Isaac Butt
In the early 1840's Irish MP Isaac Butt opposed O'Connell's petitions for Irish self government and expressed his Unionist leanings in his journal the Dublin University Magazine [1]. However, Butt also had a great respect for the fervor of the Irish Fenian rebels who openly opposed British oppression, and he defended them in court [2]. Eventually, Butt's opinion on Ireland's union with Great Britain began to change as a result of the Great Famine in the late 1840's and early 1850's [3]. Butt "took up the quest for Irish self-government because he had become deeply disillusioned with the British administration of Ireland and because he believed that Irish Protestants and Tories had no option but to come to terms with the new forces (Fenianism being the latest) emerging in Irish life, and to seek to manage them"[4]. He was an unlikely person to support Home Rule due to his history of being a Unionist, and because he was a Protestant. Home Rule was generally a Catholic issue, but in 1870 he founded the Home Government Association in order to secure Home Rule for Ireland.[5] Unlike O'Connell who believed Home Rule to be the manifest destiny of Catholics, Butt became a leader in the Home Rule movement to ensure that the Irish Protestants would have a future in Ireland.[6] However, Butt was a weak and timid leader, and was unfit to be the voice of Home Rule in Parliament [7]. The Home Rule movement that Isaac Butt had started, soon took on a new leader in Charles Parnell [8].
[1] Thomas Bartlett, Ireland: A History, New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. 2010, 304.
[2] Ibid., 304.
[3] Moody, T. W., and Martin. The Course of Irish History, Niwot, Colorado: Published in association with Radio Telefís Éireann by Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011, 246.
[4] Bartlett, 315.
[5] Moody&Martin, 246.
[6] Bartlett, 315.
[7] Ibid., 315
[8] Ibid., 316
* Image from Wikimedia Commons in Public Domain
[2] Ibid., 304.
[3] Moody, T. W., and Martin. The Course of Irish History, Niwot, Colorado: Published in association with Radio Telefís Éireann by Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011, 246.
[4] Bartlett, 315.
[5] Moody&Martin, 246.
[6] Bartlett, 315.
[7] Ibid., 315
[8] Ibid., 316
* Image from Wikimedia Commons in Public Domain