Joseph Devlin Popular Books

Joseph Devlin Biography & Facts

Joseph Devlin (13 February 1871 – 18 January 1934) was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (1902-1922 and 1929-1934). Later Devlin was an MP and leader of the Nationalist Party in the Parliament of Northern Ireland. He was referred to as "the duodecimo Demosthenes" by the Irish politician Tim Healy which Devlin took as a compliment.: 34  Early years Born at 10 Hamill Street in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, he was the fifth child of Charles Devlin (c.1839-1906), who was a self-employed 'jarvey',: 24  and his wife Elizabeth King (c.1841-1902), who sold groceries from their home; both were Catholics. Until he was twelve, he attended the nearby St. Mary's Christian Brothers' School in Divis Street, where he was educated in a more 'national' view of Irish history and culture than offered by the diocesan schools or the state system. While working briefly as a clerk and in a pub, he showed an early gift for public speaking when he became chairman of a debating society founded in 1886 to commemorate the first Irish nationalist election victory in West Belfast. From 1891–1893 he was a journalist on the Irish News, then on the Freeman's Journal. He became associated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), which he helped to establish in the 1890s. He became a lifelong opponent of its loyalist counterpart, the Orange Order. Devlin then worked at Samuel Young MP's brewery company, for which he was assistant manager of Kelly's Cellars, a Belfast pub, until 1902.: 52  Skilled politician During the 1890s he was active as organiser in the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation in eastern Ulster. When William O'Brien founded the United Irish League (UIL) in County Mayo in 1898, Devlin founded the UIL section in Belfast which became his political machine in Ulster. He was elected unopposed as Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) Member of Parliament for Kilkenny North in the February 1902 by-election. His first political assignment came that year when the Party sent him to Irish Americas on the first of several successful fund-raising missions. In his first four month tour of the USA, he addressed 160 meetings, raised £3000 and established 184 branches of the United Irish League of America.: 95  It was there that he encountered the power of the Hibernian Orders and on his return set about claiming it for constitutional nationalism, when in 1904 he became lifelong Grandmaster of the AOH in Ireland. Members of his Order, largely composed of earlier members of the Molly Maguires, a militant secret society also known as the Mollies, also became members of the Irish Party, deeply infiltrating it. Already secretary of the London-based United Irish League of Great Britain Devlin became General Secretary of O’Brien's UIL, replacing John O'Donnell, through the initiative of deputy IPP leader John Dillon MP, with whom he held a close alliance and who had fallen under his influence. This "coup" gave them nationwide control of the 1200 UIL branches, the organisational base of the IPP, depriving O'Brien of all authority. Devlin had risen in the ranks of the League from being a local Nationalist organiser in Belfast to becoming the only newcomer to the parliamentary party who was accepted politically, as an equal by the established leaders. He was devoted to Dillon who had helped him greatly to his rise to prominence, and Dillon in turn relied greatly on him, not alone for both his control of the UIL and the AOH, but also because he was an outstanding representative of Ulster Nationalism. Immense influence He became a distinguished parliamentarian and had reached the top by the skilful use of two remarkable talents, his persuasive and very powerful oratory, and secondly, that he was a great organisation man, not merely as General Secretary of the United Irish League, but because he also dominated the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was the only member of the younger generation to belong to the innermost circle of the IPP leadership and was widely seen as eventual heir-apparent. For some years Devlin had been in bitter conflict with the bishops' Catholic Association who wanted politics based on Catholic rights rather than on nationalism. Now in control of the three nationalist political organisations all sides succumbed to Devlin's influence. The AOH continued the O'Connellite link between Catholicism and nationalism but under a lay controlled organisations. To the Irish party's opponents the AOH was synonymous with Catholic sectarianism, jobbery and patronage. Rivals such as Jim Larkin called it the "Ancient Order of Catholic Orangemen".: 99  Devlin represented the main urban and national business interests, which contrasted with his advocacy of social reforms when he took up labour issues especially working conditions in the linen mills and textile trades. In the 1906 British general election, Devlin was re-elected to Kilkenny North, and also to Belfast West which he regained from the Unionists by 16 votes. Choosing to retain the Belfast seat, he served as its MP beyond 1918, when his popularity in Belfast and east Ulster survived the downfall of the IPP. Devlin became governor of the nationalist hinterland after his AOH political machinery rapidly saturated the country, acting through the UIL as the militant support organisation of the Irish Party. Devlin could assure John Redmond leader of the IPP, that at Redmond's bid, his organisation could provide full attendance of suitable "supporters" at any meeting, demonstration or convention throughout Ireland, something Redmond and his party often availed of. The AOH was vehemently opposed by one nationalist organisation, the Munster based All-for-Ireland League (AFIL), an independent party founded by William O'Brien who held Devlin's AOH as being at the root of widespread religious intimidation and sectarianism. He and his followers were attacked at a UIL Convention in Dublin in February 1909 by 400 militant "Mollies" organised by Devlin to silence him and his followers at what became known as the "Baton Convention". Home Rule compromised With the involvement of Ireland on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Devlin sided with Redmond's decision in supporting recruiting for Britain's and the Allied war effort and voluntary enlistment of National Volunteers in Irish regiments of the New Service Army. Redmond's plan was that, post-war, an intended 'Irish Brigade' and the National Volunteers would provide the basis for an Irish army, capable of enforcing Home Rule on reluctant Ulster Unionists. Devlin saw loyalty to the Empire as part of the deal for home rule. At a recruitment rally he said "We told the British people that if they gave Ireland that autonomy that inspired the loyalty of her colonies [...] Ireland would give the treasure of her blood and her allegiance to that Empire which, when .... Discover the Joseph Devlin popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Joseph Devlin books.