Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

Reader mode

pipisme

The Saturday Review dated 6 May 1882 published an interview with Godwyn Bramby. He said that he had been in contact with 'highly placed officers of the Ulster Volunteers', who had assured him that if the Royal Irish Constabulary and 'agents of the Dublin government ' withdrew from Northern Ireland, the Ulster Volunteers would lay down their arms. They would also accept the results of plebiscites in each of the five counties of Northern Ireland, to decide whether or not they remain under the jurisdiction of the Irish Parliament and government.
 
Last edited:

pipisme

"How do you feel that on this issue you are opposed to your government and most of your party." Godwyn was asked.

"This is not something I am hapoy about, but peace in Northern Ireland comes first before political allegiance. Because of the government's pride, stubbornness, and intransigence, the war in Northern Ireland is continuing and lives are lost every day. If the British and Irish governments accept the legitimate requests of the Ulster Volunteers, there will be peace in Northern Ireland. I have more support in the Commonwealth Party than it appears. Of course government ministers do not admit that they agree with me, nor do politically ambitious Commonwealth back benchers."

" I utterly condemn and reject the violence of the Ulster Volunteers, as well of the British army and the Royal Irish Constabulary." Barmby asserted.
 

pipisme

Angharad Griffiths made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on Monday 8 May 1882, during the debate on the Queen's Speech. She outlined the history of Swansea, and praised its attractions, its hard working people and its copper, iron, coal, and tin plate industries, and docks. She also spoke about her twenty-two year old son, Carwen, who would now be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. She said that although his behaviour was difficult at times, he was not an idiot or imbecile, to use the contemporary terms. She hoped that the government would introduce legislation to provide special schools for children like Carwen, and for physically and mentally disabled children.
 

pipisme

Marion Bernstein also made her maiden speech on 8 May. She described her constituency of Glasgow St. Rollox in the north of the city, and praised its attractions. She paid tribute to Commonwealth Party workers who helped and supported her in her general election campaign, and to fellow female Commonwealth MPs who lifted her from her wheel chair to her seat in the House of Commons. She said that she was inspired to stand for election to the House of Commons by Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, one time Conservative MP for an Irish constituency, and like her disabled and a wheel chair user. She was determined not to be limited by her disability.

Bernstein said she was proud of the achievements of Commonwealth governments in advancing equality for women. She welcomed that there were 34 women MPs and three women cabinet ministers. She hoped that one day a majority of members of parliament would be women, there would be more women cabinet ministers and a women prime minister. Her political views were well known from her many poems such as The Dream, published in 1875. In it she looks forward to "female chiefs in the Cabinet
(Much better than men I'm sure)
And the Commons were three-parts feminine
While the Lords were seen no more! " (1)

In Now That All Women Have Power to Vote , published in 1874, she wrote:
"I should just like a seat in the Parliament House,
And to add to my surname MP.
And I would contrive to climb
To the Cabinet in time,
And then as the Prime Minister
You'd see what I would do! (2)

(1) Taken from A Song of Glasgow Town: The Collected Poems of Marion Bernstein , edited by Edward H. Cohen, Anne R. Fertig and Linda Fleming, Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2013.

(2) See footnote (1).
 

pipisme

At a crowded meeting of Wakefield Commonwealth Constituency Party in the evening of Wednesday 10 May 1882, Godwyn Barmby's opinions on the north of Ireland were rejected by 81 votes to 6 votes. The following day he resigned from the Commonwealth Party and crossed the floor of the House of Commons to sit as an Independent.

During the night of Saturday 13/Sunday 14 May, the Ulster Volunteers erected barriers on the border between the five counties and the rest of Ireland. When the British army dismantled them the following morning, 29 British soldiers and 38 members of the Ulster Volunteers died in the fighting.
 

pipisme

In his budget statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday 16 May 1882, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thomas Halliday, increased the standard rate of income tax from one shiiling to one shilling and three pence in the pound, surtax on incomes of over £5,000 a year from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence in the pound, and estate duty on estates with a net capital value of more that £50,000 from 5% to 7.5%. He also announced that the widows of all British army personnel, members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and civilians killed by the Ulster Volunteer, would receive a payment of three shillings and nine pence a week, plus one shilling and nine pence a week for each child under the age of thirteen. This would be in addition to other welfare payments.
 

pipisme

During the night of Saturday 20/Sunday 21 May 1882, a large quantity of arms from Prussia were successfully landed at ports on the coasts of Antrim and Down for the Ulster Volunteers.
 

pipisme

On Wednesday 24 May, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, third Marquess of Salisbury, resigned as Conservative Party leader in the House of Lords. In his resignation speech he said that he could no longer support his party's policy of supporting the Ulster Volunteers [UV]. Its campaign of murder and terrorism was immoral and could not be justified in any way.

He proposed the following peace plan: The Ulster Volunteers would lay down all their arms and put them out of use. The British Army, Royal Irish Constabulary and the UV would declare an immediate ceasefire. Home Rule for Ireland was here to stay, but the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland must be respected.
 

pipisme

Lord Salisbury proposed that the UK Conservative members of the Irish Parliament take their seats, and that the 35 Northern Irish MIPs plus the member for Queen's University, Belfast, would have the right to veto legislation affecting their province. In the October 1879 Irish general election, 21 UK Conservative, 8 Irish Nationalist and 5 Commonwealth MIPs were elected for the five counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry, and Tyrone, and for Queen's University. He also proposed a commission of high ranking generals from Austria-Hungary-North Italy, Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Rhineland Republic to supervise the destruction of arms by the Ulster Volunteers.
 
Last edited:

pipisme

On Thursday 25 May, Charles Henderon, the leader of the Ulster Volunteers, rejected the Salisbury peace plan. He said that it would still keep Northern Ireland under the authority and jurisdiction of the Irish parliament and government. Also the proposed commission of five generals from foreign nations was a totally unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the United Kingdom.

Eatlier the same day, the prime minister, Robert Applegarth, accepted the peace plan on behalf of the British government. It was supported by the Liberal and Irish Conservative parties, and reluctantly accepted by the Irish government and the Irish government, but rejected by the UK Conservative Party. However its rejection by the Ulster Volunteers meant that the peace plan was no longer on the table.
 

pipisme

Sisto-Riario Sforza (Pope Paul VI) died on 29 September 1877, having been Pope from 22 September 1866. The Papal conclave to elect his successor convened on 10 October 1877. On 12 October it chose Cardinal Vincenzo Pecci, Archbishop of Perugia as Pope. He took the papal name of Leo XIII.
 

pipisme

The 24th presidential election was held in the United States on 2 November 1880. President Samuel Tilden and Vice President Thomas F. Bayard ran again on the Constitution Party ticket. The Liberty Party candidates were John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury from 1873 to 1877, for President; and James G. Blaine, Senator from Maine, for Vice President.

The election was won by the Liberty Party ticket of Sherman/Blaine with 249 electoral votes. The Constitution Party ticket of Tilden/Bayard received 122 electoral votes.
 
Last edited:

pipisme

Sherman/Blaine won the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, East Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Islands, Vermont, Wisconsin. Total 25 states.

The following 14 states were won by Tilden/Bayard: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.
 

pipisme

In the 1880 elections to the House of Representatives and to the Senate, the Liberty kept control of the House and took control of the Senate. The composition of Congress after the elections was as follows (after 1878 elections):
House of Representatives:
Liberty Party: 167 (148)
Constitution Party: 120 ( 136)
Greenback Party: 6 (9)
---------------------
Total: 293 (293)
---------------------
Senate:
Liberty Party: 41 (38)
Constitution Party: 37 (40)
-------------------
Total : 78 (78)
------------------
The Liberty Party was the more left wing of the two main parties.

President-elect John Sherman appointed George Frisbie Hoar, Liberty Senator from Massachusetts as Secretary of State, and James Garfield, Liberty Senator from Ohio, as Secretary of the Treasury. (1)

(1) Here is the wikipedia entry for Hoar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Frisbie_Hoar.
 

pipisme

The Liberty Party's platform for the 1880 presidential election had a plank committing the party to a women's suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution. Wyoming Territory had enfranchised women in 1867, and was followed by eight states between 1873 and 1880: Colorado in 1873, Vermont - 1874, Oregon - 1876, Pennsylvania - 1877, Rhode Island and Wisconsin - 1878, Connecticut - 1879, Minnesota - 1880.

In May 1881 a Liberty Party Congressman introduced in the House of Representatives a women's suffrage amendment to the Constitution. It would prohibit the denial of the suffrage because of sex. It passed by165 to 118 in a vote on party lines, but the vote in favour was less than the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. The Constitutuon Party opposed women's suffrage.

The Liberty Party looked with admiration and envy across the Atlantic to the Commonwealth Party governments in the United Kingdom with their extensive political and social welfare reforms. President Sherman wanted his administration to be a great reforming one. The Liberty Party now had control of the presidency and both chambers of Congress.
 

pipisme

In March 1881 Presidemt Sherman appointed Blanche Bruce, former Liberty Party Senator from Mississippi, as Treasurer of the United States. (1) and (2). He also appointed John Mercer Langston as Solicitor-General of the United States. (3) Their appointments were strongly opposed by the Constitution Party.

An amendment to the US constitution which would prohibit the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and ban literacy tests, was passed by the House of Representatives, but it did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority. Voting was on party lines with the Liberty Party Representatives voting for, and Constitution Party _ against. (4)

The Civil Rights Act 1881 provides for equal treatnent in public accommodations and public transportation, and prohibits exclusion for jury service. (5)

(1) Here is the Wikipedia entry for Blanche Bruce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Bruce.

(2) For Treasurer see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasurer_of_the_United_States.

(3) Here is Langston's Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mercer_Langston.

(4) This was similar to the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution in OTL, but with the addition of the ban on literacy tests. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution.

(5) This was like the OTL Civil Rights Act 1875. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1875.
 
Last edited:

pipisme

On Saturday 27 May 1882, the Ulster Volunteers (UV) bombed the Royal Irish Constabulary station in Strabane, County Tyrone. One police officer was killed and three were injured. That night UV gunmen machine gunned a Catholic pub in Newry, County Down. Six people were killed and sixteen injured.

In the morning of Tuesday 30 May, UV gunmen shot and killed the Secretary of State for Ireland, Joseph McLaughlin, on the crowded concourse of Amiens Street Railway Station in Dublin. McLaughlin had travelled by train from his Derry constituency for a meeting with John Blake Dillon, the First Secrertary of Ireland. Shocked people on the concourse rushed to help McLaughlin, but he was dead with bullet holes through his head and heart. A couple of men rushed to the nearest ambulance station to fetch a horse drawn ambulance van to take away McLauglin's body. That afternoon the UV claimed responsibility for what they called the "just execution of a traitor to the people of Northern Ireland."

The following morning, the Prime Minister, Robert Applegarth appointed Daniel Sheehy, the Under-Secretary of State at the Irish Office, and Commonwealth MP for Dublin Harbour as Secretary of State for Ireland. That afternoon in the House of Commons, Applegarth, paid heartful tribute to McLaughlin and condemned his brutal murder by the UV.
 

pipisme

The new Irish Secretary, Daniel Sheehy, was born in September 1830 and was 51 years old He was a Roman Catholic and married with eight children.

The requiem Mass for Joseph McLaughlin took place in St. Columb's Catholic Church in Derry on Saturday 3 June 1882. It was attended by his wife and children, and by Robert Applegarth and John Blake Dillon. The church was packed full. There was heavy security inside and outside the church, but no incidents.

The by-election to elect a new MP for Derry City was held on Saturday 1 July 1882. It was a straight fight between the Commonwealth and UK Conservative parties. The Irish Conservative. Irish Nationalist, and Liberal parties did not contest the by-election. The Commonwealth Party candidate won with 71.6% of the vote to 28.4% for the UK Conservative Party candidate.
 
Last edited:

pipisme

The Prime Minister needed to appoint a new Under-Secretary of State for Ireland in place of Daniel Sheehy. On 1 June 1882 he appointed Michael O'Malley as the new Under-Secretary. (1) He was 45 years old, born in March 1837, a Roman Catholic and married with six children. He had been Commonwealth MP for Belfast West since October 1874. He lived in the Beechmount District of the Falls Road, and before he was elected to the House of Commons, he worked in the Conway linen mill on the Falls Road.
 

pipisme

In the military structure of the Ulster Volunteers (UV), the brigades were at the highest level. Below them were battalions with companies at the lowest level. There were two to four brigades in each of the five counties of northern Ireland.

In the night of Thursday 8 June 1882, the British army raided houses where following intelligence information it was suspected that the UV leader, Charles Henderson, and other UV officers were living. Henderson and seventeen other UV officers were arrested in different houses in the north of Ireland.
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top