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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
In historical treatment, as was the case in life, John O’Connor Power has been overshadowed by Charles Stewart Parnell, his political nemesis who campaigned successfully to destroy Power’s influence. However during the decade 1874–84, Power was the most enigmatic, controversial and divisive figure in Irish politics. His fellow parliamentarian T P. O’Connor called him ‘one of the few [Irish M.P.s] who stood out from the ruck of Irish placehunters’, whose ‘profound knowledge, his temper ..his profound contempt for ignorance and, as he thought, at the same time the insanity of Parnell made him a source of division’ O’Connor described him as having ‘a powerful but very ugly face, the ugliness accentuated by the marks of a severe attack in childhood of smallpox’ Tim Healy remembered him as ‘reeking of the common clay’ and remarked that ‘Parnell’s aristocratic sensitiveness recoiled’ in Power’s presence.
1 O’Connor, T.P, Memoirs of an old parliamentarian (2 vols, London, 1929), 1, 82–5.Google Scholar
2 Healy, T.M., Letters and leaders of my day (2 vols, London, [1928]), 1, 65.Google Scholar
3 Ibid., O’Brien, R.B., The life of Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846–1891 (2 vols, London and New York, 1898), 1, 75.Google Scholar
4 Brief biographical sketches of Power appear in O’Connor, , Memoirs, 1, 82–5Google Scholar; Moody, T W, Davitt and Irish revolution, 1846–82 (Oxford, 1981), pp 47–50 Google Scholar; O’Brien, William and Ryan, Desmond (eds), Devoy’s post bag, 1871–1928 (2 vols, Dublin, 1948, 1953), 1, 74–6Google Scholar; MacDonagh, Michael, The home rule movement (Dublin and London, 1920), pp 30–32.Google Scholar The last named book was written, it was claimed, with access to Power’s personal papers, which have since disappeared.
5 Moody, , Davitt, p. 49.Google Scholar
6 Abstract of cases of persons arrested under the habeas corpus suspension act, 17 February 1866, iii, 29 (S.P.O., C.S.O., Irish crimes records).
7 The Clerkenwell explosion was condemned in the first ’message’ from the new supreme council of the I.R.B, in April 1868 (T W Moody and Leon Ó Broin (eds), ‘The I.R.B, supreme council, 1868-78’ in I.H.S., xix, no. 75 (Mar 1975), pp 301–2).
8 Michael Davitt to R. B. O’Brien, 6 Dec. 1893 (T.C.D., Davitt papers, MS 9377/1063).
9 MacDonagh, , Home rule movement, pp 115–16.Google Scholar
10 Thornley, David, Isaac Butt and home rule (London, 1964), pp 42, 44, 55, 89–91.Google Scholar
11 Moody, T W, ‘John O’Connor Power, 1846–1919: a forgotten Irish leader’ (paper read before the Irish Historical Society in Trinity College, Dublin, 13 Dec. 1977 Google Scholar; typescript probably in T.C.D., Moody papers, unsorted).
12 Freeman’s Journal (hereafter F.J.), 18 Nov 1873; Thornley, , Isaac Butt, pp 160–62Google Scholar; O’Brien, William, Recollections (New York and London, 1905), pp 139–41.Google Scholar
l3 F.J., 21 Nov 1873.
14 Ibid., 19 Nov 1873.
15 Moody, & Ó Broin, , ‘The I.R.B, supreme council’, p. 314.Google Scholar
16 F.J., 31 Jan. 1874.
17 Jordan, Donald, ‘Merchants, “strong farmers” and Fenians: the post-Famine political élite and the Irish land war’ in Aston, T.H. and Philpin, C.H.E. (eds), Nationalism and popular protest in Ireland (Cambridge, 1987),Google Scholar forthcoming; Hoppen, K. Theodore, ‘National politics and local realities in mid-nineteenth century Ireland’ in Cosgrove, Art and McCartney, Donal (eds), Studies in Irish history presented to R. Dudley Edwards (Dublin, 1979), pp 190–93Google Scholar; Whyte, J.H., ‘Landlord influence at elections in Ireland, 1760–1885’ in English Historical Review, 80 (1965), pp 740–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 Jordan, ‘Merchants, “strong farmers” and Fenians’
19 Devoy, John, Recollections of an Irish rebel (New York, 1929), p. 33 Google Scholar; Bew, Paul, Land and the national question in Ireland, 1858–82 (Dublin, 1978), pp 43–4.Google Scholar
20 These divisions are discussed in Jordan, Donald, ‘Land and politics in the west of Ireland: County Mayo, 1846–82’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Davis, 1982), pp 213–352.Google Scholar
21 Ryan, Mark, Fenian memories, ed. with intro. by O’Sullivan, T.F (2nd ed., Dublin, 1946), pp 28–37 Google Scholar; Moody, , Davitt, pp 45–6, 124.Google Scholar
22 Ryan, , Fenian memories, pp 28–9, 41Google Scholar
23 FJ., 30 Jan. 1874.
24 Thornley, , Isaac Butt, pp 183–4.Google Scholar
25 F.J., 3, 4, 5, 6, 23 Feb. 1874.
26 John McEvilly to Paul Cullen, 11 Feb. 1874 (Dublin Diocesan Archives, Cullen papers). I am indebted to Emmet Larkin for this and the subsequent reference to letters in the Cullen papers.
27 Copy of the special case and of the shorthand writer’s notes of the judgement of each of the judges for the court of common pleas in Ireland in the matter of the County Mayo election petition, U.C. 1874 (165), iii, 747–51
28 F.J., 7 May 1874.
29 Ballinrobe Chronicle and Mayo Advertiser, 23, 30 May 1874.
30 Quoted in ibid., 16 May 1874.
31 John McEvilly to Paul Cullen, 25 May 1874 (Dublin Diocesan Archives, Cullen papers). Archbishop MacHale’s role in Mayo politics and in the 1874 election will be analysed by Emmet Larkin in his forthcoming book, The Roman Catholic church and the emergence of the modern Irish political system, part one, 1870–1874.
32 Patrick Lavelle to Isaac Butt, 12 Mar. 1874 (N.L.I., Butt papers), quoted in Thornley, Isaac Butt, p. 184. On Lavelle’s career, see Tomás Ó Fiaich, ’The patriot priest of Partry: Patrick Lavelle, 1825–1886’ in Galway Arch. Soc. Jn., xxxv (1976), pp 129–48.
33 The Times, 1 June 1874.
34 Quoted in ibid.
35 Pat Ryan, P.P., to Mitchell Henry, 18 May 1874 (N.L.I., Butt papers, MS 8706).
36 Walker, Brian M., Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801–1922 (Dublin, 1978), p. 120.Google Scholar
37 Isaac Butt, Home government for Ireland: Irish federalism, its meaning, its objects and its hopes, quoted in Thornley, , Isaac Butt, p. 98.Google Scholar
38 John O’Connor Power to Isaac Butt, 28 Oct. 1873 (N.L.I., Butt papers, MS 10415/4); Hansard 3, ccxx, 941 (2 July 1874). Power remained an advocate of federalism throughout his political career. During the 1886 debate on home rule, Power wrote a series of articles to the Manchester Guardian restating the case for a federal union of Britain and Ireland ( O’Connor Power, John, The Anglo-Irish quarrel: a plea for peace: a reprint of recent articles in the Manchester Guardian, revised by the author (2nd ed., London, 1886).Google Scholar
39 F.J., 1 May 1874.
40 Hansard 3, ccxxii, 1759–64 (12 Mar. 1875); ccxxv, 258–9 (21 June 1875); ccxxix, 1040–52 (22 May 1876); ccxxxi, 285–9 (1 Aug. 1876); ccxxxiv, 1309–15 (5 June 1877); ccxxxv, 1587–91 (20 July 1877); ccxxxvii, 126–9 (17 Jan. 1878).
41 O’Brien, & Ryan, , Devoy’s post bag, 1, 121.Google Scholar
42 Moody, & Ó Broin, , ‘The I.R.B, supreme council’, pp 294–5Google Scholar
43 Ibid., pp 319, 329; Devoy, John, ‘Davitt’s career, pt VII’ in Gaelic American, 21 July 1906.Google Scholar
44 Irishman, 11, 25 Mar. 1876; O’Brien, & Ryan, , Devoy’s post bag, 1, 152–3.Google Scholar
45 Devoy, , Recollections, p. 283 Google Scholar; Devoy, , ‘Davitt’s career, pt X’ in Gaelic American, 11 Aug. 1906.Google Scholar F.S.L. Lyons doubted the truthfulness of Devoy’s account of the meeting. See his Charles Stewart Parnell (London, 1977), pp 74–5. Other accounts of the meeting appear in O’Brien, , Parnell, 1, 159–60,Google Scholar and O’Donnell, F Hugh, A history of the Irish parliamentary party (2 vols, London and New York, 1910), 1, 271–5.Google Scholar
46 Connaught Telegraph (hereafter CT), 23 Sept. 1876; Thornley, Isaac Butt, p. 287
47 Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, pp 35–7Google ScholarPubMed
48 F.J., 16 Apr., 2 June 1877
49 Mitchell Henry to W.J. O’Neill Daunt, 23 Apr. 1878 (N.L.I., Michael MacDonagh papers, MS 11446).
50 C.T, 26 Oct. 1878.
51 Healy, , Letters and leaders, 1, 85.Google Scholar
52 MacDonagh, , Home rule movement, pp 117–25.Google Scholar
53 Flag of Ireland, 20 Sept. 1877, quoted in ibid., F.J., 21 Sept. 1877
54 Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, p. 48.Google ScholarPubMed
55 In October Power wrote a scathing letter, published in the Freeman ‘s Journal, condemning Daly as a ‘foul-mouthed liar’, a ‘fraud and a humbug’, a ‘renegade and a traitor’, whom he accused of attempting to ‘destroy that unbroken union and magnificent discipline which have for the last ten years prevailed in the national ranks [that] I proudly claim at least one man’s share in the building up of Power’s attack provoked several spirited defences of Daly by his friends and a lengthy letter from Daly (F.J., 12, 16, 18, 20 Oct. 1877).
56 Devoy, ‘Davitt’s career, pt VII’
57 Devoy, John, ‘Davitt’s career, pt IX’ in Gaelic American, 4 Aug. 1906.Google Scholar
58 Devoy, ‘Michael Davitt’s career, pt X’
59 Lee, Joseph, The modernisation of Irish society, 1848–1918 (Dublin, 1973), p. 74 Google Scholar; Healy, , Letters and leaders, 1, 75.Google Scholar
60 John O’Connor Power to Fr John O’Malley, 26 Sept. 1879 (N.L.I., J.F.X. O’Brien papers, MS 13457).
61 Moody, , Davitt, p. 312.Google Scholar
62 Michael Davitt to Matthew Harris, n.d., probably late Aug. or early Sept. 1879 (N.L.I., W.G. Fallon papers, MS 22704).
63 CT., 21 Apr. 1879.
64 Power, John O’Connor, ‘The Irish land agitation’ in Nineteenth Century, 6, no. 34 (Dec. 1879), pp 956–63.Google Scholar
65 Power to O’Malley, 26 Sept. 1879.
66 The importance of the general election for Parnell is discussed in Conor Cruise O’Brien, , Parnell and his party, 1880–90 (corrected ed., Oxford, 1964), pp 11–35,Google Scholar and in Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, pp 116–29.Google Scholar The election in Mayo is discussed in Jordan, , ‘Land and politics in the west of Ireland’, pp 252–63.Google Scholar
67 Jordan, , ‘Land and politics in the west of Ireland’, pp 254–7Google Scholar
68 Healy, , Letters and leaders, 1, 92.Google Scholar
69 Davitt’s diary, 5, 12 Apr. 1880 (T.C.D., Davitt papers, MS 9531).
70 C.T., 10 Apr. 1880; Walker, , Parliamentary election results, p. 120.Google Scholar
71 CT, 7 July 1880.
72 Bew, , Land and the national question, p. 110 Google Scholar; O’Brien, , Parnell & his party, pp 47–8Google Scholar; Davitt, Michael, The fall of feudalism in Ireland (London and New York, 1904), pp 260–61, Hansard 3, cclii, 740–41 (28 May 1880).Google Scholar
73 CT, 26 June 1880.
74 O’Brien, , Parnell & his party, p. 48.Google Scholar
75 Hansard 3, cclii, 127–32 (20 May 1880).
76 Ibid., ccliv, 100–1 (9 July 1880).
77 Ibid., cclvii, 218–30 (7 Jan. 1881).
78 Ibid., cols 1922-3 (31 Jan.-l Feb. 1881); O’Brien, , Parnell & his party, pp 57–9.Google Scholar
79 On the Irish political context in which the land bill was introduced, see O’Brien, , Parnell & his party, pp 65–72 Google Scholar; Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, pp 157–62Google Scholar; Bew, , Land and the national question, pp 161–5.Google Scholar
80 Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, p. 159 Google ScholarPubMed; O’Brien, , Parnell & his party, p. 67 Google Scholar
81 Hansard 3, cclx, 1883 (5 May 1881); CT , 23 Apr 1881
82 For a full discussion of these issues as they appeared in Mayo, see Jordan, , ‘Land and politics in the west of Ireland’, pp 264–310.Google Scholar
83 Solow, Barbara L. discusses the land bill at length in The land question and the Irish economy, 1870–1903(Cambridge, Mass., 1971), pp 147–67Google Scholar
84 Hansard 3, cclx, 1884–6 (5 May 1881).
85 Lee, , Modernisation of Irish society, p. 86.Google Scholar
86 C.T, 9 Apr 1881.
87 Ibid., 7 May 1881.
88 Preliminary report of the returns of agricultural produce in Ireland in 1879; with tables, p. 37 [C 2495], H.C. 1880, lxxvi, 893; The agricultural statistics of Ireland for the year 1880, p. 71, [C 2932], H.C. 1881, xciii, 685.
89 Jordan, , ‘Land and politics in the west of Ireland’, pp 314–16.Google Scholar
90 Return by provinces and counties (compiled from returns made to the inspector general, Royal Irish Constabulary) of cases of evictions which have come to the knowledge of the constabulary in each of the years from 1849-1880 inclusive, pp 8-13, H.C. 1881 (185), lxxvii, 132-1; Return (compiled from returns to the inspector general, Royal Irish Constabulary) of cases of evictions which have come to the knowledge of the constabulary in each quarter of the year ended 31st day of December 1881, showing the number of families evicted in each county in Ireland during each quarter, the number readmitted as tenants and the number readmitted as caretakers, pp 2–5, H.C. 1882 (9), lv, 229–33.
91 Bew, , Land and the national question, pp 121–6, 188–9.Google Scholar
92 C.T, 20 Aug. 1881.
93 This letter, signed Ρ O’Dowd, was introduced at Nally’s trial in the Crossmolina conspiracy case as being in Nally’s handwriting; it was reintroduced as Nally’s before the special commission investigating the ‘Parnell and crime’ case (The Special Commission Act, 1888: report of the proceedings before the commissioners appointed by the act reprinted from The Times (4 vols, London, 1890), ii, 486–7).
94 Quoted in Lyons, , Charles Stewart Parnell, p. 160.Google ScholarPubMed The emphasis is mine.
95 FJ., 26 May 1881.
96 Ibid., 28 May 1881.
97 Hansard 3, cclxi, 1667–95 (30 May 1881).
98 Ibid., cclxxxiv, 1465-78 (20 Feb. 1884).
99 An earlier version of this paper was presented to the 1985 annual meeting of the American Committee for Irish Studies at Tacoma, Washington. I wish to thank Paul Bew, Emmet Larkin, W J. Lowe and W E. Vaughan for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this paper, and the American Council of Learned Societies and the Trustees of the Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund for funding the research.
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