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Isaac Butt
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Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister and nationalist leader who, if not the originator of the term Home Rule, was the first to make it an effective political slogan. He was the founder (1870) and first chief of the Home Government Association and president (1873–77) of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, but he was superseded in 1878 as head of the Home Rule movement by the younger and more forceful Charles Stewart Parnell. He served as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1852 to 1865 and 1871 to 1879, representing various Irish constituencies.
Of Butt, Colin W. Reid argues that Home Rule was the mechanism Butt proposed to bind Ireland to Great Britain. It would end the ambiguities of the Act of Union of 1800. He portrayed a federalised United Kingdom, which would have weakened Irish exceptionalism within a broader British context. Butt was representative of a constructive national unionism.
As an economist, he made significant contributions regarding the potential resource mobilisation and distribution aspects of protection, and analysed deficiencies in the Irish economy such as sparse employment, low productivity, and misallocation of land. He dissented from the established Ricardian theories and favoured some welfare state concepts. As an editor, he created the Dublin University Magazine, a leading Irish journal of politics and literature.
Butt was born 6 September 1813 in the parish of Glenfin, County Donegal, Ulster, bordering the Finn Valley. Glenfin is a short distance west of Ballybofey, a town in East Donegal. He was born into an Ulster Protestant family, being the son of a Church of Ireland rector, and was descended from the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, through the Ramsays. Butt received his secondary school education at The Royal School in Raphoe in the Laggan district of East Donegal, and at Midleton College in County Cork, before attending Trinity College Dublin at the age of fifteen, where he was elected a scholar, and president of the (extern) College Historical Society. Whilst there he co-founded the Dublin University Magazine and edited it for four years. For much of his life he was a member of the Irish Conservative Party, and he founded the conservative Ulster Times newspaper. He became Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity College in 1836 and held that position until 1841.
After being called to the bar in 1838, Butt quickly established a name for himself as a brilliant barrister. He was known for his opposition to the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell's campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union. He also lectured at Trinity College Dublin, in political economy. His experiences during the Great Famine led him to move from being an Irish unionist and an Orangeman to supporting a federal political system for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that would give Ireland a greater degree of self-rule. This led to his involvement in Irish nationalist politics and the foundation of the Home Rule League. Butt was instrumental in fostering links between constitutional and revolutionary nationalism through his representation of members of the Fenians Society in court.
He began his career as a Tory politician on Dublin Corporation. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Youghal from 1852 to 1865, and for Limerick from 1871 to 1879 (at the 1852 general election he had also been elected for the English constituency of Harwich, but chose to sit for Youghal).
The failed Fenian Rising in 1867 strengthened Butt's belief that a federal system was the only way to break the dreary cycle of inefficient administration punctuated by incompetent uprisings. Having defended the leaders of the Fenian revolt, Butt then from June 1869 became president of the Amnesty Association formed to secure the release of imprisoned Fenians, supported actively amongst others by P. F. Johnson.
In 1870, Butt then founded the Irish Home Government Association. This was in no sense a revolutionary organisation. It was designed to mobilise public opinion behind the demand for an Irish parliament, with, as he put it, "full control over our domestic affairs". He believed that Home Rule would promote friendship between Ireland and her neighbour to the east.
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Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister and nationalist leader who, if not the originator of the term Home Rule, was the first to make it an effective political slogan. He was the founder (1870) and first chief of the Home Government Association and president (1873–77) of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, but he was superseded in 1878 as head of the Home Rule movement by the younger and more forceful Charles Stewart Parnell. He served as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1852 to 1865 and 1871 to 1879, representing various Irish constituencies.
Of Butt, Colin W. Reid argues that Home Rule was the mechanism Butt proposed to bind Ireland to Great Britain. It would end the ambiguities of the Act of Union of 1800. He portrayed a federalised United Kingdom, which would have weakened Irish exceptionalism within a broader British context. Butt was representative of a constructive national unionism.
As an economist, he made significant contributions regarding the potential resource mobilisation and distribution aspects of protection, and analysed deficiencies in the Irish economy such as sparse employment, low productivity, and misallocation of land. He dissented from the established Ricardian theories and favoured some welfare state concepts. As an editor, he created the Dublin University Magazine, a leading Irish journal of politics and literature.
Butt was born 6 September 1813 in the parish of Glenfin, County Donegal, Ulster, bordering the Finn Valley. Glenfin is a short distance west of Ballybofey, a town in East Donegal. He was born into an Ulster Protestant family, being the son of a Church of Ireland rector, and was descended from the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, through the Ramsays. Butt received his secondary school education at The Royal School in Raphoe in the Laggan district of East Donegal, and at Midleton College in County Cork, before attending Trinity College Dublin at the age of fifteen, where he was elected a scholar, and president of the (extern) College Historical Society. Whilst there he co-founded the Dublin University Magazine and edited it for four years. For much of his life he was a member of the Irish Conservative Party, and he founded the conservative Ulster Times newspaper. He became Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity College in 1836 and held that position until 1841.
After being called to the bar in 1838, Butt quickly established a name for himself as a brilliant barrister. He was known for his opposition to the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell's campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union. He also lectured at Trinity College Dublin, in political economy. His experiences during the Great Famine led him to move from being an Irish unionist and an Orangeman to supporting a federal political system for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that would give Ireland a greater degree of self-rule. This led to his involvement in Irish nationalist politics and the foundation of the Home Rule League. Butt was instrumental in fostering links between constitutional and revolutionary nationalism through his representation of members of the Fenians Society in court.
He began his career as a Tory politician on Dublin Corporation. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Youghal from 1852 to 1865, and for Limerick from 1871 to 1879 (at the 1852 general election he had also been elected for the English constituency of Harwich, but chose to sit for Youghal).
The failed Fenian Rising in 1867 strengthened Butt's belief that a federal system was the only way to break the dreary cycle of inefficient administration punctuated by incompetent uprisings. Having defended the leaders of the Fenian revolt, Butt then from June 1869 became president of the Amnesty Association formed to secure the release of imprisoned Fenians, supported actively amongst others by P. F. Johnson.
In 1870, Butt then founded the Irish Home Government Association. This was in no sense a revolutionary organisation. It was designed to mobilise public opinion behind the demand for an Irish parliament, with, as he put it, "full control over our domestic affairs". He believed that Home Rule would promote friendship between Ireland and her neighbour to the east.
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