I should like to thank the National Library of Ireland, the British Library, the National Archives, Kew, the National Archives of Ireland, the National Library of Scotland, and Birmingham University Library for permission to publish the documents reproduced in this volume.

It has been observed that generations of historians ‘have been chained to the task of explaining why Gladstone chose in 1885 to champion Irish claims’. Chief amongst these claims was that for national self-determination, an issue that was to determine the course of Anglo-Irish relations for the next forty years. It was, as one contemporary politician observed, ‘the pivot on which the political future turned’. This volume re-examines why, late in 1885, the leader of the Liberal Party embraced the idea of Irish home rule without securing the support of his party for this radical departure. In his recent biography of Gladstone, Richard Shannon admits that his subject's conviction that Irish home rule had become a matter of absolute urgency by mid-December 1885 ‘has always been something of a puzzle’, and he claims that ‘there is nothing in the records’ to indicate that Irish nationalism then threatened any ‘critical degree of violent action’ against the British government of Ireland. This book therefore examines the advice and information that Gladstone received about Ireland at this critical time. It casts light on communications and transactions that are only partly known in order to provide a fuller chronology of the first home rule episode, and so to help solve this puzzle.

Sir George Fottrell placed a number of newspaper cuttings in his journal, most of which have not been reproduced. Some passages of text, chiefly those listing the contents of memoranda or parliamentary bills, have also been excised and referenced. Wherever possible, the journal has been cross-referenced with the documentary evidence to which it relates. Fottrell's statements have been explored by means of editorial notes based on manuscript, newspaper, and secondary sources. Their veracity has been tested wherever possible, with attention being drawn to any statement of fact that is proven to have been inaccurate. Biographical notes are largely confined to the period covered by the journal and minor spelling mistakes and other errors in the text have been silently corrected. Occasional stylistic infelicities have been left unaltered, though in some places punctuation and capitalization have been added for reasons of clarity and consistency. Latin phrases, foreign words, and the titles of publications have been printed in italics and missing words have been written in full within square brackets.

I think it may perhaps at some future stage of Irish politics prove useful to have from an eye witness some notes of the events now passing in Ireland or rather some notes of the inner working of the Government and of the Irish party. I have rather exceptional opportunities of noting their working. I have since I attained manhood been a consistent Nationalist and I believe that the leading men on the national side have confidence in my honour and consistency. On the other hand I am a Crown official & I am an intimate personal friend of Sir Robert Hamilton, the Under Secretary for Ireland. My first introduction to him took place about 18 months ago. I was introduced to him by Robert Holmes, the Treasury Remembrancer. At that time Sir Robert was Mr. Hamilton & his private secretary was Mr. Clarke Hall who had come over temporarily from the Admiralty. Mr. Hamilton was himself at that time only a temporary official. Shortly afterwards he was induced to accept the permanent appointment as Under Secretary. From the date of my first introduction to him up to the present our acquaintance has steadily developed into a warm friendship and I think that Sir Robert Hamilton now probably speaks to me on Irish matters more freely than to anyone else.

I am very glad Your Excellency is coming over to England.

I am much disappointed about Col: Butler. He has wasted all his time in Canada. He wrote last from Ottawa under date 30th March, and up to that time had not succeeded in finding any one for our work. He was then going to start for New York, and intended to sail on the 12th April in the “Alaska” – so that we may expect him back next week! New York is by far the most important place, and yet he gives only a few days to it. But it will be fairer to judge of him when we hear what he has to say. Meanwhile I am not entirely dependent on him, for since his departure I have sent out an agent to New York who will, I hope, be of great use. Mr Hoare too is doing fairly well.

Fottrell was born on 6 February 1849 and educated at Belvedere College and the Catholic University, where he was president of the Literary and Historical Society. After training as a solicitor at the King's Inn Law School from 1865, he joined his father's firm of George D. Fottrell & Sons at 46 Fleet Street, Dublin. In 1872, he married Mary Watson, with whom he had one son and five daughters. He quickly established himself within Dublin's emerging Catholic professional class at a time when its influence over Irish public affairs was growing. Recent study of the Catholic elite of this period has demonstrated the importance of the university question to its ‘cultural and political awakening’. In educational matters, Fottrell was a secularist who wished to develop what he described as ‘a free and independent lay Catholic public opinion’. He was critical of reforms that tended to tighten the grip of ecclesiastical schools upon Catholic higher education and argued that sufficient funding for the Catholic University in Dublin was necessary to enable its graduates to compete on an equal footing with the predominately Protestant graduates of Dublin University. Alongside T.D. Sullivan and John Dillon, Fottrell took a leading role in the Catholic University's Bono Club, which aimed to create common ground between the ecclesiastical establishment and the educated laity, and Fottrell was assured by Cardinal Newman that