John Dillon (4 September 1851 – 4 August 1927) was an
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
land reform agitator,
Irish Home RuleThe Irish Home Rule bills were bills introduced in the British House of Commons during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, intended to grant self-government and national autonomy to the whole of Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and reverse parts of the Act of Union...
activist,
nationalistIrish nationalism comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in Ireland and the Irish people...
politician,
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
(MP) in the
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
and last leader of the
Irish Parliamentary PartyThe Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
.
Early life
John Dillon was born in Blackrock,
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
as son of
John Blake DillonJohn Blake Dillon was an Irish writer and Politician who was one of the founding members of the Young Ireland movement....
(1814-1866), a former "Young Irelander". He was educated at
Catholic University SchoolCatholic University School is a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys located on the southside of central Dublin, Ireland. It is run under the patronage of the Marist Fathers.-Origins:...
,
Trinity College, DublinTrinity College Dublin , corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", and is the only constituent college of...
and at the
Catholic University of LouvainThe Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university, and a successor institution to the oldest university in the Low Countries. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
in
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
. He afterwards studied
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at the
Royal College of SurgeonsThe Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...
in Dublin, then ceased active involvement in medicine after he joined
Isaac ButtIsaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organizations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the...
’s
Home Rule LeagueThe Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the island of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
in 1873, winning notice in 1879 when he attacked Butt’s weak parliamentary handling of Irish Home Rule. His family financial means enabled him to turn and devote all his energies to political life.
He became a leading land reform agitator as member of the original committee of the
Irish National Land LeagueThe Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish "landlordism" in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on...
, spearheading the policy of
”boycotting”A boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons.-Etymology:...
advocated by
Michael DavittMichael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner , labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, who founded the Irish National Land League.-...
with whom he was allied in close friendship. He entered the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1880 as member for
County TipperaryCounty Tipperary is one of the traditional Counties of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster. It was named after the town of Tipperary .Tipperary is the sixth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 11th largest in terms of population...
, and was at first an ardent supporter of
Charles Stewart ParnellCharles Stewart Parnell was an Irish Protestant landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, Home Rule MP in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
. He travelled to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with Parnell on a fund-raising mission for the Land League. On his return he denounced William Gladstone’s
Land Act of 1881British Prime Minister William Gladstone had taken up the "Irish Question" in part to win the general election of 1868 by uniting the Liberal Party behind this single issue...
as achieving nothing for small farmers. His views on agrarian reform and on Home Rule led him being brand marked an extremist which resulted in his arrest from May until August 1881 under the
Irish Coercion ActCoercion Acts were acts of emergency law passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland...
.
Radical reformer
Again imprisoned for agitation in October 1881 together with Parnell, William O’Brien and others in
Kilmainham GaolKilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency....
, he signed the
No rent Manifesto in solidarity although not fully in agreement with it. Parnell sought to end the
Land WarThe Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...
by agreeing the
Kilmainham treaty after which they were released from prison in May 1882. Shortly afterwards they received the freedom of the city of Dublin. Unhappy with Parnell’s "
New DepartureThe term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century where Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain through use of physical force, attempted to find a common ground for cooperation with groups committed to Irish Home Rule through...
" and because his health had suffered, he retired from politics to
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
in America where his brother lived. Returning in 1885, Parnell nominated him as the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in the East Mayo by-election where he was returned unopposed, which constituency he represented until 1918.
He was one of the prime movers in the Irish Land League's famous
Plan of CampaignThe Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy...
instigated by
Timothy HealyTimothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish MPs in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a career that spanned the period from Charles Stewart...
and organised by Timothy Harrington, which provided, that in the case of excessive rents the tenant should pay his rent to the Land League instead of the landlord, and in case of eviction be supported by the general fund. Dillon was compelled by the Court of Queens Bench in December 1886 to find securities for good behaviour, but two days later he was arrested while receiving rents on Lord Claricarde’s estate at
PortumnaPortumna is a town in the South-East of County Galway, Ireland, on the border with County Tipperary. The town is located to the West of the point where the River Shannon enters Lough Derg...
,
co. GalwayCounty Galway is one of the traditional Counties of Ireland. It is located in the province of Connacht. It was named after the city of Galway...
. In this instance the jury disagreed, but in April 1887 he was again imprisoned under Coercion and upon release he resumed agrarian agitation with a speech during a demonstration in September where O’Brien was on trial in
MitchelstownMitchelstown , was founded in the 13th century by the Norman family of FitzDavid de St Michel, who named it after their patron, Saint Michael the Archangel. It is situated in the medieval parish of Brigown . It is a country town in County Cork in the south-west of Ireland with a population of 4,500...
during which the crowd threw stones at the police who then shot three civilians, known as the "Mitchelstown massacre". When in 1888 he defended Munster farmers he was again imprisoned for six months under the provisions of the new Criminal Law Procedure Bill, or Coercion Act. In all he was imprisoned six times.
Anti-Parnellite course
He was released in September, and in the spring of 1889 sailed for
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
, where he collected funds for the Nationalist party. On his return to Ireland he was again arrested, but, being allowed bail, sailed to America, and failed to appear at the trial. He returned to Ireland by way of
BoulogneBoulogne-sur-Mer is a city in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city was 44,859 in the 1999 census, whereas that of the whole metropolitan area was 135,116.-Name:...
, where he and William O'Brien held long and indecisive discussions with Parnell after his divorce crisis over his continued leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party. When these broke down they surrendered to the police in February, and were interred in Galway gaol from where they were released in July 1890.
Both he and O’Brien had become increasingly perturbed with the tenor of Irish politics as epitomised by Timothy Healy. After Parnell’s divorce case the leader refused to step down and the party split. Dillon was one of his strongest opponents and joined the majority anti-Parnellite block, the
Irish National FederationThe Irish National Federation was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in March 1891 by former members of the Irish National League who had left the Irish Parliamentary Party in protest when Charles Stewart Parnell refused to resign the party leadership as a result of his...
(INF), with
Justin McCarthyJustin McCarthy was an Irish nationalist historian, novelist politician and MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1879 as a Liberal Home Ruler...
becoming its leader.
John RedmondJohn Edward Redmond M.P. was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
led the minority pro-Parnellite Irish National League (INL) after Parnell’s death later in 1891. When the
LiberalsThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
reclaimed office in 1892 Dillon took part in the negotiations on the second Home Rule Bill, the
Irish Government Bill 1893The Irish Government Bill, 1893 was the second attempt made by William E. Gladstone, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to enact a system of home rule for Ireland...
, which was rejected by the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
. Although he never lost sight of home rule or the land question, particularly the evicted tenants, he now concentrated on the day-to-day running of the INF as deputy-chairman.
Party manoeuvrings
When home rule became postponed after the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
returned to power in 1895, Dillon took the opportunity to expel Healy from his influence in the party. He also opposed
Horace PlunkettSir Horace Curzon Plunkett PC, KCVO, FRS, DL, JP , was an Anglo-Irish unionist, later Irish nationalist, agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural co-operation, politician and Member of Parliament, author and Irish patriot....
in his attempts to bring Unionists and Nationalist together, and his efforts to help small farmers through his co-operative movement. In November Dillon married Elizabeth Mathew in Brompton Oratory who bore him six children. In February 1896 he took over as chairman of the INF on McCarthy’s resignation. That autumn he arranged a convention of the Irish race, which included 2,000 delegates from various parts of the world. In 1897 Dillon opposed in the House of Commons the Address to
Queen VictoriaVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, on the ground that her reign had not been a blessing to Ireland, and he showed the same uncompromising attitude in 1901when a grant to
Lord RobertsLord Roberts may refer to:*Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, Anglo-Irish soldier of the British Army in the Victorian Era.*Roger Roberts, Baron Roberts of Llandudno, Welsh Liberal Democrat peer*Wyn Roberts, Baron Roberts of Conwy, Welsh Conservative peer...
was under discussion, accusing him of systematized inhumanity. He was suspended on the 20 March for violent language addressed to
Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain was an influential British businessman, politician, and statesman.In his early years Chamberlain was a radically minded Liberal Party member, a campaigner for educational reform, and President of the Board of Trade. He later became a Liberal Unionist in alliance with the...
.
Dillon was present in January 1898 when William O'Brien launched his "United Ireland League" (UIL) from an agrarian platform in
BallinaBallina may refer to:*Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland*Ballina, County Tipperary, Ireland*Ballina, New South Wales, Australia**Electoral district of Ballina is an electoral district in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, based around the area....
County MayoCounty Mayo is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Connacht. It was named after the village of Mayo . Mayo is the secondlargest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 15th largest in terms of population...
. Though helping to establish its constitution Dillon was very ambivalent about this new association, marking the first strains in the O'Brien-Dillon relationship. The year was also eventful with the attainment of the
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898The Local Government Act 1898 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, Wales and Scotland in 1889 and 1890...
which put the administration of local affairs into Irish hands, not at all favoured by Dillon before attaining full Home Rule. O'Brien's UIL spread rapidly, forcing the divided factions, the INL and the INF, of the Irish Parliamentary Party to reunite under Redmond in 1900, with Dillon as deputy Party leader. He faithfully supported Redmond in the following years.
Conciliation unthinkable
Dillon played a decisive part in opposing O'Brien's “doctrine of Conciliation” in Irish politics. Particularly O’Brien winning the
WyndhamGeorge Wyndham PC was a British politician, man of letters, noted for his elegance, and one of The Souls.-Background:...
Land Purchase Act (1903)British Prime Minister William Gladstone had taken up the "Irish Question" in part to win the general election of 1868 by uniting the Liberal Party behind this single issue...
was ruthlessly attacked by Dillon who bore an instinctive dislike of negotiations with landlords, unwilling to accommodate the
landlord classThe Protestant Ascendancy is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, establishment clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries...
never shedding mistrust of dialogue with Unionists. His theory was that agrarian unrest better favoured achieving Home Rule by putting relentless pressure on landlords and the government. His attack alienated O'Brien who left the Party. The ensuing breach never healed. Dillon subsequently gained control of the UIL in 1904 through its new secretary
Joseph DevlinJoseph Devlin, also known as Joe Devlin, was an Irish journalist, influential nationalist politician, and Irish Home Rule Member of Parliament for the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and later Nationalist Party MP...
, MP for
BelfastBelfast is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is the seat of devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly. It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, and the second largest city on the island of...
, with whom Dillon always maintained a close alliance. The UIL and the IPP practically fused. Dillon later had members associated with O’Brien’s policy of conciliation expelled as “factionists” from the party.
Dillon suffered occasional health incapacities causing irregular attendance at
WestminsterThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
, particularly when his wife died in 1907 though after the Liberals returned to power in 1906, he was more often consulted. Between 1910 and 1914 the Irish Home Rule question re-emerged, introduced by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. Dillon, in his approach to Irish self-government under Home Rule took a more uncompromising stand to Redmond's, who during the
UlsterUlster is one of the four Provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island.Ulster is composed of nine counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone are part of Northern Ireland; while Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan are part of the Republic of Ireland.-Terminology:The...
crisis of 1913 was prepared to concede a large measure of local autonomy to Ulster. This was unthinkable for Dillon, who put the integrity of Ireland foremost, and poured scorn on Edward Carson's
Ulster Unionist PartyThe Ulster Unionist Party is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
and their Ulster Volunteers’ threat of civil war as being a gigantic bluff.
He likewise condemned O’Brien’s new
All-for-Ireland PartyThe All-for-Ireland League , was an Irish, Munster-based political party . Founded by William O'Brien MP, it generated a new national movement to achieve agreement between the different parties concerned on the historically difficult aim of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland...
’s proposals for concessions to Ulster as encouraging their demands. He remained inflexible at various meetings, including the
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
Conference’s endeavour to settle the problem of Ulster. He agreed only reluctantly to Redmond conceding to six counties temporarily opting out of the
Home Rule Act 1914The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the (Irish) Third Home Rule Bill, and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as...
, which in September received
Royal AssentThe granting of Royal Assent is the formal method by which a constitutional monarch completes the legislative process of lawmaking by formally assenting to an Act of Parliament. While the power to withhold Royal Assent was once exercised often, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic...
but was suspended for the duration of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
Uncompromising stand
With the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 Dillon accepted Redmond’s decision to follow Britain’s support of the
Allied war effortThe Entente powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The key members of the Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire. New Zealand, Belgium, Serbia, Canada, Australia, Italy, Romania and the United States were also drawn into the war...
, but he abstained from recruiting for the
Irish divisionAn Irish regiment is a regiment , excluding those actually in the Irish Defence Forces, that at some time in its history has or had intentional recruitment consisting primarily of members either from Ireland or of Irish descent. Irish regiments took part in several conflicts in world history...
s. The
1916 RisingThe Easter Rising , was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic...
took the Irish Party by surprise. He intervened with
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
to halt the 90 sentences of execution pronounced by "field court-martial" (in camera without defence or jury) under
Martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
by
General MaxwellGeneral Sir John Grenfell Maxwell KCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO was a British Army officer and colonial governor.Maxwell received a commission into the British Army in 1879 after he graduated from Sandhurst. He served in the Battle of Omdurman leading the 2nd Brigade. He personally led the march on the...
after he declared the rebellion “treason in time of war”.
Dillon insisted that if they went ahead they would "fill the whole country" with the same type of radicals, as opposed to imprisonment. This, he said would leave the radicals with as many supporters as could "fit in a single gaol cell". He attacked the Government in the House of Commons and declared that the rebels were "wrong", but had fought "a clean fight". His intervention resulted in a halt to the executions after the fifteenth, though it was apparent how unbridgeable the chasm in Anglo-Irish relations had become following the Rising and manner the trials and executions were carried out in secret, which changed public opinion into sympathy for the rebels.
He was involved in May 1916 with Lloyd George’s futile attempt to implement Home Rule after the Rising, which failed in July on the issue of the exclusion or not of Ulster. He declined a nomination to the
Irish ConventionThe Irish Convention was an assembly which sat in Ireland from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the Irish Question and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its wider future, discuss and come to an understanding on ...
on Home Rule in 1917. After Redmond's death on 6 March 1918, Dillon followed him as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. When the allied armies on the Western Front collapsed in the wake of the German
Spring OffensiveThe 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...
and decimated the 10th and 16th Irish divisions, the Government attempted a month later in desperation to extend conscription to Ireland, which Dillon opposed with tenacity and in protest withdrew all Irish Members from the House of Commons. The attempt to impose conscription jointly linked with implementing Home Rule disgusted the wider Irish public and resulted in an immediate swing of support to
Sinn FéinSinn Féin is a political party in Ireland. The current party, led by Gerry Adams, was formed following a split in January 1970 and traces its origins back to the original Sinn Féin party formed in 1905. It is a major party of Irish republicanism and its political ideology is left wing...
which precipitated in their election landslide after the war.
Dillon attempted to persuade the Government in July 1918 to implement Irish self-government by introducing a motion for self-determination in the Commons. He made clear in September that the goal of Home Rule could only be "the establishment of national self-government, including full and complete executive, legislative and fiscal power", and that national solidarity was essential. But he completely underestimated the need to offer provisions for Ulster concerns, a fatal misjudgement shared by most Nationalists and Republicans alike.
It was left to Dillon to fight a last gallant but unsuccessful campaign in the December
general election of 1918The Irish general election of 1918 was that part of the 1918 United Kingdom general election that took place in Ireland. It is seen as a key moment in modern Irish history...
which after a failure to reach a pact with Sinn Féin swept his party, but certainly not its constitutional democratic tradition, into oblivion. He was defeated in East Mayo by
Eamon de ValeraÉamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland...
‘s 8975 votes to his 4514. Retiring from politics Dillon was not spared witnessing the atrocities of the Anglo-Irish War, the implementation of Home Rule in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, the ensuing
Partition of IrelandThe partition of Ireland between the north-eastern six counties and the rest of Ireland took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The entire island of Ireland provisionally became the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922...
endorsed by the
Irish Free StateThe Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
and the resulting
Irish Civil WarThe Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
.
Family background
He married in 1895 to Elizabeth (1865-1907), daughter of Lord Justice J. C. Mathew, who bore him six children. Tall and slim he cut an imposing figure, his personal reputation hampered at times by a pessimistic and gloomy nature as well as conservative views on labour and women. He died in a London nursing home at the age of 76, on the 4 August 1927, and was buried four days later in
Glasnevin cemeteryGlasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest nondenominational cemetery in Ireland. It first opened in 1832 and is located in Glasnevin, Dublin.-History:...
, Dublin.
One of his six children was
James Mathew DillonJames Matthew Dillon was an Irish politician and leader of Fine Gael from 1959 to 1965.James M. Dillon was born in Dublin. He was the son of John Dillon, the last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party , which had been swept away by Sinn Féin in the 1918 general election.-Early life:He was...
(1902-1986), a prominent Irish politician and leader of the Irish Centre Party and of
Fine GaelFine Gael – The United Ireland Party, shortened to Fine Gael is the second largest political party in Ireland in terms of parliamentary seat numbers, the largest in terms of support according to all recent opinion polls, and the largest in terms of local government members and members of the...
(1957-1966), also Minister for Agriculture (he raised hackles and even death threats in Ireland when he suggested that Ireland actively support the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
).
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