. Where the wages of common labor are high and remunerative employment is easy to obtain, prosperity will be general. Where wages are highest, there will be the largest production and the most equitable distribution of wealth. There will invention be most active and the brain best guide the hand. There will be the greatest comfort, the widest diffusion of knowledge, the purest morals and the truest patriotism. If we would have a healthy, a happy, an enlightened and a virtuous people, if we would have a pure government, firmly based on the popular will and quickly responsive to it, we must strive to raise wages and keep them high..."– Henry George, (1886), Protection or Free Trade, An Examination of the Tariff Question, with especial Regard to the Interests of Free Trade, CH I, Introductory, pp. 4-5. Available HERE and HERE - pdf. “Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.”
- Henry George, 1886
Note: in 1886, Henry George introduced Protection or Free Trade with a dedication to the Physiocrats: "To the memory of those illustrious Frenchmen of a century ago, Quesnay, Turgot, Mirabeau, Condorcet, Dupont and their fellows who in the night of despotism foresaw the glories of the coming day."
See dedicated page: Remembering Henry George, HERE
UK Prime Minister Gladstone's final attempt to enact Home Rule for Ireland was successful in the House of Commons but was defeated in the House of Lords.
That Michael Davitt became a great orator is evidenced by his remarks following an interjection during his speech in the House of Commons,
on
11 April 1893.
MR. DAVITT (Cork, N.E.) p. 41-62
MR. A. M. BROOKFIELD (Sussex, Rye)
I rise to Order. I wish to ask, is the hon. Member in Order reading his speech?
MR. SPEAKER
As the question has been asked of me, I am bound to answer it. It is quite permissible to use notes in this House.
MR. DAVITT I thank you, Sir, for the protection you have given me, and for the consideration every Irish Member in this House knows he will always receive at your hands. I wish to say I was not reading my speech; and now I will continue my closing remarks. The real issue in this contest is not the merits or demerits of this Bill. The Opposition shirk a full and fair discussion of the measure, both inside and outside this House. The evils which they pretend will follow from the Bill, if it becomes law, are expressly guarded against in its character and its clauses. It is not a Bill to Repeal the Union, but to make the Union a fair and a real measure for the Constitutional government of Ireland. It is not a Bill to create and uphold the rule of a "tyrannous majority," but to establish a system of National administration by and under which all Irishmen will stand as equals in the matter of religious, social, and political rights. The only injury the Bill can inflict upon the minority in Ireland is to bring them down to a level of equality of justice and of law with the rest of their fellow-countrymen. The Bill, therefore, is not the real issue in this light. It is a wider and more for-reaching principle—it is the question of the supremacy of the masses or the classes in the Constitutional government of these three islands. The classes are fighting for their political supremacy, and "Ulsteria" is but a means to that end. They fight democracy in Ireland because they fear its supremacy in Great Britain. The Irish Question blocks the way in this House. It keeps English, Scotch, and Welsh questions outside more or less. It arrests the introduction and consideration of great measures of social reform which are knocking loudly at the doors of this House for enactment. This is why the Bill is so vehemently opposed by the Opposition, why Ulster is encouraged to talk about rebellion and all the rest. How long, may I ask, is this obstruction to go on? Why does Parliament sit now for half the year to little purpose? Why are days and nights frequently spent in unprofitable discussions — the public becoming tired and indifferent—during the Session? The answer is still Ireland, Ireland. The Imperial Parliament has involved itself in a maze without issue. It has undertaken a task which it cannot perform, and the sooner it gets rid of the burden the better for Ireland and Great Britain. [At this point Mr. Davitt raised aloft a large bundle of Bills yet to be disposed of.] I believe this Bill to be a pact of peace between Ireland and England, and I further believe that it will pass into law. The opposition to such a measure with such a purpose is either the cant of Party bigotry or the cowardice of political conviction. To widen the sphere of a people's national life has never yet in the history of human progress resulted in failure or produced political or social retrogression. It is oppression and discontent which arrest the growth and narrow the public life of civilised communities, begetting race hatreds and those other great evils which government by force and distrust must inevitably engender. Liberty, on the other hand, has ever had, and ever will have, an elevating and ennobling influence on mankind. It will expand the genius and give free play to the best energies of the Irish people in every sphere of intellectual, social, and public activity. It cannot possibly fail to produce that contentment, progress, and prosperity in Ireland with which nationhood has blessed every land upon which it has been bestowed. Sir, I firmly believe that the day when this Bill becomes law—the day on which the right to manage her own local affairs in her own way is conferred upon Ireland— that day will a new era of peace and prosperity begin for a long and cruelly misgoverned country, which will give to Ireland and Great Britain alike the strength of real and lasting unity, and the mutual happiness of seeing at an end for ever a long and disastrous Anglo-Irish strife.>>> continue
– In Davitt’s footsteps along the Murray
On 16 October 2012, at Melbourne University's Newman College, Dr. Val Noone reported on his July 2012 field trip, accompanied by Dr. Carla King, the leading RCC Davitt biographer, to various Murray Valley labour cooperatives which Michael Davitt visited in 1895.
The Irish National Land League 1879-1881 (1915) Associate Professor of Economic History at the University of Kentucky, Walter W. Jennings' BA thesis (1915) presented a detailed coverage of the late 1800s Irish crisis: Archived HERE
Key supporters of Michael Davitt's vision:
1. Henry George (1839–1897) In his 1871 pamphlet, Our Land and Land Policy (Internet Archive), George first used the term "Ulster Custom" when he set out his theory on monopoly and poverty, and advocated a single tax on land. Michael Davitt read George's "Progress and Poverty" (1879) four times and had this to say, "
If a copy of that book can be put in every workman's club and Land League and library in the three kingdoms the revolution will be made..."
2. Rev. Dr. Thomas Nulty, Bishop of Meath (1816-1898)
In an address on the land question delivered to his diocese, Back To The Land, (1881) : "The system of land tenure in Ireland ... has created a state of human existence which in strict truth and justice can be characterized as the twin sister of slavery."
DEDICATION
To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Meath:
Dearly Beloved Brethren,-
I venture to take the liberty of dedicating the following Essay to you, as a mark of my respect and affection. In this Essay I do not, of course, address myself to you as your Bishop, for I have no divine commission to enlighten you on your civil rights, or to instruct you in the principles of Land Tenure or Political Economy. I feel, however, a deep concern even in your temporal interests — deeper, indeed, than in my own; for what temporal interests can I have save those I must always feel in your welfare? It is, then, because the Land Question is one not merely of vital importance, but one of life and death to you, as well as to the majority of my countrymen, that I have ventured to write on it at all >>> more
3. Father Edward McGlynn (1837-1900)
Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn of St. Stephen's Catholic Church, one of the largest in New York, expressed strong approval of the Land League movement.
Referring to Henry George, Edward McGlynn said, "[George] is one of the greatest geniuses that the world has ever seen, and . . . the qualities of his heart fully equal the magnificent gifts of his intellect... He is a man who could have towered above all his equals in almost any line of literary or scientific pursuit."
– Louis F. Post and Fred C. Leubusher, 1887.
In 1887 Father Edward McGlynn, the beloved priest of the New York Irish and other Catholics, and the learned pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, founded the Anti-Poverty Society. It was to bring him into collision with an authoritarian Aichbishop, Michael Corrigan, who was the lackey of Tammany Hall — and it was to bring him into conflict, too, with the Holy Office, which was misled by Corrigan and some of the ecclesiastical bureaucrats in Rome into forming the mistaken opinion that Henry George and Father McGlynn held doctrines which were inconsistent with those traditionally held by the Church. >>>more
Ford funded Henry George's 1881 year-long tour of Ireland, as a reporter, following Michael Davitt, and published his regular reports. Edward T. O'Donnell provides an informative overview: "Though Not an Irishman: Henry George and the American Irish", The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 56, No. 4, Special Issue: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Death of Henry George (Oct., 1997), pp. 407-419
5. Henry George, Junior. (1862-1916) Henry George's son, Henry George Jr., journalist and US Democratic Congressman, United States Representative for New York, 1900.
Following the death of Henry George in 1897, Henry George Jr. documented the history of his family and his father's vision, presenting a detailed history of the collaboration between Michael Davitt and Henry George:
On the Irish situation, Henry George reported: ”It is not merely a despotism; it is a despotism sustained by alien force, and wielded in the interests of a privileged class, who look upon the great masses of the people as intended but to be hewers of their wood and drawers of their water...." But, wrote Mr. George, "the people have become accustomed to act together" in wielding the weapon of passive resistance. It is from his private letters to Patrick Ford that we get the clearest amd most intimate view of somce phases of the movement. For instance, on November 10 he wrote:
"... The truth is that I landed here at a most unfortunate time for my purpose, and have found more difficulty in 'getting my feet down' than I could have imagined would be possible...
"The first intimation I got was on the tender [in Cork Harbour] when the agent
who had the passenger list from the steamer, called me aside and asked if I was Henry George, and telling me he was a Land Leaguer, told me I was expected. He wanted to chenge my name [on my trunks] telling me I should certainly be dogged from the moment I landed and possibly arrested. I, of course, refused any such kindness, telling him that I did not propose to disguise myself and that the whole detective force was welcome to listen to all I had to say.
"...As I said before, it seems hard for a stranger to get to the bottom, and things change. But one impressionhas not changed. I got indignant as soon as I landed, and I have got got over it yet. This is the most damnable government that exists to-day our of Russia- Miss Helen Taylor [step-daughter of John Stuart Mill,says 'outside of Turkey'.'
"... As to the clergy: Croke struck a harder blow than Gladstone. It was as Dr. Nulty said to me, 'Et tu Brute.'
"If I had told you what the general statement of the men I met at first was, it would have been that the clergy were the greatest force the Land League has to meet. It is really better than that. The majority of the clergy are, I am inclinde to think, with the people and the no-rent fight, but they are for the most part 'bull-dozed' and the other are most active.... First views of Ireland
– Henry George, (1881-1882, Age 42-42) - Henry George Jr. (1904) The Life of Henry George, CH III p. 358 - 361.
Excerpt - CH IV:
A FEW months of immurement in Kilmainham jail, even while mitigated by personal comforts, if not luxuries, and the companionship of numerous political friends, had sufficed for Parnell; and he [Davitt] came out to "slow down" the great Land League movement that had roused the enthusiasm of tens and hundreds of thousands on two continents. But neither the seven years of hard penal servitude nor the year or more of subsequent and lighter solitary incarceration in the English prison had broken the spirit of Michael Davitt. He had no thought of surrender to the Government. In a letter to the "London Standard" he showed that while he had given up his old idea of the efficacy of physical force and dynamite to bring reforms, he did not wish to be a party to the Kilmainham treaty; and on the 21st of May he made a speech at Manchester on these lines. Mr. George had been invited to lecture on the Irish question in Free Trade Hall and Mr. Davitt to preside. . .
"Disruption" was the cry at once raised by the Parnellites against Davitt in consequence of this speech...
. . .
But if Davitt shrank from an open break, he certainly had plans distinct from those of Parnell, as shown by a letter from George to Francis G. Shaw (May 30):
"Davitt is all right. He believes just as we do, but he is very much afraid of breaking up the movement, and is sensitive to the taunt that he has been 'captured by Henry George and the "Irish World."' ...
"Michael Davitt is full of the idea of popularising 'Progress and Poverty.' That was the first thing he said to me. He had read it twice before, and he read it twice again while in Portland [prison], and as you may see from his speeches and letters, he believes in it entirely. He says if a copy of that book can be put in every workman's club and Land League and library in the three kingdoms the revolution will be made."
Excerpt - Ch IV:
... Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn of St. Stephen's Catholic Church, one of the largest in New York, had preciously expressed strong approval of the movement, but had never spoken publicly on this or any kindred subject. He had been widely known both for the eloquence of his utterances and the independence of his views, and yielding to the pressure to come out and take a public stand on the land question, he had laid prudential considerations aside, and consented to speak at the Davitt reception. He followed Davitt and made an extraordinary speech on the lines of the land for the people. Elegant in diction and oratorial in deliver, it flashed with wit and burned with enthusiasm. He spoke as a priest of the people, who bore witness to the everlasting truth.
He encouraged Davitt to "preach the gospel" and not to apologise for it or explain it away. His address made such a sensation that the Doctor was invited to speak at most of the meetings with Davitt during the short tour, and he did speak at three, at one of them saying:
"If I might take the liberty of advising him [Davitt] I should say: 'Explain not away one tittle of it, but preach the gospel in its purity!' [Cheers.] I say it is a good gospel, not only for Ireland, but for England, for Scotland and for America, too. [Great cheering.] And if in this country we do not as yet feel quite so much the terrible pressure of numbers upon the land, the same terrible struggle between 'Progress and Poverty,' as is felt in other lands, no thanks are due at all to our political system, but thanks only to the bounties of nature, and to the millions of acres of virgin lands with which God has blessed us. But when these virgin lands shall have been occupied; when the population shall have increased here as it has elsewhere in proportion to our extent of territory, we shall have precisely the same problem to solve, and the sooner we solve it the better. [Loud cheering.] And so I quite agree with Michael Davitt to the full, and with Henry George to the full [loud cheering, and three cheers for Henry George], and lest any timid, scrupulous soul might fear that I was falling into the arms of Henry George, I say that I stand on the same platform with Bishop Nulty, of Meath, Ireland. [Cheers.] But for that matter – to let you again into a secret – my private opinion is, that if I had to fall into the arms of anybody, I don't know a man into whose arms I should be more willing to fall than into the arms of Henry George." [Loud cheers.]
These speeches were too marked in their effects on popular thought in this country, the main source of Land League funds, to go unnoticed by those at Rome and elsewhere bent on suppressing the Irish cause; and the powers which had silenced so many of the clergy of Ireland, among them Dr. Nulty, for the same kind of utterances, now turned towards New York. - Henry George Jr, The Life of Henry George, CH IV, Starting the Revolution in Great Britain, 1882, p.384 / 385 PDF
The Irish Land Question: What It Involves, and How Alone It Can Be Settled by Henry George
First published in 1881 as "The Irish Land Question"
In chapter 7, George explores the analogy of Captain Kidd, the pirate, in order to dispel the notion that vested rights in land are valid.
In his time, Henry George became the third most famous man in the United States, behind Thomas Edison and Mark Twain, due to his success in promoting "The Law of Rent" theorem. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII was forced to constrain the growing number of priests and laity supporting Henry George's work by issuing an encyclical Rerum Novarum – "of revolutionary change" or "Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor"
Henry George, Dr. Edward McGlynn, and Pope Leo XIII
by Professor Mason Gaffney, (1997) PDF
THE STORY OF HOW CLERICAL HIERARCHS PERCEIVED
A PROGRESSIVE ECONOMIST AND A POPULAR IRISH-AMERICAN PRIEST
AS DANGEROUS THREATS TO
THE CHURCH AND HOW THIS LED TO
THE WATERSHED PAPAL ENCYCLICAL
THAT SHAPED ROMAN CATHOLIC
SOCIAL DOCTRINE FROM
1891 TO THE
PRESENT DAY.
(34 pages) Download PDF
In this lecture, Professor Mason Gaffney provides a thoroughly referenced report - a 'short-cut' through history for those wishing to understand the central role of the Vatican in shaping economic history.
"It was a time when Dr. Edward McGlynn, the must popular Catholic priest in NYC and the nation, could dream of modernising the American Catholic Church, leading it to shake off medieval trappings and old-world control, and leading the U.S. to genuine unity."
– Professor Mason Gaffney
On page 6, Professor Gaffney states:
"Rerum Novarum ... was a watershed document: It was a new venture into social theology. ...the first far-reaching formulation of Catholic teaching since the long Council of Trent in the middle of the 16th Century. ...refuting false modern doctrines advanced by George and [Father] McGlynn. ...championing private property in land against various attacks, real and imagined, and specifically against Georgist land taxes. It was the Catholic counterpart of the attacks on George led by sanctimonious Protestant laymen and academicians like John B. Clark and Richard T. Ely.
[Rerum's] sequel, Quadragesimo Anno, 1931, was issued by Pius XI to steer a course between socialism and laissez faire, seeking "social justice through social action'" (p. 12)
[Henry George's] ... fame and fall were due to a temporary alliance with the American Irish Catholics who were agitating for the land war in Ireland and social change in their new homeland. So significant was this tidal wave of support that it swamped the American consciousness in the late 1870s and early 1880s including prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, some of whom were conservatively inclined. George astutely navigated the waters by working with the radical editor of "The Irish World", Patrick Ford. But then George made a politically awkward friendship with Father Edward McGlynn, an ardent supporter of modernism and the single tax, who was a constant irritant to the church hierarchy and subsequently excommunicated. The issues that McGlynn raised rocked the American Catholic Church and the Vatican itself. The counter-campaign waged by the church and devout Irish Catholics blocked McGlynn and put an end to George's fleeting success.
. . .
Henry George came to maturity at a time when the simplicity and democratic values that had governed the United States were under assault. Slow and placid rhythms of life prevailed, but their future would be brief. Factories were flinging mass-produced goods into an economy accustomed to expecting a hat or a pair of shoes to come to an individual consumer from a local craftsman, or perhaps from a merchant drawing craft products from small shops at some distance. Canals and then rail tracks had begun slicing into the backcountry. Cities were taking on a character Americans might more quickly have expected of ancient times: overcrowded housing, uncollected sewage, the ravages of cholera, and the spread of street crime.
– Dr Kenneth C. Wenzer, 2009
Irish Perspectives on Michael Davitt's achievements Back to top
Northern Irish Quaker and Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin from 1940-1977, Professor T. W. Moody's Introduction to the 1972 second edition of Michael Davitt's first book "Leaves from a Prison Diary: or, Lectures to a "solitary" audience" (1885) covers Davitt's history up to the 17 October, 1882, when the Irish National League was founded, in Dublin.
In "Fifty Key Thinkers on History", Routledge, (2000), Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington has shared her chapter on Theodore William Moody on wikipedia::
Excerpt:
In the 1970s, Moody started researching the life of Michael Davitt, who founded the Irish Land League and published a biography, Davitt and the Irish Revolution, 1846 in 1981.
... Moody called for historians to end the promoting of what Moody called the myths, or received views which mix fact and fiction, which Moody argued was causing the violence in Northern Ireland. Moody labelled as myths the popular views about the establishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland, the view that Catholicism was the driving force behind the resistance to the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland, the 1641 uprising against the English Crown, the idea of “true” Irishmen as a Catholic race, the great potato famine of 1845–50, the “land war of 1879, and what Moody called the most pernicious “myth” of them all, the idea of Irish history as one of a continuous struggle for freedom from Great Britain. Moody argued this “myth” of Irish history that depicted in Manichean terms the entirety of Irish history from 1169 to the present as a struggle between the morally pure Irish vs. the utterly evil British was being used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army as the main reason for its struggle in Northern Ireland, and ruled out any possibility of a compromise solution to "the troubles" of Northern Ireland. Source
Excerpt: Like all of Michael Davitt's writings, Leaves from a prison diary shows the author to have sustained a broad, tolerant and at the same time idealistic view of life and politics, not characteristic of many of his contemporaries or colleagues. In his introduction to this reprint, Professor Moody compares its detachment to the more passionate 1878 pamphlet, The prison life of Michael Davitt, which was produced after imprisonment in Dartmoor at a far rougher level than his time in Portland; but Davitt always had the potential for a wide approach, as well as remarkable detachment, and it is fair to assume that the ideas and issues discussed in Leaves from a prison diary would have evolved even without the chance for rest, reading, and writing which the comfortable conditions of Portland and the understanding attitude of Governor Clifton allowed him. (The last part of this long book, however, while based on the reading and reflection possible in prison, was probably written after his release.)
It is a remarkable work, of considerable intrinsic value as well as being an extraordinary achievement for a self-educated man, distracted by politics. Despite its rather misleading title, it is not a diary but a long sociological and political treatise, based firstly on observations of prison life, crime and criminals, and secondly on Davitt's blueprints for social and political reform... Source
2.
1972 "Leaves from a Prison Diary" by Michael Davitt, (1885)
With an Introduction by T. W. Moody's 1972, CUP.
Reprint of first edition (London, 2 vols, 1885) in one volume. Pp xiv; xv, 251: xi, 256. Shannon Irish University Press. 1972. £6.00. (The Personal Writings of Irish Revolutionaries)
– Notes from the Michael Davitt Museum, Co. Mayo:
. . . was written as a series of essays while he was incarcerated in Portland prison. They chronicle his experience of prison life and are based on his deep reflections on a wide range of topics. He states how appalled he was by the barbarity and harshness of the system. He questions what turns people into criminals, and asserts that the elimination of poverty and the development of good educational opportunities for all could be part of the solution. On his release he used these saved manuscripts to write the book.
It is divided into three volumes, the first entitled "Criminal life and Character" consists of twenty different observations on the subject. The second volume entitled "Social Evils and suggested Remedies" has eleven, and the third entitled "political crime and political justice" has many. It is said to be a book of enduring value. >>> more
3.
1981 “Davitt and the Irish Revolution 1846-82”
by T. W. Moody
London-born and American raised son of a Yale professor, L. P. Curtis, Jr. (1932-2019), professor of history at several US universities, who specialised into 19th-century Ireland, described Davitt as “An ardent but restrained revolutionary, an advocate of both physical and moral force…
has remained something of an enigma…” in this 1984 review of T. W. Moody’s “Davitt and the Irish Revolution 1846-82” OUP, 1981, for The Journal of Modern History, University of Chicago Press.
4.
1987 “The Failed Modernisation of Ireland in the Late Nineteenth Century”
by Raymond Crotty, 1987
“Raymond Crotty challenged the view that Ireland's modernisation has been anything more than cosmetic (May-June, Land and Liberty). In Part II of his critique, he assesses T. W. Moody's Davitt and Irish Revolution,1846-1882.” Source
Abstract
In 1883 John Edward Redmond, future leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, toured the Australiasian colonies on behalf of the Irish National League. Redmond's ten-month mission in Australia and New Zealand proved influential in shaping both his political outlook and personal life. This article traces Redmond's visit to the colonies, from the discord that marked the opening stages of the mission through to the more ameable atmosphere at the time of his departure, and demonstrates howthe 1883 tour significantly affected Redmond's experience of the British empire and his vision for Ireland's future.
6.
2008 "Michael Davitt" by John Devoy
edited by Carla King and W.J. Mc Cormack
UCD Press, 2008
"Reissued with illuminating new introduction as a part of the Classics of Irish History series published by UCD Press"
Irish Literary Supplement Fall 2010 review
Excerpt
John Devoy (1842-1928) was born near Kill, County Kildare. He became an active Fenian and after imprisonment was exiled to America. During his time there Devoy became a journalist for the New York Herald, and later editor of the Gaelic American….
Devoy contested the widely-held view that Davitt was a Fenian who had come to his senses, his life a moral tale proving that ‘constitutional agitation is more efficacious in obtaining “reforms” and “redress of grievances” in Ireland than physical force.’ Devoy suggested that to use his ‘career as an agitator … as an argument against Fenianism’ was to fundamentally misunderstand Davitt’s politics. Instead, Devoy pictured Davitt as a separatist who sought to establish a modus operandi that would avoid the pitfalls of underground conspiracy and the moral bankruptcy of Isaac Butt’s loosely-defined federalism and preserve the integrity of Fenianism’s revolutionary republicanism. >>>more
7.
2009 "reassessment of Davitt’s position in Irish history and the popular imagination" must include the work of Fintan Lane and Andrew G. Newby:
Michael Davitt: New Perspectives
edited by Fintan Lane and Andrew G. Newby,
[featuring thirteen international contributors]
Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2009
Summary:
Michael Davitt (1846-1906) is a man often hailed as one of the main figures of nineteenth century Irish history, and is remembered in particular as 'the father of the Land League'. In spite of this, research on his life and significance has been limited, the historiography being dominated for a quarter of a century by Theo Moody's Davitt and Irish Revolution (Oxford, 1981). The importance of this work is unquestioned, and yet it only covers Davitt's life until 1882 - after which time, Moody concedes in his conclusion, he pursued a career as 'nationalist, labour leader, democratic reformer, humanitarian, and internationalist'. Thus, it is the purpose of this collection of essays to build upon, challenge, and revise Moody's work - to highlight areas of Davitt's life which have remained in the background (such as his impact on the British labour movement, and especially Scotland, his education in Lancashire and his own views on education in a 'free' Ireland) and to reassess Davitt's position in Irish history and popular imagination.
Peer reviewed, July 2010, IJPP vol. 2/1
by Patrick Buckley (Obituary),
former Executive Secretary, The Royal Irish Academy.
Excerpt: "Michael Davitt – New Perspectives is a book which should be read by anyone with an interest in post Famine/early twentieth century Irish political history. Encapsulating the life, varied interests, and many enterprises of Davitt within 200 pages is not an easy task. Professor Joe Lee says as much in the opening words of his chapter: ‘Essaying an overview of a life of such variety, such controversy, indeed such improbability, as that of Michael Davitt poses a daunting challenge’ (p.13). >>> more
In addition, Professor Andrew G. Newby is a member of the International Network of Irish Famine Studies and the author of three books on Edward McHugh (1853-1915), a close friend of Michael Davitt, also employed as a print compositor, who became an advocate for Land Tax, and who, following Michael Davitt’s tour of Ireland with Henry George, toured Scotland with Henry George, and went on to help found the Scottish Land Restoration League: "a body dedicated to taxing land values to their full extent, thereby abolishing landlordism".
8.
2016
The period from 1881 to 1906 is examined in the biography, "Michael Davitt: After the Land League, 1881-1906", UCDPress, 2016, by Carla King, a history lecturer at a Catholic teacher training college, St. Patrick's College, Dublin. King has written several books on Davitt and is a key source for the Michael Davit Museum in Co. Mayo.
Excerpt from Roy Foster's review in the Irish Times, Dec. 17 2016:
A major study completes the picture of a man whose life story, in terms of achievement, obstacles overcome and unyielding integrity, was more extraordinary than Parnell’s. ...
Together Davitt and Parnell made the Land League a powerful engine for land reform, but their approaches were markedly different. So were their mental configurations: Parnell rarely opened a book outside mining journals, and showed little interest in large intellectual questions, while Davitt read ravenously, wrote prolifically and travelled insatiably. >>>more
9.
2016 The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White” Slaves
Two books reviewed by John Martin & Liam Hogan
The Slaves That Time Forgot | For the Satanic slaver elite, color does not matter; except to divide and conquer. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white. >>>more
It is incorrect to say that King's biography "completes the picture" when Carla King
indicates unfamiliarity with Michael Davitt's international influence on "the great Land League movement that had roused the enthusiasm of tens and hundreds of thousands on two continents". While King's chronology is helpful, it doesn't include Davitt's collaboration with the American Henry George. It appears, King's perspective may be tied to Catholic teaching policy - originating from Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical and 'activated' with the 1931 encyclical. In 1997, the legendary Professor of Economics Mason Gaffney described the 1891 encyclical as "Christianity's Missed Opportunity" (pdf).
10.
2023 Tinteán, July 10, 2023 Irish History Professors in Irish Universities.
Brief Lives series. No.7. Professor T.W.Moody
from Hermathena: a Dublin University Review, no. CXXIV (Summer 1978). Theodore William Moody (1907-84)
by Vincent Comerford
"Moody’s personal research in the latter stages of his career was focussed on Michael Davitt and was to result in a study of remarkable thoroughness and insight: Davitt and Irish revolution, 1846-82 (1981)." >>>more
