The famed 19th century Irish nationalist politician Michael Davitt was born in the Mayo village of Straide on 25th March 1846. The name Straide is an anglicised version of the Irish word sraid meaning “street”. It is a small rural village with a population of just under 600 people.
He was born in the middle of the famine into a family of tenant farmers who were predominantly Irish speakers. His father was an Irish nationalist and he wanted that tradition to pass on down through his family. Martin Davitt was a “Ribbonman” which was a 19th century popular movement of poor Catholics in Ireland. The main opponents of the Ribbonmen were landlords and members of the Orange Order, they wanted to remove elements of British influence from Ireland.
Ribbonism was a primarily rural and agrarian movement and it was fitting that Michael would follow in his father’s footsteps when creating the Land League later in the 19th century. The Ribbon society wanted to improve poor living conditions for rural people, the name derived from a green ribbon that was worn by the members.
Like so many Irish during the famine, the Davitts were left with little choice but to emigrate to England. They settled in East Lancashire in the town of Haslingden. Haslingden’s proximity to the port of Liverpool meant that many Irish emigrants ended up relocating to the rural village. In 2006 President of Ireland Mary McAleese unveiled a plaque to Davitt in the village.
Life for the Irish was difficult in England as they faced a large amount of anti-Irish sentiment. The English working class saw the Irish as a threat to their jobs and thought they were undercutting their wages. Children like Michael also had to enter the workforce to provide for their families and the young Davitt was a labourer at a cotton mill. When he was 11 Davitt’s arm got caught in a cogwheel and his arm later had to be amputated. The family received no compensation for the incident.
Davitt obviously would have preferred to keep his arm but it kept him out of a lifetime of work in the mill. He would however later join the Mechanic’s Institute and became a follower of the Chartism movement which was popular in England at the time.
(Chartism was a movement for political reform in England that was popular during the middle of the 19th century. It’s name arose from the people’s charter of 1838.
The People’s Charter had six main demands:
They wanted everyone of sound mind above the age of 21 to be allowed the vote
The right to a secret ballot when voting in elections
No property qualifications for MPs when standing
Payment for people who have to leave work to attend to the needs of their nation
Equal constituencies, not allowing small constituencies to have the same power as large ones
Annual parliamentary election)
It was while living in Haslingden that Davitt joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The organisation was mainly popular with the Irish diaspora rather than those living in Ireland at the beginning. He was held in multiple prisons across England and wanted to be treated as a political prisoner rather than a criminal.
The late 19th century saw Irish America get increasingly involved in republicanism. Davitt himself visited America in 1878 to raise money through a public speaking tour. He met John Devoy who was the leader of the Clan na Gael organisation. His speaking tour was organised and financed by the Clan. While in America, Davitt spearheaded a new approach called “The New Departure.”
(The New Departure was an attempt to unite the parliamentary and violent militant wings of Irish nationalism. Davitt wanted to include Nationalist MPs who were Home Rulers rather than Republicans such as Charles Stewart Parnell and Joseph Biggar. The term “new departure” was first used in The New York Herald)
The issue that came to define the political career of Davitt was the issue of land and the ensuing Land War.
The Land war can be loosely defined as period of agrarian agitation in Ireland form 1879 to 1882. Ireland in the 19th century was a primarily rural nation and the ownership of the land was concentrated in the hands of a few landlords. in 1870 50% of Ireland was owned by 750 families.
Agrarian crime was on the rise during the 1870s and at the same time emigration was starting to decline from its peaks during the famine.
There was what could be described as a mini famine in Ireland in 1879. There was widespread hunger and deprivation following heavy rains and low yields. Davitt put pressure on the British government to provide aid, aid did arrive from America. This famine was not on the same scale as the famine of the 1840s and was mainly concentrated in Connacht.