GENERAL ELECTION OF 1885--PARNELL A CANDIDATE FOR EXCHANGE
DIVISION--RETIRES IN FAVOUR OF O'SHEA--T.P. O'CONNOR ELECTED FOR
SCOTLAND DIVISION OF LIVERPOOL.
The Franchise and Re-Distribution Acts of 1884 and 1885, besides
placing, for the first time, the Parliamentary representation in the
hands of the great bulk of the people of Ireland, added greatly to our
political power in England, Scotland and Wales. Many thousands of Irish
householders obtained votes where formerly, under the restricted
franchise, such a thing as an Irish county voter was extremely rare.
At the General Election of 1885, Mr. Parnell made Liverpool his
headquarters. The Re-Distribution Act had given Liverpool nine
Parliamentary Divisions, in one of which (Scotland Division) we had
sufficient votes to return a Nationalist. As Mr. T.P. O'Connor was the
candidate chosen, and was, besides, the President of the organisation in
Great Britain, he, also, was on the spot.
A central committee room was engaged in the North-Western Hotel, where
Mr. Parnell and Mr. T.P. O'Connor were staying. I was detailed to act as
secretary to them, and, as the electoral campaign all over the country
was directed from this centre, I was kept busy from early morning until
late in the night answering the letters which poured in from all parts
of the country. Mr. T.P. O'Connor having recently been married, Mrs.
O'Connor also was staying in the North-Western. She presided at our
luncheon every day, and made a charming hostess.
I have some pleasant remembrances of those days in Liverpool, when I was
assisting Mr. Parnell in carrying on the electoral campaign. One day, as
we stood together looking out of the window across Lime Street, he
pointed to the hotel on the opposite side of the street, reminding me
that it was there we first met. This was when he came amongst us, a
promising young recruit, under the wing of Isaac Butt. I remembered it
well, and the number of questions he asked me about the condition of our
people, social and political, in this country, for he knew that I had
had opportunities of acquiring a closer knowledge of them than most
people. He often afterwards sought from me such information. To me, from
first to last, he was always most open and friendly, and I never found
him so "stand-off" and unapproachable as was the very common opinion
about him.
In the Exchange Division of Liverpool, a Mr. Stephens, the official
Liberal candidate, had, for some reason, been replaced by Captain
O'Shea, who got the full support of the Liberal party. Following
instructions from headquarters, the Irish Nationalists had denounced the
candidate of the Liberals, who, when recently in power, had coerced
Ireland, and O'Shea was condemned more unmercifully than any of them, as
being, besides, a renegade Irishman.
When Parnell himself came on the scene as a candidate for Exchange
Division, Captain O'Shea was denounced more fiercely than ever. Mr.
Parnell, however, withdrew on the nomination day, and at a great meeting
on the same night, much to the astonishment of all, asked, in a very
halting and hesitating manner, that O'Shea's candidature should be
supported. So great was his power and prestige at the time that,
whatever apprehension might be felt, no attempt was made to question his
action.
On the morning of the election I went to the North-Western. Mr. O'Connor
was somewhat late in getting to work. Parnell, noticing, I suppose, that
I seemed uneasy about something, asked, "What's amiss with you, Denvir?"
"We would like to see Mr. O'Connor on the ground in Scotland Division,"
I said. He shook his head: "Ah, that's the way with him since he got
married." I smiled and observed "We'll be losing you that way some
time." "No," he replied, as I thought somewhat sadly, "I lost my chance
long ago."
All that day Parnell worked with desperate energy for O'Shea. He even
took some of our men from Scotland Division to help in Exchange. I
expostulated with him, saying, "You'll be losing T.P.'s election for
us." As a matter of fact, we won Scotland Division by 1,350 votes.
In point of fact, if O'Shea had got the whole Irish vote he would have
won, but Mr. Parnell's vehement efforts could kindle no enthusiasm among
the Irish electors, and there was a small but determined section
which--while unwilling to let any public evidence of disagreement with
Mr. Parnell appear--absolutely refused to support O'Shea. This lost him
the seat.
There was great jubilation in the League Hall that night at the winning
of a seat in England by an Irish Home Ruler, elected _as such_, Mr. T.P.
O'Connor having been returned that day for the Scotland Division of
Liverpool.
Since that time there have been several Home Rulers, Irish by birth or
descent, returned to Parliament for English constituencies. These belong
to the Labour Party.
Besides T.P. O'Connor, Liverpool has provided for Parliament quite a
number of men who at one time or another have represented or still
represent Irish constituencies. These are Dr. Commins, Daniel Crilly,
Lawrence Connolly, Michael Conway, Joseph Nolan, Patrick O'Brien,
William O'Malley, James Lysaght Finigan, and Garrett Byrne.
At the League Hall demonstration on the night of the election, Mr.
Parnell appeared to have caught the high spirit and enthusiasm of his
audience, and in a more powerful address than I had ever before heard
from him, he said:--
Ireland has been knocking at the English door long enough with kid
gloves. I tell the English people to beware, and be wise in time.
Ireland will soon throw off the kid gloves, and she will knock with
a mailed hand.
In this General Election, the Irish vote of Great Britain, in
accordance with the League manifesto, generally went for the Tories, who
came into office, but with a majority so small that they were turned out
at the opening of the Session of 1886, and Mr. Gladstone again came into
power. Seeing that 85 out of the 103 Irish members of Parliament had
been returned pledged to National self-government, he came to the
conclusion to drop coercion, and no longer to attempt to rule the
country against the wishes of the people. He, therefore, introduced his
Home Rule Bill on the 8th of April, 1886, but, failing to carry the
whole of his party with him, he was defeated on the second reading by 30
votes. His defeat at the polls at the General Election which followed
seemed even more crushing than his defeat in Parliament, for, of the
members elected, there was a majority against him of 118.
Mr. Gladstone, looking more closely into the figures of the General
Election, was not disheartened, and as the British public became
educated on the Irish question, bye-election after bye-election proved
triumphantly the truth of his famous saying that the "Flowing Tide" was
carrying the cause of Home Rule on to victory.
Nor were _we_ disheartened, for, counting up the whole of about two and
a half millions of votes given, we found that the Unionists, as the
Tories and Dissentient Liberals called themselves, had a majority of
less than 80,000 votes at the polls. During this time I had become
general organiser of the recognised Irish political organisation of
Great Britain, and upon me chiefly devolved the duty of directing the
work of registration of our Irish voters. A close study of the local
conditions in the various constituencies showed that the mere bringing
up of the neglected Irish vote to something approaching its proper
strength would _alone_ be sufficient to effect the necessary gain. We
threw ourselves into the task--and we succeeded.
I shall always remember with pride my share in increasing and organising
the Irish vote throughout Great Britain, and its result in bringing Mr.
Gladstone back to power, and enabling him to carry the Home Rule Bill
through the House of Commons.
It was my duty to visit every part of Great Britain to see that the
various districts and branches were kept in a high state of efficiency,
and at the end of that period of hard and unremitting work from 1886 to
1892 I was able to show our Executive from the books and figures in our
possession that we had accomplished our aim.