All-for-Ireland League
All-for-Ireland League | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | AFIL |
Political parties |
The All-for-Ireland League (AFIL) was an Irish,
Conciliation plus business
O'Brien's conciliatory initiation of the 1902
Following the success with the Land Purchase Act, the
Hibernian clash
O'Brien had always been gravely disturbed by the Irish Parliamentary Party's involvement with "that sinister sectarian secret society", the
Baton Convention
As prelude to O'Brien's formation of the AFIL, Redmond called a National Convention at the
When he attempted to speak O'Brien was howled down by various contingents of Belfast Hibernians and midland cattle-drivers, their presence pre-organised by Devlin's AOH organisation. Its stewards, armed with batons, attacked O'Brien's follower who had gained entrance, their general order to "Let no one with a 'Cork accent' get near the platform". From which the event earned the name Baton Convention.[11] When Eugene Crean MP for South East Cork was attacked on the platform, it developed into a mêlée with Devlin and his lodgemen, after D. D. Sheehan and James Gilhooly, MP for West Cork, intervened against Crean's assailants,[12] this in Redmond's presence. Others targeted were members of the Young Ireland Branch, Frank Cruise O'Brien and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who called Devlin a brainless bludgeoner.[13]
League launched
Regarding himself as having been driven from the party by Hibernian hooligans,[8] O'Brien's subsequent move was to officially constitute his new movement, the "All-for-Ireland League", its embryonic origins – the successful Land Conference of 1902, which he launched at a public rally in Kanturk[14] in March 1909. It was immediately openly denounced by Redmond, and at an Irish party meeting held on 23 March, the party voted fifty to one that membership in the League was incompatible with party membership.[15] O'Brien suffered a health breakdown in April, and retired from politics to Italy to recuperate. Control of the fledgling AFIL passed to a Provisional Committee led by D. D. Sheehan (MP) as Honorary Secretary, its foremost task to promote the League's principles and to hold O'Brien's seat in Cork at the inevitable by-election until his return.
From Italy O'Brien looked to an alliance with
O'Brien returned from Italy for the January 1910 elections, which was marked by considerable turbulences in the county Cork constituencies.[18] His electoral success must have exceeded his expectations. Eleven Nationalists independent of the official party returned, seven of them his League's followers who won all their contests. It rejuvenated his project of the All-for-Ireland League,[19] as well as a new newspaper The Cork Accent, alluding to events at the Baton Convention.
He next framed the League's programme containing several unique points:
- extension of the conciliatory spirit of the Land Conference to the larger problem of Irish self-government;
- distrust of the Irish Party's alliance with the Lloyd George's budget and Birrel's revision of the land settlement; and
- hostility to the Ancient Order of Hibernians.[20]
The League held its inaugural public meeting on 31 March 1910 in the City Hall,
- "the union and active co-operation in every department of our national life of all Irish men and women of all classes and creeds who believe in the principles of domestic self-government for Ireland.
- For the accomplishment of this object the surest means were to be a combination of all the elements of the Irish population in a spirit of mutual tolerance and patriotic goodwill, such as shall guarantee to the Protestant minority of our fellow-countrymen inviolable security for their rights and liberties, and win the friendship of the people of Great Britain without distinction of party."[22]
"Three C s" Banner
The application of the AFIL's principles of "Conference, Conciliation and Consent" (the Three C s), were to win All-Ireland Home Rule – or constitutional nationalism rather than an ultimately doomed path of militant physical force.
Many of the leading Protestant gentry of Munster, and representatives of the wealthy Protestant business and professional community joined the League.
Orange Institution, joined the League, Sharman Crawford and others. Unionism was declared by them to be a "discredited creed". Nationalist and Unionists were called upon to recognise the unwisdom of perpetuating a suicidal strife which sacrificed them to religious bigotry and the political exigencies of English partie.[24]League Chairperson wasDr J. G. Fitzgerald (MP) as chairman, suggesting some disenchantment with his former Parnellite colleagues including John Redmond.[25] Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, a founder member, spoke and wrote enthusiastically in favour of the Leagues doctrines. The Cork Free Press, published by O'Brien, appeared for the first time on 11 June 1910 as the League's official organ and organiser. It was a newspaper in the fullest sense, superseding the Cork Accent and was one of the three great radical newspapers published in Ireland – the other two being The Nation, published in Dublin in the 1840s, and The Northern Star, published in Belfast in the 1790s.[26]
League's manifesto
Canon Sheehan wrote the manifesto of the movement for the first number of the Cork Free Press, and asked in a very long editorial:
We are a generous people; and yet we are told we must keep up a sectarian bitterness to the end; and the Protestant Ascendancy has been broken down, only to build Catholic Ascendancy on its ruins. Are we in earnest about our country at all or are we seeking to perpetuate our wretchedness by refusing the honest aid of Irishmen? Why should we throw unto the arms of England those children of Ireland who would be our most faithful allies, if we did not seek to disinherit them? A weaker brother disinherited by a stranger will naturally be his enemy ...
England owes her world-wide power ... to her supreme talent of attracting and assimilating the most hostile elements of her subject races ... Ireland, alas, has had the talent of estranging and expelling her own children, and turning them ... into her deadliest enemies. It is time that all this should cease, if we still retain the ambition of creating a nation.[27]
Decisive election
Throughout the summer and autumn of 1910 the growth in strength of the AFIL continued in areas previously dominated by the UIL, which gave rise to considerable conflict. It was accompanied by repeatedly violent IPP-UIL hostilities towards O'Brien and his lieutenants wherever they endeavoured to spread his gospel of Conciliation. AFIL supporters retaliated with equally aggressive street fighting, at times RIC police forces being called upon in several towns to disperse rioting crowds.[28] A renewed election was called on by the Prime Minister Asquith on 28 November due to a parliamentary stalemate at Westminster. In the up-and-coming election O'Brien's task was truly formidable. It was a case of AFIL versus UIL, his candidates earmarked for rejection not alone by the Irish Party's Hibernians. There was considerable adversity to O'Brien and his followers amongst many Catholic churchmen, who long regarded him as at heart an unreconstructed Parnellite, and latently anti-clerical.[29] The Roman Catholic Church's forces were mobilised even more thoroughly against him when Cardinal Michael Logue expressed himself against O'Brien's and his League, and disapproved of 'Conciliationism'. All three County Cork RC bishops opposed O'Brien.[23]
O'Brien's antagonism towards the AOH was counter-productive in mobilising the Catholic clergy, with one or two exceptions, behind the official IPP-UIL candidates. O'Brien felt as if he were under siege from clerical forces and wrote despondently "We have to deal with a confederacy of the priests of this country to strangle the AFIL and to strike down its standard-bearers".[30] The competition between the rival nationalist parties in Cork was, at times, extremely violent. In the general and council election contests of 1910 and 1914 in the city, a total of 11 people were shot and two killed in clashes between IPP-UIL and AFIL supporters. Many more injured in street brawls between the rival parties[31]
Supreme in Cork
Attempts to carry the contest into Irish Party territory failed; a meeting at
The Cork Free Press gave the total Redmondite vote in the country as 92,709, and the Independent Nationalist's vote, largely supporting the principles of the League, as 39,729 (30.46%) which included the constituencies outside of Cork contested by fourteen AFIL candidates (Armagh south, Dublin Harbour, Kerry south and east, Limerick city, Limerick west and east, Louth north, Mayo west, Tipperary mid, Waterford west and Wexford south).[34]
Striking proposals
The AFIL party was convinced that the success of an Irish Parliament must depend upon it being won with the consent rather than by the compulsion of the Protestant minority. In a 1911 letter to the Prime Minister
After the introduction of a new Third Home Rule Bill by Asquith in April 1912, an AFIL conference held in Cork on 25 May declared whole-hearted support of the Bill, subject to three amendments:
- firstly: safeguards providing against the apprehensions (however imaginary) of Ulster;
- secondly: the completion of the abolition of landlordism by the use of Imperial credit;
- thirdly: the empowering of the Irish Parliament to raise, as well as to spend, its revenue.[36]
During the House of Commons second reading and debate of the third Government of Ireland Bill on 13 June 1912, an amendment had been moved to exclude the counties
There has been an attempt, and I admit it fully and frankly, by some few Irish members, led, I believe by the hon. Member for Cork (ironic Nationalist laughter). See how it is laughed at ! (Unionist cheers). The hon. Member for Cork is a Home Ruler. I differ from him just as much as I differ from any other Home Ruler. But let me say, that movement was a movement of conciliation. It commenced to a large extent in the Land Purchase Act that was passed by my right hon. friend, the Member for Dover (Mr Wyndham). The hon. Member for Cork, seeing the benefits of the Acts as they resulted in Ireland, has rightly adhered to it, and to every promise he made at the time, and largely because of that he is now driven outside the Irish Party. When the hon. Gentleman and some others proceeded to what they call trying to reconcile Ulster and the Protestants of Ireland, they made speeches which, if they had been made by the majority of the Nationalists for the last twenty years might, I admit, possibly have made some effect on some of the Unionists of Ireland. Their idea was certainly a worthy idea, nobody can deny that, of bringing about reconciliation and better feeling, and the moment they do that they are denounced and they are boycotted and they are persecuted. The hon. Member for Cork ----
The Speaker at this point called Carson to order, amid jeers.[38]
In the course of the final two readings of the Bill in 1913 and 1914, O'Brien and his AFIL colleagues fought untiringly in the spirit of their electoral mandate for a non-sectarian solution to the "Irish question" and were adamant that through co-operation on specific matters of common interest to build and win Unionist confidence, goodwill and consent,[39] and that there should be no limit to the concessions offered to Ulster to have it participate in an All-Ireland parliament. "Any price for a United Ireland, but partition never".
In January 1914 both O'Brien in his Cork Free Press and D. D. Sheehan in the London Daily Express simultaneously published a list of concessions they ascertained as acceptable to Ulster, enabling its participation in a Dublin parliament. The proposals in brief were:
- That the representatives of Ulster should have an exercisable veto right over Irish legislation;
- Ulster should have sixty representatives in the Irish House of Commons, out of a total of 164;
- All representatives of the Irish Civil Service should be by competitive examination;
- North-East Ulster should have its own appointment of court judges, district magistrates, inspectors of education.[40][41]
Historic protest
During the final stages of the second reading and debate on the Third
When the Bill finally passed the Commons on 25 May, O'Brien's speech was the only protest by an Irish representative.[44] In the course of his speech O'Brien said (in extract):
The game was lost for Ireland the day the honourable member for Waterford (Mr. Redmond) and his friends consented to the Partition of Ireland. Bitterly opposing any genuine concession to Ulster at the right time, now consenting to the concession of all which will not only fail to conciliate Ulster, but will rouse millions of the Irish race in revolt against your Bill. ... Any Bill that proposes to cut off Ulster permanently or temporarily from the body of Ireland is to me worse than nothingness, ... We are ready for almost any conceivable concession to Ulster that will have the effect of uniting Ireland, but we will struggle to our last breath against a proposal which will divide her, and divide her eternally, if Ireland's own representatives are once consenting parties. ... we regard this Bill as no longer a Home Rule Bill, but as a Bill for the murder of Home Rule as we have understood it all our lives, and we can have no hand, act or part in the operation. (Loud All-for-Ireland cheers).[45]
The All-for-Irelanders resisted what they saw as a violation of Ireland's national unity, and holding to their pledge abstained in protest from voting for the Bill.[46] As a result, they were assailed with accusations of being 'factionists' and 'traitors' by the Irish Party members.[47] Instead, the uncompromising IPP/AOH stand taken by the Redmond-Dillon-Devlin alliance killed All-Ireland Home Rule, by aiming to force Ulster's acquiescence; "no Orange vetoes, no concessions, Ulster must follow", Ulster's Unionist leader Sir Edward Carson, proclaiming "Ulster can never be coerced, Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right".
Calamities unfold
August saw the sudden beginning and the involvement of
By 1915 with stalemate on the
Despite his trenchant views up to 1914, on 13 June 1916 the AFIL's main opponent Joe Devlin chaired an AOH Convention in Dublin that approved the proposed partition of Ireland by 475 votes to 265.[48]
O'Brien suffered closure of his newspaper, the Cork Free Press in 1916 soon after the appointment of Lord Decies as Chief Press Censor for Ireland. Decies warned the press to be careful about what they published. Such warnings had little effect when dealing with such papers as the Cork Free Press. It was suppressed after its IRA editor, Frank Gallagher, accused the authorities of lying about the conditions and situation of IRA terrorists in Frongoch internment camp.[49]
Convention boycott
Following the Easter Rising the Government's attempt in July 1916 to have Redmond and Carson agree on immediately introducing Home Rule, failed. The new Prime Minister Lloyd George proposed in May 1917, in what was a fifth attempt to implement Home Rule, that an Irish Convention, composed of representative Irishmen from all parties, should assemble to deliberate upon the best means of governing their country.
The AFIL Party was asked to nominate representatives to the Convention. In reply O'Brien stated four essential conditions which first needed to be fulfilled if the Convention was to succeed. He submitted a panel to the Cabinet limited to twelve leading representatives of the main bodies and parties involved. It was subsequently clear that such a prominent representation would not have separated without coming to agreement, but O'Brien's proposals were set aside. None of those he proposed were invited. Instead the ninety-five who agreed to attend in July were composed of nine-tenths representatives drawn from already elected representatives who had previously voted for the Home Rule settlement.
Lloyd George appealed to O'Brien to attend, but under the circumstances both he and Healy declined, despite the fact that for thirteen years he had been calling for a conference of all parties to settle the Irish question. O'Brien believed that the conclave would make "a hateful bargain for the partition of the country under a plausible disguise". What was needed instead was not a "heterogeneous assembly ... but a small round-table of representative Irishmen". As early as 18 May Sinn Féin declined to send representatives, the Dublin Trades Council, the Cork Trade and Labour Council, the Gaelic and National Leagues also refused.[50]
The only constructive contribution which the Ulster delegates made to the Irish Convention was to propose in March 1918, the partition of Ireland with the exclusion of all of the province of Ulster.[51]
Handing over
A final contest between the old parliamentary rivals ensued on the death of AFIL party chairman
When Britain moved to introduce Home Rule in April 1918 as proposed by the Irish Convention, it unwisely did so when it linked its implementation with a conscription bill for Ireland after the collapse of the Allied, and Irish, divisions during the German spring offensive on the Western Front. This resulted in the "Irish conscription crisis". At its height the AFIL withdrew from Westminster while making a final damning anti-conscription speech, joining forces with the Irish Party, Sinn Féin and Labour in mass protest demonstrations in Dublin. Although the act was never put into force its crisis caused an unprecedented rise in popularity for Sinn Féin, destroying all interest in Home Rule and constitutional nationalism.
Towards the end of 1918, as a consequence that both the Irish Party and Britain failed to introduce Home Rule and maintain an undivided Ireland, and as it became evident that constitutional political concepts for attaining independent All-Ireland self-government were being displaced by a
We cannot subscribe to a programme of armed resistance in the field, or even of permanent withdrawal from Westminster; but to the spirit of Sinn Féin, as distinct from its abstract programme, the great mass of independent single-minded Irishmen have been won over, and accordingly they ought now to have a full and sympathetic trial for enforcing the Irish nation's right of self-determination.[53]
The party members issued a manifesto supporting the moderate Sinn Féin movement, and unanimously decided to retire from the election [54][55] putting its seats at the disposal of its candidates, all of whom were returned unopposed as Sinn Féin representatives.
Conclusion
The dual policy of the League aimed at attaining All-Ireland self-government, initially as Home Rule within the United Kingdom, then as a Dominion. It maintained that there could neither be any form of coercion of Unionist Ulster nor any question of partitioning Ireland. Instead it proposed achieving this by cultivating rapprochement between moderate Catholic and Protestant Irishmen through conference and conciliation as opposed to conflict. It also demanded guarantees for unlimited safeguards to protect the minority Protestant community. Its primal aspiration was to have the people on this island come to realise that it is possible for Irish of different persuasions to live together in mutual toleration.
It failed in these aims because most Nationalists underestimated the intensity of Unionist resistance to Home Rule[56] and particularly due to the strong distrust influential Catholic clergy had towards the League.[57] In all but two cases, the clergy acted substantially united behind Irish Party candidates,[58] so that in the twenty-three constituencies AFIL candidates contested in the December 1910 election, the Church's forces were thoroughly mobilised against O'Brien's League,[59] contributing to the subsequent polarisation of the political landscape.
From 1915 members of the League were defecting to Sinn Féin,[60] the editorial of O'Brien's Cork Free Press stating in the issue of 30 September "It is to Sinn Féin that Ireland must now look to mould the future of her people".[61] O'Brien was convinced that the only dignified course was to stand aside and let Sinn Féin exert pressure on England to come to terms.[62] The party did not contest the December 1918 election.
Despite this, the AFIL continues to historically exert a certain fascination, undoubtedly due to the many strands encompassed underneath its umbrella. It was both an urban working-class and an agrarian-based movement, focused on reforming the political landscape in Ireland. O'Brien's oft quoted policy of 'the three Cs' is too readily dismissed by historians eager to hasten from the turbulent 1910 elections to events beyond the Home Rule crisis of 1912–14. Missing in so doing, to acknowledge the AFIL's mere existence, its actions and more importantly its rhetoric. The criticisms, arguments and the many plans it put forward for alternative Home Rule call for more thorough examination. A scrutiny of the social background and outlook of those nationalists and unionists who supported the AFIL during a vibrant period of modern Irish history could provide further insight into their cohesive interests, sympathies and traditions. The AFIL's claim to be heard in this regard deserves further study.[63]
League's Anthem
ALL–FOR–IRELAND
All for Ireland ! One and all !
Here we meet at Erin's call --
Meet, to pledge with heart and hand,
True fealty to our native land.
Many-minded though we be,
In this pact we all agree --
We must end the reign of wrong
That's wrecked our country's life so long.
Hostile sections in the past,
We shall now be friends at last:
All our classes, clans and creeds
Rivals but in patriot deeds.
Here we come at Erin's call,
From cottage home, and stately hall,
For her rights to stand or fall --
ALL FOR IRELAND ! ONE AND ALL !
T.D.S.
See also
References
Sources
- Callanan, Frank (1996). T. M. Healy. Cork University Press. ISBN 1-85918-172-4.
- Clifford, Brendan: Cork Free Press An Account of Ireland's only Democratic Anti-Partition Movement, Athol Books, Belfast. (1984)
- O'Brien, Joseph: William O'Brien and the course of Irish politics, University of California Press (1976) ISBN 0-520-02886-4
- O'Brien, William: The Downfall of Parliamentarianism Maunsel & Roberts Dublin & London (1918)
- O'Brien, William: The Responsibility for Partition Maunsel & Roberts Dublin & London (1921)
- Miller, David W. (1973). Church, State and Nation in Ireland 1898–1921. Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-0645-4.
- MacDonagh, Michael (1928). The Life of William O'Brien, the Irish Nationalist. London: Ernst Benn.
- Schilling, Friedrich K. (1956). William O'Brien and the All-for-Ireland League (Thesis). Trinity College Dublin.
- Sheehan, D. D. (1921). Ireland since Parnell. London: Daniel O'Connor.
- Maume, Patrick (1999). The long Gestation, Irish Nationalist Life 1891–1918. ISBN 0-7171-2744-3.
- O'Donovan, John (2012). "Nationalist political conflict in Cork, 1910". Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. 117. Cuman Staire agus Seandálaíochta Chorcaí: 37–52. ISSN 0010-8731.
- O'Donovan, John (2014). "Ch.7 The All-for-Ireland League and the Home Rule debate, 1910–14". In Doherty, Gabriel (ed.). The Home Rule Crisis 1912–14. Cork: Mercier Press. pp. 138–163. ISBN 978-1-78117-245-2.
Notes
- ISBN 0856404985.
- ^ Maume 1999, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Maume 1999, pp. 69–73.
- ISBN 0-7190-3776-X
- ^ MacDonagh 1928, pp. 181–182.
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael pp. 181–2
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p. 182
- ^ ISBN 0-7171-3967-0
- ISBN 0-631-19542-4
- ISBN 0-7538-1767-5
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p. 183
- ^ Sheehan, D. D., Ireland since Parnell, pp.214–15, Daniel O'Connor, London (1921)
- ^ Maume 1999, p. 99.
- ^ Sheehan, D. D.: p.218
- ^ Maume 1999, p. 100.
- ISBN 0-520-02886-4
- ^ Maume 1999, p. 207 (n. 322).
- ^ O'Donovan 2012.
- ^ O'Brien, Joseph V.: p.194
- ^ Miller 1973, p. 256.
- ^ Cork Accent, 13 April 1910
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p.185
- ^ a b Maume 1999, p. 109.
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p.186
- ^ The Times, 6/7/1910
- ISBN 1-873063-00-8
- ^ Clifford, Brendan p.17
- ^ O'Donovan, John: pp.37–52
- ^ Callanan 1996, p. 465.
- ^ Miller 1973, pp. 256–266.
- ^ Hart, Peter: The IRA and its Enemies p.47
- ^ O'Brien, Joseph V.: p.201
- ^ O'Brien, Joseph V.: p.201/2
- ^ Walker, Brian M. (ed): Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (1978)
- ^ Sheehan, D. D.: Ireland since Parnell, Ch. XX p.243, Daniel O'Connor London (1921)
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p.187
- ^ "Commons debate Government of Ireland Bill 13 June 1912, Carson section #1078". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 13 June 1912. Archived from the original on 18 September 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: pp.188–89
- ^ Schilling 1956, p. 202.
- ^ Sheehan, D. D.: Daily Express London: front page, Nationalist help for Ulster; Striking Proposal; How to settle Home Rule 27 January 1914
- ^ The Times, London, January 29, 1914 Mr O'Brien's Plan; A Suspensory Veto for Ulster
- ^ "O'Brien's Commons proposals 1 April 1914 for an inclusive Ulster settlement". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1 April 1914. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-78117-245-2
- ^ O'Brien, William: The Responsibility for Partition, Ch. II: A final Protest before History, p.29, Maunsel & Roberts Dublin & London (1921)
- ^ O'Brien, William: pp.30–33
- ^ O’Donovan, John: pp.158-9
- ^ O'Brien, William: p.29
- ^ O'Brien, William (1923). "XVII. The final surrender of the six counties". The Irish Revolution.
- ISBN 0-7165-2829-0
- ISBN 0-7190-3776-X
- ISBN 0-415-17420-1
- ^ Southern Star Centenary Edition – 1889–1989 A bitter by-election in 1916: West Cork pivotal point in transition to new era
article pp.89–90 by George D. Kelleher, Inniscarra, co. Cork - ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p.234
- ^ MacDonagh, Michael: p.237
- ^ Sheehan, D. D. (February 1928). A tribute of remembrance to William O'Brien.
- ISBN 1-84536-040-0
quote: "Like most nationalist, Redmond knew little about Ulster unionists. He under-estimated the intensity of their resistance to Home Rule and the strength of the UVF." - ^ Galvin, Michael M.: Kilmurry 1906-1910; People and Politics The Year of Two Elections 1910, D.D. Sheehan Triumphant, pp. 78,99, Kilmurry Archaeological and Historical Society, Carrig Print (2011)
- ^ Miller 1973, pp. 258, 264–267.
- ^ Miller 1973, p. 266.
- ^ O'Brien, Joseph V.: p. 217 quote: "The County Inspector (RIC) reported to headquarters in 1915 that the Irish Volunteers (the IRB faction) in West Cork
were composed of men who had formerly given their allegiance to O'Brien's All-for-Ireland League" - ^ O'Brien, Joseph V.: p.223
- ^ O’Brien, Joseph V.: p.235
- ^ O’Donovan, John: pp.163,141
- ^ Irish People, newspaper, published 6 March 1909: Cork City Library.
External links
- United-Irish-League-in-Cork-1900-1910
- The Irish Story: The All-for-Ireland League 1901–1918 extracted December 2012