The Effectiveness and Success of Parnell as an Irish Nationalist Leader

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The Effectiveness and Success of Parnell as an Irish Nationalist Leader

Parnell was a very influential leader and had campaigned for many

different causes but most noticeably he campaigned for land reform

within Ireland, this was one of his most noticeable achievements as an

Irish Nationalist Leader.

Parnell was helped to power by the Land League. This was where the end

of the Great Famine within Ireland meant that farmer's incomes fell by

a large extent and they demanded the reduction of rents due to this.

They demanded this because many farmers could not pay the rents so

this meant that landlords evicted them. Davitt saw this as an

opportunity to place the land question at the centre of Irish politics

and so he did this by forming the Irish National Land League.

He encouraged Parnell to support the agitation and when he did he was

made the president of the Irish National Land League. The main

objectives of the League were to provide tenants with a fair rent,

fixed tenure and free sale. The long term aim was that farmers would

own the land (peasant proprietorship). The Land League became a hugely

popular movement overnight. The Land League taught the Irish farmers

to stand on their own feet and assert their rights.

Gladstone became Prime Minister for the second time in April 1880 and

hoped to pass an emergency Land Bill through parliament that summer to

resolve the Irish Question. When he was defeated in the House of

Lords, the Land League took the law into its own hands and violent

protests soon followed, even though the leaders had committed to

peaceful protests.

Gladstone saw Ireland as a major problem after the Land Bill was

defeated in the House of Lords. He saw the violence in Ireland as a

major threat so the government passed a tough new Coercion Bill. This

bill meant that powers of arrest and imprisonment were granted to the

authorities.

Davitt was arrested under this new act and Parnell was suspended along

with other leaders of the Land League.

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