Michael Davitt

On the pages of Irish history during the latter half of last century, one name is writ large - Charles Stewart Parnell; and because Parnell was such a romantic figure we are inclined to neglect some of the other great patriots who fought as hard and suffered as much as he did. But one man, though he may have been neglected can never be forgotten - Michael Davitt, the one-armed, Mayo born, Lancashire reared founder of the Land League.

On the 25th of March 1846 Michael Davitt was born at Straide, a little village near Lough Conn, Co Mayo. His parents were small farmers and Michael entered the world at a time when they must have had a hard struggle for existence. The evils of landlordism had compounded the misery of the potato famine and it is an in interesting example of the justice of God that, at this very moment he should raise up a champion who was later to destroy the vile brood who had brought disaster on the country.

When the boy was four years old his parents were evicted and thrown on the roadside, with their belongings. There was nothing for them but the emigrant ship and the family split up, some going to America and some to England. Michael went to England and settled with his parents near Manchester. At an early age the boy, like other poor children of his time was at work in a factory, and also like many other children of his time, was caught in some machinery and so mutilated his right arm. Consequently, it had to be amputated at ten years of age. Thereafter, being unfit to work , he was sent to school where he remained for five years, until he obtained a job as a message boy in the Post Office. At the age of twenty two he became a commercial traveler for a firm of gunsmiths in Birmingham.

Being a traveler in munitions gave him the opportunity, which he was not slow to take, of arming the Irish in Britain. Davitt was tried at the Old Bailey, London and sentenced to 15 years penal servitude. It was obvious from the conduct of the trail that that there was no real evidence to convict Davitt but there was strong circumstantial evidence, created largely by the police and an informer. Davitt served seven years and seven months of his sentence in Dartmoor where, despite his disability, he was force to perform regular 'hard labour.' Davitt was released before Christmas 1877 and was given tremendous receptions in London, Lancashire and Dublin.

He spent the next two years in England and Ireland and in 1873 set out on his first visit to the United States to gain support for an idea which had grown in his mind during the long years of captivity, the National Land League. Having gained support for his ideas from Irish exiles, he returned to Ireland in 1879 and threw himself into the land agitation then beginning in his native Mayo. He saw the first fruits of his labours on the 21st of October in the same year when the Irish Nationalist Land League was formally established in Dublin. The movement had two aims. First, to bring about a reduction of rack-rents, and, secondly, to facilitate ownership of the soil by the occupiers. The president was Parnell and Davitt himself was one of the secretaries.

By now Gladstone had decided to fight the league, and on his return from the United States where he had gone to gather funds, Davitt was arrested on a charge of contravening the conditions of his ticket of leave, which was not due to expire until 1885. This time he was taken to portland prison, Dorsetshire. However, he was released on 6th May 1882 - the day of the Phonex Park murders. Immediately, this man, who had already spent one quarter of his young life in prison took up the cause where he had left it off, and toured England, Ireland and the USA making speeches in support of the League. It was at a meeting in Manchester at this period that he uttered the historic declaration: "as long as I have tongue to speak, or head to plan, or hand to dare for Ireland, Irish landlordism and English misgovernment in Ireland shall find in me a sleepless and incessant opponent."

Davitt never aspired to a seat in a British Parliament, but was persuaded after the 'split' to oppose Redmond in Waterford. He was defeated by a small majority, and again he tried, this time in Meath, in 1892. He won the seat but was unseated on petition that the clergy had coerced people into voting for him. The unseating put him into bankruptcy and he took up his and all too seldom used pen to earn a living.
In 1895 he set off on a lecturing tour of Australia and New Zealand, and while he was away he was returned to parliament unopposed for both East Kerry and South Mayo. On his return he chose the latter seat and sat in the House of Commons for four years.

He continues to press the claims of Irish farmers but except for the Land Act of 1896, which allowed a tenant to purchase his holding, little was achieved. He saw that the British Imperialist policy was interested in South Africa and accordingly he championed the cause of the Boers. "We Irishmen are compelled to give our sympathies to the Boers because they are absolutely in the right in heroically defending with their lives the independence of their country." He said in 1900 that he applied for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds and went out to South Africa. While there he spent much time with Kruger, and was with him at the last session of parliament.

By the time he got back to Ireland, Wyndham was preparing his land bill which became an Act in 1903, and enabled a tenant farmer to buy his holdings outright by means of a loan. Seldom it is given to a man to see the fruits of his labours, but there was one, who thanks to his indomitable fighting spirit, achieved, within his lifetime a very large measure of success. A hard life and particularly the privations suffered in youth were taking their toll and Davitt was already a sick man. His health was failing and on the 30th May 1906 he died and was buried in the spot where he was born, where his family suffered the humiliation of eviction and where his great agitation campaign began - Straide, Co Mayo.