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Ireland and the First International*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

John W. Boyle
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Extract

Ireland in the eighteen-fifties was quiescent through exhaustion. The great famine of the eighteen-forties had resulted in heavy population losses through death and emigration and demoralized tenant farmers had offered but a feeble resistance to wholesale evictions. The failure of the Irish Confederate risings of 1848-49, the collapse of tenant-right agitation and the disintegration of the Independent Irish Party at Westminster, had left the country sunk in political apathy. The trade union movement did not escape the general paralysis and the Regular Trades Association, a central organization that had developed in Dublin during the eighteen-forties, disappeared. Not until 1859 was there renewed trade union activity in the form of a campaign to abolish night-baking; though it had only limited success, it helped to bring about the appearance in 1863 of a new grouping of Dublin trade unions, the United Trades Association. It was, however, not a trade union organization but the Irish Republican Brotherhood that aroused the country from political torpor.

The I.R.B., known in North America as the Fenian Brotherhood, was a secret oath-bound society pledged to establish an independent Irish republic. Its first leader was James Stephens, who had founded it in 1858 after his return from an exile following the 1848 rising. Its membership was drawn from the rural and urban working class – the sons of small farmers, mechanics, artisans, laborers and petty shopkeepers. In 1861 Stephens skillfully stage-managed the funeral of Terence Bellew McManus, a Confederate exile whose body was brought back for burial in Ireland, and thus aroused an unprecedented interest in “The Organization,” as its members called it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , May 1972 , pp. 44 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1972

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Footnotes

*

I am indebted to the librarians and staff of the following institutions for access to unpublished and scarce published material: International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis (Amsterdam), Biblioteca Feltrinelli (Milan), State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison), British Library of Political and Economic Science (London School of Economics), British Museum Newspaper Library at Colindale (London), National Library of Ireland (Dublin). I also owe thanks for assistance to Professor Chimen Abramsky, Mrs. Evangeline Campbell and Mr. Fred Carson. The Canada Council's financial assistance made it possible for me to visit European libraries.

References

1. It was reported in Le Phare de la Loire, 2 Oct. 1864. See Collins, H. and Abramsky, C., Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement, (London, 1965), p. 35Google Scholar.

2. Documents of the First International, The General Council of the First International: Minutes, I, 151–52 (2 Jan. 1866)Google Scholar. The five volumes, undated, published in Moscow and numbered only on the dust jackets, cover the following years: I (1864-66), II (1866-68), III (1868-70), IV (1870-71), V (1871-72). Future references will be to D.F.I. The appeal for funds was issued by Mrs. O'Donovan Rossa and Mrs. Clarke Luby, wives of Fenian leaders.

3. D.F.I., I, 159 (16 Jan. 1866), 166 (20 Feb.), 168-69 (6 Mar.), 327-34. Hennessy (1834-1891) was an Irish conservative M.P. with reformist leanings. The Workman's Advocate was renamed the Commonwealth in February 1866.

4. Ryan, Desmond, The Fenian Chief (Dublin, 1967), p. 236Google Scholar; D.F.I., II, 72 (4 Dec. 1866), 305.

5. Ryan, , Fenian Chief, p. 236Google Scholar, n. 6; D.F.I., IV, 150.

6. D.F.I., II, 174-83, 312-13. Marx framed the resolution, which referred to the evidence upon which the prisoners were convicted as “tainted” and declared that commutation of the death sentence would be “an act not only of justice, but of political wisdom.” The three men, Allen, Larkin and O'Brien, had been charged with the accidental killing of a police sergeant during an attack on a van containing Fenian prisoners.

7. D.F.I., II, 253-58, 377 n. 236, 400 n. 349. See also Marx to Engels, 30 Nov. 1867, in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, ed. Ryazanskaya, S. (2nd. ed.; Moscow, 1965), pp. 195–97Google Scholar.

8. D.F.I., III, 172-74.

9. D.F.I., III, 176-77. It was felt that the government and the press would turn the council's views, if properly expressed, against the prisoners.

10. D.F.I., III, 183.

11. D.F.I., III, 178-90, 192-94. See also pp. 460-61, n. 258, for Marx's vivid description in a letter (dated 26 Nov. 1869) to Engels of the conduct of Applegarth, Odger and Mottershead (referred to as “Muddlehead”).

12. D.F.I., III, 358-60. The original text is as follows:

“Donc la position de l'Association Internationale vis-à-vis de la question irlandaise est très nette. Son premier besoin est de pousser la révolution sociale en Angleterre. A cet effet, il faut frapper le grand coup en Irlande.

Les résolutions du Conseil Général sur l'amnestie irlandaise ne servent qu'à introduire d'autres résolutions qui affirmeront que, abstraction faite de toute justice internationale, c'est une condition préliminaire de l'émancipation de la classe ouvrière anglaise, de transformer la presénte union forcée (c'est-à-dire l'esclavage de l'Irlande) en confédération égale et libre, s'il le peut, en séparation complète, s'il le faut.” This was followed in the manuscript by a deleted portion explaining the difficulties faced by the General Council. The Beehive (George Potter's paper) had suppressed the amnesty resolutions and the council's discussion of die Irish question; as a result the council had been forced to print the resolutions and circulate them to the trade unions (D.F.I., III, 360, n. 2).

The address was written about 1 January 1870 and published in part in the pamphlet Les prétendues scissions dans l'Internationale (Genève, 1872)Google Scholar. Marx reproduces his views on Ireland in a letter (9 Apr. 1870) to Meyer, S. and Vogt, A. in New York (Marx-Engels Selected Correspondence, pp. 235–38)Google Scholar.

13. The Dublin United Trades' Association was sent a copy of the council's first address on the Franco-Prussian war (D.F.I., IV, 37).

14. D.F.I., IV, 125-26, 156-57, 162.

15. D.F.I., IV, 204.

16. D.F.I., IV, 411. MacDonnell was not a signatory of the first edition as he did not become a member of the General Council until July 4 (D.F.I., IV, 220, 222, 226-27).

17. Unless otherwise indicated details of MacDonnell's life are taken from the ten-page biography dictated by his widow to Miss Clara Commons in 1908. This and other MacDonnell papers are in the archives of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Hereafter, S.H.S.W.) The Catholic hierarchy led by Cardinal Cullen denounced the Fenians. The Maynooth College for priests had been aided financially from its foundation in 1795 by British government grants.

18. Programs of concerts given in London and Cardiff during February 1869 are among the MacDonnell papers. MacDonnell also organized excursions and demonstrations on the anniversaries of the treaty of Limerick and the American Declaration of Independence.

19. Irishman, 20 Feb., 6 Mar. 1869.

20. Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 166Google Scholar.

21. The hearing took place on 3 November 1870. A speech for the defense by Josiah J. Merriman, an English solicitor on MacDonnell's amnesty committee, member of the General Council (1864-67) and of the Reform League, was published as a pamphlet and is among the MacDonnell papers.

22. D.F.I., IV, 220.

23. International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam, (Hereafter, I.I.S.G.), Marx-Engels Nachlass (Hereafter, M.-E.N.), D. 3246, 3247. D. 3246, a covering letter to D. 3247, is dated July 14.

24. D.F.I., IV, 226-27. See also Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 241Google Scholar.

25. D.F.I., IV, 249, 285.

26. I.I.S.G., Jung papers, 236.

27. I.I.S.G., MacDonnell to Engels, 30 Sept. 1871, M.-E.N., L3661. See also Marx's letter to F. A. Sorge, 29 Nov. 1871, in Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick, Ireland and the Irish Question (Moscow, 1971), pp. 298–99Google Scholar.

28. I.I.S.G. MacDonnell to Engels, postmarked 22 Sept. 1872, M.-E.N., L3617; Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and British Labour Movement, pp. 251, 259–60, 263Google Scholar.

29. Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and British Labour Movement, p. 241Google Scholar.

30. D.F.I., V, 141-42.

31. D.F.I., V, 194-99, 297-300. Engels pointed out that French, German and Italian sections in England were not under the jurisdiction of the British Federal Council.

32. Irishman, 28 Oct. 1871.

33. London correspondent, [Belfast], Morning News, 10 Jan. 1872.

34. Irishman, 2 Mar. 1872.

35. Cork Examiner, 16 Mar. 1872.

36. Cork Examiner, 18 Mar. 1872.

37. Northern Whig, 25 Mar. 1872.

38. Cork Herald, 18 Mar. 1872.

39. Cork Examiner, 25 Mar. 1872.

40. Ibid.

41. Cork Examiner, 25, 27 Mar., 1 Apr. 1872; [London] Daily Telegraph, 25 Mar. 1872; [London] Standard, 26 Mar. 1872; Irishman, 30 Mar., 6 Apr. 1872. The account given in Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 245Google Scholar, is misleading, since it gives the impression that the meeting was called by the Cork I.W.M.A. and that it ended in their rout.

42. Irish Times, Cork Examiner, 25 Mar. 1872; Nation, 30 Mar. 1872. See also leaflet dated March 26, appealing for aid to those on strike, issued by MacDonnell. S.H.S.W., MacDonnell papers.

43. Cork Examiner, 26 Mar. 1872.

44. Ibid., 27, 30 Mar. 1872.

45. Material in this paragraph not otherwise footnoted is taken from St. Clair, Silvester, Sketch of the Life and Labours of Jno. De Morgan, Orator, Elocutionist and Tribune of the People (Leeds, 1880)Google Scholar. De Morgan published a list of 293 titles of lectures he had given.

46. Rev. Dr. Maurice Davis, Unorthodox London, quoted in St. Clair, Silvester, J. De Morgan, p. 4Google Scholar.

47. D.F.I., V, 141, 148.

48. Irishman, 13 Apr. 1872; Irish Daily Telegraph, 6 Apr. 1872.

49. Appeal dated 21 Apr. 1872, copy in MacDonnell papers.

50. Cork Examiner, 4 Apr. 1872.

51. Cork Examiner, Irishman, 6 Apr. 1872.

52. D.F.I., V, 149-50.

53. D.F.I., V, 176.

54. Eastern Post, 14 Apr. 1872, quoted in Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 245Google Scholar. Shortly after De Morgan's arrival in England, MacDonnell introduced him to Marx and Engels whose side he took in the British Federal Council split. Though he was for several years in the utmost need, his letters to them are filled with a pathetic optimism (I.I.S.G., Marx-Engels Nachlass, D 3469-72, L 5055-69, K 1315). He was prominent in the English republican movement and the Fenian amnesty agitation, was a member of the I.W.M.A. and the Reform League and started a Working Men's Parliamentary Association. Despite frequent jail sentences he led demonstrations in the later eighteen-seventies to preserve public access to common land and to secure a revision of the prison sentence on the Tichborne claimant.

55. A letter from Cork, signed by a pseudonym and dated May 9, alleged that “emissaries of the International” were at work in the villages and countryside during the lull in the storm of invectives from clergymen and some nationalists (Irishman, 11 May 1872). There was no sequel to this statement. The Cork Examiner of May 11 carried a report that the I.W.M.A. had “resolved to abandon for the present the Irish organisation, awaiting more favourable auspices for reestablishment.”

56. D.F.I., V, 140-41, 176. The Limerick and Ennis branches were to be started by McCarthy of Ennis.

57. A report dated March 31 in the Freeman's Journal stated that the formation of a branch in Limerick had been postponed because of the troubles in Cork. Delegates were to appeal to those trades engaged in the nine-hour day agitation, but the correspondent thought that success was unlikely in view of the hostility of prominent nationalists (Irishman, 6 Apr. 1872).

58. The Cork branch's declaration of principle issued early in March congratulated the men of Dublin and Cootehill on the formation of sections (Cork Herald, 15 Mar. 1872). MacDonnell's report (May 4) that the Cootehill branch was progressing slowly is the last mention of this branch.

59. McEvatt (1817-1901) took part in Irish revolutionary movements from the eighteen-forties onwards. As a result he lost his shoe manufacturing business and was imprisoned with MacDonnell in 1866. He lived at various times in Dublin and London and emigrated to the United States in August 1872 (See biographical sketch of MacDonnell, S.H.S.W., MacDonnell papers; I.I.S.G., M.-E.N., L 3666; Cork Examiner, 1 Apr. 1872).

60. Irishman, 16 Mar. 1872.

61. Freeman's Journal, Saunders' News-Letter, 8 Apr. 1872, reprinted in Cork Examiner, 9 Apr. 1872.

62. D.F.I., V, 176 (May 4, 1872).

63. See supra, p. 56.

64. D.F.I., V, 141.

65. Northern Star and Ulster Observer, 28 May 1872.

66. Northern Star and Ulster Observer, 2 July 1872; Irishman, 6 July 1872.

67. Irishman, 20 July 1872.

68. Boyd, Andrew, Holy War in Belfast, (Tralee, Ireland, 1969), p. 117Google Scholar.

69. Irishman, 23 Nov. 1872.

70. I.I.S.G, M.-E.N., D 3248-76. MacDonnell took a prominent part in socialist and labour activities in the United States. He acted as corresponding secretary for New York State in the I.W.M.A., edited several labor journals and was imprisoned for publishing an exposure of working conditions in Paterson, New Jersey, brickyards. He organized several trade union locals, the Trades Assembly of Paterson and the New Jersey State Federation of Labor, of which he was chairman for fifteen years. The last time he left his house was to attend the Federation's congress, six months before his death in 1906.

71. [London] Daily Chronicle, 21 Oct. 1872.

72. Collins, and Abramsky, , Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 288Google Scholar.

73. For example, John A. Ryan, first treasurer of the Dublin branch of the Socialist League, had been a member of the Dublin I.W.M.A. (Commonwealth, 5 Feb. 1887).