Abstract
The 1872 by-election became one of the most contentious by-election campaigns in late nineteenth-century Ireland and was the last before the Secret Ballot Act of 1872. Recently discovered correspondence between the first Marquis of Clanricarde and other Galway landlords showed their belief that Trench’s candidature was destined to fail because of his father’s previous behaviour, and they wanted to limit the contagion that would spread. The over-exuberance of the clergy angered Bishop John MacEvilly of Galway and formerly doctrinaire Fenians who were beginning to flirt with constitutional politics. These neo-Fenians started a rather short-lived and disjointed effort at a grassroots culture war that culminated in John O’Connor Power’s election in Mayo in 1874 in the face of clerical opposition and reflecting the popular will of the people.
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Notes
- 1.
‘The priesthood in Irish politics’, Dublin Review (July 1872), p. 257.
- 2.
Freeman’s Journal, 23 Sept. 1871.
- 3.
Michael Huggins, Social conflict in pre-Famine Ireland: The case of county Roscommon (Dublin, 2007), p. 42; see also Emmet Larkin, ‘The devotional revolution in Ireland, 1850–75’, American Historical Review 77, no. 3, (June 1972), pp. 625–52.
- 4.
Kevin Whelan, ‘The republic in the village: The United Irishmen, the Enlightenment and popular culture’, in idem Tree of Liberty: Radicalism, Catholicism and the construction of Irish identity, 1760–1830 (Dublin, 1996), p. 59.
- 5.
Whelan, ‘The republic in the village’, p. 65.
- 6.
Nicholas M. Wolf, An Irish-speaking island: State, religion and the linguistic landscape in Ireland, 1770–1870 (Madison, 2014), p. 164.
- 7.
Eugenio Biagini, British democracy and Irish nationalism, 1876–1906 (Cambridge, 2007), p. 51.
- 8.
See Jane Stanford, That Irishman: The life and times of John O’Connor Power (Dublin, 2010), pp. 47–8.
- 9.
William Feingold, The revolt of the tenantry: The transformation of local government in Ireland, 1872–1886 (Boston, 1984); K.T. Hoppen, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, 1832–1885 (Oxford, 1984).
- 10.
Eugene Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The modernisation of rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford, 1976), p. 357.
- 11.
P.J. Corish, ‘Irish College Rome: Kirby papers’, Archivium Hibernicum xxx (1972), p. 67; Emmet Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, 1870–1874 (Chapel Hill, NC), p. 131.
- 12.
Stanford, That Irishman, p. 47. See also Gerard Moran, A radical priest in Mayo: Fr Patrick Lavelle: The rise and fall of an Irish nationalist, 1825–86 (Dublin, 1994).
- 13.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 14.
The Times, 2 June 1871; Freeman’s Journal, 27 Jan. 1872; R.V. Comerford, The Fenians in context: Irish politics and society, 1848–82 (Dublin, 1994), p. 192.
- 15.
Express, 16 Dec. 1871.
- 16.
Express, 16 Dec. 1871.
- 17.
Galway Express, 13 Jan. 1872; Tuam Herald, 16 Dec. 1871; 27 Jan. 1872.
- 18.
Gerard Moran, A radical priest in Mayo, pp. 136–7.
- 19.
Freeman’s Journal, 1 Jun. 1871; Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 20.
Freeman’s Journal, 7 Jun. 1871 quoting the Mayo Examiner.
- 21.
Tuam Herald, 8 Jun. 1872.
- 22.
David Thornley, Isaac Butt and Home Rule (Dublin, 1964), p. 130.
- 23.
Comerford, The Fenians in context, p. 188.
- 24.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872; Moran, A radical priest in Mayo, pp. 132, 136.
- 25.
J.H. Whyte, ‘The influence of the Catholic clergy on elections in nineteenth-century Ireland’, English Historical Review, p. 243.
- 26.
MacEvilly to Cullen, 2 May 1872, 328/8/I/36.
- 27.
Galway Express, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 28.
John Larkin to Lord Clanricarde, 20 Dec. 1871, in Egan/Mac Fhinn papers, Special Collections, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway.
- 29.
Larkin to Lord Clanricarde, 20 Dec. 1871. See also Biagini, British Democracy and Irish nationalism, p. 51; Wolf, An Irish-speaking island, p. 169.
- 30.
T.W. Moody, Davitt and the Irish revolution, 1846–82 (Oxford, 1984), p. 118.
- 31.
Lord Westmeath to Lord Clanricarde, 25 Jan. 1872.
- 32.
Burton Persse to Lord Clanrcarde, 19 Nov. 1871.
- 33.
Lord Clonbrock to Lord Clanricarde, 8 and 10 Dec. 1871.
- 34.
Lord Clonbrock to Lord Clanricarde, 2 Dec. 1871.
- 35.
Lord Dunsandle to Lord Clanricarde, 21 Jan. 1872.
- 36.
Lord Clonbrock to Lord Clanricarde, 8 Dec. 1871.
- 37.
Sir William Gregory to Lord Clanricarde, 1 Dec. 1871.
- 38.
Freeman’s Journal, 23 Sept. 1871.
- 39.
Hoppen, Election, politics and society in Ireland, 1832–1885, pp. 123, 126; Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, p. 110.
- 40.
Tuam Herald, 16 Dec. 1871; Freeman’s Journal, 23 Sept. 1871.
- 41.
Freeman’s Journal, 14 Dec. 1871.
- 42.
Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 43.
Moody, Davitt and the Irish revolution, p. 133.
- 44.
Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 45.
Express, 16 Dec. 1871; Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 46.
Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872.
- 47.
Freeman’s Journal, 18 Dec. 1871.
- 48.
Freeman’s Journal, 14 Dec. 1871.
- 49.
Galway Express, 3 Feb. 1872, Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872; The Times, 31 May 1872.
- 50.
Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872; Times, 31 May 1872.
- 51.
Biagini, British democracy and Irish nationalism, p. 110.
- 52.
Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, p. 127.
- 53.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 54.
Freeman’s Journal, 18 Dec. 1871.
- 55.
Census of Ireland, part one. Area, houses and population: Also the ages, civil condition, occupations, birthplaces, religion and education of the people. viv. Province of Connaught, Table xxxi, Religious professions and sexes of the inhabitants and number of families, in each Parish in the county of Galway, p. 168.
- 56.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872; Copy of the minutes of evidence taken at the trial of the Galway county election petition, with an appendix, Report 1872, p. 896, minute, 15,609.
- 57.
Tuam Herald, 16 Mar. 1872.
- 58.
Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872.
- 59.
Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872.
- 60.
Tuam Herald, 16 Dec. 1871; 1 May 1872.
- 61.
J.H. Whyte, ‘Landlord influence at elections in Ireland’, English Historical Review 80 (1965), p. 753.
- 62.
Tuam Herald, 20 Apr. 1872, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 63.
Tuam Herald, 20 Apr. 1872, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 64.
Galway county election petition, 1872, p. 896 (15,609), Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 65.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 66.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 67.
Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, p. 146.
- 68.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 69.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 70.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872, 20 Jan. 1872.
- 71.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 72.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 73.
R.V. Comerford, ‘Isaac Butt and the Home Rule Party, 1870–77’, in W.E. Vaughan (ed.), A new history of Ireland, vi: Ireland under the Union, 1870–1921 (Oxford, 2005), p. 9.
- 74.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872.
- 75.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 76.
Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872.
- 77.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872; 20 Jan. 1872.
- 78.
Tuam Herald, 13 Jan. 1872.
- 79.
Tuam Herald, 1 May 1872.
- 80.
Tuam Herald, 16 Mar. 1872; for more on the Trench family and their involvement in the Battle of Aughrim, see P.K. Egan, The parish of Ballinasloe: Its history from the earliest time to the present century and Richard le Poer Trench, Memoir of the le Poer Trench family (1874).
- 81.
Tuam Herald, 16 Mar. 1872.
- 82.
Tuam News, 25 May 1872.
- 83.
MacEvilly to Cullen, 28 Jan. 1871, 328/8/I/11; Tuam Herald, 1 May 1872; Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, p. 112.
- 84.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 85.
Tuam Herald, 16 Mar. 1872.
- 86.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872; 13 Apr. 1872; 10 Feb. 1872.
- 87.
Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 88.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 89.
Tuam Herald, 6 Apr. 1872.
- 90.
Tuam Herald, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 91.
Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872.
- 92.
Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872; 6 Apr. 1872.
- 93.
Tuam Herald, 21 Dec. 1850; 19 Apr. 1851; Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872; Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872; 13 Apr. 1872; Patrick Melvin, ‘The landed gentry of Galway, 1820–1880’ (PhD thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1991), pp. 43–4.
- 94.
Tuam Herald, 6 Apr. 1872; 27 Apr. 1872.
- 95.
Galway Express, 10 Feb. 1872; Tuam Herald, 20 Apr. 1872.
- 96.
Tuam Herald, 16 Mar. 1872. This is in reference to the delay in building St Michael’s Church in Ballinasloe, which was delayed because of the onset of the Famine. However, it was eventually built in 1858 and is symbolic of the Gothic revival that was gripping church-building because of the influence of Augustine Welby Pugin. For more on Pugin, see entry in Oxford National Biography, 45, pp. 520–4.
- 97.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 98.
Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872; 20 Apr. 1872.
- 99.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872.
- 100.
Tuam Herald, 6 Apr. 1872; 27 Apr. 1872.
- 101.
Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872; 11 May 1872; 13 Apr. 1872; Galway Express, 3 Feb. 1872.
- 102.
‘The priesthood in Irish politics’ in Dublin Review (July 1872), p. 286; for more on the antecedents of the Clancarty family regarding their anti-Catholic opinions, see Jane Conroy, ‘Ballinasloe, 1826: Catholic emancipation, political tourism and the French liberal agenda’, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 54 (2002), pp. 103–20.
- 103.
Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, p. 124.
- 104.
C.S.O., R.P. 1871/22275 and 1871/22250 in the National Archives of Ireland.
- 105.
Tuam Herald, 20 Jan. 1872.
- 106.
C.S.O., R.P. 1872/212; C.S.O., R.P. 1872/5879.
- 107.
C.S.O., R.P. 1872/5879.
- 108.
Comerford, The Fenians in context, p. 179.
- 109.
Mark Ryan (edited by T.F. O’Sullivan), Fenian memories (1945), p. 42.
- 110.
Comerford, ‘Isaac Butt and the Home Rule Party, 1870–77’, p. 9.
- 111.
Galway Express, 27 Jan. 1872.
- 112.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 113.
Galway Express, 10 Feb. 1872; Ryan, Fenian memories, p. 42; B.M. Walker, Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801–1922 (Dublin, 1978), pp. 283–4.
- 114.
MacEvilly to Cullen, 4 Apr. 1872, 328/8/I/30.
- 115.
Tuam Herald, 17 Feb. 1872; 24 Feb. 1872.
- 116.
Desmond McCabe, ‘William Nicholas Keogh’, Dictionary of Irish Biography 5 (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 149–51.
- 117.
Tuam Herald, 6 Apr. 1872; 20 Apr. 1872; 27 Apr. 1872; Tuam News, 25 May 1872.
- 118.
Copy of the minutes of evidence taken at the trial of the Galway county election petition, with an appendix, Report 1872 (241) (241–I), p. x.
- 119.
Tuam Herald, 18 May 1872.
- 120.
Tuam Herald, 18 May 1872; McCabe, William Nicholas Keogh, pp. 149–51.
- 121.
Galway county election petition, 1872, p. 896 (15,609); Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872; 18 May 1872; Galway Express, 13 Jan. 1872.
- 122.
Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, pp. 123–4.
- 123.
Tuam Herald, 13 Apr. 1872.
- 124.
Tuam Herald, 27 Apr. 1872; 16 Mar. 1872; Ryan, Fenian memories, p. 44.
- 125.
E.R. Norman, The Catholic Church and Ireland in the age of rebellion (London, 1965), p. 423.
- 126.
Daily News, 24 July 1872; Express, 24 July 1872.
- 127.
Norman, The Catholic Church and Ireland in the age of rebellion, p. 423.
- 128.
Tuam Herald, 18 May 1872; Express, 24 July 1872; Galway election petition, p. 33.
- 129.
Tuam Herald, 1 June 1872; 17 and 18 Vic., c. 102 sec 5.
- 130.
Mike Liffey, ‘The 1872 by-election’, in Joseph Forde (ed.), The district of Loughrea, Vol. 1. History, 1791–1918 (Galway, 2003), p. 343.
- 131.
Tuam Herald, 18 May 1872; Moran, A radical priest in Mayo, pp. 141–3; for more on Bishop Duggan, see the useful if hagiographical Thomas Brett, Life of the Most Reverend Dr Patrick Duggan, Bishop of Clonfert (Dublin, 1921).
- 132.
Hansard, ccxi 13 June 1872 211, Col 1679 and 1680; Morning Post, 29 May 1872; Daily News, 30 May 1872; Times, 30 May 1872.
- 133.
Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, pp. 129–31.
- 134.
Tuam Herald, 18 May 1872.
- 135.
Morning Post, 29 May 1872; Times, 30 May 1872; Daily News, 30 May 1872.
- 136.
Express, 28 May 1872; 30 May 1872; Times, 24 May 1872; 24 July 1872.
- 137.
Freeman’s Journal, 28 July 1871.
- 138.
Stanford, That Irishman, p. 51.
- 139.
Donald Jordan, Land and popular politics in Ireland: County Mayo from the plantation to the Land War (Cambridge, 1994), p. 171.
- 140.
Biagini, British democracy and Irish nationalism, p. 54; Stanford, That Irishman, pp. 35–7.
- 141.
K.T. Hoppen, Ireland since 1800: Conflict and conformity (Essex, 1999), pp. 122–3.
- 142.
M. J. Kelly, The fenian ideal and Irish nationalism, 1882–1916 (Suffolk, 2006), p. 2.
- 143.
Hoppen, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, p. 469.
- 144.
Moody, Davitt and the Irish revolution, pp. 120–4.
- 145.
Moran, A radical priest in Mayo, p. 145.
- 146.
See Donald Jordan, ‘John O’Connor Power, Charles Stewart Parnell and the centralization of popular politics in Ireland’, Irish Historical Studies xxv, no. 97 (1986), pp. 46–66.
- 147.
Thornley, Isaac Butt and the Home Rule party, p. 184.
- 148.
Thornley, Isaac Butt and the Home Rule party, p. 176.
- 149.
Thornley, Isaac Butt and the Home Rule party, p. 179.
- 150.
Jordan, ‘John O’Connor Power, Charles Stewart Parnell and the centralization of popular politics in Ireland’, p. 46–8.
- 151.
Stanford, That Irishman, pp. 54, 69.
- 152.
Jordan, ‘John O’Connor Power, Charles Stewart Parnell and the centralization of popular politics in Ireland’, p. 54.
- 153.
Flag of Ireland, 7 Feb. 1874; Comerford, The Fenians in context, p. 201.
- 154.
See Colin Barr, The European culture wars in Ireland: The Callan schools affair, 1868–81 (Dublin, 2010), introduction.
- 155.
C.S.O., R.P. 1874/7686 and 1874/7144.
- 156.
Stanford, That Irishman, p. 49.
- 157.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 158.
Tuam Herald, 10 Feb. 1872.
- 159.
Feingold, The revolt of the tenantry, p. 53.
- 160.
Moran, A radical priest in Mayo, pp. 132, 136.
- 161.
Express, 16 Dec. 1871.
- 162.
Ryan, Fenian memories (1945), p. 42.
- 163.
Eugene Hynes, Knock: The Virgin’s apparition in nineteenth-century Ireland (Cork, 2009), p. 100.
- 164.
Norman, The Catholic Church and Ireland in the age of rebellion, p. 429.
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Casey, B. (2018). A Check on Deference: Electioneering, the Fenians and the Catholic Church—Galway, 1872 and Mayo, 1874. In: Class and Community in Provincial Ireland, 1851–1914. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71120-1_4
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