‘Politics is a difficult and anxious game’: An Assessment of Webb

Abstract

Webb returned from India optimistic about what Irish and Indian nationalists could achieve together in Parliament, but his optimism was short-lived. His disputes with Healy led to a loss of confidence and his resignation from Parliament, and over the subsequent years his belief in the ability of Parliament to justly rule the Empire waned as a new theatre of conflict opened in South Africa. Webb remained in contact with his Indian friends, and he remained as vocal as ever in promoting a responsible position in international affairs, but he also sensed that Ireland was changing. The period 189–1908 was one in which many different models were being argued for the future of Ireland; some of these groups professed to be apolitical but, as Webb pointed out, in disavowing politics they were making a political statement themselves.² F. S. L. Lyons has described W. B. Yeats at the turn of the twentieth century as ‘desperately trying to hold a middle position between the anonymity of cosmopolitanism and the parochialism of Irish Ireland’.³ Webb was in a different quandary: he was trying to remain an Irish cosmopolitan, not for the sake of compromise but because he embraced both Irishness and internationalism. New cultural movements presented new challenges to Webb in this era, as he continued to balance Indian lobbying, treasury duties for the Irish Party and his social and international conscience.

Webb to O’Neill Daunt, 16 December 1873 (NLI, Daunt papers, MS 8048/6).