Michael Davitt: An International Humanitarian

Michael Davitt (1846-1906), one of Ireland’s greatest patriots, was also a great international humanitarian. Immortalised in Ireland as “the Father of the Land League”, he was also a respected international journalist, the author of six books, a Member of Parliament at Westminster, and a pioneer of the labour movement in Britain and Ireland. His interests and concerns ranged from tenant-farmers to agricultural labourers, the working-classes in Britain and Ireland, prison conditions, social conditions generally, the Boers in South Africa to the Jews in Russia.

A person with an international perspective, he regarded all humanity as one family, believing in the dignity and rights of all human beings regardless of race, colour, political persuasion or creed. His objective was always the development of society for the benefit of all its members.

A master organiser, a Trojan worker, a tireless writer, Davitt had a passion for truth, honesty and social justice for all people. A person of considerable moral and physical courage, as well as transparent integrity, with a mind too noble to harbour personal grudges, he attacked the social system of his time, but not the people in that system, and throughout his life remained independent of power, honour or purse. Generous, amicable, sensitive, warm-hearted, impulsive, idealistic, honourable, principled, loyal, with no conceit or arrogance, he had a strong personality and was his own person in every respect. Throughout his life, he suffered many hard knocks and disappointments, but bore them all with admirable fortitude and resilience. He was scrupulous in his use of public funds, and never used such money for his own benefit despite the precarious state of his own finances for most of his life. He became a great role model for patriotic public service.