Early Days (1862-72)
Chapter I Early Days (1862-72) In 1862 (when I was seven) my father left Bantry, Co. Cork, on being appointed Clerk of Union at Lismore, Co. Waterford. The…
Letters and Leaders of My Day by T.M. Healy
Parnell in Prison (1881-2)
Chapter X Parnell in Prison (1881-2) The House of Lords gave the Land Bill a reception as hostile as that which it had accorded the year before to the Irish…
Monaghan Election (1883)
Chapter XIV Monaghan Election (1883) A week after my release from prison in June, 1883, a vacancy occurred in the representation of Monaghan because of the…
Journeys in America (1881-2)
Chapter XI Journeys in America (1881-2) When I started from Galveston for California the Southern Pacific Railway had only been opened a week. The train was…
A Triple Imprisonment (1883)
Chapter XIII A Triple Imprisonment (1883) Proceedings by the Crown against Davitt, Quinn and myself, for speeches in different counties, were begun in…
The Phoenix Park Murder (1882)
Chapter XII The Phoenix Park Murders (1882) On Saturday, 6th May, 1882, the incoming Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, arrived in Dublin…
Legal Memories (1884-5)
Chapter XVII Legal Memories (1884-5) I was called to the Irish Bar in November, 1884. The learning of its members astonished me. One of them, Edward Cuming…
Ireland and the Vatican (1885)
Chapter XVIII Ireland and the Vatican (1885) In October, 1885, I went to Kerry, as Lord Randolph Churchill asked, with William O'Brien. O'Brien possessed the…
Devices of Parliamentarians (1883-4)
Chapter XV Devices of Parliamentarians (1883-4) In 1884, Gladstone's Bill to extend the franchise included Ireland, despite Forster's hostility, and Irish…
Liberal Hari-Kari (1885)
Chapter XVI Liberal Hari-Kari (1885) After the Franchise crisis had been shelved, a large unsettled question affecting Ireland loomed up.
Butt Demands Home Rule (1872-4)
Chapter II Butt Demands Home Rule (1872-4) In March, 1872, 1 went to England to stay with John Barry, in Manchester. There unrest, racial and religious…
Captain O'Shea, Nationalist or Liberal (1886)
Chapter XIX Captain O'Shea, Nationalist or Liberal? (1886)
First Home Rule Bill (1886)
Chapter XX First Home Rule Bill (1886) The Irish Party had been strengthened by able recruits after 1880. John Redmond in 1881, M. J. Kenny in 1882, O'Brien…
Collapse of Pigott (1888-9)
Chapter XXIII Collapse of Pigott (1888-9) I used to take my family in summer to Biggar's castle, Butlerstown, Co. Waterford (bequeathed to him by a relative…
Parnell's Triumph (1889)
Chapter XXIV Parnell's Triumph (1889) In the 63rd day of the Forgery Commission Sir Charles Russell, rising to address it for the defence, avowed that "the…
The Pigott Forgery (1887)
Chapter XXI The Pigott Forgery (1887) In October, 1886, United Ireland published an article styled "The Plan of Campaign," signed by Tim Harrington, M.P…
Parnellism and Crime (1887-8)
Chapter XXII "Parnellism and Crime" (1887-8) By the time I was able to return to London the situation had been straightened out. Arthur Balfour had refused to…
Parnell's Downfall (1890)
Chapter XXV Parnell's Downfall (1890) Before the debates began in Room 15 on Parnell's deposition I sketched to my wife in shorthand the situation in the Party.
The Party Split (1890-1)
Chapter XXVI The Party Split (1890-I) Parnell's behaviour as chairman in Room 15 in interrupting and making rulings in his own favour was till then…
Parnell Dies at Brighton (1891)
Chapter XXVIII Parnell dies at Brighton (1891) Parnell's campaign against the Party lasted ten months. His marriage repelled his followers, some of whom had…
Journalism and Litigation (1891)
Chapter XXVII Journalism and Litigation (1891) On the 7th March, 1891, the National Press appeared. Until then the Irish public was left at the mercy of the…
Newspaper Rivalry (1891-2)
Chapter XXIX Newspaper Rivalry (1891-2) When proposals came from the Gray family (chief owners of the Freeman) for an amalgamation with the National Press we…
Second Home Rule Bill (1892-5)
Chapter XXX Second Home Rule Bill (1892-5) On 12th August, 1892, the Tory Government was ousted on a vote of "No Confidence" moved by Asquith, then a young…
Rosebery Government Defeated
Chapter XXXII Rosebery Government Defeated On the 14th August, 1894, the Lords rejected the Evicted Tenants Bill by 249 votes to The Redmondites gave no help…
The Home Rule Struggle (1893)
Chapter XXXI The Home Rule Struggle (1893) My absence from Dublin at the Meath petitions for three weeks lost me the control of the Freeman. This is touched…
The House of Commons in 1874
Chapter III The House of Commons in 1874 At 19 years of age I saw the House of Commons for the first time, on the 30th June, I went to London from…
Changed Tory Policy Towards Ireland (1896-9)
Chapter XXXIII Changed Tory Policy towards Ireland (1896-9)
Lord Chief Justice O'Brien
Chapter XXXIV Lord Chief Justice O'Brien Work at the Bar often furnished distraction from anxieties of larger concern. At the Kildare Assizes I defended a…
Tory Collapse (1904-9)
Chapter XXXVI Tory Collapse (1904-9) When Wyndham's Land Purchase Act (1903) became law, the Freeman and Dillon launched what Davitt described as "a…
George Wyndham in Dublin Castle (1899-1903)
Chapter XXXV George Wyndham in Dublin Castle (1899-1903)
Two Dissolutions in Twelve Months (1910-11)
Chapter XXXVII Two Dissolutions in Twelve Months (1910-11)
Third Home Rule Bill (1912-13)
Chapter XXXVIII Third Home Rule Bill (1912-13) I took a motor trip to France with Lord Devonport in 1912, and wrote Maurice:
The Outbreak of War (1914)
Chapter XLI The Outbreak of War (1914) The landing of German guns for the Orangemen at Lame by the Fanny on 24th April, 1914 (with the connivance of the…
Treasury Precedents Defied (1913)
Chapter XXXIX Treasury Precedents Defied (1913) The Cabinet dissensions over Imperial politics reacted on Ireland. I wrote Maurice:
Uprise of Parnell (1879)
Chapter IV Uprise of Parnell (1875-8) Parnell's uprise in 1875 came a year after Biggar's election for Cavan, He was an unlooked-for meteor in the Irish sky…
Belfast Threats (1913)
Chapter XL Belfast Threats (1913-14) My book on the Lough Neagh fraud was too "legal" for the popular palate. I spent two years in the Record Offices and…
The Easter "Rising"
Chapter XLII The 1916 "Rising" On Easter Monday, 24th April, 1916, a bolt from the blue fell on Dublin. Pearse and Burgess (latter styled Cahal Bru) led a…
Truce and Treaty (1920-22)
Chapter XLV Truce and Treaty (1920-22) In December; 1920, Archbishop Clune, of Australia, was sent to Dublin by Lloyd George, with a guarantee from the…
North and South in Ferment (1920)
Chapter XLIV North and South in Ferment (1920) Rioting was now rife in the North. I wrote Maurice:
Peace - but not for Ireland (1918-20)
Chapter XLIII Peace - but not for Ireland (1918-20)
A Sunburst and Clouds (1922)
Chapter XLVI A Sunburst and Clouds (1922) The outgoing British garrisons, embarrassed by this civil strife, unintentionally bred trouble for the Free State…
Butt's Decline and Death (1879)
Chapter V Butt's Decline and Death (1879) In April, 1878, Mitchell Henry, M.P. for Galway, a well-meaning Lancashire man (who spent a million on a residence…
Parnell's American Mission (1880)
Chapter VI Parnell's American Mission (1880) Ireland simmered for weeks over the "papist rats" episode. Gray was a Protestant who had turned Catholic. He had…
Gladstone's Land Act (1881)
Chapter IX Gladstone's Land Act (188I) On the 7th April, 1881, Gladstone introduced his Land Bill. Ireland was on the tenterhooks of expectation, and Philip…
General Election (1880)
Chapter VII General Election (1880) On the voyage home, Parnell, always temperate and economical, surprised me by ordering champagne for dinner on St…
Parliament in 1881
Chapter VIII Parliament in 1881 When I took my seat in the House of Commons in January, 1881, the Irish M.P.'s of note were Biggar, Parnell, Justin MacCarthy…
Contents of "Letters and Leaders of My Day" by T. M. Healy
Tim Healy had Pitman shorthand and so, I believe, did his brother, Maurice. They communicated, sometimes on a more than daily basis, but Tim preserved nothing…