(Speech 01)

Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Sunday 13th February 1881

Anna Parnell made her first appearance as a speaker for the Irish National Ladies Land League at Claremorris, Co. Mayo, on Sunday, 13th February 1881, and the occasion, from her arrival to her departure, was reported in detail in the Irish press. The novelty of the situation, the size of the demonstration, and not least the fact that it was taking place in Co. Mayo (1), all accounted for the long newspaper reports. As this was the first public speech made by Anna Parnell it seems appropriate to use a larger part of the description than is otherwise practicable. (2) On her first visit to Co. Mayo she was escorted by J.P. Quinn, an official of the Land League executive; they travelled from Dublin on the Saturday night mail and despite bad weather were greeted at many of the stations along the way. Crowds were present at Athlone, a band added to the welcome at Roscommon, and there were similar scenes at Castlereagh and Ballyhaunis. She had asked to be met quietly at Claremorris and consequently there was no large demonstration; instead, they were welcomed by Delia Moran (3) and a Miss Ansboro and then driven to Ansboro's Hotel where they spent the rest of the night. The weather on the following day was fine and the crowds began to gather for the afternoon's open-air meeting. The Claremorris band played and the men prepared themselves to draw the wagon in which Anna Parnell was to travel to the site of the meeting. With characteristic modesty she avoided the tribute on this occasion, and walked to the meeting accompanied by Delia Moran and members of the Claremorris Ladies' Land League. Two local priests, Canon Ulick J. Bourke, a local Land League organizer, and the Rev. James Corbett also accompanied her. (4)

The meeting-place was in the garden behind the Claremorris Reading Room where a platform had been erected with a white banner placed in front announcing "Miss Parnell to the Rescue." Reports record that thousands of women gathered in the garden in front of the platform. The women of Co. Mayo had responded quickly to the L.L.L. circular issued from Dublin on the 4th February and a number of Ladies'

Leagues had already been formed. Amongst the branches attending were the Ladies' Land Leagues of Claremorris, Knock, Ballyhaunis, Ballindine, Logboy, Balla, Ballinrobe, Castlebar, and Irishtown. A large number of men and boys attended, many of these sitting on the surrounding walls. The meeting was to be well- ordered and followed the customary forms. Canon Bourke was appointed to the chair and four addresses of welcome were read from the crowded platform by women representatives of local Leagues. Amongst the references to the patriotism of the Parnell family and the lamentable condition of Connaught under "landlord rule", there was condemnation of the Liberal Government for the contrast between its policies abroad and at home. For the most part the addresses represented the determination of the women to uphold the Land League and give support to the families of those imprisoned or evicted, under the guidance not only of the League leadership but of the Catholic bishops and priests of Ireland. Three resolutions were introduced by Canon Bourke. The first described the object of the L.L.L., "To help ln every lawful way all who may be evicted...," and was used by the Canon to establish the movement's respectability by linking the traditions of Christian charity to this new role for Irish women. A Mrs. McEllinn, who proposed the resolution, also emphasised that the L.L.L. was to be a relief committee and not a political organisation. "The work which we propose to ourselves to accomplish is one that no Irishwoman should be ashamed of or shrink from." The second resolution, was a call for the formation of branches of the L.L.L. in every parish, and it was introduced with the recollection that if such an organisation had existed in 1847 many lives might have been saved during the Famine. The third resolution was a call to maintain strong opposition to coercion and to all oppressive measures instituted by the Government.

When Anna Parnell came forward to speak to the second resolution she was met with loud cheering. Although nervous at first, she quickly took control and spoke with "much coolness and deliberation." She first countered claims that the L.L.L. was to be a charitable organisation ministering to the needs of a demoralised tenantry. The L.L.L. was to be a relief committee to which League members in need had a right to apply. Although she was to concentrate on the aims and objectives of the organisation the speech was not without political comment; it was to prove impossible to separate the organization's activities from the political context and Anna Parnell was, perhaps, never going to try. She made the first of her public attacks on her unholy trinity of Gladstone, Forster and Bright, and their threat of new coercion measures to break up the Land League. In the event of their introduction, the L.L.L. would administer the relief funds and support the evicted, the imprisoned and their dependents, and effectively sustain the Land League effort in the face of Government attacks. She stressed the importance of the funds from America and the sacrifices being made there to support the League in Ireland. The need for the efficient gathering of information on action taken by landlords against tenants, and its swift dispatch to Dublin for action by the L.L.L., was emphasised. The audience was warned against close contact with the Royal Irish Constabulary, so as to avoid giving them any information. The speech ended with a general call for preparation in the event of further oppressive Government action.

[Report of the Claremorris speech as it appears in the Connaught Telegraph Saturday l9th February 1881]

She said- Rev. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, the second resolution has been entrusted to me to propose and I hope you will keep as quiet as possible, because I want to make myself heard. There is no use taking the trouble of talking at all unless you are listened to:-

Resolved, that we hereby enter our public protest against the arrest of Michael Davitt and to avenge his imprisonment in a way worthy of the noble spirit of Christian women by staying the evil effects of tyranny and legalised violence, we call on the women of Ireland to form in each parish a branch of the Ladies Irish National Land League, and thus at once call into existence the last public expressed wish of the imprisoned patriot. (Cheers). (5)

Before speaking to the resolution I wish to thank the ladies of Claremorris for their beautiful reception, and to express the pleasure it gives me to hear the national music of Ireland played by the excellent bands of Mayo. Whatever the English Government has succeeded in doing it has not succeeded in crushing the Irish genius for music. There is just one point I want to call you attention to- it is about this movement of ours. We're not a political movement, but we are not a charitable movement either, because charity is understood to mean alms giving, and this movement has nothing whatever to do with alms, which is understood by the word "charity." It is a relief movement (hear, hear). The money which we shall have to administer will be the money which has been subscribed by the people themselves, and entrusted to the Irish National Land League to help them when the emergency arose. Thus I hope that you will all remember our title is relief, and our work is relief, not charity. We don't want the people whom we help to feel humiliated, or to feel as if they were getting money which they had no right to. They will have the best right in the world to everything they get.

Now I don't suppose you require me to tell you what the Irish Land League is. You know all about it, and probably you may know more about it than I do myself (laughter). You know also that for about twelve months the landlords of Ireland have not been getting as much rents as they are entitled to (cheers and laughter), and they are very savage in consequence, and perhaps within the next six months they will get still less (cheers), and then they will get still more savage. Well, some other gentlemen are getting savage too- not Irish landlords. I will mention three of them- three Christian gentlemen. They are Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Forster, and honest John Bright (loud groans and hisses). Well, the reason why they are savage is that the Irish people refuse to be satisfied with a mixture of buckshot and good intentions instead of food and clothes, that they refused to be pleased and happy when they are turned out of their homes in the dead of winter, and when they are robbed of all they possess- that they refuse to be pleased and go on their knees and call Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright their friends, and so it is no longer possible for Mr. Gladstone, or Mr. Bright, or Mr. Forster, to parade themselves in Ireland as the friends of Ireland (hear, hear), and that is making them very savage.

Well, now, what is it that they want to do? They are bringing in a bill- they are trying to pass a law, and it may be passed next week, which will enable the lord lieutenant of Ireland to put any man or woman in prison, and keep them there for a year and a half. (6). Very well. And how will they use this law? This is the way these Christian gentlemen intend to use this law. Whenever a landlord wants to evict a tenant, or whenever he wants to evict a large number of tenants, he will apply to the lord lieutenant of Ireland to put any man or woman in prison whom he thinks will be likely to give help to those evicted tenants. You know that heretofore the Land League has worked in this way when tenants have been evicted, the Land League has given money to the local leagues, to the treasurers, president, and secretaries of the local leagues, to help evicted families so that they might not starve, and public opinion has been called in to prevent anyone else taking the farms.- Well, now, you see it will disorganise the relief of evicted tenants very much if the landlord has it in his power, before he carries out his eviction- if he has it in his power to put in prison the men whose duty it is to provide for those evicted families, and it is for the purpose of supplying the place of those men in carrying on the work of relief that we have been called into existence by Michael Davitt. Mr. Forster, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Bright hope that when the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended, the relief branch of the work of the Irish National Land League will fall into confusion, and the tenants who are evicted may be left to want, and that the families of persons imprisoned may be left to want and starvation. That is what those Christian men, Quakers, and such like, want to do and that is what we shall prevent them from doing.

We will see that the wives and families of people imprisoned because they are Land Leaguers shall not starve, and we will see this as long as the Land League has a penny to give us- it has a great many pennies (laughter and cheers); and if the men and women of this country take up a manly and a womanly attitude respectively they will have a great many more pennies still. (Cheers and laughter), for I do believe the Irish people of America will send us vast sums of money if only we act rightly. If we are not cowards or fools they will send us money and make extraordinary sacrifices to help us now. I know it well. If Mr. Forster wants to stop us he will be obliged to go openly to the House of Commons and tell the truth for once in his life (laughter), and say that if the tenants who are evicted by force of police and soldiers are not left to starve, the landlords will not be able to recover their lawful rights. He would have to say, "We must stop the relief or we shall be beaten," and he would not like to have to say that- he will wait some time before he does say it. And if he does say it- well, perhaps, it would not be much harm to make a Quaker tell the truth like another man (cheers).

Well our objects are three. First of all to relieve the evicted families, and that is the really difficult thing to do- that will tax all your brains, because you will have to provide them with shelter and food as well. In order to carry out this object you require organisation. Now the women of Ireland have never been organised before. The women of a superior sphere very much above our heads have played at organisation- they have pretended to organise relief committees, but they were never deprived of the guidance of their male friends and relations (7); but you will very likely for a time be deprived of the guidance of those whom you have been accustomed to trust and look to for help. So you must learn to depend upon yourselves, and to do things for yourselves, and to organise yourselves. You may even be deprived of many of your pastors- your spiritual guides.

A Voice- "Father James." (8)

That you will have to rely upon yourselves, and to organise yourselves. This is not the time to go into details, but you will have to keep a sharp eye on the landlords (laughter). You will have to know and tell us in Dublin when the landlords have evicted a family, and you will have to be ready to do more, you will have to be ready to tell us who is going to evict a family. That is what you will have to do. And you will have to be very energetic about it, so that no one will be left to want even for a single day, who falls a victim to the just rights of the landlords (laughter and cheers). The second object is easier it is only the relief of families of persons who are imprisoned for their connection with the Land League. All you have to do is to find out who they are, and report the circumstances and the number of the family to headquarters, and then the money for them will be sent to you. The third object is to attend to the comforts of the people who are imprisoned under the Coercion Act, now as a matter of fact, imprisonment- the terrors of imprisonment under this act- have been exaggerated. You think of, you remember the horrible sufferings that men imprisoned in the Fenian time underwent; you remember how they were starved and kept in solitary confinement, and without seeing their relations. But I must explain to you what you perhaps don't all of you know- that there have been changes in the law since then.

A voice-"Thanks to Mr. Parnell" and cheers.

Miss Parnell- Years ago the Irish Party in Parliament- it is about four years ago now since the Irish Party in Parliament (sic)- and it has been working ever since like the busy little bee (laughter), and the consequence is that we have some advantages now that we should not have had otherwise. There have been special rules draughted to provide for the proper treatment of prisoners who have not been convicted of any crime. These rules will apply to prisoners under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act. (9). In 1866 when the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and nearly one thousand men thrust into prison, they were practically left to starve because they had nobody to assist them. They would have been allowed to get food for themselves, if they had had money to pay for it. But they had most of them neither. So that is a danger which the prisoners under this Coercion Act will not be called upon to face. We will see that they get food (cheers), and we will see that they get books and newspapers, and all the comfort which the law will allow them. And we will greatly mitigate the severity of imprisonment (cheers).

Now, there is one thing I just want to say to you. It is intended for the ears of the women alone (laughter). You know something about those nice young men, the Royal Irish Constabulary (cheers and laughter). Now, I am not going to advise you not to have them as sweethearts (laughter), because I know that you won’t [sic]. But it has come to my knowledge, in my own part of the country and I suppose it is the same way here, that the Royal Irish Constabulary- such of them as have an eye to promotion- have a kind of way of going into people's houses without any particularly pressing invitation, and asking all manner of questions that is not any business of theirs, and they have a habit of addressing ladies in the streets whom they have not been introduced to at all, and asking them questions about things which are not any business of theirs. Well, I want to give a little advice on the subject. These gentlemen- these Royal Irishmen- don't go into your houses for any good purpose as a rule. They don't stop you in the streets and ask you questions with any good purpose. They want- I am sorry to say in most cases I am afraid they want to get something out of you to use against you. Very well; then my advice is if you see one of the green coats coming into your houses, you ask him to walk out (cheers) if one of them speaks to you in the street, don't answer him at all- hold no communication with him; and then I think you will be quite safe. Now, we never can tell what is going to happen- all we can do is to be prepared for it. Within a month from this date there may be a thousand people imprisoned, or there may not be twenty- there may be five thousand people evicted, or there may not be a hundred; but we must be prepared for the thousand, and we must be prepared for any number of evictions. I may close by moving the resolution which I read (loud cheers).

At the end of the proceedings Anna Parnell made one more brief statement.

Pointing to the white banner at the front of the platform, she declared that the L.L.L. had decided to use white as the colour of the organization, for "while men fight about orange and green- the ladies do their work in peace." Great cheering followed this statement, and the meeting which had been well-ordered then broke up.

The Claremorris speech showed all the elements that were to be characteristic of her platform style, not least the scornful humour which was to be used with such effect against "those Christian gentlemen," the hated Liberals. As a debut it was successful and established Anna Parnell as a leading Land League propagandist.

Early on the Monday morning she took the opportunity to visit some cottages in the Claremorris neighbourhood, and questioned the residents on their circumstances. Accompanied by Canon Bourke, a visit was made to the Convent of St. Michael where she was welcomed by the Superioress and thanked for the food and clothing already provided for needy children. That same morning Anna Parnell took the 10.40 train to Ballyhaunis and gave a short, but unreported speech in the waiting-room of the station. Here, she broke her return journey by going to Ballaghderrean to visit Mrs. Anne Deane, the cousin of John Dillon (10). On Wednesday 16th February, she resumed her journey to Dublin, this time travelling via Carrick-on-Shannon and Longford. She was welcomed at Carrick by a crowd and a band, and at Longford by an even larger crowd, for people had gathered there to witness the transfer of the Drumlish prisoners to the county prison at Mullingar (11). On her own arrival at Mullingar station, Anna Parnell was called on by the mostly male crowd to make an impromptu speech from her carriage window, and appropriately, in view of the destination of her fellow passengers, she asked them to show courage in the face of imprisonment and for them all to follow Davitt's advice to stand by the League.

Notes

(01) The National Land League of Mayo was founded on the 16^th August 1879 at a meeting held at Daly’s Hotel, Castlebar, Co. Mayo

(02) Description taken from the Connaught Telegraph Saturday 19^th February 1881.

(03) Delia Moran

(04) Rev. James Corbett, one of the first priests to join the Land League. Davitt, Fall of Feudalism, 1904, p.192.

(05) Michael Davitt was re-arrested on 3 February 1881. He had been released on a ticket-of-leave from Dartmoor in December 1877. He was first imprisoned in 1870.

(06) The Protection of Persons & Property Act was passed on the 2^nd March 1881. The Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act on 21 March 1881 included the suspension of Habeas Corpus. For the period June 1880 to March 1881 coercive legislation had not been imposed on Ireland. Vaughan, W. Landlords and Tenants in Mid-Victorian England, 1994.

(07) A reference to the Duchess of Marlborough’s Relief Fund established after an appeal in the Times 18 December 1879. It raised £12, 484 before it was closed in October 1880 when the Marlboroughs left Ireland. It had been criticised by the nationalists for inefficiency and bias towards "loyal” tenants.

(08) Father James Corbett see above

(09) The General Prisons (Ireland) Act 1877 was effective from 1^st January 1878. C.S. Parnell spoke to an amendment to give first class status to political prisoners convicted of sedition or seditious libel.

(10) Anne Deane, an older cousin of John Dillon of the Land League executive, had been elected a member of the provisional committee of the Irish National Ladies Land League. She ran the family business Monica Duff in Ballaghadereen, Co.Mayo. Moody, Davitt, p.311.

(11) The Drumlish prosecutions resulted from incidents that occurred during process serving on Lord Granard’s estates between 12-14 January 1881. Nine people were returned for trial at the assizes held by Clifford Lloyd, then resident magistrate for the county. Longford Independent 19 February 1881.