Tom Kettle
Tom Kettle | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for East Tyrone | |
In office 5 July 1906 – 28 November 1910 | |
Preceded by | Patrick Doogan |
Succeeded by | William Redmond |
Personal details | |
Born | Thomas Michael Kettle 9 February 1880 Dublin, Ireland |
Died | 9 September 1916 near Ginchy, France | (aged 36)
Political party | Irish Parliamentary Party |
Spouse |
Mary Sheehy (m. 1909) |
First World War
| |
Thomas Michael Kettle (9 February 1880 – 9 September 1916) was an
He was one of the leading figures of the generation who at the turn of the twentieth century gave new intellectual life to Irish party politics, and to the constitutional movement towards All-Ireland Home Rule. A gifted speaker with an incisive mind and devastating wit, his death was regarded as a great loss to Ireland's political and intellectual life.[3]
As G. K. Chesterton surmised, "Thomas Michael Kettle was perhaps the greatest example of that greatness of spirit which was so ill rewarded on both sides of the channel [...] He was a wit, a scholar, an orator, a man ambitious in all the arts of peace; and he fell fighting the barbarians because he was too good a European to use the barbarians against England, as England a hundred years before has used the barbarians against Ireland".[4]
Family background
Thomas Kettle was born in
Andrew Kettle influenced his son considerably through his political activities, having been involved from an early age in the constitutional movement to achieve
Early life
Thomas was raised in comfortable rural surroundings. Like his brothers he was educated at the Christian Brothers' O'Connell School at Richmond Street, Dublin, where he excelled. In 1894 he went to study with the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, known as a wit and a good debater. He enjoyed athletics, cricket and cycling and attained honours in English and French when leaving.
Entering University College Dublin in 1897, he was regarded as a charismatic student. Surrounded by ambitious and politically minded young men he quickly established himself as a leading student politician and a brilliant scholar. He was elected to the prestigious position of auditor of the Literary and Historical Society, 1898–1899. His friends and contemporaries at UCD included Hugh Kennedy, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Oliver St. John Gogarty and James Joyce.[9]
Tom Kettle distributed pro-
Journalism
He then read law after admission to the Irish Law bar in 1903, qualifying as a barrister in 1905. He practiced sporadically, devoting most of his time to political journalism. He maintained his contacts to University College and his fellow students, participating in debates, contributing to and becoming editor of the college newspaper. He helped to found the Cui Bono Club, a discussion group for recent graduates.
A vocal supporter of the
Parliamentarian
After the death in 1906 of Patrick Doogan, the MP for East Tyrone, Kettle accepted the candidature for the vacant parliamentary seat at the resulting by-election. He won the seat by a narrow majority of 18 votes, becoming one of the few young men to gain admission to the aging Irish Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Lauded as a future party leader, in late 1906 he went to America, participating in a number of propaganda and fund-raising meetings. In the House of Commons at
He was deeply steeped in European culture. Kettle's ideal was an Ireland identified with the life of Europe. In "Ireland" he wrote,"My only programme for Ireland consists in equal parts of Home Rule and the Ten Commandments. My only counsel to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must become European."[10]
Academic career
He retained his East Tyrone seat in the
1913–1914
During the 1913
In 1913 Kettle also became involved with the
World War I
With Ireland having become embroiled in the Great War Kettle returned to Dublin. On arrival back home he sided with the National Volunteers in a split within the Irish Volunteers nationalist militia's ranks between those for whom Irish independence was all, and were increasingly eying the possibility an armed confrontation with the British Government (with the threat of an armed insurrection against Irish Nationalism from Ulster having abated with the Ulster Volunteers having enlisted en masse into the British Army to fight in World War I), and those who followed John Redmond's constitutional lead in accepting the Government of the United Kingdom's public undertaking of a restoration of self-government to Ireland in its domestic affairs, temporarily deferred until the war's end, and who were also concerned about matters beyond Ireland's shores with Europe's future in the 20th Century now being decided.[15]
In consequence Kettle volunteered for active service with the 7th Battalion of the
He applied to be an Irish Parliamentary Party candidate for a by-election in East Galway, and though not selected his support for the party did not abate, continuing to advocate both home rule and voluntary enlistment with the British Arms, maintaining that Irishmen had a moral duty to join the allied stand against the displayed tyranny on the European continent of the II Reich. He asserted that "Having broken like an armed burglar into Belgium, Germany was thereby guilty of a systematic campaign of murder, pillage, outrage, and destruction, planned and ordered by her military and intellectual leaders."[17]
By 1916 Kettle had published more than ten books and pamphlets, contributed numerous articles to journals and newspapers on Irish politics, literary reviews, poetry and essays, philosophical treatises and translations from German and French. Although at times melancholy at the war's immense escalating intensity across Europe, consuming ever more men and causing destruction to its nations, he continued to apply to be sent to the Western Front on active service, until, with his health somewhat improved, he received a commission into the 9th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, amidst the 16th (Irish) Division, which in early 1916 he went to France with, serving alongside Emmet Dalton, a 19-year-old subaltern, whose family Kettle had known and frequented the Dublin home of pre-war.[18][19]
The conditions in the trenches of the Western Front broke his health again, and he returned to Dublin shortly after the failure of the abortive Easter Revolution on sick leave, seeing the wreckage of the city's centre caused by the fighting that had occurred there. He was also beginning to rely too heavily on alcohol in this period as a psychological palliative to the stress of military active service.[20] Whilst in Dublin he rejected offers of a permanent staff position, and returned to rejoin the Battalion in the line. On leaving Ireland on 14 July 1916 he predicted that the Easter Revolutionaries of 1916 would be lionized as patriots in the near future of Ireland's history, whilst those who had fought with the British Arms in World War I would be condemned. Kettle was angered by actions of the Revolutionary faction that had staged the failed revolt, feeling that they were marring Constitutional Nationalism's long worked for strategy of the rebirth of a sovereign Irish state finding its place amidst the nations in a peaceful fashion, with good spirit amidst its neighbours in Britain.[21]
It was as an Irish soldier in a war in the defence of European civilisation that he entered the war. He was deeply steeped in Europe's cultures. Kettle's ambition for Ireland in the 20th century was a land and culture with the European continent as its polestar. He wrote: "My only programme for Ireland consists in equal parts of Home Rule and the Ten Commandments. My only counsel to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must become European";[22] and later, "Used with the wisdom that is sown in tears and blood, this tragedy of Europe may be and must be the prologue to the two reconciliations of which all statesmen have dreamed, the reconciliation of Protestant Ulster with Ireland, and the reconciliation of Ireland with Great Britain."[23]
In a letter, sent to his friend Joseph Devlin from France shortly before his death, Kettle wrote: "I hope to come back. If not, I believe that to sleep here in the France that I have loved is no harsh fate, and that so passing out into silence, I shall help towards the Irish settlement. Give my love to my colleagues – the Irish people have no need of it."[24]
Death
Kettle was killed in action with 'B' Company of the 9th Battalion of the
The poet George William Russell wrote about Kettle, comparing his sacrifice with those who led the 1916 Easter Rising:
You proved by death as true as they,
In mightier conflicts played your part,
Equal your sacrifice may weigh
Dear Kettle of the generous heart.[27]
Legacy
The erection of a commemorative bronze bust of Kettle in Dublin, commissioned from the sculptor
The Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin) has historically held an annual wreath-laying ceremony at the bust in St. Stephen's Green.[35]
The UCD Economics Society has also named their life membership award in memory of Thomas Kettle. Notable recipients include Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Irish Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan, and Peter Sutherland, former Director-General of The World Trade Organization.[36]
At the time of his death a tribute to him appeared in the French journal L'Opinion:
All parties bowed in sorrow over his grave, for in the last analysis they were all Irish, and they knew that in losing him, whether he was friend or enemy, they had lost a true son of Ireland. A son of Ireland? He was more. He was Ireland! He had fought for all the aspirations of his race, for Independence, for Home Rule, for the Celtic Renaissance, for a United Ireland, for the eternal Cause of Humanity . . . He died, a hero in the uniform of a British soldier, because he knew that the faults of a period or of a man should not prevail against the cause of right or liberty.[37]
Family
On 8 September 1909, Kettle married Mary Sheehy (born 1884), a fellow graduate of the Royal University, a suffragist, and like Kettle a member of a well-known nationalist family. Her father, David Sheehy, was a nationalist MP. Tom and Mary Kettle had one child, a daughter, Elisabeth ("Betty"), who was born in 1913. [citation needed]
Tom Kettle was also the brother-in-law (by his wife, the former Mary Sheehy) of both
Poetry
Kettle's best known poem is a sonnet, "To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God", written just days before his death. The last lines are an answer to those who criticised Irishmen for fighting in the British Armed Forces saying that they "Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor/But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed/and for the secret Scripture of the poor."[38] A less well-known poem, "Reason in Rhyme", was said by Kettle's friend Robert Lynd to represent "his testament to England as his call to Europeanism is his testament to Ireland."[39]
Notes
- ^ Joyce and Company By David Pierce (London:2006) p152
- ^ Conor, Volume I: A Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien: Volume I ..., Volume 2 By Donald Harman Akenson (Canada:1994) p49
- ^ A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800, D. J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty , Gill & MacMillan (1980)
- ^ Walking Like A Queen – Irish Impressions By G. K. Chesterton (2008 Tradibooks edition, France) p90.
- ^ Tom Kettle’s birthplace is sometimes given as Artane where the family also had a holding. However, Andrew Kettle, in his memoir “Material For Victory”, states his son’s birthplace as Millview House, Malahide.; accessed 19 April 2020.
- ^ One of several sources which give Artane as Tom Kettle's place of birth; accessed 16 June 2014.
- ^ Callinan, Frank (4 September 2006). "An Irish nationalist and our first European". The Irish Times.
- Cork Examiner, 25 September 1916: from Andrew Kettle's obituary (text in full in article on the latter)
- ^ "James Joyce: Notes (6) – PeSkeleton bibliography in "Shakespeare and Company" > Appendix – as attachedople in Joyce [II]: Contemps. et al". Ricorso.net. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ The Ways of War, Memoir p.4, Mary (Sheehy) Kettle, T. M. Kettle.
- ISBN 9780807843871.
- ^ "BBC One - Voices 16 - Tom Kettle". BBC. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ISBN 0-300-10791-9.
Detailed researched account of German atrocities perpetrated on the Belgian and French civilian population in autumn 1914.
Winner of the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History in 2000 - ^ The Ways of War, "Why Ireland fought" p. 72, T. M. Kettle.
- ^ "Thomas Michael Kettle: an enduring legacy". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ Bromyard News and Record, 28 January 1915
- ^ The Ways of War "Why Ireland fought" p. 69, T. M. Kettle
- ^ "Emmet Dalton Remembers". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ISBN 978 0717 16234 5
- ^ David Granville. "Thomas Kettle (Life and Times)". Irishdemocrat.co.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ The Enigma of Tom Kettle by John Benignus Lyons
- ^ The Ways of War Memoir, pp. 3, 4, Mary (Sheehy) Kettle
- ^ The Ways of War "Why Ireland fought" p. 71, T. M. Kettle
- ^ The Ways of War Memoir p. 34, Mary (Sheehy) Kettle
- ^ "Tom Kettle: the death of Irish nationalist and British soldier – Century Ireland". RTÉ.ie. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ "Tom Kettle, in memory, 100 years after death at the Somme". The Irish Times. 9 September 1916.
- ^ "Ambassador Mulhall's lecture at the University of Cardiff – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". Dfa.ie. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ 'The Enigma of Tom Kettle', by J.B. Lyons (Glendale Press, 1983).
- ^ 'Tom Kettle: In memory, 100 years after death at the Somme', 'The Irish Times', 9 September 2016.
- JSTOR 30101500.
- ^ "Recording Angel memorial Panel 1". Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "List of names on the Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall" (PDF). Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "House of Commons War Memorial: Final Volumes Unveiled by The Speaker". The Times. No. 46050. London. 6 February 1932. p. 7.
- ^ Moss-Blundell, Edward Whitaker, ed. (1931). The House of Commons Book of Remembrance 1914–1918. E. Mathews & Marrot.
- ^ See The Literary and Historical Society 1955–2005, ed. Frank Callanan, pub. A&A Farmar, (picture inset 16)
- ^ David, Kearns (20 April 2020). "Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz awarded honorary life membership of UCD Economics Society". University College Dublin. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ^ The Way of War (memoir) by Mary (Sheehy) Kettle, p. 33
- ^ Jim Haughey, The First World War in Irish Poetry, Bucknell University Press, 2002, p. 102
- ^ The Ways of War Memoir p. 42, Mary (Sheehy) Kettle
Works
- The Day's Burden, Studies, Literary and Political (1910)
- Home Rule Finance. An Experiment in Justice (1911)
- Christianity and the Leaders of Modern Science (1911
- The Open Secret of Ireland (1912)
- Poems and Parodies (1912)
- Irish Orators and Oratory (1915) editor
- Battle Songs of the Irish Brigades (1915)
- To My Daughter Betty, The Gift of God (1916)
- The Ways of War (1917), reasons for serving in World War I (posthumous publication))
- An Irishman's Calendar, edited by Mary Kettle
References
- A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800, D. J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty, p. 279, Gill & MacMillan (1980) ISBN 9780717115679
- The Enigma of Tom Kettle: Irish patriot, essayist, poet, British soldier ISBN 9780907606123
- ISBN 9780198614128
- Wigs and Guns, Irish Barristers and the Great War, Anthony B. Quinn, Four Courts Press (2005); ISBN 1-85182-935-0
- The Glorious Madness, Tales of The Irish and The Great War, Bunbury, Turtle (2014) ISBN 9780717162345
- Tom Kettle and Emmet Dalton; Mad Guns and Invisible Wands pp. 99–115, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 12 (2014) ISBN 978 0717 16234 5
- The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front, Peter Hart, Pegasus Books (2008); ISBN 978-1-60598-081-2, p. 340–342
Great War memorials
- Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Dublin.
- Island of Ireland Peace Park Messines, Belgium.
- Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, France
- Menin Gate MemorialYpres, Belgium.