THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Arrest of secretary of the Land League

From the News Letter, December 6, 1879
Pictured is Charles Stewart Parnell the president of the Irish National Land League. The Land League was founded at the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on 21 October 1879. At that meeting Charles Stewart Parnell was elected president of the league. Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries. This united practically all the different strands of land agitation and tenant rights movements under a single organisationPictured is Charles Stewart Parnell the president of the Irish National Land League. The Land League was founded at the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on 21 October 1879. At that meeting Charles Stewart Parnell was elected president of the league. Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries. This united practically all the different strands of land agitation and tenant rights movements under a single organisation
Pictured is Charles Stewart Parnell the president of the Irish National Land League. The Land League was founded at the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on 21 October 1879. At that meeting Charles Stewart Parnell was elected president of the league. Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries. This united practically all the different strands of land agitation and tenant rights movements under a single organisation

The following editorial comment appeared in the News Letter on this day in 1879 the day after the arrest of the Land League’s secretary Thomas Brennan. Backing the arrest of Brennan, the News Letter comment: “The arrest of Brennan in Dublin yesterday shows that the Government will not tolerate the use of seditious language at public meetings, nor abdicate its functions in favour of clerks and other adventurers. The supremacy of the law will be maintained in Ireland, and transgressors may make up their minds to abide the consequences. Brennan had ample warning, in the arrest of [Michael] Davitt, [James] Daly, and [James] Killen, of the intentions of the Crown; and he has only himself to blame for the loss of liberty.”

The comment continues: “It is alleged that at the Balla meeting he adopted the language of Davitt, not knowing what that language was. He is not connected with land; but apparently for the mere love of agitation he put himself in peril.”

Referring to another report carried in the paper that day with regards to the trial of Davitt, Daly and Killen at the Court of the Queen’s Bench in Dublin the News Letter had this warning for land agitators: “It is evident that others will be tried there also; for it is believed the arrests are not yet over. We wish it were otherwise, but the law must be enforced in the interests of the peace of the country.”

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