Abstract
Chapter 6 examines the national dimension of Irish political involvement both before and after the passing of the 1868 and 1884–85 suffrage reform acts. It contributes to the wider picture of the Irish nationalist vote in Britain by demonstrating that Irish political organization was already well-entrenched as early as the 1850s (in contrast with the small number of potential Irish voters) and that in the Monklands (particularly in Coatbridge), the Irish Nationalist movement became highly influential. Locally, the Liberal candidates had to come to terms with Irish nationalist electors, especially after the 1880s electoral reforms. The chapter also explores the divisions within the Irish nationalist community during electoral campaigns.
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Notes
D. MacRaild (1999) Irish Migrants in Modern Britain, 1750–1922 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 124.
M. Ò Catháin (2008) ‘A Winnowing Spirit: Sinn Féin in Scotland, 1905–1938’ in M.J. Mitchell (ed.) New Perspectives on the Irish in Scotland (Edinburgh: Birlinn), p. 114.
M. Ò Catháin (2008) ‘A Winnowing Spirit’, p. 115;
E.W. McFarland (1998) ‘A Reality and Yet Impalpable: The Fenian Panic in Mid-Victorian Scotland’, The Scottish Historical Review, LXXVII, 204, pp. 199–223.
E. McFarland (2003) John Ferguson 1836–1906. Irish Issues in Scottish Politics (East Lothian: Tuckwell), p. 50. John Ferguson (1836–1906), coming from a staunch Protestant Antrim family, was the great political organiser of the Irish nationalist movement in Scotland during the late Victorian era.
E. McFarland (1998) ‘A Reality and Yet Impalpable: The Fenian Panic in Mid-Victorian Scotland’, pp. 199–223; AC, 19 October 1867.
R.F. Foster (1989) Modern Ireland (London: Penguin), p. 354.
D. MacRaild (2011) The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750–1939 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 130.
E.W. MacFarland (2003) John Ferguson, pp. 220–30.
GE, 13 October 1900. Timothy Healy (1855–1931) was co-leader of the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation in 1891, only to be expelled in 1895. He then founded the clericalist People’s Rights Association in 1897 and rejoined the IPP in 1900 (see R. Foster (1989) Modern Ireland, p. 401).
I. Machin (2001) The Rise of Democracy in Britain1830–1918 (London: Macmillan Press), p. 74.
D. MacRaild (2011) The Irish Diaspora, p. 129.
This is argued for instance by W.M. Walker (1972) ‘Irish Immigrants in Scotland: Their Priests, Politics and Parochial Life’, Historical Journal, XV, pp. 649–67.
R. Foster (1989) Modern Ireland, p. 418.
D. Fitzpatrick (1989), ‘The Irish in Britain, 1871–1921’ in W. E. Vaughan (ed.) A New History of Ireland VI: Ireland Under the Union1870–1921, (Oxford: Oxford University Press) p. 681.
As opposed to O’Leary’s point of view: see P. O’Leary (2000) Immigration and Integration. The Irish in Wales, 1798–1822 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press), pp. 243–44.
To be a registered voter, the elector had to prove 12 months’ possession of his tenancy; householders had to pay their rates personally (this disenfranchised occupants of houses valued under £4 since then it was the landlord who paid the rates); and the receipt of poor relief in the 12 months’ residence necessary would disqualify the individual. See J. McCaffrey (1970) ‘The Irish Vote in Glasgow in the Later Nineteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey’, The Innes Review, XXI, p. 33.
GA, 8 December 1877; J. Donald (1933) Past Parliamentary Elections in Greenock (Greenock: John Donald), p. 36; GT, 5 November 1885.
AC, 26 December 1874. However, as Tom Gallagher has explained, the Irish electorate was not to be overestimated as ‘the Liberals had placed handicaps in the way of those least likely to be ‘respectable or independent in the working-class’: see T. Gallagher (1989) Glasgow: The Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland (Manchester: Manchester University Press), p. 69.
GT, 29 June 1892. On the Liberal Party’s reluctance to support state-funded Catholic education vs. Tory support for the project, see: P. O’Leary (2000) The Irish in Wales, p. 262.
D. Fitzpatrick (1989) ‘The Irish in Britain, 1871–1921’, p. 682.
On the weakness of the Irish electoral threat, see P. O’Leary (2000) The Irish in Wales, p. 243 and 266.
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© 2013 Geraldine Vaughan
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Vaughan, G. (2013). National(ist) Issues. In: The ‘Local’ Irish in the West of Scotland, 1851–1921. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329844_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329844_7
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