The Empire Parnell Built

India: 1973 election
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    Ireland: 1887 election
  • The 1887 Irish general election took place between 9 February and 6 March 1887. It was the first election to the Second Order of the Irish Assembly created by the Government of Ireland Act 1886 and the first election to an exclusively-Irish legislative body since 1797. Following the elections, Charles Stewart Parnell was described by Frederick Cavendish, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as the "Premier Member of the Assembly", a position which rapidly became analogous to that of Prime Minister in most Westminster systems, although the 1886 Act had not technically made provision for such a role.

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    The Order was elected using multi-member first past the post, with each of the former Westminster constituencies returning two MPs. In addition, Dublin University and the Royal University each returned two MPs. With their superior organisation, Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) dominated the election and won nearly 85% of the seats. The remaining seats were won by the newly-created Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (ILPU), which had effectively inherited the organisation and voters of the Conservatives on the island. The small Irish Liberal Party won around 20,000 votes but failed to gain a seat and would disappear, their voters and members largely absorbed into the IPP.

    The election was the beginning of a long period of dominance for the IPP, which would control the Second Order for most of the next 35 years. The ILPU had gone into the election under the leadership of Edward Saunderson, a member of the Orange Order, but his fiery oratory was believed to have limited the party's appeal in the south of the island. As a result, in the aftermath of the election the ILPU was taken over by the more moderate St. John Broderick, who would dominate the party in one form or another until his death.
     
    Ireland: 1893 election
  • The 1893 Irish general election took place between 14 August and 7 September 1893, the second election to the Second Order of the Irish Assembly. The Irish Parliamentary Party ("IPP") successfully saw off challenges from the offshoot Irish National League ("INL") and conservative Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union ("ILPU") to retain its majority in the Order and Parnell's position as Premier personally. Overall turnout fell by nearly 10%.

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    Parnell and the IPP had governed Ireland since the previous election in 1887 but his position was damaged by the revelations, in 1892 of his long-term affair with Katherine O'Shea, the wife of IPP MO William O'Shea. When Parnell, for reasons which remain a matter of speculation, blocked O'Shea's political advancement, he sued his wife for divorce and named Parnell as a co-respondent. The revelations caused a split in the IPP, with a number of MOs following John Dillon and Justin McCarthy out of the IPP in disgust at Parnell's private life. They formed the INL in response. However, Parnell's tight control over the IPP's inner machinery and the political capital he had accrued as the man who had peacefully delivered Home Rule allowed him to retain his position as Premier and the loyalty of the majority of his MOs. Parnell sought to capitalise on the disorganisation of his opponents by dissolving the Second Order and calling a second election for the summer of 1893. The INL and ILPU, not expecting an election until the following year, were caught unprepared and failed to make the breakthrough they had hoped for, although both gained seats. Parnell was reaffirmed as Premier on 11 September.

    The INL was led into the election by Justin McCarthy, who was a gifted intellectual but lacked the necessary practical skills to build a new party from the ground up. The party found it hard to find prospective candidates, especially in nationalist areas where personal loyalty to Parnell remained strong. Nevertheless, their gain of 18 seats did establish the party as a viable third force in the Order, a voice of social conservatism opposed to the more liberal instincts of the remaining IPP. The IPLU had been led since 1887 by the young St. John Broderick, who had attempted to modify the party's image as a mouthpiece of the Orange Order, instead emphasising imperial patriotism and sound public finances. The party attempted to stay out of religious disputes, with the Catholic Lord Kenmare being prominent in the party's campaign as part of an attempt to broaden its appeal in Catholic areas. However, the party failed to make a breakthrough and only gained 4 seats in Belfast and Dublin as a result of the IPP and INL vote splitting, despite the fact that the party's vote held up well (even as if declined as a total percentage due to the emergence of the INL).
     
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